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Spreadsheets are a big part of our lives for many years. Let's discover the comprehensive spreadsheet guide to have a deeper insight into the spreadsheets that we frequently use in both our business and personal lives and take your spreadsheet operations to the next level!
Probably, very soon after computers entered our lives, we started to hear the name of spreadsheets. (Actually, I don't remember because they existed long before I was born). But one thing I remember is that spreadsheets were even in our school curriculum and we had a class on them. Of course, there have been countless developments in spreadsheets for years, but they continue to be popular in our lives with different versions. And although the capabilities of spreadsheets have changed, their basic functions are still the same; Data management.
With the momentum of spreadsheets, it would be unfair to consider them as simple data management tables. Today it is even possible to create small business applications with spreadsheet tools. We all have countless use cases with spreadsheets and now the creators of spreadsheet tools are aware of this and are pushing the limits to make things more efficient for us.
As the use cases of spreadsheets diversified, the spreadsheet tools are also diversified according to specific use cases. A single tool that works perfectly for every use case is almost impossible, isn't it? Maybe it isn't. The only way to find out is to better understand spreadsheets and realize what you can do with spreadsheets. We have prepared a guide in the taste of "Spreadsheet 101" for you and we have added EVERYTHING about spreadsheets to this guide. (I hope there won't be any new developments because it took a really long time to write this)
Let's examine all the details about spreadsheets together!
Let's start with the fundamentals. What is a spreadsheet? Since spreadsheets have been in our lives for many years, there is no need to worry too much about the definition of spreadsheets, but if we make a simple definition, we can understand them better. Spreadsheets are data stores consisting of rows and columns. Although this definition seems quite traditional, this structure is the basis of all the spreadsheets we use today.
Spreadsheets are often used as databases, as they use similar table structures to databases. However, traditional spreadsheets are not a database. Spreadsheets store data as text and numeric values, while databases can store much wider data formats. For example, you can keep data in formats such as images, documents, etc. in databases. Today, modern spreadsheets also draw attention with their database-like structures. New-generation spreadsheets have databases' data storage capabilities and can store various data types. In other words, the answer to the question of "what is a spreadsheet" can change every day with the developments in technology.
Although spreadsheets are evolving day by day, spreadsheet fundamentals are similar for both traditional spreadsheets and modern spreadsheets. Spreadsheets have some indispensable features and you will encounter these fundamentals no matter which spreadsheet you use. To understand what is spreadsheet software, you must first understand the fundamentals of spreadsheets. Here are some key spreadsheet fundamentals:
Rows: In a spreadsheet, rows are horizontal areas in a grid structure. They refer to cells lined up side by side. Each cell in a row corresponds to a specific column. Horizontal representations of one or more column data form rows. Rows are used to organize and display data in tabular form. They are an essential part of the spreadsheet structure and play an important role in organizing and analyzing data.
Columns: In a spreadsheet, Columns are vertical areas in a grid structure. Each row can have more than one column. In spreadsheets, each column is uniquely identified. Columns are used to represent different categories of data in tabular form. Each cell in a column corresponds to a specific row. Columns are often used to categorize and organize data, and each cell in the column contains similar types of information. They are one of the most fundamental parts of a spreadsheet structure and play a crucial role in organizing and representing data coherently.
Grid: The structure consisting of rows and columns in spreadsheets is called "Grid". The structure created by rows and columns, consisting of horizontal and vertical lines, creates the Grid format. Grid is also known as the most classic spreadsheet view.
Cells: Cells are the intersection point of rows and columns in a spreadsheet. Cells are used to enter, modify and edit data. They can contain text, numbers, dates, formulas, and more.
Data Entry: Data entry to spreadsheets is done through cells. You can enter various types of data into the cell, such as text, number, date, formula, and attachment. There are several ways to enter data into spreadsheets. For example, you can automate data entry with some integrations as well as manual data entry. These features vary depending on the spreadsheet tool you are using.
Formulas and Functions: Formulas are equations that perform calculations on the data in your cells. Some spreadsheet tools allow you to run row-based formulas, and some spreadsheet tools allow you to run column-based formulas. The formulas provide you with basic insights about the data in your spreadsheet. Some formulas are pre-built and ready-to-use functions. For example, you can run functions directly without writing complex formulas for actions such as SUM, AVERAGE, IF, and VLOOKUP.
Formatting: You can change the appearance of cells, rows and even columns by formatting them. Also, with the conditional formatting features in some smart spreadsheets, you can automatically format the data that meets the conditions you have determined, as you choose. Formatting is about how you want to display your spreadsheet data. For example, you can color your data, align it to the right, left, or center, or make it bold, italic or underlined. Various spreadsheet tools can offer different formatting features.
