ICDL Spreadsheets (ICDL) study guide
ICDL Spreadsheets · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
ICDL Spreadsheets is a practical, task-based certification in spreadsheet software, offered within the ICDL (International Certification of Digital Literacy) programme family. ICDL Foundation describes itself as "a global social enterprise committed to raising standards of digital competence in the workforce, education and society," and states that ICDL certification is available "in more than 100 countries, across our network of more than 20,000 testing centres." The qualification is aimed at students, job-seekers and employees who need to show they can build and use a spreadsheet competently rather than merely recognise its menus - recording data, writing formulas, formatting for readability, charting results and producing clean printed or exported output. The ICDL Spreadsheets study guide has 7 sections and about 2,169 words.
01Using the Application
A spreadsheet application is opened either from the Start menu/launcher or by double-clicking an existing file, and you work inside a workbook made up of worksheets . You must know how to create a new blank workbook, open an existing one (from the Open dialog or the recent files list), save it, close it, and switch between several workbooks that are open at the same time.
339 words, about 2 min02Cells
Everything in a worksheet lives in a cell addressed by column letter and row number (B7). You must be able to select a single cell, a contiguous range (A1:C10), non-adjacent cells (holding Ctrl), an entire row or column via its header, or the whole sheet.
329 words, about 2 min03Managing Worksheets
A workbook can hold many worksheets, and you must know how to insert, delete, rename, move, copy and reorder them using the sheet tabs and their right-click menu. Renaming is done by double-clicking the tab (or Rename); tab colours can help organise a workbook.
318 words, about 2 min04Formulas and Functions
Every formula begins with = . Formulas contain values, cell references and operators, and follow normal order of operations (brackets, then exponent, then multiply/divide, then add/subtract).
270 words, about 1 min05Formatting
Formatting changes how data looks , not what it is. You must be able to apply number formats - general, number with a set number of decimal places, currency with a symbol, percentage, date and time - and to add or remove the thousands separator.
298 words, about 1 min06Charts
A chart is created from a data range you select first; the application then plots the values as one or more series , with categories taken from the row or column labels. You must know how to create a chart, change its type, move and resize it, move it onto its own chart sheet, and delete it.
313 words, about 2 min07Prepare Outputs
Before printing you adjust page setup : orientation (portrait or landscape), paper size, margins, and scaling such as fit to one page or a percentage reduction. You should be able to set a print area so that only part of the sheet prints, and set print titles so that chosen header rows or columns repeat on every printed page.
302 words, about 2 min