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PC-CALC(tm) A Spreadsheet Program For the IBM Personal Computer Version 1.0 (C)Copyright CALC, 1984 (C)Copyright ButtonWare, 1984 Portions (C)Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1982 All rights reserved Jim Button ButtonWare P.O. Box 5786 Bellevue, WA 98006 Source ID: CL2925 Compuserve: 71435,2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A Brief Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Keyboard Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Alphabetical Command Reference Blank (/B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Configure (/C) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Delete (/D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Edit (/E) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Format (/F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Global (/G) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Insert (/I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Load (/L) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Print (/P) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Quit (/Q) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Replicate (/R) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Save (/S) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 SUM Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Zap (/Z) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 PC-CALC File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Version Numbers & Major Enhancements . . . . . . . . 42 The Files On The PC-CALC Disk . . . . . . . . . . 42 Some Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . 43 Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Permission to Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The User-Supported Concept . . . . . . . . . . . 46 User Response Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Invoice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 i TABLE OF CONTENTS PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 1 INTRODUCTION PC-CALC is an easy-to-use "Visible Spreadsheet" program. If you work with numbers, at home, on the job or at school, PC-CALC is for you. Whether the task is simple or complex, PC-CALC can help you. By using its powerful commands, reports can be produced in minutes that would take hours to do manually, or days to write in BASIC. Here are some examples of how people are using PC-CALC: - Computing interest and principal on loans, mortgages, savings accounts. - Preparing payroll journals, sales journals, accounts receivable journals. - Doing income tax computations, computing depreciation, accumulating income and expenses. - Preparing business forecasts, P&L's, ten-year projections, etc. and then playing "what if..." to see the impact of changing one or more numbers. - Analyzing investments, balancing checkbooks, keeping budgets. - Preparing homework assignments for classes in bookkeeping, accounting, math, etc. Spreadsheets created with PC-CALC can be displayed and altered on the screen, printed out, saved on disk and reloaded for further changes or review. If you create a really wide spreadsheet that won't fit on one page, no problem. PC-CALC will print two pages that can be attached to make one wide spreadsheet. And spreadsheets are not limited to the size of your computer screen. PC-CALC will scroll up, down and sideways to give you a spreadsheet up to 26 columns wide and 255 lines long. Numbers and words can be placed anywhere on the spreadsheet. The width of each column of your spreadsheet can be any size from 1 character to 30 characters wide. A number can have from one to nine decimals, or no decimals at all. These are just a few of the features that PC-CALC provides. This manual describes all the features of PC-CALC in detail. It is recommended that the manual be read completely before using PC-CALC, but you will find that it is so easy to use, many of its features can be mastered even without the documentation. For that INTRODUCTION PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 2 reason, this manual has been organized as a reference document rather than a tutorial. There is a tutorial section at the beginning, titled "A Brief Tutorial", but the rest of the manual is designed for quickly finding answers to specific questions. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS PC-CALC runs on the IBM PC and PCjr or compatible systems with the following features: - A minimum of 128K computer memory (additional memory makes no difference). - An MS-DOS operating system version 2.1 or earlier. - A monochrome or color monitor with either 40 or 80 column display. (A color graphics board is not necessary) - 1 diskette drive that uses either single or double sided diskettes and either 8 or 9 sectors per track. - A printer is not required. GETTING STARTED 1. Turn on your computer and load your MS-DOS operating system. (The PC-CALC diskette does not have MS-DOS on it, so use any diskette that does.) 2. Put your PC-CALC diskette in drive A. (If you only have one copy of the PC-CALC diskette, this is a good time to make a backup copy of it.) 3. At this point, most users will simply type PC-CALC and press RETURN, which will load and run the program. However, there are two special cases when PC-CALC cannot automatically configure itself: (1) if your computer has a forty-column display, and (2) if it has a color board but a black and white monitor. For a forty-column display, type PC-CALC 40. For a color board with black and white monitor, type PC-CALC BW. For both, type PC-CALC BW40. 