Sorting: Spreadsheets allow you to sort your data by ascending or descending one or more columns. So you can be more flexible when working on your data.
Filtering: Thanks to filtering, you can filter the data in your spreadsheet according to the conditions you want. So you can display only the data you want by your filter. For example, if you have a number column, you can filter only the columns between 1 and 10. Or, if you have a "status" column in your spreadsheet, you can apply a filter such as 'show only the records if the status is active' based on the data in the status column.
Data Validation: In spreadsheets, data validation helps ensure data consistency and accuracy by ensuring that the data entered into the cells meets the specified criteria.
Data Import and Export: Spreadsheets allow you to import your data from different sources. Thus, if you want to use a single spreadsheet tool, you can easily import your data from different sources into this spreadsheet tool. In addition, by exporting your spreadsheet data, you can both use this data in different channels and share it easily.
Collaboration: New generation spreadsheet software allows you to collaborate with your teammates in real time. You can also set who can do which actions on your data by managing the roles of your teammates. For example, users with the viewer role can only view your data and cannot make any edits. However, the people with the editor role can also edit your data. Spreadsheets with the collaboration feature are often preferred by businesses that want to work as a team. Thus, you and your entire team can collaboratively manage the data from a single source in real-time.
Workbooks & Worksheets: Workbooks and worksheets are structures that help you manage your spreadsheets as projects. A Workbook can contain multiple worksheets. In other words, you can have various worksheets divided into tabs within a workbook. Worksheets in the same workbook are very useful for cases where you want to give references between your tables.
References: References allow you to give references between different worksheets in the same workbook. For example, if you want to display data in Table B in Table A, you can easily do this through references and create relational databases.
Automation: Automation is one of the indispensable features of spreadsheets to automate repetitive tasks and reduce manual workload. However, automation is difficult to find in traditional spreadsheets. You can encounter various automation in the new generation spreadsheets. Thanks to automation, you can receive notifications or create triggers about various actions for your spreadsheets.
These fundamental features in spreadsheets are focused on increasing the efficiency of your spreadsheets. Today, these fundamentals can be diversified as more functional and smart spreadsheet tools are developed.
Today, spreadsheet tools with different features are available for various data management needs. Since no one software fits every need, you can find the best spreadsheet software for your data management needs by exploring the various alternatives. Here is a list of some of the best spreadsheet software on the market.
Excel is one of the most popular spreadsheet software. With Microsoft Excel, you can create, edit and share spreadsheets. It has been around since the 1980s (yes, really old) and has evolved significantly over the years. Excel is a powerful tool that can handle complex calculations and data analysis. It comes with various features, including charts, graphs, pivot tables, and macros. Trying to get efficiency from all the features of Excel can be quite hard and complex for everyday users. Moreover, while trying to combat Excel, you can complicate even the simplest tasks. That's why today, as an alternative to Excel, there are more smart online spreadsheet apps, that make your daily business operations much easier.
Google Sheets is one of the most common spreadsheet tools in our life like Excel. Unlike Excel, Google Sheets is a web-based online spreadsheet app. It is frequently preferred by many businesses because it can work in sync with Google's other tools. Google Sheets, which is close to Excel in terms of features, has less ability than Excel in formulation and macros. But for those looking for a quick and simple spreadsheet solution, Google Sheets is a good example of traditional spreadsheets. The nastiest disadvantage of traditional spreadsheets such as Google Sheets and Excel is that they do not support smart column types and more advanced views, like Kanban boards, card views, calendar views or chart views. This makes these tools insufficient to meet the data management needs of today's business world.
Unlike Google Sheets and Excel, Retable is one of the best examples of modern and intelligent spreadsheet software. With its easy-to-use and modern interface, advanced data views and more than 28 smart column types, it combines the power of databases with the ease of use of spreadsheets.
Retable's various data views such as grid, list, calendar, map, kanban, card, chart and form make it a smart application creation platform that works with data rather than a spreadsheet. Retable helps you not only to store data but also to create easy business applications using the infrastructure of spreadsheets with this data, as well as the infrastructure that helps you work flexibly with large-sized data.
While managing your data with modules such as organization and team management, workspace and projects, it also helps you manage the authorities of your teams. Thus, you can easily manage all your corporate data from a single platform and collaborate with your teammates in real time.
In addition, with its various integrations, Retable allows you to easily integrate with more than +1,000 external tools. Unlike complex traditional spreadsheets, Retable offers dozens of different spreadsheet templates in various use cases to help you get started. Also, you can easily import your data from external sources, either with the API or with the import feature, and continue to work without data loss.
