A Quick Introduction

The best way to learn how to use Gnumeric is to begin exploring the program yourself. This chapter will help you get started trying new things and seeing what happens. The chapter explains the fundamentals of spreadsheets in general and of Gnumeric in particular. The chapter attempts to help new users get started with Gnumeric and provides background for the more detailed explanations given in the rest of the manual.

Getting started with computers

Unfortunately, this manual cannot teach you the very basics of interacting with a modern computer. If you have never used computers, don't know the names of the hardware components (the pieces you can touch) or don't know the names of the elements you see on the screen (like windows or the mouse pointer), you will probably want to get some basic advice from someone you know or read the manuals which came with your machine or your operating system. It's all pretty easy but, in order to understand this manual, you will need to know some basic terminology and have some basic computing skills.

If you are using the GNOME desktop environment, you can read the the GNOME Desktop User Guide for help in getting started with computers.

If you are using the another desktop environment such as KDE or another operating system, please see the instructions from the web site linked with either your desktop environment, your operating system, your software distribution source or the people who provided you with your computer. There are also many books providing good introduction to computers.