4. Press any key to move from the PC-CALC banner screen to the spreadsheet screen. 5. Check the screen. If the screen doesn't look right, or if it doesn't show A1 > in the lower left corner, read the Configure (/C) section before proceeding. Otherwise, PC-CALC is ready to use! GETTING STARTED PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 3 A BRIEF TUTORIAL Now that you have PC-CALC loaded in your computer, note that across the top of the screen are letters: A, B, C, etc. These letters identify the columns of the spreadsheet. Down the left side are numbers. These numbers identify each row of the spreadsheet. Each coordinate in this grid is called a "cell". For example, the cell where the cursor is currently located is called "A1"; to its right is "B1"; below it is "A2"; at the end of the spreadsheet (not currently on the screen) is "Z255". Press the arrow keys and you will find that you can move the large cursor (called the "cell cursor") around on the screen. When moving left and right, it moves one column at a time. Up and down it moves one row at a time. In the lower left corner of the screen is an indicator called the "cursor coordinate", which shows the cell currently occupied. As the cursor is moved about the screen, this cursor coordinate will rapidly change to the new cell address. Press the right-arrow several times and you will see the screen "scroll sideways". In other words, column A will disappear on the left, and all the other columns will shift to the left, making room for a new column on the right. If you keep pressing the right-arrow key, eventually you will come to column Z and the cursor will no longer move. You have reached the edge of the spreadsheet. Using the down arrow key you can make the screen "scroll up" until the last row of the screen, row 255, is displayed. When pressing the arrow keys to scroll, if you hold down the arrow key, causing it to rapidly repeat, you will notice something a bit different. The "cursor coordinate" in the lower left corner of the screen starts advancing rapidly, but the screen is not redisplayed until you let up on the arrow key. This allows you to scroll rapidly to any position in the spreadsheet without waiting for the screen to be refreshed. Now let's try putting some data on the spreadsheet. Move the cursor to coordinate B4, and type 12345 then press the RETURN key. As you type the number, you will notice that it is displayed on the bottom line of the screen. This line is called the "data line". When you press RETURN, the number on the data line disappears, and is redisplayed up in the spreadsheet at coordinate B4. But it is slightly different. Instead of being simply the 12345 you typed, it is 12,345.00 and it is shifted to the right of the column. The number is displayed this way because of certain "defaults" in PC-CALC for displaying numbers. Unless otherwise specified, all numbers will have two decimal places, will have commas between the thousands, and will be "right- justified" in the column. Of course it is possible to change A BRIEF TUTORIAL PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 4 these defaults, for specific cells or for the whole screen, and this will be discussed later in the "Format Command" section. Now press the up-arrow and move the cell cursor to B2. Type the following (including the quote mark): "This is a test of PC-CALC. and press the RETURN key. As you are typing, if you make an error, you can use the arrow keys to move the cursor back and forth across the data line, then make typing corrections. After pressing RETURN, look at cell B2. It will now contain the text you typed, and the text will overlap into cells C2 and D2. Text is allowed to overlap cells in PC-CALC, provided the cells to the right have nothing in them. (Note: If your text didn't appear in cell B2, make sure you typed the quotation mark as the first character; the " mark tells PC-CALC that the data is text.) Now move the cursor to B6 and type: B4+B4 then press the RETURN key. Cell B6 should display the number 24,690.00 which is the sum of 12345 plus 12345. Let's examine what happened. By moving the cursor to B6, you told PC-CALC to put the result of the formula into B6. The formula B4+B4 told PC-CALC to get the number at B4, add it to itself, and put the result in B6. The formula could have been simpler or more complex and PC-CALC would have immediately gathered up all the numbers needed, computed the new value, and displayed the result at B6. Looking at the screen, you have now entered all three types of data that can go on a PC-CALC spreadsheet: At B2 you entered the "text" - "This is a test of PC-CALC. At B4 you entered the "value" - 12345 At B6 you entered the "formula" - B4+B4 Any cell on the spreadsheet can contain text, a value or a formula. Now move the cell cursor to each of the three cells with data in them. As the cell cursor moves into a cell, notice that the "cell contents" are displayed at the bottom of the screen on the "message line". The cell contents are the actual letters or numbers you typed when entering data into the cell. Now as a final exercise in this brief tutorial, type /Z Y to clear the worksheet (a complete explanation of the Zap (/Z) command appears later in the manual). Move the cursor to each cell listed below, and enter the data exactly as shown. If you get an error message on any of the lines, press CONTROL-C (hold down CONTROL while pressing C) to clear the data line, then type it again. All lines should go in as shown without errors. A BRIEF TUTORIAL PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 5 At Coordinate: Enter