Creating and opening spreadsheets in Google Sheets - Dashboard Building Guide

Dashboard Mode - Creating and opening spreadsheets

Goal

Understand how to create a new Google Sheets spreadsheet and open an existing one to start working with data.

Sample Data

Item	Quantity	Price
Apples	10	0.5
Bananas	5	0.3
Oranges	8	0.6
Grapes	3	2.0
Peaches	6	1.2

Dashboard Components

• Component 1: New Spreadsheet Button
  Description: Button to create a new blank Google Sheets spreadsheet.
  How to use: Click the + Blank button on the Google Sheets homepage.
• Component 2: Open Existing Spreadsheet
  Description: Open a spreadsheet from your Google Drive or recent files.
  How to use: Click on a file name from the Recent list or use the Open file picker to browse files.
• Component 3: Sample Data Table
  Description: A simple table with items, quantities, and prices to practice entering data.
  Example Data: See the sample data table above.
• Component 4: Total Cost Formula
  Description: Calculate total cost per item by multiplying quantity and price.
  Formula: In cell D2, enter =B2*C2 and drag down to D6.
  Result: Shows total cost for each item.
• Component 5: Sum Total Cost
  Description: Calculate the total cost of all items.
  Formula: In cell D7, enter =SUM(D2:D6).
  Result: Shows the total amount spent on all items.

Dashboard Layout

+---------------------------+
| New Spreadsheet Button     |
+---------------------------+
| Open Existing Spreadsheet  |
+---------------------------+
| Sample Data Table          |
| (Items, Quantity, Price)   |
+---------------------------+
| Total Cost per Item (Col D)|
+---------------------------+
| Sum Total Cost (Cell D7)  |
+---------------------------+

Interactivity

When you create a new spreadsheet, the sample data and formulas are empty and ready for input.

When you open an existing spreadsheet, you see the saved data and formulas already filled in.

You can edit the sample data table, and the total cost per item and sum total cost will update automatically.

Self Check

Try creating a new spreadsheet and entering the sample data. Does the total cost per item and sum total cost calculate correctly?

Open an existing spreadsheet with data. Are the formulas working and showing the correct totals?

Key Result

A simple dashboard showing how to create/open Google Sheets and calculate total costs from sample data.