Workbooks and Worksheets help you organize, analyze, and store data.

With Spreadsheet.com, you get all the benefits of traditional worksheets, plus many of our unique features, like data types, views, and related rows to connect workbooks.

Use Spreadsheet.com's workbook templates to get up and running quickly, import from other spreadsheet software, or start your own workbook from scratch. You can create workbooks for important projects like bug tracking your software, planning the marketing for your next product launch, or tracking customer engagement with your mobile app. All you need to do is create a new workbook and get started.

What are Workbooks and Worksheets?

From your home page, you can see all of the workspaces and folders that you are a part of, each with their own set of workbooks. If a folder is empty, you can get started by creating a new workbook.

Workbooks

Like other spreadsheet systems, spreadsheets in Spreadsheet.com are called workbooks. Workbooks live inside folders in your or your team's workspace. Each workbook can have any number of worksheets within it, and each worksheet can have multiple views. 

Workbooks and worksheets in Spreadsheet.com are more than grids of cells containing numbers, text, and formulas. They have everything you need to create and manage projects, databases, workflows, processes, and other business applications.

We'll explore creating workbooks below.

Worksheets

Just like traditional spreadsheets, worksheets in Spreadsheet.com are made up of columns and rows. They are the individual sheets inside your workbook and can be customized with multiple views. You can have as many worksheets in a workbook as you need. However, Spreadsheet.com has many unique worksheet features, as detailed in the Worksheet Features section below. 

Creating a Workbook

To create any new workbook, click one of the New buttons on your homepage…

…and then select the type of new workbook from the dialog:

1. Template Gallery: Select a pre-built, customizable template from Spreadsheet.com’s Template Gallery
2. Blank Workbook: Create a new Spreadsheet.com workbook from scratch
3. Import: Upload an existing spreadsheet file via your computer’s file browser; imports of Excel files (.XLS and .XLSX), Excel templates (.XLT and .XLTX), and other spreadsheet files (.CSV and .TSV) are supported

When you select any method, Spreadsheet.com will prompt you to give your new workbook a name and location.

Start from a template

If you are new to Spreadsheet.com, we recommend that you start with a template. Our customizable templates cover many common uses, including project plans, RACI matrices, applicant tracking, and more. Plus, starting out with a template can show what Spreadsheet.com can do. Check out our gallery of templates or our article on how to start from a template for more information.

Start from a blank workbook

If you want to start from scratch, you can always start from a blank workbook. When clicking + New workbook to start your new workbook, simply select Blank. For more information, visit our article on Creating a Workbook from scratch.

Import a CSV or Excel File

With Spreadsheet.com, you can import an excel file and add some of Spreadsheet.com’s unique customizations to it. Clicking on "Import CSV file" "Import from Excel" will let you import files with the .XLS, .XLSX, .XLT, .XLTX, and .CSV file extensions. Or, check out our article on importing spreadsheets for more information.

Copying an existing workbook, Saving a workbook as a custom template, and Creating a workbook from a custom template

For other ways to create and work with workbooks, see our articles on copying an existing workbook, saving a workbook as a custom template, and creating a workbook from a custom template.

Workbook Features

On your Home page, each workbook has a context menu that lists the options available. To access this context menu, either right-click on the workbook name or click on the arrow to the right of the workbook name.

Spreadsheet.com is designed for collaborative work. To unleash the power of collaboration, check out our articles on Workbook sharing and permissions and on Workbook channels and messages. 

Worksheet Features

Once you have created a workbook, you can start learning and working in that workbook's worksheets. By default, each workbook starts with one or more worksheets, each with a primary sheet view. But this isn't your ordinary grid, Spreadsheet.com worksheets come with many unique features, some of which are noted in the illustration and notes below.

1. Workbook Menu: Open the workbook menu, where you can find the File, Edit, View, Insert, and Format menus.
2. Pin Views Sidebar: Pin the Views sidebar to the left side of your browser window.
3. View Toolbar: Access settings and configuration options for your current View; different types of Views have different toolbar options.
4. Zoom: Zoom in and out of your worksheet.
5. Range Name Box: See the name or reference of the current cell or range of cells selected in your worksheet; click to define and manage your named ranges.
6. Column Headers: Double-click a column header to edit the Data Type for that column; the key icon marks the column that is currently configured as the primary column.
7. Row Header: Double-click to open an expanded view of the row; the table header icon marks the row that is currently configured as the table header row.
8. Expand Row: Click the blue icon to open an expanded view of the row.
9. Worksheet Navigation: Create a new worksheet, navigate to other existing worksheets, and access worksheet options. Learn more below.

Worksheet Navigation

At the bottom of your workbook are multiple features to create new worksheets, navigate between worksheets, and more. By default, a new empty workbook created from scratch contains one worksheet, but you can add worksheets by clicking on the + sign on the bottom-left of your page.

Or click on the context menu of a worksheet to see options relating to the worksheet, like delete, rename, move, and duplicate.

When duplicating a worksheet, all of the existing sheet’s styling, formulas, formatting, and data – as well as its data type information and views – will be copied exactly as they appear. Duplicating an existing worksheet also maintains that sheet’s attachment and relationships, but all Related row data is converted to a 1-way relationship. For more information about Related rows and 1-way and 2-way relationships, check out The Related Row Data Type.

The Selection Calculator

In working with a spreadsheet, sometimes you need to quickly reference calculations along the way, but don’t need to include them within your spreadsheet’s data. Like traditional spreadsheets, you can quickly reference these simple calculations by selecting multiple cells and referencing the selection calculator in the bottom right corner of your workbook.

Unlike regular functions that you would input into a cell, using the selection calculator only requires selecting the function’s arguments and does not require any of the rest of the function’s syntax. The selection calculator appears automatically when two or more cells are selected. It can perform six functions:

The selection calculator remembers the most recent function selected while you’re in the workbook. So if you wanted to quickly identify the maximum salary next, you would only need to select the new data, and the selection calculator will show the maximum value from there automatically.

The selection calculator results will only appear while the spreadsheet data is selected. To keep the results within your spreadsheet, input the corresponding function into a cell.

When using the selection calculator, it’s important to remember that its functions operate mostly the same way that regular functions do, both in their output and the data types they take as inputs. Because of that, the regular function rules apply.

If you select data that includes only text strings, for example, the only function that the selection calculator can perform is Count, since the rest of its functions cannot be applied only to text.

If you select a group of cells that include both text strings and numerical data, the selection calculator will apply Count to the entire selection, but will only include the numerical data when using any of the other five functions.

Spreadsheet.com can interpret other data types like Ratings as numerical values even if they don’t contain actual numbers. For more about working with different data types, see Introduction to Data Types.

Keep reading to learn more about setting up your first Spreadsheet.com workbook, whether its from a template, an imported spreadsheet, or a new blank workbook.