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OpenOffice Calc facts for kids

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Apache OpenOffice Calc
OOoCalc.svg
Aoo calc 3.4.1.png
Apache OpenOffice Calc 3.4.1
Developer(s) StarOffice
StarDivision (1984–1999)
OpenOffice.org
Sun Microsystems (1999–2010)
Oracle Corporation (2010–2011)
Apache OpenOffice
Apache Software Foundation (2011—)
Operating system Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Type Spreadsheet
License LGPL version 3 (OpenOffice.org 2 Beta 2 and earlier are dual-licensed under the SISSL and LGPL)
Apache License 2.0 (Apache OpenOffice 3.4 and later)

OpenOffice Calc is the spreadsheet part of the OpenOffice software package.

Calc is similar to Microsoft Excel, with almost the same abilities. Calc is capable of opening and saving spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel's file format. It provides a number of features not present in Excel, including a system which automatically defines a series for graphing based on the layout of the user's data. Calc is also capable of writing spreadsheets directly as PDF files.

The default file format for OpenOffice Calc version 2.x or 3.x can be set to either Microsoft Excel's native file format or the Open Document Format (ODF). Calc also supports a wide range of other file formats, for both opening and saving files.

Just like the entire OpenOffice package, Calc can be used on many operating systems, including Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. Available under the Apache License, Calc is free software.

Specifications

Calc can store a maximum of 65,536 rows with 1024 columns in each sheet, with a maximum of 256 sheets. There is a way to increase these limits, but it is only suitable for ODF and text-based formats, as there is a risk of data turning unusable for binary formats such as Microsoft Excel's file format. Version 2 of Calc was able to store a maximum of 65,536 rows with 256 columns in each sheet, with a maximum of 256 sheets. Prior to V2.0, the limit on the number of rows was 32,000.

Program Rows (per sheet) Columns (per sheet) Total Cells (per sheet) Sheets
OpenOffice.org Calc 3
OOoCalc.svg
1,048,576 1024 1,073,741,824 256
OpenOffice.org Calc 2
OOoCalc.svg
65,536 256 16,777,216 256
Microsoft Excel 2003
65,536 256 16,777,216 Available Memory
Microsoft Excel 2007
1,048,576 16,384 17,179,869,184 Available Memory
Gnumeric
Gnumeric.svg
65,536 256 16,777,216 ?
KSpread
Crystal kspread.png
32,767 32,767 1,073,676,289 ?
Lotus 1-2-3
65,536 256 16,777,216 256

Special abilities

Abilities of Calc include:

  • Open source software
  • Available on many operating systems, including Microsoft Windows,Mac OS X, Linux, Unix, etc.
  • Ability to read/write OpenDocument, Excel .xls, CSV, and several other file formats.
  • Able to handle dates on or before 1900 correctly (many spreadsheet applications, including Microsoft Excel, have a year 1900 bug and cannot handle dates before January 1, 1900).
  • Support for a large number of functions, including those for imaginary numbers, as well as financial statistical functions.

Missing features

In some cases, Calc lacks a GUI to access certain advanced features that other spreadsheet software have, such as statistical abilities like error bar support on graphs, and polynomial regression analysis, however, many of these calculations can still be performed by manually entering the functions. Another FOSS application called Gnumeric provides easier access to these statistical analysis features by showing them to users with a wizard.

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Apache OpenOffice Calc para niños

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