Gnumeric is a spreadsheet, a computer program used to manipulate and analyze numeric data. Gnumeric can help you keep track of information in lists, organize numeric values in columns and rows, perform and update complex calculations by defining each step of the calculation and modifying particular steps subsequently, create and display or print graphical plots of data using bar plots, line graphs, pie charts or radar charts, implement complex optimization modeling or perform many other tasks involving numbers, dates, times, names or other data.

Gnumeric intends to be the best spreadsheet available anywhere. It has been developed over many years to become fully mature and mathematically correct. Gnumeric was created and is maintained by the GNOME project. This manual describes version 1.3 of Gnumeric.

The 1.3 series of releases are unstable releases meant for developer testing. If you want a stable release get the most recent release from the 1.2 series.

Gnumeric aims for:

- Stability :

  Gnumeric has undergone significant amounts of testing. A diverse group of users evaluates Gnumeric in a wide variety of environments. Testing workbooks are used to assess the mathematical correctness of the calculations and to validate the quality of the file importers.

- File compatibility :

  Transparent access and manipulation of files from other applications is vital in a modern office. The Gnumeric file format is simply compressed XML which can be decompressed using gunzip, the GNU gzip program decompresser, into text. Gnumeric can open files from several well known proprietary and free spreadsheets including MS Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Applix, OpenOffice.org, Psion, Sylk, XBase, Oleo, PlanPerfect, Quattro Pro and HTML. Gnumeric can save files to several versions of the MS Excel file format and can save tables into LaTeX \longtable, HTML, and roff files. Gnumeric also benefits from a highly configurable text importer and exporter which ensures that data can be transfered smoothly, and allows new formats to be added easily as plug-in software routines.

- Minimal cost of transition :

  Learning new and unfamiliar interfaces is an expensive and frustrating process. Gnumeric attempts to present itself so that a user's familiarity with other applications will still apply and to offer new features in an intuitive manner.

- Sufficient feature set :

  Gnumeric now has enough of the features that users expect in a spreadsheet to provide for the vast majority of user needs. However, new features are constantly being added. People often quote the statistic that most users only need 20% of the features of the software they use. This statistic does not mean that only 20% of the features are needed but, rather, that most users share a common need for 10% of the features and require distinct features for the rest of their work. Gnumeric attempts to provide full implementations of the features it offers, leaving features unimplemented until a robust and complete implementation exists.

- Internationalization :

  Gnumeric has been translated into 40 languages, and is being used by people around the globe with the symbols appropriate for their local setting.

- Scalability :

  The core architecture is designed to ensure that Gnumeric can comfortably scale to moderately large loads (1 million cells) while remaining usable on older hardware.

- Openness :

  Gnumeric is free software in the sense of giving its users several freedoms related to the program including the freedoms to use, modify and redistribute the program. These freedoms are explained at the Free Software Foundation web site page on the philosophy of free software. In order to maintain these freedoms for everyone, certain restrictions are required which prevent anyone limiting these freedom for others. Gnumeric is therefore released under a particular license agreement; Gnumeric is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL.

  One of the consequences of these freedoms, is that everyone can have access to the source code used to create Gnumeric. This code is explicitly maintained and documented to make it easy for anyone to modify in any way they choose. This makes it possible to modify the spreadsheet, write custom routines or extend Gnumeric for special needs.

These features of Gnumeric make it versatile and powerful. The screenshot (picture) of Gnumeric shown in demonstrates the main program window and some of the features currently available.

# An example of what Gnumeric can do.

An image of Gnumeric showing the use of complex formatting and several graphical plots.

Gnumeric currently supports a full complement of calculation functions, formatting options, graph types and drawing options.

The Gnumeric 1.3 Series of Releases for Developers

The Gnumeric 1.3 series of releases are developer releases. These releases are kept as stable as possible. However, each release in this series includes changes and improvements some of which are quite large. These new changes may cause the program to crash and loose data. Do not use these releases if you cannot afford to loose any data or work. However, these releases include many new features that can be helpful. If you use this series, backup your data often, not just by saving files but by renaming them and checking that they can be reopened. If you experience mistakes or crashes while you are using this version, please report these using the GNOME project's bug reporting interface, called bugzilla.