Retable is also designed to be a more efficient and user-friendly alternative to traditional spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. It offers features like a simpler interface, real-time collaboration, and a built-in database that makes it easier to manage large amounts of data. Additionally, Retable's powerful formulas, charts, and data visualization tools make it a great option for businesses, analysts, and individuals who need to perform complex data analysis.
Airtable is a cloud-based spreadsheet and database management platform. With Airtable, you can create and edit spreadsheets, as well as customize your data and store it in a database format. Airtable is a tool similar to Retable. There are some advanced data management features that distinguish Retable and Airtable from each other. For example, while Airtable is strong in integrations, Retable is an online spreadsheet software that is more powerful in advanced column types and smart data views.
One of the biggest challenges with Airtable is that it is quite expensive for larger teams or businesses with extensive data management needs. Airtable's pricing is based on the number of users and the amount of data storage, so it can quickly become costly for larger teams or businesses with extensive data management requirements.
Smartsheet is another cloud-based online spreadsheet tool like Retable and Airtable. Smartsheet's Gantt charts make it an ideal choice for managing complex projects. Smartsheet stands out with its project management capabilities rather than spreadsheet and database capabilities.
It's possible to integrate Smartsheet with other platforms such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets and Microsoft Projects. Since Smartsheet is primarily focused on project management and collaboration, it may not be the best choice for those who need a traditional spreadsheet application for data analysis. One of the biggest drawbacks is that its interface is quite complex for a spreadsheet.
The first way to manage, organize and store your data is to create a spreadsheet. How to create your first spreadsheet may vary depending on the spreadsheet tool you use. However, the steps you need to follow to create your first spreadsheet are basically the same in all spreadsheet tools.
When you create a new spreadsheet, you first have an empty grid structure. This grid structure consists of rows and columns. Each intersection point of the rows and columns in this grid structure represents cells. Cells are the fields where you will add your data. To organize your spreadsheet to suit your needs, you must first add the columns you need and decide how to categorize your data.
For example, let's say you are keeping track of an employee list. First of all, you must decide what information you want to keep in this spreadsheet about your employees. For example;
These headings represent your columns. Once you create these columns, you can fill in this information specifically for each of your employees. Let's say you have 10 employees. When you add each of your employees to your spreadsheet on a row, you can write information about these employees at the intersection of your respective rows and columns. Now let's see this together on an example spreadsheet.
Here is a simple spreadsheet structure. If you are using a new generation smart spreadsheet tool, you can choose in which formats you will store the data in your spreadsheet. For example, you can store the data in the birthdate column in "date" format, and you can store the data in the title column in "options" format.
Now let's transform our spreadsheet a bit and change our column types.
Have you noticed how easy it is to understand the data when you transform a spreadsheet consisting of only texts into a more user-friendly one with smart column types? Now let's take a look at how we converted these columns.
We have 8 columns in total, one of these columns is the image column and the others were the text columns. Now see which format we have converted all the columns to.
Retable has 29 column types in total. These column types are divided into 3 categories as Basic, Advanced and Premium. Each column type has a different function. For example, if you store the e-mail data in the e-mail column instead of keeping it as text, you can easily send e-mails when you click on the e-mail addresses in your cells. Or, if you map the exact location thanks to the geolocation column instead of keeping the location data as text, you can easily view these locations in Map View. These column types may vary in each spreadsheet tool. For example, it is not possible to find such advanced column types in traditional spreadsheet software such as Excel and Google Sheets. Now let's examine these column types one by one that gives flexibility to your spreadsheets.
Data entry and management is the main usage area of spreadsheets. The more accurately you can enter your data in your spreadsheet, the easier it will be for you to manage this data. Meaningful and clear data helps you easily prepare data-driven reports and make data-driven decisions.
Spreadsheets can have several data entry methods. Some of those;
In the section above we explained how you can create a new spreadsheet and customize the columns in your spreadsheet. After creating your spreadsheet to suit your needs, you can now easily enter your data into the cells corresponding to the relevant columns. One of the most common methods for this is manual data entry. If you have not stored this data in a different spreadsheet tool before, you can easily add your data to your spreadsheets with the manual data entry method.
All you have to do is click on the cell you want to enter data in your spreadsheet and write your data. If you need to copy this data from a different source, you can simply use the shortcuts CTRL/CMD + C and CTRL/CMD + V.
Manual data entry may vary depending on the column types you have. For example, if your spreadsheet has a 'Select (options)' column type, you can choose from the options by clicking on the relevant cell instead of typing the data into the cell.
Data import is a very popular method to enter data into spreadsheets. If you are storing your data in a different spreadsheet tool, you can easily import this data into the spreadsheet tool you just started using.
