After you create a workbook, you enter data into it—specifically, you enter the data into a worksheet contained within the workbook.
What exactly is this data we’re referring to? When you think of "data," you might envision the opening screen from the movie The Matrix, with millions of little green characters you’re supposed to be able to read even though they’re streaming down the screen backward or in Kanji (a writing system for the Japanese language that uses pictorial characters).
Totally Random Thought
After the release of the first Matrix movie, a lot of people installed screensavers depicting the Matrix code—you can find a lot of versions on the Web, some three-dimensional. The official Matrix site at whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com offers a Mac version. If you’re a Matrix fan, take a look at the "About the Author" section of this book and see if you notice anything interesting.
You probably have your own concept of data. To avoid confusion, we should define the term, because we use it a lot in this book. Data is the plural of datum, which is a piece of information, a point of reference, or a given fact.
Note
The singular form datum is rarely used. In this book, we use data to refer to both singular and plural instances.
The Microsoft Encarta Dictionary offers two definitions of data:
factual information
Information, often in the form of facts or figures obtained from experiments or surveys, used as a basis for making calculations or drawing conclusions.
information for computer processing
Information, e.g. numbers, text, images, and sounds, in a form that is suitable for storage in or processing by a computer.
In this book, we’ll use the word data to refer to any type of information you store and manage in your Excel workbook.
You can use Excel to track simple data, such as a packing list for frequent travelers, or complex data, such as an analysis of annual sales. If you need to work with a large quantity of data, you’re in luck—you can store up to 1000 pages of data in a worksheet.
An Excel worksheet is composed of rows and columns of cells that contain values, or data points, that make up a data series. To enter data in an individual cell—the intersection of a row and column—you click the cell to select it, and start typing.
You can select an entire column by clicking the column heading—the box containing a letter at the top of each column—and an entire row by clicking the row heading—the box containing a number to the left of each row. You can select the entire worksheet by clicking the Select All button—the box at the junction of the column headings and row headings.
You can enter data into a worksheet or list sheet by typing, copying or filling data that already exists in the sheet, pasting data that you’ve copied from another source (such as a Word document, a Web page, or a sheet from another workbook), or importing data from another file.
Tip
You can import data into Excel 2008 from a text file containing values separated by commas, tabs, or spaces; from a local HTML file; or from a FileMaker Pro database. To import data from one of these sources, click the Import button on the Standard toolbar. In the Import dialog box that opens, click the data type you want to import, and then click Import. In the Choose A File dialog box, locate the data file you want to import, and then click Get Data. The Text Import Wizard guides you through the process of selecting and mapping the data you want to import to fields in a new list sheet.
See Also
For information about ensuring that cell content meets specific requirements, see "Restrict the Content Allowed in a Cell" in Chapter 8.