Typing data in, and fixing it when you mistype
We know what rows and columns are now, we know cells have names like B12, and we have a question written down for our sheet. So let us actually put something in it.
This lesson is not glamorous. It is just typing, and fixing typing. But this is where most of the real friction lives when you are new to sheets, so let us go slow.
Getting data into a cell
Click a cell, type, hit Enter. That is the whole move. Enter moves you down to the next cell. Tab moves you sideways to the next one over. Once you know that, you can move through a row or a column fairly fast without touching your mouse.
A couple of things trip people up right away:
- If you start typing and the cell already had something in it, you have just erased what was there. No warning, no "are you sure." It is simply gone, replaced with what you typed.
- If you want to ADD to what is already there instead of replacing it, double-click the cell first, or hit the F2 key (that is the Excel one; in Sheets it is usually just double-click, or hitting Enter puts your cursor in). This is one of those spots where I swap tools in my head and mutter about it, so if I fumble this part live, that is why.
- Numbers versus text matters more than people expect. If you type 04 and it turns into 4, the sheet has decided you meant a number, not a code. We will deal with that particular annoyance when we get to formatting cells. Just know it is coming.
Fixing a mistake you just made
Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on a Mac) undoes your last action. This is truly the most useful keyboard shortcut in the entire program, and I want you to use it without hesitation. You did not break anything permanent by trying something. Undo exists so that you can be a little reckless.
If you have already clicked away and the mistake is sitting there quietly wrong, just click the cell and retype it. There is no ceremony to fixing a cell. You do not need to delete the whole row and start over. You just click the one box that is wrong and put the right thing in it.
Fixing a mistake you find later
This is the more common one, I will admit. You type a bunch of things in, go on with your life, and three days later you notice a number looks off.
Click the cell. Look at what is actually in it, up in that formula bar at the top, not just what is displayed. Sometimes what LOOKS wrong is really a formula pointing somewhere it should not, and what looks right is a coincidence. I have been burned by that before. We will get into formulas more later, but keep it in the back of your mind now.
What "fixing" nap data taught me
I built a whole tracker once for Alex's naps, when he was about one. Start time, end time, how long, what time of day. I had a whole theory that if I just collected enough data, I would find the pattern and finally know when he would actually sleep.
There was no pattern. None. I fixed and re-fixed and retyped that sheet for weeks, sure I had mistyped something, because surely the data was wrong, not my theory. Babies do not respect spreadsheets. I still have that file. I look at it now and then, as a monument to being wrong about what a sheet can tell you.
I bring it up here because "fixing your mistakes" is not only about typos. Sometimes the sheet is typed in correctly and the mistake is the question you asked it. That is worth catching too, and it is a different kind of fixing than hitting Ctrl+Z.
An opinion, while we're here
You do not need to build five columns to categorize something you are tracking at home. I see people set up elaborate systems, then abandon them in two weeks because keeping it updated became its own chore. Keep your columns to the things you will actually keep typing in. Precision you will not maintain is worse than a rough number you will actually keep current.
A small caution
Autosave means you do not lose work to a crash or a toddler with apple juice, we covered that already. But autosave does NOT protect you from typing wrong information and not noticing. Autosave saves your mistakes too, instantly, the same as it saves everything else. So do not let it make you careless about double-checking numbers that matter, like anything financial. Speed of saving is not the same as accuracy of what you typed.
Before next time
Open your sheet, type in five or six real rows of whatever your question is about, and on purpose mistype one of them so you can practice fixing it. Small mess, small fix, no pressure.
- C