Get Comfortable with Google Sheets Basics!

Are you used to using Excel? Are you UNcomfortable using Google Sheets? 

Are you worried about not knowing how to do simple tasks in Sheets that you know how to do in Excel?

It's time to GET COMFORTABLE with Google Sheets!

WATCH and I'll show you all the basics to get started using and creating your own Google Sheets, right in your own Drive!

CREATE A GOOGLE SHEET
So if you were in your Google Drive and you click New, Google Sheet - that's like an Excel file - you can just make a new Google Sheet. These are always green in Google, and I can give it a Title, "Test Contact List." And then I can type: Name, Address, Email, Phone.
What are the use cases for this? We could have a holiday card list. We could have a client list. We could have a resident list if you're working with a building full of people. You can have a membership list if you're a volunteer or a club or a sports team. There are just so many uses for a contact list like this. You can put a lot of information in this contact list.
DATA SORT
The other thing to know is that, you of course can put text and numbers. And why does that matter? Because then I can Sort the data later by numbers or in alphabetical order.
If I have Amy, Chrissy, Jen, Deb, and Kim, and Jill - I can Sort the data. There's some Data Sort features and I can Sort by certain Columns. So then I can get it in different ways without changing the data that's in the table. So that is why it's a good thing to use Sheets.

BASIC VOCABULARY

The other thing to know is some vocabulary. So this is a Google Sheet - that's the entire file. Down at the bottom, you can add Sheets, otherwise known as Tabs, so that you can keep track of multiple pieces of information in one file. 

If I go back to my Google Drive, this is called Test Contact List. And if I refresh, here it is. But within that file, I could have their Name, Address, Email, and Phone. But on another Sheet - if I felt like it - I could have... maybe they need shirts and I need a shirt size for each person. So I can keep track of all this information in one file. That's why this is important. 

To review, this is called a Google Sheet. The Tabs are at the bottom. These verticals are called Columns, across is called Rows, and one little box is called a Cell. And of course the Row at the top is called a Header. There are many ways we can make that stand out, I can make it bold. so that I can see my header very clearly. 

BASIC FORMATTING

I want to show you how to do some basic, simple, easy formatting in a Google Sheet. They're very, very simple, but will make a big difference in what you can see on your Sheet and how the data looks.

NAME FILE & SHEETS

First of all, we want to make sure that the *Title* of our file is correct. And since this is all about Hogwarts, I'm going to call this the "Hogwarts Contact List." So I changed the name of the file. 

I can also *name the Sheet* down at the bottom. So if I double click on the Name, I can say Hogwarts Contacts. So then if I add other Sheets - or Tabs - at the bottom, I can name them to keep track of my data.

CHANGE COLUMN WIDTH

I can't see all of the information in each column. There are two ways to do this. 1) One is grabbing the very far right edge of that column and dragging it over to the rigth so that I can see their full names. I have no idea how long some of these email addresses are. 2) My other option is to actually double-click the right side of the column. And if I go "click-click," it pops it open to as wide as the longest text that is in that Cell or Column. So that is really helpful. 

Of course I can *Undo* it over here if I don't like that. But again, I find this little arrow on the right side of the column, and I double-click. That made it as wide as necessary for me to see all the emails. Now, I guess I can see all of the content in the other Cells.

FREEZE ROWS & COLUMNS

Another thing that is very helpful is these *Freeze* bars, which means that If I scroll down, my Header row stays there, and I'll show you how to do that. And actually I did that with the Column as well. If I scroll to the right, the first Column stays there. So if I have many, many Columns of data to the right, my Name always stays here, or whatever's in the first Column.

The fastest way to do that is to hover your cursor over the gray bar, and get the hand, and then you can move those to wherever you want. So I sort of undid that, and now you see my Header disappears. And if I scroll the other way, the Names disappear. But again, watch me put them back. 

Do you see those little tiny gray bars up here? I can click and drag it with the hand below my Header row, or drag this past the Names. Now, I can also do a couple Columns if I really felt like. I could take it over here and now those first two Columns would be Frozen, but that's not really very helpful to me at the moment. 

NOTE: You can always change the frozen rows and columns. This is a living, breathing document that you can always adjust and change it to how you need it at that moment, and then move it around again.

DRAG COLUMNS

What if I actually want the Title Column closer to the Name Column? I can actually just get that hand and drag that whole Column over to the left. If I'm building this and I put the Columns or the Headers in the wrong order, I can drag them around at any time that I'd like. This information is more important to me next to their Name right now. And maybe later I'm gonna need their Phone number, so I can drag it over later. Now, Undo that again. 

INSERT COLUMNS

What if I forgot a Column of information that I really need? I can select a Column and I can say *Insert a Column* to the left or to the right of where my cursor is. And now I can add another Column, named "Wand Feather Type." 

Oh, it's too smal! If I double-click the right edge of the column, it pops it open wider, and I can type in that information. 

REVIEW

So there's just so many things that you can do in Google Sheets!

[00:06:41] For more quick tips like this, keep watching this playlist. To learn ALL that Google can do to make you more productive while saving you time and energy, register for my online classes linked below. 

[00:06:53] I look forward to seeing YOU in class!