this data: B2 "Compute Annual Interest B4 "Rate: C4 5.5 B6 "Year C6 " Balance D6 " Interest B7 "1983 C7 5000 D7 C7*C4/100 B8 "1984 C8 C7+D7 D8 C8*C4/100 B9 "1985 C9 C8+D8 D9 C9*C4/100 B11 "Totals C11 C9+D9 D11 SUM(D7:D9) When the preceding data has been entered, your spreadsheet screen should look like this: A B C D 1 2 Compute Annual Interest 3 4 Rate: 5.50 5 6 Year Balance Interest 7 1983 5,000.00 275.00 8 1984 5,275.00 290.13 9 1985 5,565.13 306.08 10 11 Totals 5,871.21 871.21 This simple spreadsheet computes the interest on a savings account at a specified annual interest rate. Since this is a sample exercise, the spreadsheet has been kept small, but later you will learn how to use the "Replicate" command to extend a spreadsheet like this one to fifty years or more, in a matter of seconds. The "SUM" function in cell D11 is simply adding up the numbers in D7 through D9, so you can see the accumulated interest for all three years. Now let's try some "what if" experiments. What if the interest rate were seven percent instead of 5.5? To see the result, simply move to cell C4, type 7 and press RETURN. All the figures on the screen are immediately updated with the new interest computation. Or what if the interest were 18%? Try it. What if there were only $850.25 instead of $5000? Move the cursor to C7 and enter 850.25 and the spreadsheet will immediately be recalculated. A BRIEF TUTORIAL PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 6 A printed report of the spreadsheet is often desirable. Ready your printer, then type the command /P which invokes the Print routine. You will then be prompted for several options. For this simple spreadsheet, just press RETURN for each of the options. The spreadsheet will print, and PC-CALC will return to its original state, waiting for another command. Finally, before exiting from PC-CALC, let's save the spreadsheet on disk. Type /S to invoke the Save routine. You will be asked to enter the name of the spreadsheet; type TEST and press RETURN. PC-CALC will say "Saving file. Stand by . . ." and the file will be written to your PC-CALC disk. It can later be loaded using the /L command. (Note: If you get a message saying "File Exists. Overwrite Y/N?", it only means that someone before you saved a file called TEST. Reply Y to the message, and your TEST file will overwrite the one already on the disk.) This concludes the brief tutorial. The remainder of this manual is organized for reference. It is a good idea to read through it to familiarize yourself with some of the more sophisticated commands. But the best way to learn PC-CALC is to use it. GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT PC-CALC The maximum size of a PC-CALC spreadsheet is 26 columns by 255 rows. The maximum content of a cell is 64 characters, but the maximum display size is 30 characters. The amount of memory available for your spreadsheet is displayed at all times in the lower left corner of the screen. It is a number followed by the letter "K". If it says 16K, for example, you still have 16K of memory available for typing text and formulas. If it says 1K, be careful. Your spreadsheet is getting too big and may fill memory, causing the "Memory Full" error message. Three types of data may be entered into a cell: TEXT: Precede a text entry with a quotation mark or apostrophe. Any character may be typed in a text entry, and all of the data will appear in the cell. If the text data is wider than the column, and there is nothing in the cell to its right, it will overlap into subsequent cells. If there is something in the cell to its right, the text data will be truncated on the display and printout. The entire text entry is retained in the cell, even if it does not all display. Text may be left- or right-justified in the column by using the Format (/F) command. Text entries can be from 1 to 64 characters in length. GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT PC-CALC PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 7 VALUE: A value is a number. When a value is entered into a cell, it is displayed according to current defaults. For example, you enter 12345 and it is displayed as 12,345.00. Each value is displayed according to the display attributes of the cell. These attributes can be changed by using the Format (/F) command. In PC-CALC a value cannot exceed 12 digits in total length, and it can have no more than 9 digits to the right of the decimal place. While these restrictions in number size are acceptable for personal and business applications, they may preclude the use of PC-CALC for some scientific applications. FORMULA: A formula is one or more cell coordinates and/or one or more values, combined using arithmetic operators. For example, a formula might simply add together a string of numbers: A1+B1+C1+D1 or it might perform a more complex task: A1*2.5+(SUM(A1:D1)-.00005). Formulas can be up to 64 characters in length. A formula can have any combination of cell coordinates, values and SUM functions, each separated by an operator (+, -, *, /). No blanks may be entered; if the space bar is pressed, PC-CALC ignores it. Multiplication and division are done before addition and subtraction. Parts of a formula may be nested in parentheses, up to thirty levels. These rules apply to formulas with parentheses: - Every left parenthesis must have a matching right parenthesis, or else the "Mismatched parentheses" error will occur. - Parenthesised expressions are always evaluated from the inner-most to the outer-most. Using parentheses, the precedence of the arithmetic operators can be overridden. For