The most critical point to be considered while entering data with import is format incompatibilities in the data. Since each spreadsheet tool has its own format options and column types, you may experience some format incompatibilities while importing your data. For this reason, if you want to enter data with the import method, the most efficient way is to import your data in CSV format and make the necessary formatting and editing in your spreadsheet tool. The CSV format is the best way to import data into your spreadsheet tool, as it can easily work with almost any tool.
Some spreadsheet tools can easily integrate with different tools, allowing you to integrate your data into your spreadsheet tool. The data entered via integration is generally updated in real-time. Let's say you want to set up an integration to sync your data from Google Sheets to Retable. When you set a successful integration, every time the data in your related table in Google Sheets is updated, this data is automatically updated in your Retable table.
Data entry via integration requires a basic level of technical knowledge, but it's something anyone can easily do with a little bit of research. The important thing is that your spreadsheet tool supports these integrations. If your spreadsheet tool supports integrations with different data sources, you can easily set up these integrations via an API.
Effective data management includes not only safe and easy storage of your data but also real-time collaborative data management, smart data insights to make data-based decisions and ease of usage. If you want to provide effective data management in your spreadsheets, you must first determine your data management needs.
Data structure and data formatting are the most critical aspects of data management. Having a consistent data structure makes your data more manageable. For example, your column names and column types should be determined by a consistent and specific structure. You should make sure that you use the appropriate data types (text, number, date, attachment, etc.) for each column. If you want to have a well-formed database, avoid applying too many styles to your spreadsheets and make sure that your data looks clean.
You can apply data validation rules in your spreadsheets to avoid incorrect or inconsistent data entries. Also, to easily detect duplicate data, you should make sure that your spreadsheet tool has features that can detect duplicate data.
You should periodically review your spreadsheets to remove or edit duplicate data, errors in data, or outdated data from your spreadsheets.
Data security is one of the most critical issues of today's digital world. Instead of sharing your data publicly, you can invite your teammates to your spreadsheets by giving them certain authorizations. For example, users you have given viewer authority can only view your data and cannot make any edits. Thus, you can safely collaborate with your teammates without sharing or exporting your spreadsheets publicly. As you manage your spreadsheets, periodically check the roles of your teammates and remember to remove the permissions of people who are no longer on your team.
Monitor logs and version histories and logs to check for changes on your spreadsheets. Even activate "track changes" features or automations for your important data and be notified of critical data changes in real-time.
Remember to take backups of your spreadsheets just in case. The next-generation online spreadsheet tools help you to take backup quickly from within the application. You can also backup this data on your device if you wish.
Visualizing your data allows you to better manage and display it. The fact that your spreadsheets support a variety of data views helps you create business applications with your data. While using your spreadsheets as a database, you can also get help from smart data views to convert them into business applications.
Get help from the collaboration features of your spreadsheets to collaborate with your teammates on your spreadsheets. Spreadsheets with good collaboration features help you collaborate with your teammates in real time. So all your teammates can see the most up-to-date version of your data and everyone can stay aligned. Next-generation spreadsheet tools such as Retable help you to easily perform team management and collaboration in your spreadsheets with features such as organization, team and role management.
Smart data views in modern spreadsheets bring an innovative approach to data visualization and data management. With the help of smart data views, you do not need to manage your spreadsheets only in a grid format. You can easily transform your data into smart database applications by transforming the data you store in the grid structure into various smart data views such as list, kanban, card, and calendar.
These smart data views in spreadsheets are tools designed to organize, categorize and summarize data according to your preferences. The best thing about smart data views is that they can detect every change you make to your grid view in real time. In other words, even if you make changes to your data from a single view in your spreadsheet, all your views work in sync.
Let's explore the most popular data views together!
Grid view is the most traditional spreadsheet view, consisting of rows and columns. This view is one we are used to seeing in Excel. Grid view is very convenient to use your spreadsheets as a database and helps you to work with big data easily.
The list view is very similar to the grid view and consists of rows and columns. List view is widely preferred to have a responsive spreadsheet view on mobile devices.
The Kanban view transforms the traditional grid structure of spreadsheets into smart boards. The Kanban view, which consists of cards, is often preferred, especially for use cases where status or stages are tracked. Kanban view transforms your data into cards grouped according to the variables you choose and helps you to change the status of your data by drag and drop. It is often preferred in project and task management.
Card view offers an interface similar to Kanban view at the point of data visualization. Unlike the Kanban view, the card view transforms your data into cards without grouping them according to certain variables. If you have an image or QR column in your spreadsheet, you can highlight them in card view. It is especially preferred to easily manage visual data. It also provides a quick summary of your data. In addition, the cards can be clicked to view and edit all the details of the data. The click action will open a window with all the details of the relevant data row and you can easily edit your data.
