Spreadsheet Column Menu

The Column item on the Spread menu offers a number of different ways to change attributes for columns within a spreadsheet.

Attributes/Format

Change the name of a column or the way its values are displayed, and edit other properties of the column. Click here for more details.

Rename

This opens a dialog which allows all the column names to be edited in one place. Click here for more details.

Convert

Convert columns of a vector spreadsheet to other types, or change the spreadsheet type. Click here for more details.

Copy

Copies currently selected columns to the Clipboard. If there are no selected columns the current column will be copied.

Cut

Copies currently selected columns to the Clipboard. If there are no selected columns the current column will be copied. The columns will have their values replaced by missing value(*), or deleted from the spreadsheet if you have selected this option (see Spreadsheet Options).

Paste

Pastes Clipboard data into new columns inserted after the current column.

Duplicate

This opens a dialog which allows all a duplicate of a column to be inserted into the spreadsheet with a new name, and perhaps a new type. Click here for more details.

Get/Move

Get or move columns from another spreadsheet to this spreadsheet. Click here for more details.

Reorder

This opens a dialog which allows order that the columns are displayed in to be altered. Click here for more details.

Protection

This opens a dialog which allows columns to protected (i.e. read only) or unprotected. Click here for more details.

Copy Names

This copies the column names in the spreadsheet to the clipboard. If columns are selected, just the selected columns names are copied to the clipboard. The list of column names is comma delimited, and so are in a useful format for pasting into GenStat server directives.

Paste Names

This pastes the data in the clipboard into the column names, making any changes necessary to ensure the resulting names are valid GenStat structure names. If columns are selected in the spreadsheet, only these columns will be renamed.

Descriptions

This sub menu allows you to move the columns or selected columns descriptions to and from the clipboard using the 3 items.

Copy	This copies the column descriptions in a spreadsheet to the clipboard. If columns are selected, then only the selected columns descriptions are copied to the clipboard. The column descriptions are copied onto the clipboard as a comma delimited list where each description is quoted with single quote marks (i.e. 'kg/ha','%','2004-5'). Column descriptions copied using this item can be pasted to other spreadsheets and can be useful for constructing GenStat commands.
Cut	This cuts the column descriptions from a spreadsheet and copies them to the clipboard. If columns are selected, then only the selected columns descriptions are cut from a spreadsheet.
Paste	This pastes the text on the clipboard into the column descriptions. If columns are selected, then only these columns will be modified.

Promote First Row to Names

This menu item uses the text in first data row of the spreadsheet as the column names. The first row is removed, and the columns are all renamed. If all the remaining items in a text column can be read as numerical values, then these text columns are converted to variates. This operation may be useful after first creating a spreadsheet from an Excel file, or from the clipboard, and the first line of data was meant to be the column names.

Promote First Row to Extra

This menu item uses the text in first data row of the spreadsheet as the column extra or description. The first row is removed, and the columns have their descriptions changed to the values in the first cell of column. If all the remaining items in a text column can be read as numerical values, then these text columns are converted to variates. This operation may be useful after first creating a spreadsheet from an Excel file, or from the clipboard, and the first line of data was meant to be the column descriptions.

Set Default Widths

This changes the widths of all columns to the minimum required to show each cell's contents without truncation. Individual columns can be resized with by clicking on the end of the column heading and dragging to resize the column, or else double clicking the end of the column title to get the default width for that column. If multiple columns are selected, the will all be resized.

Conditional Formatting

This opens a dialog which allows the colours used to display the items in numerical columns to be set according to 3 conditional statements. Click here for more details.

Temporary missing values

This opens a dialog which allows cells in a spreadsheet to be set to missing for statistical calculations, whilst still maintaining their values within the spreadsheet. Click here for more details.

Run Analysis

If the spreadsheet has had analysis commands set up with the Analyse Spreadsheet Columns dialog, this menu runs the analysis for the currently selected columns, or the current column if no columns are selected. Click here for more details.