example, A1+5*C1 will do the multiplication first, then the addition. (A1+5)*C1 will do the addition first. - Use parentheses to separate two operators in a row. For example, to multiply A1 times -5, the formula A1*-5 is not valid because the * and - are together. Instead use this format: A1*(-5) to accomplish the arithmetic. A formula may also include a SUM function, or consist solely of a SUM function. Examples: A1+SUM(B1:E1) SUM(A1:A99) The SUM function will add up all the numbers from the specified left coordinate to the right coordinate, and use that number in place of the SUM statement. For more information, see the SUM function in the alphabetical reference section. GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT PC-CALC PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 8 KEYBOARD CONVENTIONS Certain keys perform special functions in PC-CALC. These functions fall into two general categories; cell cursor keys and data line keys. Once you have started entering data, PC-CALC goes into data entry mode, and only data line keys will be recognized from the keyboard until the data line is entered or canceled. In some cases, the same key that is used for cell cursor movement performs a different function when you are entering data. For ease of reference, the keys are listed within category. ------------ CELL CURSOR KEYS ------------ Special Key Alternate Purpose of key UP ARROW CONTROL-E Moves cell cursor up one row. DOWN ARROW CONTROL-X Moves cell cursor down one row. LEFT ARROW or CONTROL-S Moves cell cursor left one column. BACKSPACE or BACK-TAB RIGHT ARROW or CONTROL-D Moves the cell cursor right one TAB column. HOME Moves the cell cursor to the upper left corner of the screen. END Moves the cell cursor to the lower right corner of the screen. PAGE UP or CONTROL-R Moves the cell cursor back one UP/RIGHT ARROW screen. (to center row) PAGE DOWN or CONTROL-C Moves the cell cursor forward one DOWN/RIGHT ARROW screen. (to center row) UP/LEFT ARROW CONTROL-W Moves the screen down one row without moving the cell cursor. DOWN/LEFT ARROW CONTROL-Z Moves the screen up one row without moving the cell cursor. CONTROL-N Inserts a row above the row where the cell cursor is located. CONTROL-Y Deletes the row where the cell cursor is located. = CONTROL-Q Prompts for a cell, and jumps to that cell. KEYBOARD CONVENTIONS PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 9 ------------- DATA LINE KEYS ------------- Special key Alternate Purpose of key LEFT ARROW or CONTROL-S Moves the data cursor left one BACKSPACE character. RIGHT ARROW or CONTROL-D Moves the data cursor right one TAB character. CANCEL CONTROL-C Cancels the current command or entry, and erases the data line. INSERT CONTROL-V Toggles on/off insert mode. DELETE CONTROL-G Deletes the character of input data at the cursor. ERASE EOF CONTROL-T Erases input data from the cursor to the end of the data line. RETURN COMMA Terminates a command or a command entry on the data line. ! Causes "recalculation"; i.e. all the formulas in the spreadsheet are re-computed. / Prompts for a command code. Note that some computers will not have all the keys described here. For the important keys, an alternate CONTROL-key has been assigned, which conforms to the CONTROL-key assignments of many popular software packages. Further discussion of each key follows: UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW move the cell cursor up and down, one row at a time. When data or a command is being entered on the data line, these keys will have no effect. When the cursor reaches the top or end row, the cursor stops moving. When these keys are held down, causing them to repeat, and they move off the current screen, PC-CALC goes into a high-speed mode. The screen is not updated until the key is let up. However, the coordinate is displayed in the lower left corner of the screen. LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW move the cell cursor to the left and right, one column at a time. If the column being moved into is not currently on the screen, the screen will be "scrolled" left or right to display it. When the cursor reaches the left or right edge of the spreadsheet (column A or Z), it stops moving. When KEYBOARD CONVENTIONS PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 10 these keys are held down, causing them to repeat, PC-CALC goes into high-speed mode, described in the previous paragraph. BACKSPACE works exactly like the LEFT ARROW key. TAB works exactly like the RIGHT ARROW key. When data is being entered on the data line, the LEFT ARROW, RIGHT ARROW and BACKSPACE serve a different purpose. Instead of moving the cell cursor, they move the data cursor. BACKSPACE is non-destructive, so you can move back to a previous point in the data line without erasing any of the right-most characters. Pressing the LEFT ARROW or BACKSPACE while on the first position of a command entry will cause the command to be terminated and erased. Pressing the RIGHT arrow when at the end of a formula or number will have no effect, because formulas and numbers cannot have imbedded blanks. The HOME and END keys are not found on every computer keyboard. Pressing HOME will move the cursor to the cell in the upper left corner of the screen. Pressing END will move the cursor to the cell in the lower right corner of the screen. If the cursor is already there, pressing it will have no effect. There are no alternate CONTROL-keys for these two if your computer does not have them. For other cursor movement capabilities, see "=". The CANCEL key is not found on every computer keyboard, but its