The calendar view allows you to easily view and manage the date columns in your spreadsheets on a calendar. If your spreadsheet has more than one date column, you can also create date ranges in the calendar view. The calendar view offers you daily, weekly and monthly views according to your preferences.
Chart view is a view that helps you to create reports from your data quickly. With the data in your spreadsheets, you can easily create the most basic charts such as line, bar, area, and pie. Chart view is a good way to visualize your spreadsheet data and get quick reports from your data.
Form view is one of the most preferred spreadsheet views, especially at the point of data collection. By collecting data via online forms, you can enable your colleagues to enter data into your spreadsheets without accessing the data in your spreadsheets. Also, online forms are often preferred to create surveys, create job application forms or identify event participants.
Formulas and functions are the backbone of spreadsheets. In fact, it is one of the most important things that separates spreadsheets from using paper & pencil. Formulas and functions save your spreadsheets from being a static structure and add dynamism to them. Formulas and functions are very important to obtain meaningful insights from raw data, making complex calculations, and having meaningful analysis. Let's check together the formulas and functions in spreadsheets and how you can benefit from them.
Spreadsheet formulas and functions are expressions used in spreadsheets to perform calculations and manipulate data according to certain rules. Formulas for creating dynamic spreadsheets are very remarkable elements of spreadsheets. Formulas can perform simple mathematical operations such as addition or division, as well as more statistical and complex calculations.
Formulas are created by referencing cells. For example; You can use the names you give to your columns directly in Retable's formulas, but in Excel, you can give references for your columns by addressing your columns such as A1, A2, B3, and B5.
Retable formulas involve functions, numeric operations, logical operations, and text operations that operate on columns.
In a formula, you can reference columns by column name. To use the value of an existing column in your formula you can simply input the name of that field:
For example, if you wanted a formula that calculates a total price based on your Price and Quantity columns, you write a formula like this; *
Column names should be wrapped in curly braces when writing formulas in Retable.
Formulas can include parentheses () to change the order of operations:
Now, your formula is ready! It is fully dynamic so, when you change any data in the columns that you used in your formula, the formula results will be automatically updated. 🚀
If you want to learn more about how to use Excel formulas in Retable, check out this quick video below! 👇🏻
After setting up a trigger, you have the flexibility to select from two different actions: send email and send records. With the ability to mix and match various triggers, actions, and conditions, you can create customized automations that streamline your workflows perfectly. This allows you to tailor the automation to your specific needs, ensuring that your tasks and processes run smoothly and efficiently. The possibilities are endless, empowering you to create the ideal automation that enhances your productivity and saves you valuable time.
You can check this quick video to learn how to use automations on your Retable spreadsheets
You can get help from data validation rules to increase consistency and accuracy in your spreadsheets. For example, you can set a min/max character limit or custom regex rules for your spreadsheets. Thus, your data is entered only in the formats you specified. This is a good way to prevent incorrect data entry into your spreadsheets.
Conditional formatting is a very useful feature for highlighting data that meets the criteria you specify. With conditional formatting rules, you can automate some common formatting operations. Also, conditional formatting is very functional to get quick insights about your spreadsheet data at a glance.
When navigating large datasets, it's important to have reference points to better read your data. You can freeze some columns in your spreadsheets so that these columns are always visible in horizontal scrolling.
You can easily visualize your spreadsheet data with the help of dynamic charts and graphs. Chart views not only help you get quick reports from your data but also make it easier to understand your data.
With the help of the concatenate function, you can create specific strings by combining data in different columns. For example; let's say you've 2 columns one is Name and the other one is Surname. If you want to concatenate the name and surname data you can use concatenate function.
"Find and Replace" is used to find specific data in your spreadsheet and quickly replace them with different values. It is very convenient, especially for cases where you want to change multiple data with the same value in bulk.
By grouping your spreadsheet data, you can manage and display your data in the same category in special groups. You can easily choose which column to group your data by and sort your groups as ascending or descending. Thus, you can work more focused when working with large datasets.
Today, it is possible to find various business management tools for various use cases. Businesses get support from dozens of different software for various business needs. However, managing business operations in different software can complicate the data-based decision-making processes of businesses and they seek solutions to use these tools in an integrated manner.
Integrating spreadsheets with other business tools is critical to streamline business flows and ensure data consistency. Also, integrating spreadsheets with different tools is a very effective way to improve collaboration. Integrations automate data transfer processes between different applications and minimize manual effort. You can also minimize errors during data transfer through integrations. Integrating your spreadsheets with different business tools also contributes a lot to your reporting processes. You can easily create quick reports by centralizing your data from different sources in a single channel.
There are many ways to integrate your spreadsheets with different tools;
API Integrations: Many applications provide APIs to integrate with your spreadsheets. These APIs help you connect and exchange data with your spreadsheets. With APIs, you can automate your data import/export and synchronize your data in real-time. You can also create actions based on specific triggers.
