Spreadsheets, among the most
common personal computer programs,
are considered by many as
tools for accountants.
But on the Macintosh, these
powerful programs can be customized
to accomplish many useful
tasks for the contractor. Using the
Excel spreadsheet program by
Microsoft, you
can make a simple-to-use, but powerful
estimator, for a Macintosh. By
the way, Excel is available in a version
for IBM-compatible computers
too.
Spreadsheet Basics
A spreadsheet is very simply an
electronic version of the paper
columnar pad that almost everyone
in business uses daily. Columnar
pads are used as check registers,
expense reports, job costing journals,
ledgers, and virtually any
paper list or table you need.
Where the columnar pad uses
lines, the spreadsheet uses cells to
form horizontal rows and vertical
columns. The