alternate, CONTROL-C, is a popular means of cancelling a command. This key is only effective when something has been entered on the data line. Pressing it will erase everything on the data line, and move the cursor to the beginning of the line. If a command is cancelled with one of these keys, it is erased and has no effect. If text, a value or a formula are cancelled, the data line is erased, and the contents of the current cell are unaltered. The PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys are found on the IBM PC and other IBM Compatibles. Some computers have an UP/RIGHT ARROW and DOWN/RIGHT ARROW in the same position of the keypad (an arrow pointing diagonally upward to the right, and one pointing down- ward to the right). Pressing the PAGE DOWN key will advance the display so that the new screen contains the bottom three rows from the previous screen (at the top of the new screen). The cell cursor will be positioned on the middle row of the new screen. When the bottom of the spread sheet is encountered, the cursor will advance to row 255 and stop. The cursor coordinate display in the lower left corner will show which cell is currently occupied. PAGE UP works just like PAGE DOWN, except that it moves backward instead of forward. KEYBOARD CONVENTIONS PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 11 The UP/LEFT ARROW and UP/RIGHT ARROW are not found on the IBM PC, so use CONTROL-W and CONTROL-Z instead. Pressing DOWN/LEFT ARROW will cause the screen to shift up one row, and a new row to be displayed at the bottom. Use it when you want to see some data that is just beyond the bottom of the screen. Note that the DOWN/LEFT ARROW does not usually cause the cell cursor to move. The one exception is when the cell cursor is on the top line. Since the top line is being shifted off the screen, the cell cursor must move down one line to remain on the screen. The UP/LEFT ARROW works essentially the opposite of DOWN/LEFT: it causes the screen to shift down one row, and a new row to be displayed at the top. CONTROL-N is a quick method to insert a row. Using this key combination will cause a row to be inserted immediately above the location of the cell cursor. The same result may be accomplished with the Insert (/I) command (see Insert command in the Alphabetical Command Reference section for details). CONTROL-Y is a quick method to delete a row. Using this key combination will cause the row at the cell cursor location to be deleted. The same result may be accomplished with the Delete (/D) command (see Delete command in the Alphabetical Command Reference section for details). The INSERT key is used to add characters in the middle of the data line such as a formula or text. Use the arrow keys to move the data cursor to the spot where the insertion is to be done. Press the INSERT key to toggle on the insert mode. The word "INSERT" will appear in the lower right corner of the screen, indicating that insert mode is toggled on. Now type the characters to be inserted. They will be inserted at the cursor position, and the data from the cursor to the end of the entry will be shifted right. When data being shifted reaches the right edge of the data line, it disappears and is dropped. The INSERT key is only effective when there is data in the data line. Other editing keys, such as LEFT ARROW, RIGHT ARROW and DELETE, can be used freely while Insert Mode is toggled on. To toggle off Insert Mode, press INSERT a second time. Pressing RETURN to enter the data line will also automatically turn off Insert Mode. The DELETE key is only effective when entering data on the data line. It causes the character at the data cursor to be erased, and all the characters to the right of it to be shifted left. To erase several characters, press DELETE multiple times. KEYBOARD CONVENTIONS PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 12 ERASE EOF is not on all computer keyboards. If your computer does not have it, then use CONTROL-T. ERASE EOF is only effective when entering data on the data line. It causes the character at the cursor and all data to the right of the cursor to be erased. RETURN is used to terminate a field. COMMA (,) will also terminate a field. The one exception for the comma is when entering text. Since the comma is a valid text character, only the RETURN key will terminate a text field. The EQUAL SIGN (=) invokes PC-CALC's "Go To Coordinate" routine. To jump to a specific cell, type = followed by the cell coordinate. For example, =Z99 will move the cell cursor immediately to Z99. CONTROL-Q is the same as the equal sign, and either can be followed by any one of six control keys, to move the cursor around on the spreadsheet: CONTROL-Q then CONTROL-R Move cell cursor to cell A1. CONTROL-Q then CONTROL-C Move cell cursor to highest cell with data in it. (For example, if the spreadsheet extends from row 1 to 20, and column A to K, this will go to cell K20.) CONTROL-Q then CONTROL-E Move cell cursor to top row on or CONTROL-Q then UP ARROW screen (same column). CONTROL-Q then CONTROL-X Move cell cursor to bottom row on or CONTROL-Q then DOWN ARROW screen (same column). CONTROL-Q then CONTROL-S Move cell cursor to left-most or CONTROL-Q then LEFT ARROW column on screen (same row). CONTROL-Q then CONTROL-D Move cell cursor to right-most or CONTROL-Q then RIGHT-ARROW column on screen (same row). Users of various popular word processors will recognize these control key sequences for moving the cursor quickly around the screen. The EXCLAMATION POINT (!) causes "recalculation"; i.e. all the formulas in the spreadsheet are re-computed. This