One of the toughest things about using a spreadsheet to manage your data is that it's sometimes hard to find the data you want – especially if you're working with a large spreadsheet. Fortunately, Calc offers you the ability to filter your data.

Filters let you display only the records that meet certain criteria and hide the rest. How you define that criteria is up to you.

Let's look at an example.

The easiest way to filter your data is to use the autofilter feature. To do this, you’ll need to select the cells you want to filter. Let’s click the upper left corner of the sheet to select the entire worksheet.

Next, select the data menu then choose filter, autofilter.

You may see a message stating “The range does not contain column headers. Do you want the first line to be used as column header?”

In this case, the first line of the selected range functions as a column header so you can click the yes button.

Suppose you wanted to only view items that belong to the category of deciduous shrubs.

Click the auto filter menu button in the category column. Then select deciduous shrubs from the drop down menu. Now only deciduous shrubs are displayed.

You can filter further if you want to. Imagine you only want to show deciduous shrubs that have a medium growth rate. Just click the autofilter dropdown button in the growth column and select medium. Now you only see deciduous shrubs with a medium growth rate.

To remove the filter, select the filter option from the data menu, then choose remove filter.