Webhooks: Webhooks are a frequently preferred integration method for receiving real-time updates and notifications from external sources. You can also automatically update your spreadsheets with webhooks. Webhooks are useful for being informed about updates in other tools in real-time.
Third-Party Automation Platforms: Automation platforms such as Zapier, Pabbly, Integromat and Integrately are links for integrating your spreadsheets with various applications. You can create various workflows with these third-party integration tools. For example; you can automatically create rows in your spreadsheet when a new email arrives.
E-commerce Platforms: By integrating your spreadsheets with e-commerce platforms, you can easily track new orders, customers or refunds in an integrated manner with your spreadsheets. Spreadsheet integration can make it easier to report data on your e-commerce platform.
Project Management Tools: By integrating your spreadsheets with your project management tools, you can have a comprehensive and holistic view of all your project details. Thus, you can easily manage, report and back up all your project and task details from a single platform.
Form Builders and Survey Tools: If you do not have a spreadsheet tool with an online form feature, it is important to integrate your form tools with your spreadsheets. So you can easily view, manage and share your form responses.
Communication Tools: By integrating your spreadsheets with communication tools such as Slack or Discord, you can easily manage all your messages and support tickets from a single channel.
Data Visualization Tools: If you do not use a spreadsheet tool that specializes in data visualization such as Retable, you may want to integrate your traditional spreadsheets with data visualization tools. However, if you are using smart online spreadsheets like Retable, you may not need a different data visualization tool. Data visualization tools are very convenient for analyzing and presenting your data.
Social Media Platforms: You can easily monitor your social media metrics by integrating your spreadsheets with your social media tools. Tracking your social media metrics on your spreadsheets makes it easier to analyze your data and data-driven decision-making.
When integrating spreadsheets with other tools, consider your specific workflow needs, data transfer requirements, and the capabilities of the tools you're using. By leveraging these integrations, you can create a more interconnected and efficient ecosystem for managing and utilizing your data.
Spreadsheet best practices are vital, especially for businesses, as they provide effective data management, efficiency and reliability. By adhering to Spreadsheet best practices, you can make informed decisions, easily optimize your workflows, and minimize the risk of manual errors. You can ensure effective collaboration and data management with a well-organized spreadsheet.
Here are some of the most basic spreadsheet best practices for you;
Consistent Data Entry: You can use the advanced column types of smart spreadsheets to ensure consistent data entry. For example, you can use the number column type to enter numeric values or the calendar column type to enter date values. Consistent data entry helps in accurate analysis and reporting.
Structured Layout: You must have a structured layout to save your spreadsheets from complexity and make your data management easier. You must ensure that your columns and data are clear and well-structured. For example, you can resort to colorings to highlight some data.
Data Validation: You can prevent incorrect or inconsistent data entry by implementing data validation rules on your spreadsheets. Thus, you can only accept valid data and reduce errors in your data.
Cell Comments and Notes: You can add notes or comments to your spreadsheets to stay in a common context with your teammates. Thus, instead of having information that is not compatible with your data in your spreadsheets, you can have it in the notes section.
Backup and Version Control: Make sure you back up your spreadsheets regularly and don't forget to do version controls. So, you can be sure that your data is always safe and you can prevent serious data loss.
Avoid Merged Cells: Minimize the use of merged cells, as they can complicate sorting, filtering, and formula calculations.
Use Formatting Sparingly: While formatting your data is functional to highlight them, you should make sure you don't use too much formatting. If you do too much formatting, your data will look messy.
Descriptive Column Headers: Use descriptive column headers to clearly express which kind of data your columns contain. This way, your entire team will make sure that they have entered the correct data in your columns.
Consistent Formulas: Keep formulas consistent across rows and columns to avoid errors caused by variations in formulas.
Protect Sensitive Information: When sharing your spreadsheets with your teammates, pay attention to the permissions you granted to your team to protect your sensitive data. Restrict access to your sensitive data and, if necessary, share filtered data views with your teams instead of sharing all of your data.
Regular Review and Cleanup: Make sure everything is going well by reviewing your data periodically. Especially in teamwork, a small mistake made by one of your teammates can easily be overlooked and this mistake can disrupt your entire operation. Checks made at regular intervals help to detect errors easily.
User-Friendly Spreadsheets: Make sure to design a user-friendly interface when designing your spreadsheets. The learning curve may not be the same for all your teammates, and it will be helpful to have a user-friendly interface to make your spreadsheets functional enough for all your teammates. In addition, it will be very easy for you to manage data in user-friendly interfaces.