command is normally only used when automatic recalculation has been turned off. At startup, automatic recalculation is set on. Each time a number or formula is entered, the message "CALCULATING" appears, and the cursor ripples through all the formulas. As your KEYBOARD CONVENTIONS PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 13 spreadsheet gets larger, the pause required to recalculate will grow annoyingly long. Turn off auto recalculation using the Global (/G) command, then when all your data is entered, type "!" to recalculate. As each cell is recalculated, the cursor will "ripple" across the screen, showing its progress. Normally recalculation proceeds across rows, but via the Global (/G) Command, it can be set to go column-by-column. The SLASH character (/) initiates the Command Processor. You will be prompted with a list of valid commands such as Print, Format, etc. To invoke a command, key the first letter of the command. Most commands will prompt for one or more inputs. Each command is described in detail in the "Alphabetical Command Reference" section. When typing a command or data, it is not necessary to wait for the prompt message to be displayed. If you know what to enter, just type it. PC-CALC actually pauses briefly before displaying a message, anticipating that you might already know what it is going to ask. If you press a key while the message is displaying, you may only get part of the prompt message. PC-CALC will stop immediately when a key is pressed, and process that key. During operations that take several seconds, such as saving files, recalculating or replicating, it is best not to enter data; some of the keystrokes might get lost. KEYBOARD CONVENTIONS PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 14 BLANK COMMAND (/B) Purpose: To remove the contents from a cell or range of cells, leaving them blank. Prompts: After entering /B you are prompted for the cell or cell range. The default, if RETURN is pressed, is to blank the current cell (the one where the cell cursor is currently located). Remarks: The cell range may be a "block" of cells. For example the range A1:C2 will blank A1, B1, C1, A2, B2 and C2. The cell range may also be the word ALL, in which case all the cells in the spreadsheet are blanked. The difference between /B ALL and /Z is that /Z also resets all the system defaults and column widths, while /B ALL leaves them intact. /B will free the memory the blanked cells are occupying. This can be useful if you have a large spreadsheet that has filled available memory. To exit from /B without blanking any cells, press the CONTROL-C OR BACKSPACE key. Examples: EXAMPLE #1: A number has accidentally been entered into cell D5, and it needs to be removed. If the cell cursor is located at D5, enter: /B (RETURN) If the cursor is not at D5, enter: /B D5 (RETURN) EXAMPLE #2: A spreadsheet is being modified to do a slightly different application. The last ten rows of the spreadsheet (rows 25 to 34) are to be deleted. Enter: /B A25:Z34 (RETURN) and the block of cells will be blanked. COMMAND REFERENCE: BLANK (/B) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 15 CONFIGURE COMMAND (/C) Purpose: To configure the PC-CALC screen and/or keyboard for the current spreadsheet or for all spreadsheets. The width, height, layout, and color of the screen display may be set with this command; and certain keyboard functions may be assigned to special keys. Prompts: After entering /C you are prompted: "Width, Height, Layout, Color, Keys, Save" Enter either a W, H, L, C, K or S to select the desired option. Subsequent prompts depend on which option is selected. W - "Enter screen width (40 to 132)." The current screen width setting (the number of characters across the screen) will appear on the entry line. If the number is correct, just press RETURN. Otherwise, enter the desired number. H - "Enter the number of display lines on your screen (7 to 32)." The current screen height setting (number of lines per screen) will appear on the entry line. If the number is correct, just press RETURN. Otherwise, enter the desired number. L - "Select screen layout: DME, DEM, MDE, MED, EDM, EMD. (D is display area, M is message area, E is entry line)." Allows you to set the screen layout to the sequence that is most comfortable for you. For example, if you enter EDM, the entry line appears at the top of the screen, followed by the spreadsheet display, followed by the message line. The current setting will appear on the entry line. If it is what you want, just press RETURN. Otherwise, enter the sequence that you prefer. (Note: If you are new to PC-CALC, it's best to use DME until you become familiar with it because this manual assumes a setting of DME.) COMMAND REFERENCE: CONFIGURE (/C) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 16 C - "Border, Display, Message, Entry, Cursor" Allows you to set the background and foreground color for each item in the list. Enter either a B, D, M, E or C to select the item for color change. The next prompt will be: "Press B to advance background color, F to advance foreground color. When you find the colors you want press RETURN." Simply do as instructed. After pressing RETURN, you will be at the color prompt to enable selection of another item. If you are done, press CONTROL-C to exit from the command or press backspace to return to the configure prompt to perform another function. K - "Press DOWN ARROW or press RETURN to bypass." This is the first of a series of prompts which enable you to set a key or key-combination to perform the function indicated. For example, if