Beginner's question for Calc

officeNoob · Newbie Joined: 25 Sep 2006 Posts: 2

Hi-

I have a few questions concerning working with calc. Hopefully, you guys can help me out:

1. Is there any way to remove unwanted columns in my spreadsheet document? Currently it pretty much goes on forever and I hate that useless horizontal scrollbar...
2. If that is not possible, is there at least a way to control movement through the cells via the TAB key? I would like it to move to the next row once a certain column (e.g. "D") has been reached.
3. Does anyone know how I can convert hours and minutes (e.g. "13:45") into just hours (e.g. "13.75")?

Thanks in advance!

RickRandom · Super User Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Posts: 1082 Location: UK

1. I think you are stuck with the standard number of columns. Most people ask for more, not less!

2. If you highlight columns A to D (so all the cells go black on my version) then tab will move you around the cells.

3. If you have 13:45 in one cell, that is showing the time but behind the scenes Calc (and other spreadsheets) in fact know that it is a fraction of a day, i.e. 24 hours = 1, 12 hours = 0.5, etc. So if 13:45 is in cell A1, type in another cell:

=A1*24

and then you may need to format the cell as General, with the 2 decimal places you want.

Edit:

If you just want rid of the horiz scrollbar, Tools, Options, click the + for Calc, select View, then deselect the horiz scrollbar.

BillP · Super User Joined: 07 Jan 2006 Posts: 2702

David · Last edited by David on Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:45 am; edited 1 time in total

1. Nope. But you can get rid of the scroll bar: Tools/Options/Calc/View

3. =CONCATENATE(HOUR(A1);MINUTE(A1)/60)

EDIT: On second thought, forget that. Embarassed

David.

carl · Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:35 am Post subject:

officeNoob · Newbie Joined: 25 Sep 2006 Posts: 2

Thanks!

RickRandom · Super User Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Posts: 1082 Location: UK

Carl's point about the backspace is very good advice. With a lot of data highlighted, there is a lot to lose in one accidental key press.

Of course if you are putting data in row by row and perhaps you've done row 10, then:

select A11

hold shift and press the right arrow 3 times (so A11 to D11 are selected)

keeping shift held down, press PageDown (so A11 to D42 or whatever are selected)

press Tab

Then you are at A11, ready to input the next 30 or so rows of data, pressing Tab to go A11, B11, C11, D11, A12, B12,...

This way there's less highlighted at any one time, so less at risk.

BookLady · Super User Joined: 03 Nov 2004 Posts: 727

Try highlighting all the empty columns to the right and using Tools> Column> Hide
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