There are several ways to use this manual depending on what kind of user you are.

- New users

  If you are new to computers or to spreadsheets consider reading chapter-quick-start, titled "A Quick Introduction", which explains the basics of spreadsheets in general and &gnum; in particular.

- Users who want specific help

  Quickly finding help for a particular question can be quite hard. We suggest first reading the explanations of the contents of each chapter which are given below to try to figure out where your question might be answered, and then go directly to that section.

The chapters of this version of the &gnum; manual are organized as follows:

- chapter-quick-start: A Quick Introduction

  The best way to learn how to use &gnum; is to begin exploring the program yourself. This chapter will help you get started trying new things and seeing what happens. The chapter explains the fundamentals of spreadsheets in general and of &gnum; in particular. The chapter attempts to help new users get started with &gnum; and provides background for the more detailed explanations given in the rest of the manual.

- chapter-gui-elements: Gnumeric Elements

  This chapter describes all of the pieces of &gnum; which a user can manipulate. The chapter provides explanations for each of the menus, menu entries, toolbar buttons and other elements of the graphical user interface.

- chapter-data: Working with Data

  This chapter explains the core functionality of &gnum; including the basic types of data manipulated by &gnum;, the methods of entering, altering and formatting data, and the basic tools for analysis of these data. More advanced analysis is described in chapter-advanced-analysis.

- chapter-advanced-analysis: Advanced Analysis

  This chapter explains the advanced analytic tools available in &gnum; including linear algebra calculations, the goal seek tool, simulation analysis, and scenarios.

- chapter-solver: The Solver

  This chapter explains how to use &gnum;'s linear programming Solver.

- chapter-stat-analysis: Statistical Analysis

  This chapter explains the various statistical analysis tools available in &gnum; including tools to create descriptive statistics, as well as parametric and non-parametric hypotheses tests.

- chapter-graphics: Graphics: Images, Widgets, and Drawings

  This chapter explains how to add graphical elements to a &gnum; worksheet, including images from external files, graphical user interface widgets which interact with worksheet data, and simple drawing elements.

- chapter-graphs: Graphs

  This chapter explains how to add data graphs to a &gnum; worksheet, that can be used to plot worksheet data.

- chapter-worksheets: Using Worksheets

  This chapter explains the use and manipulation of worksheets in &gnum;. The chapter explains how to move around a worksheet, how to alter the appearance and display organization of the worksheet contents, how to manipulate entire worksheets and how to protect worksheet contents.

- chapter-workbooks: Workbook Settings

  This chapter explains the contents of a &gnum; workbook which are not part of the worksheets. This includes several settings which apply to the workbook and are saved in the &gnum; file. Settings which apply to the &gnum; program itself are called `preferences' and are explained in chapter-configuring.

- chapter-configuring: Configuring Gnumeric

  This chapter explains how to change the default behaviour of &gnum; including the startup behaviour and default locale (language and number display).

- chapter-files: Working with Files

  This chapter explains how to use files in &gnum;. The chapter provides an extensive description of the file formats used by &gnum;. The chapter also explains how to open files, import data from text files, save files, export data to text files, send data to others via electronic mail, and convert files from one format to another.

- chapter-printing: Printing

  This chapter explains how to print spreadsheets, tables and plots from &gnum; to a printer directly or into Postscript or PDF (both are page description languages).

- chapter-morehelp: Getting More Help

  This chapter describes other sources of help which are available to users including the &gnum; web site, the mailing list, and the internet relay chat (IRC) discussion channel. The chapter also explains how to tell the project about a problem with the program.

- chapter-bugs: Reporting a Problem

  This chapter explains how to report a problem with &gnum; so that the problem can be fixed. The same procedure can be used to file a report requesting an enhancement or a new feature.

- chapter-extending: Extending Gnumeric

  This chapter explains how to go about extending &gnum; to provide extra functionality. Because &gnum; is Free Software this is quite easy to do.

- function-reference: Function Reference

  This appendix provides a list of all the functions which are currently defined in &gnum;.

- keybinding: Keybinding Reference

  This appendix lists the keyboard shortcuts which are defined by default in &gnum;.