your keyboard doesn't have a DOWN ARROW key, you can press F1 or CONTROL-L or some other special key to set it to perform this function, or you can press RETURN to skip to the next key prompt. Press CONTROL-C to exit from this series of prompts. If you have an IBM PC, key configuration isn't necessary, although you may want to change some keys to suit a personal preference. S - "Press RETURN to permanently save screen parameters, colors, keys, global option settings, and print option settings. (CONTROL-C to cancel.)" If you press RETURN, all of the Configure, Global and Print option settings will be saved as they now exist. In the case of the Configure options, the settings for width, height, layout, color, and keys will be applicable to all spreadsheets created previously and in the future. Global and Print option settings will be applicable only to the current spreadsheet and to future spreadsheets at start-up time because the Global and Print options are saved with every spreadsheet. If you aren't yet familiar with the Global (/G) command and the Print (/P) command, don't be overly concerned. You can read about them later, and make your "Save" decision based upon your configure option settings. Press CONTROL-C if you don't wish to save the settings. COMMAND REFERENCE: CONFIGURE (/C) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 17 Remarks: If you are using PC-CALC on an IBM PC with a standard 80-column color monitor, you won't need the Configure command unless you want to change the color or the sequence of the layout on your screen. If you have another type of computer or video monitor, one of the first things you should do (after creating a back-up copy of PC-CALC) is to configure the PC-CALC disk for your system and save the configuration settings. Thereafter, you will be able to start PC-CALC by entering "PC-CALC" without any additional parameters, and the display and keyboard will function to your specifications without further use of the Configure command. Start-up notes: The PC-CALC Configure option settings for width and/or color may be over-ridden at start-up as follows: --- Enter --- ---------- Configures To ---------- PC-CALC BW40 Black and white 40 column display PC-CALC BW80 Black and white 80 column display PC-CALC BW Black and white (no width change) PC-CALC 40 40 col. display (no color change) PC-CALC 80 80 col. display (no color change) If the height of your display is less than 25 lines, perform the "Getting Started" procedure, then enter /C H followed by the number of lines on your display and press RETURN. COMMAND REFERENCE: CONFIGURE (/C) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 18 DELETE COMMAND (/D) Purpose: To delete a row or column from the spreadsheet. Prompts: After entering /D you are asked: "Delete Row or Column?" to which you must reply either R or C. The next prompt is either: "Enter row number to be deleted." or "Enter column letter to be deleted." The default, if RETURN is pressed, is to use the row number or column letter of the current cell (the one where the cell cursor is currently located). Remarks: If a column is deleted, all the columns to the right of it will shift left. Likewise, if a row is deleted, all the rows below it will shift up to fill the blank space. Any formulas referring to the shifted cells will have their coordinates adjusted so they are still pointing at the same data. /D will free the memory the deleted cells are occupying. This can be useful if you have a large spreadsheet that has filled available memory. To exit from /D without deleting any rows or columns, press the CONTROL-C or BACKSPACE key. Another way to delete a row is to move the cell cursor to the row to be deleted and press CONTROL-Y. Example: A spreadsheet lists all customers and their aged accounts receivable. Row 22 has a former customer who can be deleted. To delete the row, either move the cursor to row 22 and enter: /D R (RETURN) or if you are not at row 22, enter: /D R 22 (RETURN) Row 22 will disappear, and the data that was in row 23 will move to 22, 24 will move to 23, and so forth. COMMAND REFERENCE: DELETE (/D) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 19 EDIT COMMAND (/E) Purpose: To display the contents of an existing cell on the data line, so it does not have to be re-typed. Prompts: After entering /E you are prompted for the cell to be edited. The default, if RETURN is pressed, is to edit the contents of the current cell (the one where the cell cursor is currently located). Remarks: The contents of the specified cell are displayed on the data line, and the cursor is positioned at the first character. By moving the cursor to the right, changes can be made to any character in the cell. When all the editing changes have been made, press RETURN to post the edited data to the new cell. Characters on the data line can be deleted using the CONTROL-G key (or delete key if your keyboard has one). Insert mode can be toggled on and off using the CONTROL-V key (or Insert key if your keyboard has one). To erase from the cursor to the end of the field, use the CONTROL-T key (or Erase EOF key if your keyboard has one). When editing a formula, pressing the space bar will erase from the cursor to end-of- line. To exit from /E without editing any cell, press the CONTROL-C OR BACKSPACE key. Example: A lengthy heading has been typed into cell A5. An identical heading needs to go into A40. Move the cursor to A40, enter: /E A5 (RETURN) and the heading will appear on the data line. Since it is to be copied identically, just press RETURN a second time to place the heading in