Data entry and formats

One row per record, one kind of value per column, a header row that stays put. Everything else in this course depends on it.

A sheet is a table, not a page

Most spreadsheet pain comes from treating a sheet like a piece of paper: a title across the top, blank rows for spacing, totals typed under the numbers, two facts squeezed into one cell. Sorting, filtering, formulas, pivot tables and Gemini all expect a plain table instead:

  • Row 1 holds the column names. Nothing above it.
  • Every row below is one record: one sale, one customer, one shift.
  • Every column holds one kind of value: a date, a number, a name, a yes or no.
  • No blank rows or columns inside the data, no merged cells, no totals mixed in with the records.
Messy Clean
“Mobile, AL” in one cell City in one column, State in another
“Ana Ruiz - VIP” Customer in one column, Tier in another
A total row typed after row 40 Totals on a separate sheet or in a pivot table
Blank row between months No blank rows; a Month column instead

The same data both ways.

A messy sheet with a Sales Q3 title in row 1, a blank row, headers in row 3, Mobile AL in one cell, amounts typed as $340 and approx 12, a blank row and a typed Total row, beside a clean sheet whose row 1 holds Date, City, State and Amount, is frozen, has one kind of value per column and right-aligned numbers
Header in row 1, one record per row, one kind of value per column, header frozen. Every other tool depends on it.
Video: How to create tables in Google Sheets · Google Workspace · 1 minOnce a range is clean, Sheets can convert it to a table with a fixed header and a type for each column, which locks in the habits above.Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Numbers must be numbers

Sheets treats a cell as a number only if it contains just digits (and a decimal point or minus). “340 dollars”, “approx 12” and a number typed with a stray space are text, and SUM quietly skips them. A quick test: numbers sit on the right of a cell by default and text sits on the left. A column with values on both sides has a problem.

The alignment test in practice.

An Amount column where 620 and 480 sit on the right of their cells as real numbers, while 740 with a trailing space, approx 12 and $300 sit on the left as text, with a note that SUM of the column returns 1100 instead of 2152 because the text entries are skipped
Values on the left are text. SUM skips them without warning.

Dates work the same way. “11/5/2026” typed into a column formatted as a date becomes a real date you can sort and group by month. “Nov 5th” and “next Tuesday” are text.

Formats are a display choice

Formatting a column as currency, percent or a date does not change the value; it changes how it is shown. So pick the format once for the whole column and let it do the work:

Column holds Format Shows
Money Currency 1,250.00 with the currency sign
A share Percent 0.18 as 18%
A date Date 2026-11-05 or 11/5/2026, consistently
Codes like ZIP or phone Plain text Keeps a leading zero

Freeze the header row

When you scroll down 200 rows, the column names disappear unless the header row is frozen. Freeze row 1 in every sheet with data. Freeze the first column too if the record names are there.

Try it now

Open a sheet you use. Check row 1 is only column names and freeze it. Find one column with mixed text and numbers (look for values on both the left and right of their cells) and fix the text ones so they are real numbers.

Remember: header in row 1, one record per row, one kind of value per column, header frozen. Fix that first and every other tool starts working.

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