Here is a short list of things to consider as you learn to use shared spreadsheets. We use the MT-WY Families shared spreadsheet as an example.

1. Open the MT-WY Families shared spreadsheet.


2. Each row represents a family unit.


3. The leftmost column element in each row contains the last name of the primary family contact.


4. Scrolling left and right will reveal all of the contact information for a family.


5. Phone numbers, email addresses, and locations are highlighted in blue. Clicking on or hovering over any of these fields will reveal a link that you can click.


6. Clicking a phone link if you are using your phone will bring up the dialer ready to call the desired number (possibly after some short intermediate steps).


7. Clicking a phone link if you are on an iPad or Mac will generally bring up some other app (not a phone dialer) such as FaceTime, since your iPad and/or Mac are not phones. Not sure what happens if you are using a PC or Android tablet.


8. Clicking an email address will bring up your email window with the email address inserted, ready for you to type an email.


9. Clicking a location address will bring up Google maps with the location of the address highlighted.


10. Clicking a cell will highlight that cell but will not allow you to edit its content. However doing this takes you away from the initial view of the page. To get back to the first page view, click the check mark in the upper left corner (the check mark is a somewhat universal symbol meaning "I'm done with this part." That is, it has been checked off the list).


11. In the original view of the page you will see tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet. Clicking any of these will reveal a different view of the contact data which may be more appropriate for your purposes at various times.


12. To search for a contact, click the edit button in the shared spreadsheet (NOT the edit button in the browser window further towards the top). Then select Find and Replace. Think about the best way of finding a contact without getting lots of spurious hits. For example, searching for "Benjamin" will make you weary from wading through to the Benjamin you want, whereas searching for the more unique of the first name of the Benjamin husband or the Benjamin wife may result in a better search.


13. Searches only work at the cell level so you can't search for phrases that are spread across multiple cells.


14. The Sheets app on a computer seems to let you select a column and search for hits in just that column, whereas the Sheets app on Android and iOS (Apple) devices seem restricted to searching the entire sheet.


15. Finally, you may find it easier to use your smaller devices, especially your phone, in horizontal mode in order to see more of a family's contact information at once.