Fireworkz worksheets are made up out of cells, which may contain text or data. To make it easier for Fireworkz to handle information, each cell is assigned a type, either text or number (numeric). The type of the cell governs the way the cell handles the data it contains. If you follow the instructions in the section below, you should not have to manipulate cell types directly. But on occasions you may find that the default decisions Fireworkz makes about cell types are not what you want.
When a cell is created, its type is first set according to the cell type which has been chosen in the current style used in the worksheet. This will usually result in numeric cells, but may be different in some templates. The default template Sheet creates numeric cells.
You can assign a type to an empty cell easily by selecting it and applying a style which affects the type of the cell. You can also change the type of cells which contain text or data, although this has a major impact on their behaviour, by using the commands on the sub-menu.
Usually you will want to apply a type to a whole column or row. For example, you might want to apply the text style to the leftmost column in the worksheet, to ensure that all labels come out as text.
If you place the caret in a cell and start typing, Fireworkz will mark the cell as a text cell and interpret its contents as text. It will do this regardless of the information which you enter, so if you type numbers straight on to the worksheet you will not be able to add them up unless you mark the cells as number cells.
If you press F2 and type into the formula line, Fireworkz will first attempt to handle the information you enter as live data, for example a number, cell reference, date or time. However, if Fireworkz cannot interpret the data in the formula line as a valid number, formula, reference, date or time, it will change the cell to a text cell, entering the contents as a string.
You will usually find that you want a mixture of both types of cell within your worksheet. Text cells are useful for entering headings for worksheets, and for columns holding data such as peoples names, while obviously you will need Number cells to hold data and calculations. The BaseSheet style creates worksheets where new cells are number cells.
The ideal solution is to ensure that there are two styles set up within each document, which can be used to mark cells as text or number cells. The Default is all numeric, with the Text style applied to cells which cannot go in as formulae.