Where are the formula bar and name box in Grid?
Grid by Zaweba, a free spreadsheet, has a ribbon with a name box and a formula bar just below it, showing the cell address and its full formula.
In Grid by Zaweba, a free spreadsheet for Windows, they sit in the usual place: under the ribbon and above the grid. The name box on the left shows the address of the active cell, or its name if it has one, and the formula bar beside it shows what the cell really contains, the formula rather than the result.
The name box
The name box tells you where you are. Click a cell and it shows its address, such as C12. Select a range and it shows the range. If the cell or range has a defined name, the name box shows that instead.
It also takes you places. Click in the name box, type an address such as Z500 and press Enter, and Grid jumps there. Type a name you've defined and it selects that range. Define Name and Name Manager are where names are made and managed, including whether a name belongs to the workbook or to one sheet.
The formula bar
The formula bar shows the contents of the active cell. For a value it shows the value. For a formula it shows the formula, while the cell itself shows the result. That's the place to check how a figure is calculated without changing anything.
You can edit in it too. Click into the formula bar, or press F2 to edit in the cell, and Grid enters Edit mode. As you type, the references in the formula light up in colour and matching coloured boxes appear on the grid. Click cells or use the arrow keys to put references in while pointing. F4 cycles the dollar signs. Esc cancels the edit.
The formula bar is expandable, which helps with long formulas. Alt+Enter adds a new line inside the formula, so a long LET or nested IF can be laid out one part per line and read easily in the expanded bar.
Help while you type
Start a formula and autocomplete offers matching functions, defined names and table names. Once you're inside a function, a tip shows its arguments with the current one in bold, so you always know what comes next. The fx button opens Insert Function, which lists every function by category with a description, and Function Arguments shows a live result as you fill each argument in.
The ribbon above
The ribbon groups commands into tabs, the way spreadsheet users expect. Formatting and cell styles are on the Home tab; the Formulas tab has menus for each family of functions; the Data tab holds tools such as Goal Seek. Extra tabs appear when you need them, such as Table Design when the active cell is in a table. The ribbon has light and dark themes.
The status bar below
At the bottom of the window the status bar shows the Average, Count and Sum of any selection, the current mode, a warning if there's a circular reference, and a zoom slider.
If something looks different
Some free spreadsheets hide these parts or arrange them differently. Grid keeps the familiar layout on purpose, so anyone who has used a spreadsheet at work or school feels at home. If you're coming from another program, the name box, formula bar, ribbon and shortcuts are where your hands expect them to be.
That familiar layout is a large part of what makes Grid by Zaweba quick to pick up: free, offline, and laid out the way a spreadsheet should be.
