What do spreadsheet software do?

Answer 1

A spreadsheet allows you to compare information with other information, and display the result easily and quickly.

This includes display of numbers, data, text, timelines and the relationships between sets of these: even calculating and displaying relationships between different kinds of information.

The basics of a spreadsheet...

The spreadsheet is made up of thousands of little cells, all arranged like bricks in a wall.

Each cell can be accessed and filled with something. That "something" would be either text, numberrs, or the description of a relationship between the contents of other cells or arithmetic numbers.

Each cell is capable of making calculations, or of storing text, or of storing numbers. Each cell will only do one of these three things.

Like an artist with a paintbrush, the user can then look over the whole contents of the spreadsheet, and can use previously un-used cells to calculate and display relationships between other cells that already contain information.

That word "display" is a key one. The display can be the result of a calculation or equation, a graph of a result, a logical decision ("yes" or "no"; "greater" or "lesser"; "earlier" or "later" etc.)

By use of "hyperlinking" it can even call someone's attention to a new situation or a problem. All of this activity is created by the user.

allows you to use spreadsheets for information, this includes +-x/ etc