8. Lesson: Documents, spreadsheets and presentations
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8. Documents, spreadsheets and presentations
Week 2 of 2
What you will be able to do
- Create and format a document: headings, bold, lists, and a table.
- Create a simple spreadsheet: enter data, add up a column with a formula, and sort.
- Make a short presentation with a few clear slides.
- Save or download your work as a PDF.
Why this matters
Documents, spreadsheets and presentations are the everyday tools of every office, including IT teams: reports, budgets, plans and project updates. You'll use them in your courses too.
1. Free tools
You don't need to buy software:
| Documents | Spreadsheets | Presentations | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google (free with a Google account, in the browser) | Docs | Sheets | Slides |
Microsoft 365 on the web (free with a Microsoft
account at office.com) |
Word | Excel | PowerPoint |
| LibreOffice (free to install, works offline) | Writer | Calc | Impress |
This lesson uses Google's tools; the others work almost the same way.
Go to docs.google.com, sheets.google.com or
slides.google.com and select Blank. Your
work saves automatically to Google Drive (topic 9).
2. Documents
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Make a heading | Select the text, then choose Heading 1 or Heading 2 in the style box (it says "Normal text") |
| Bold, italic, underline | Select the text, then Ctrl + B, Ctrl + I, Ctrl + U (Command on Mac) |
| Bullet or numbered list | The list buttons in the toolbar |
| Insert a table | Insert → Table, choose rows and columns |
| Check spelling | Red underlines show possible mistakes; right-click for suggestions |
| Make a PDF | File → Download → PDF Document |
Use headings instead of making text big and bold by hand: they keep documents tidy and let people jump around them.
3. Spreadsheets
A spreadsheet is a grid of cells. Columns have letters (A, B, C) and rows have numbers (1, 2, 3), so each cell has an address, such as B3.
A simple monthly budget:
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Item | Amount |
| 2 | Transport | 15000 |
| 3 | Food | 40000 |
| 4 | Data | 8000 |
| 5 | Total | =SUM(B2:B4) |
- A formula starts with
=.=SUM(B2:B4)adds up B2 to B4, so Total shows 63000. Change any amount and the total updates by itself. - Other useful formulas:
=AVERAGE(B2:B4),=MAX(B2:B4),=B2*2. - Sort: select the data, then Data → Sort range.
- Format money: select the cells, then Format → Number → Currency (or a custom format with ₦, KSh, R or GH₵).
4. Presentations
Good slides are simple:
- One idea per slide, with a short title that says the point.
- A few words, large enough to read: no long paragraphs.
- One picture or chart instead of more text.
- Five to eight slides for a short talk.
Insert → Image adds a picture; Slide → New slide adds a slide; Present shows it full screen.
Watch
Google Docs: Getting Started
LearnFree · 2 min. Getting started with Google Docs.
Google Sheets: Getting Started
LearnFree · 2 min. Getting started with Google Sheets.
Try it
- Create a document called My learning plan with a Heading 1 title, a numbered list of three goals, and a table showing which days you'll study. Download it as a PDF.
- Create the budget spreadsheet above with your own items (at least
five), use
=SUMfor the total and=AVERAGEfor the average, and sort it from biggest to smallest. - Make a four-slide presentation: "About me", "What I'm learning", "My plan", "What I want to do next".
Check your understanding
- Why use heading styles instead of making text bold and large?
- What does
=SUM(B2:B4)do, and what happens when you change B3? - What is cell C5?
- Name two rules for clear slides.