Test Before Sharing: Test your spreadsheets before sharing them publicly or privately. So you can prevent any mistakes by detecting them early.
Spreadsheets are highly functional tools at the point of facilitating your business operations. If you want to use spreadsheets for your business operations, you must make sure you learn them well and know the best practices of spreadsheets. If you can use spreadsheet software effectively, you can manage your workflows much more flexibly and efficiently.
You can provide a proper data management operation by avoiding common mistakes when using your spreadsheets. Thus, you will have a more effective workflow operation and effective data management.
Here are some common mistakes to avoid when using your spreadsheets.
Note Backing Up Data: No matter how reliable the spreadsheet tool you use is, you should not forget to take a backup of your data. Thus, in case of accidental deletion of your data by you or your teammates, you can prevent data loss.
Using Too Many Worksheets: Creating too many worksheets or tabs in a single spreadsheet can make it confusing and difficult to navigate, leading to errors and inefficiencies.
Overusing Merge Cells: Merging cells can complicate sorting, filtering, and calculations, and it might lead to unintended formatting issues in your spreadsheets. If you want to have a clean and understandable spreadsheet, you should avoid these errors.
Relying on Manual Data Entry: Relying solely on manual data entry increases the risk of errors and can be time-consuming. Automate data entry wherever possible. You can get help from integrations for this.
Inconsistent Data Entry: Inconsistent formatting, capitalization, or date formats can lead to incorrect calculations and hinder data analysis. You can prevent inconsistent data entry by adjusting your column types in accordance with your data format.
Neglecting Data Validation: Skipping data validation checks can result in incorrect or irrelevant data being entered into the spreadsheet. You should work with spreadsheet tools that allow you to define data validation rules.
Ignoring Formula Auditing: Not auditing complex formulas for errors can lead to incorrect calculations and inaccurate results. You should regularly check and correct your formulas.
Overloading with Information: Overloading a single spreadsheet with excessive data or unnecessary information can slow down performance and make it challenging to extract insights. Instead, you can categorize your data and store it in different spreadsheets.
Ignoring Compatibility: Not considering the compatibility of spreadsheet features and formulas across different software versions can lead to compatibility issues when sharing files. For example, a formula you use in Excel may not be compatible with Retable. Each spreadsheet tool has its own formulation technique. You should keep this in mind when writing your formulas.
Disorganized or Unclear Formatting: Poor formatting choices or lack of consistency can make the spreadsheet harder to read and understand. For example; If you are going to make color formatting on your spreadsheets, you should make sure that these colors are coded according to a certain rule.
Failing to Update Links: Not updating external links or references when the source data changes can result in outdated or incorrect information. If you are using references between your spreadsheets, you should make sure that these links always work.
By avoiding these common mistakes in the use of spreadsheets, you can make your data management and collaboration more effective.
Online spreadsheet templates are super effective, especially for those who are just starting to use spreadsheet tools. Also, if you are just digitalizing your data management operations, spreadsheet templates will be of great help to you. It is now possible to find numerous spreadsheet templates for many different business operations and personal uses.
We have listed the most popular free spreadsheet templates for you!
HR & Recruiting spreadsheet templates help HR teams digitize their data management operations and collaborate on the HR data easily. HR departments are one of the departments where spreadsheets are used the most. Especially for processes such as applicant tracking, interview processes, and performance evaluations, online spreadsheet templates are very effective for HR teams.
Retable's recruitment planning spreadsheet template helps HR teams to find qualified applicants and track all processes from an all-in-one online spreadsheet software. You can automate your recruitment process, and get rid of inefficient workload with the help of the recruitment planning spreadsheet template.
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You can easily organize and track all onboarding steps for your new colleagues and can adapt quickly to the Retable employee onboarding planning spreadsheet template. Organize all onboarding documents, employee data, and onboarding stages in an all-in-one online spreadsheet and stay aligned with your HR team from a single software.
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Retable's employee directory demographic spreadsheet template is a tool designed to help HR managers and HR professionals create and maintain an employee directory. The template includes fields for employee name, job title, department, contact information, location and other demographic information such as age, gender etc.
The template is designed to make the process of creating and maintaining an employee directory more organized and efficient. It helps to keep track of all the information for each employee, making it easy to access and manage employee information.
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You can easily track and manage job applicants with Retable's applicant tracking spreadsheet template. Organize the applicant's name, job applied for, resume, cover letter, interview status, and notes for a smooth hiring process. The applicant tracking spreadsheet template is designed to make the applicant tracking process and managing job applicants more organized and efficient. It helps to keep track of all the information for each applicant, making it easy to ensure that the hiring process is conducted in a timely manner and that the best candidate is selected. With the help of the form view of this template, you can easily create job application forms and share them with anyone or embed them to anywebsite.
