The spreadsheet is the main part of QtiPlot when working with data.
For controlling and converting data the spreadsheet contains a highly customizable table: all colors and font preferences
can be set using the View -> Preferences menu.
You can resize the table in terms of rows and columns using the Format menu: "Format -> Rows..." or "Format -> Columns...".
Every column of the table has a certain label and can be assigned a format: numeric, text, date or time.
There are two special columns in a spreadsheet: the X and Y columns. The X column is the default abscissae column used
when creating a 2D plot from data. The Y column is only used for 3D plots. These default flags can be changed using the
Column options dialog. To reach this dialog you simply have to double-click on the column label or to use the
Format -> Column options menu.
You can select all the columns of the spreadsheet (Ctrl+A) or only some of them by clicking on the column label
while keeping the Ctrl key pressed, or by moving the mouse over the column label. This also allows you to deselect
columns.
On the selected columns you can perform various operations: fill with data, normalize, sort, view statistics
and finally make plots out of your data. All these functions can be reached by right clicking on the column label.
Any other spreadsheet function: rename, duplicate, export, print, close can be reached
via the context menu (right click anywhere in the table outside the column labels area).
You can cut, copy and paste data between spreadsheets or between a spreadsheet and another application
(Excel, Gnumeric, etc...).
You can import single or multiple ASCII files using the File -> Import ASCII menu. The file import options can be changed via the Import ASCII dialog.
Of course you can export the data in the spreadsheet using the Export ASCII dialog.