Entering and editing data

This page covers getting data into cells and changing it: typing, the fill handle and fill commands, copying and pasting, checkboxes and symbols, clearing, and undo.

Type into a cell

1. Click a cell, or move to it with the arrow keys.
2. Start typing. What you type replaces the cell’s contents.
3. Press Enter to confirm.

To change what a cell already holds instead of replacing it, double-click the cell or press F2. The editor opens over the cell with its current contents. You can also click in the contents box of the formula bar and edit there.

While you are editing:

Clicking another cell or a sheet tab also confirms what you typed.

What happens when you type

Nixt Sheets decides what kind of value you typed as you confirm it.

The percentage, thousands and currency formats are applied only when the cell’s format is still General. A format you chose yourself is never replaced.

When a cell refuses what you type

Typing next to a table

When you type in the row directly below a table, or the column directly to its right, the table grows to include the new cell. See Tables, slicers and timelines.

AutoSum

AutoSum writes a total of the numbers directly above the current cell.

1. Click the empty cell under a column of numbers.
2. Click Σ in Home › Editing, or one of Sum, Average, Count, Max or Min in Formulas › AutoSum.

The formula covers the unbroken run of filled cells above — for example =SUM(B2:B9). If the cell above is empty, the status bar says Nothing above this cell to SUM. (or the function you chose).

Fill cells

Drag the fill handle

The fill handle is the small square at the bottom-right corner of the selection.

1. Select the cell or cells to fill from.
2. Drag the fill handle down, up, right or left over the cells to fill.
3. Release the mouse button.

A fill goes along one direction only — whichever way you dragged furthest. What the new cells get depends on what you started from:

Formatting is copied along with the values. Dragging up or left continues sequences backwards.

Dates are numbers with a date format, so a single date counts up one day at a time.

Fill commands

The Fill menu in Home › Editing fills the selection from one of its edges.

Fill down and Fill right are also on the Data tab, in the Fill group.

Messages you may see:

The Series dialog

Use the Series dialog when you want to state the step and the stop value rather than let the fill handle guess.

1. Put the first value in the top-left cell of the selection.
2. Select the cells to fill, starting with that cell.
3. Choose Home › Editing › Fill › Series….
4. Set the options, then click Fill.

A line under the options describes the chosen type. Messages you may see:

Custom lists

A custom list is an order your work uses that no calendar has — departments, product grades, the stages of a job. Once a list exists, the fill handle continues it: type the first item and drag.

Custom lists are stored in the workbook, so they travel with the file.

To make a list:

1. Type the items in order, down a column or across a row.
2. Select them.
3. Choose Home › Editing › Fill › Custom lists….
4. Click Make one from followed by the selection’s address.
5. Click Done.

Blank cells and repeated items are left out. The status bar says The fill handle will continue from followed by the first item.

To remove a list, click the × (Remove) beside it in the Custom lists dialog.

Custom lists are checked before weekdays and months, so a list that contains March changes what follows March.

Copy, cut and paste

Within the workbook

1. Select the cells.
2. Press ⌘C to copy or ⌘X to cut (Ctrl+C or Ctrl+X on Windows and Linux). You can also click Cut or Copy in Home › Clipboard.
3. Click the top-left cell of where the cells should go.
4. Press ⌘V (Ctrl+V), or click Paste in Home › Clipboard.

A dashed outline marks the copied cells, and the status bar says Copied or Cut followed by their address.

• Copied formulas are adjusted to their new position: =A1 copied one row down becomes =A2. References with $ stay fixed.
• Cut formulas keep pointing at the same cells. After you paste, the original cells are cleared and the cut can’t be pasted again.
• Values, formulas, formatting and notes all come across.

You can paste into another sheet of the same workbook.

To and from other apps

Pressing ⌘C or ⌘X also puts the selection on the system clipboard as plain text, one row per line with tabs between the cells, showing values as they are displayed. Other spreadsheets and most text editors accept this.

To paste text from another app, copy it there and press ⌘V in Nixt Sheets. The text is split into cells on tabs, commas, semicolons or pipes — whichever appears most in the first lines — and each piece is typed as described in What happens when you type.

Paste Special

After copying, open the Paste menu in Home › Clipboard and choose what to bring across:

If nothing has been copied, the status bar says Nothing copied. A link paste from a block with nothing in it says Nothing to link to — followed by the address is empty.

Format painter

The format painter copies formatting from one cell to others.

1. Click the cell whose formatting you want.
2. Click the format painter button in Home › Clipboard (its tooltip is Format painter — pick up this formatting). The status bar says Formatting picked up. Select the cells to paint. and the button stays highlighted.
3. Select the cells to format.
4. Click the format painter button again. Its tooltip now reads Select the cells to paint.

Checkboxes

A checkbox cell holds TRUE when ticked and FALSE when not. Because the tick is the cell’s value, =COUNTIF(A2:A20,TRUE) counts the ticked boxes, and a filter can show only ticked rows. In apps that don’t show checkboxes, the cells read TRUE and FALSE.

Insert checkboxes

1. Select the cells — empty cells, or cells that already hold TRUE or FALSE.
2. Choose Insert › Controls › Checkbox › Insert checkbox.

The status bar says how many were added. Cells that hold anything else are left alone. If none of the selected cells can take a checkbox, the status bar says Checkboxes go in blank cells or cells already holding TRUE or FALSE. Putting one over a price would erase the price.

Tick and untick

• Click the box itself. Clicking elsewhere in the cell selects the cell without changing the box.
• Or select one or more checkbox cells and press Space. If any of them are unticked, all are ticked; if all are ticked, all are unticked.

A checkbox whose cell holds a formula follows the formula. Clicking it shows cell is worked out by a formula, so its box follows the formula rather than the mouse.

Remove checkboxes

1. Select the cells.
2. Choose Insert › Controls › Checkbox › Remove checkbox.

The boxes go and the TRUE and FALSE values stay. If there were none, the status bar says There are no checkboxes in followed by the address.

Symbols

1. Click a cell.
2. Open Insert › Text › Symbol and choose a character: € euro, £ pound, ¥ yen, ° degree, ± plus-minus, × times, ÷ divide, ≈ approximately, ≤ at most, ≥ at least, ™ trademark, © copyright, → arrow, ✓ tick or • bullet.

The character is added to the end of what the cell shows. If the cell held a formula, the formula is replaced by its result followed by the symbol, as text.

Clear cells

Press Delete or Backspace to clear the contents of the selected cells and keep their formatting. If a picture or shape is selected, the key deletes that object instead.

The Clear menu in Home › Editing offers:

Undo and redo

The Undo and Redo buttons are at the right end of the ribbon’s tab row. Their tooltips name the step — for example Undo Paste or Redo Insert rows.

• The last 200 steps can be undone.
• Format cells applies its changes as one step: undoing it undoes everything you set in that visit to the dialog.
• Undo history lasts until you close the workbook. It is not saved with the file.
• Changing the zoom, the view, the calculation mode, watched cells and custom views are not undo steps.