In this version of Gnumeric, we will be working on the following features:

- GTK+ Port

  One of the principal aims of this developers series is to make Gnumeric work using only the GTK+ libraries. These libraries, following their 2.4.0 release, have all the functionality needed for the core of Gnumeric. This work will remove all dependencies in the core code on GNOME libraries although a version with the more complete features included in GNOME will still exist.

- The Port to Microsoft Operating Systems

  The port of the core of Gnumeric to the GTK+ libraries will enable the application to be run on the series of operating systems sold by Microsoft and colloquially known as "Windows".

- Improved Analytics

  The analytical correctness of Gnumeric is a primary concern of the team. The precision and correctness of the analytics are constantly being evaluated and improved. New analytic functions and mathematical routines are being added.

- Improved Graphics

  The graphical system is improving rapidly with new types of graphs, such as radar plots, and new functionality.

- Improved Textual support

  The ability to use Rich Text has been added in this version. This allows a single cell to contain text with mixed formatting including bold, italic and other formats.

- Improved Microsoft Excel Compatibility

  The file format used by the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is commonly used to exchange spreadsheet documents. The Gnumeric team spends a considerable effort reverse engineering that file format to ensure that Gnumeric can read and write files in that format.

The new features introduced in the Gnumeric 1.2 release series:

The 1.3 series of Gnumeric releases build on the current stable release series, the 1.2 series of releases. These releases include numerous improvements over the versions in the 1.0 series.

- Improved Analytics :

  This version of Gnumeric includes 450 sheet functions including all of the functions from the North American edition of Microsoft Excel 2000 (TM). This version also includes numerous new functions and statistical routines imported from the R statistical language, from the GNU Scientific Library, and from other sources. The random number generation has been updated to include Beta, Cauchy, Chi-Squared, Exponential power F, Gamma, Geometric, Laplace, Levy alpha-Stable Logarithmic, Logistic, Log-normal, Pareto, Rayleigh Rayleigh tail, T, Type I Gumbel, Type II Gumbel, Weibull Gaussian Tail, Landau, and Uniform integer distributions. The derivative valuation routines have been expanded to include Black-Scholes (and sensitivities), Garman Kohlhagen, Merton Jump Diffusion process, Bjerksund and Stensland (American options), Forward Starts, Simple and Complex Choosers. The solver has been improved with new linear and quadratic programming routines.

- Improved File Import and Export :

  The ability to import and export files of different formats has been greatly improved. Gnumeric now supports Applix, Excel 1997, 2000 and XP formats (possibly encrypted), Lotus, OpenOffice.org, Plan Perfect, and Quattro Pro. These file tools have been made more robust by using the GNOME Structured File library.

- Improved Graphing :

  The earlier versions of Gnumeric relied on the Guppi program for graphing. This has been changed in the current version which uses a newer framework for the production of graphs. This newer framework should provide quicker graphs and will be a better platform for future development.

- Improved Structure based on GTK 2.0 :

  This version of Gnumeric is based on the second version of the Gimp Tool Kit (GTK+), the basic libraries of computer code used to build GNOME applications. This second version improves on the first and provides a sound basis for future programming. Users will benefit greatly from this second version of the GTK+ libraries. Gnumeric is now able to produce characters from a much larger range of languages, has improved icons, is better integrated with GNOME and has other visual improvements like anti-aliased fonts. Gnumeric can also now be used without problem on a machine with several screens. The transition to GTK+ 2.0 has also greatly improved performance.

For more details on the changes in Gnumeric, refer to the file named NEWS in the source code distribution.

Known Issues in the Gnumeric 1.3 releases:

The current list of all known and reported problems with Gnumeric is maintained in the GNOME bugzilla database. This list can be accessed using this bugzilla query.