GameBanshee Forums

I'm not used to working with Excel at all. Or rather OpenCalc, though both programs are identical. The interface of OpenCalc is identically unintuitive, I can't for dear life figure out how to make a simple column division.

Anyway, I have two long columns of research data I need to process. Every cell in column C (C3:C5093) needs to be separately divided by the cells in B (B3:B5093) ~ (C3/B3, C4/B4, C5/B5, C6/B6, etc), but not the columns as a whole. That's all I seem to be able to do. The output of every division must go into column D. I've entered all the data and double checked it for errors. I've been at that for hours today. I thought about doing the calculations with my pocket calculator instead but.. well, I'm spend.

Could someone please help me out? I can't seem to work things out by following up on Google searches alone.

I'm not sure what you mean.
Do you want C4/B4 put into D4 and C5/B5 put into D5?

Although I do not know how to do it in Open Office, in Excel it is simply typing =C4/B4 into D4.
Then you can copy it to all the other cells?

If not then I'm unsure what you are trying to calculate?

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to accomplish. I found out how to do it once, and that / only works cell-by-cell. I'm not sure how to copy it without repeating the same action 5000 times.

I've tried selecting the whole columns while filling in C3:C5093/B3:B5093 in the 'input line' bar above the spreadsheet. But that again just outputs one result at the bottom of column D. (C3:C5093)/(B3:B5093) had the same result.

Edit: Ho wait, I just got it. I can copy and paste over a large selection. It's not a C3/B3 division for every single cell. How.. unobvious.

Edit 2: Also, Thank you.

Ahh - now I knew what you were trying to do
Yes, the cell references "updates" itself unless it becomes locked (in Excel that is putting a $ in front of either column or row or both)
Also - for future reference, then Excel has the possibility to "drag" /copy by selecting a cell or range of cells. Then there should be a little larger square in the bottom right of the marked cells which you can drag to fill the entire area and that will copy cells, so one doesn't even have to "copy/paste"

I'm sure Open Office has something similar.

It has. Truth be told, when I was instructed in the use of Excel eight or nine years ago I never really paid attention. And I never had to use it much either, usually it's just template forms or sheets other people created for me to fill out.

But this was one exception where I volunteered to help out with some research done at our university. Processing questionnaire results mostly, though unfortunately all of the papyrus variety. I tried looking for a way to scan every questionnaire, but software-wise it turned out to be too much of a hassle in Ubuntu (I caved and switched over from Gentoo). I got a lot of Linux stuff figured these last few weeks, but that was pushing my luck a bit too far. Fortunately I can count on OpenOffice to at least get part of the job done quickly.