Precedents and Dependents in Spreadsheets

Conditional color formatting - that's when the cell color changes according to certain values. The changes may be done automatically or manually. While many have lauded the usefulness of this feature, some are using it as a tool of tyranny. 'They only want their spreadsheets to turn green. Their whole job is, apparently, staring at spreadsheets and just hoping – from the turrets of their ivory towers – that they will turn green.'         From:  'When apathetic and feckless students mess up their GCSEs, we teachers are accused of being lazy or ineffective' 'Highlighting is what keeps me awake at night. Specifically, the coloured highlighting on the spreadsheets that my school uses to track pupil progress: red for "underachieving"; amber for "on track" and green for "exceeding expectations".'        From:  'I am haunted by the coloured highlighting on the spreadsheets  that my school uses to track pupil progress ...

Very often, a so-called spreadsheet is only a table of values, without a single formula. That's not really a spreadsheet. Example: The so-called Trump 2018 budget spreadsheet:  Third Way Statement on the Leaked May 8 Trump Budget

What makes a spreadsheet a spreadsheet, and not a word document or a database or a calculator? What is the most basic and defining feature of a spreadsheet? "The key feature of spreadsheets is the ability for a formula to refer to the contents of other cells, which may in turn be the result of a formula."  "The ability to chain formulas together is what gives a spreadsheet its power."                                ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet ) Yes, it is this feature of chaining formulas. A formula refers to a cell that itself may be another formula. Spreadsheet users could design complex chains of formula. However, once built, there is no easy way to see the chains of formula. That is not a good situation. Imagine a city that has built a network of roads but has no map of the roads. This is where "trace precedent" and "trace dependent" come in.  If you are at o...