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Project management spreadsheet templates help project teams digitize their project management operations and collaborate on projects and tasks easily. Project teams are one of the departments where people need to collaborate on the same issues and stay aligned. Smart online spreadsheet templates which have collaboration, task management, task assignment and automation capabilities are very effective for project teams.
Project & task planning spreadsheet template helps you to organize your team's tasks and plan your project's steps, easily. You can seamlessly track, sort and categorize the tasks on your team. Retable's project and task management template is fully customizable. You can organize any task info, deadlines, assignees and visualize the progress of your projects.
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Marketing teams run business operations from many different channels, and it is very critical for marketing teams to organize and report the marketing data in a single channel. Marketing spreadsheet templates are a very effective solution for all marketing operations to be managed from a single channel.
Retable's social media calendar spreadsheet template helps you to easily plan and organize your social media contents, deadlines and posting process. You can ensure consistency of your social media marketing process by getting the help of a smart social media template. This template includes different data views that you can get help from. Calendar view helps you to view your social media plan on a calendar format or card view help you to highlight your social media post assets. It makes it easy to ensure that you have a consistent and well-rounded content schedule.
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Retable's content planning spreadsheet template is Ideal for content writers and marketing managers, this content planning template helps you brainstorm on new content, track the status of your content, and measure your keyword strategy. Easily manage all your content ideas in one place and avoid getting lost in dozens of documents.
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It is now super easy to collect feedback from your users with the online user feedback form template we have prepared for you. You can send this feedback form to your customers or embed it on your website. You can easily view and manage all responses from a single page and engage more closely with your customer's problems, suggestions and ideas! Let's take a look at how to use the user feedback form template!
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Marketing asset management spreadsheet template is the perfect tool to help you stay organized and supercharge your marketing efforts. With the help of this template, you can easily categorize and track your marketing materials and assign ownership from all in one place. Collaborate seamlessly with your team, boost productivity, and make the most out of your valuable marketing assets.
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Sales operations can be carried out in two different basic strategies, inbound and outbound. Although different sales & CRM tools are generally used for inbound sales, a manual workload is required to report and organize outbound sales data. Sales spreadsheet templates help sales teams to run all operations from a single channel.
Retable's simple CRM spreadsheet template is designed to help businesses manage and track their customer relationships. The template includes fields for customer information, contact details, and notes on interactions. It helps to keep track of all the information related to customers in one place, making it easy to ensure that customer relationships are managed effectively and that all the details are taken care of.
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Retable's sales opportunities spreadsheet template is designed to help sales teams keep track of potential sales opportunities. The template includes fields for the opportunity name, customer name, contact information, product or service, expected revenue, probability of closing, and notes.
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There are so many things we have to follow in our daily life, right? Shopping lists, organizations, expenses, vacations. And dozens of other operations that we didn't even think of. It is completely impossible to manage all of them with sticky notes. Online spreadsheet templates help you organize your daily life and also collaborate with family members in your spreadsheets.
The family camping checklist spreadsheet template helps you organize everything you need to prepare before a pleasant camping holiday with your family. You can plan your family camping through checklists designed in nutrition, travel, accommodation and many other categories.
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Retable's home renovation spreadsheet template is one of the easiest solutions to simplify your home renovation process. This customizable online spreadsheet template allows you to organize all your home renovation tasks in one place. Thanks to its customizable columns and data views the spreadsheet for home renovation allows you to add your specific home renovation needs.
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Retable's household expense budget spreadsheet template is a tool that helps individuals and families manage their finances by tracking their spending and income. It is a simple yet powerful spreadsheet that is designed to help you keep track of your monthly expenses and ensure that you stay within your budget.
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Retable's monthly meal plan spreadsheet template is designed to help you to plan and organize your monthly meals. This template includes fields for meal ideas, serving information and calories. It helps to keep track of all the meal planning information in one place, making it easy to ensure that meals are planned in advance and that all the details are taken care of.
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To change the data types in your spreadsheets, you must start by selecting your column. Right-click on your selection and select "Customize column" from the dropdown menu. Then you can customize your column type.
You can edit any aspect of your existing rules by going to your column customization settings. You can also add new data validation rules or delete existing rules from this panel.
If you want to create options by converting a column in your spreadsheet to dropdown format, you should use the "select (options)" column type. You can create multi-select and single-select records with the select column type.
To create options in your spreadsheets;
To merge cells in your spreadsheets, you must use the concatenate formula.
To use the Concatenate formula;
You have 3 options to change the row sizes in your spreadsheets; small, medium and large. Click the "Format" button in the toolbar to change your row sizes. Then you can select the row size you want by clicking the row size icon.
If you need more resources about spreadsheets, you can check out the following contents;
