Instructions for Making a Spreadsheet in WordPad
Microsoft WordPad is a basic word processing program. Included with nearly every version of Microsoft's operating systems since the release of Windows 95, the software offers basic formatting and printing features, but offers very minimal graphics capabilities, and does not provide common proofing tools such as a spell checker or thesaurus. One benefit to WordPad's simplicity, however, is its ability to save documents to text-only formats. This feature allows you to create comma-separated value spreadsheets that can be opened in WordPad or any formal spreadsheet application.
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Instructions
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Open WordPad. Click the Windows "Start" button and select "Programs" (or "All Programs," depending on your Windows version). Open the "Accessories" subfolder and then click "WordPad."
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Create your spreadsheet data. Comma-separated value data is structured precisely as the name implies: commas are used to separate values into columns. Additionally, each line represents a different row. A collection of comma-separated spreadsheet data might resemble the following:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
5, 0, , 4, 5
3, 10, 12, 14, 1
2, , 2, , 5This example defines five columns and four rows of data. The blank spaces indicate columns with no value.
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Click "File" in the top menu bar and select "Save."
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Select your desired save location.
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Click the "Save as Type" drop-down menu and select the "Text Document" option.
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Give your file a name in the "File Name" field, appending a .csv file extension to the name (e.g., "sample_data.csv").
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Click "Save" to save your spreadsheet to CSV format. This format lets you continue to work with your spreadsheet data in WordPad, while also allowing the data to be viewed in a traditional spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel.
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References
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