A40. If changes had been necessary to the heading, the data cursor could have been moved through the entry, and corrections made as required. COMMAND REFERENCE: EDIT (/E) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 20 FORMAT COMMAND (/F) Purpose: To set the formatting options for a cell, a range of cells or the entire spreadsheet. Prompts: After entering /F you are prompted to: "Enter range to be formatted (or ALL)." You can enter a single cell, a range of cells (which may be a block), or ALL. To format only the current cell, press RETURN or comma, and its coordinates will be used. The next prompt is: "Decimals, Width, Justify, Commas." Enter either a D, W, J or C to indicate which type of formatting you want to do. The remaining prompts depend on which one of the options you selected above: D - "Number of decimal places (0 to 9)." The number of places to the right of the decimal can be changed using this command. This number of decimals is used on the screen display, on the printed output, and in computations. W - "Enter column width (1 to 30)." The width of a column or range of columns can be changed using this command. J - "Right-justify or Left-justify." Specify "L" to have numbers shifted to the left side of the column. Specify "R" to have text shifted to the right side of the column. PC-CALC defaults to right-justify for numbers and left-justify for text unless overridden by this command. C - "Commas between thousands (Y or N)." To have 12345.00 print as 12,345.00 specify "Y" to this prompt. To remove the commas from a number, specify "N". For example, if the number is a year such as 1983 you would not want it to print as 1,983. Remarks: When a cell or a range of cells is specified, each of the cells is assigned a one-letter code identifying its formatting option. On the other hand, when ALL is COMMAND REFERENCE: FORMAT (/F) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 21 specified, a "global default" code is changed in PC-CALC. Specifying ALL uses none of your spreadsheet memory. Specifying a range of cells causes six bytes of memory to be used for every blank cell in the range. So for example, this statement: /F A1:Z99,D,3 would use as much as 15K of memory, while this statement: /F ALL,D,3 would use no memory at all. So on large spreadsheets it is a good idea to determine the most common default values first, and set them via the "ALL" global format command. Then the cells that vary from the default can be changed individually. This not only saves memory, it usually saves typing as well. The global format defaults are set as follows upon entering PC-CALC: Decimals - 2 Width - 11 (all columns) Justify - Left for text, Right for numbers Commas - Yes To exit from /F without changing the format of any cell, press the CONTROL-C OR BACKSPACE key before entering the last prompt. Example: A series of year numbers have been entered into column B, starting with 1983. The problem is that the standard defaults cause the years to print as 1,983.00 instead of 1983. Use the /F command first to turn off the decimals, then to turn off the commas. Enter: /F B1:B255,D,0 then enter: /F B1:B255,C,N The years will now print as four-digit numbers without commas and decimals. To also left-justify the years (and their heading which is a text field: "Years") within column B, enter: /F B1:B255,J,L COMMAND REFERENCE: FORMAT (/F) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 22 GLOBAL COMMAND (/G) Purpose: To set various system options of PC-CALC, including border display, row/column calculation sequence, and automatic recalculation. Prompts: After entering /G you are prompted: "Border, Row, Column, Manual, Auto, Zero-as-blank" To select a global option, enter the first letter of the option. It is not necessary to press RETURN. Remarks: The BORDER option toggles the screen borders on and off. If your screen has borders on the top and left edge, use this option to turn them off. To turn them back on, use this option a second time. Note: this option has no effect on printed reports. There is a special option in the /P command for printing borders. The ROW and COLUMN options indicate whether calculation should proceed row-by-row, or column-by- column. Each time a calculation is done, you can watch the cursor "ripple" down the screen, recalculating each of the formulas in your spreadsheet. In many cases, a formula will refer to a cell that contains another formula. When this happens, the formulas must be evaluated in the proper sequence, or you will not get the answer you were expecting. Most manual accounting spreadsheets are designed for row-by-row calculation, so ROW is the default at startup time. If you design a spreadsheet that requires calculation to be done down the columns instead of across the rows, specify the COLUMN option. Warning: Be careful to not create spreadsheets with "forward references": references to formulas which have not been recalculated yet. Even more dangerous are "circular references": two formulas refer to each other, or "A" refers to "B" refers to "C" refers to "A". When you suspect a circular reference, press ! to recalculate. If one or more of the numbers on your spreadsheet keep changing each time you recalculate, your spreadsheet either has a forward reference or a circular reference, and will need to be restructured to eliminate the problem. COMMAND REFERENCE: GLOBAL (/G) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 23 The AUTO and MANUAL options tell PC-CALC whether to automatically recalculate each time a number or formula is entered, or whether to wait and not calculate until the ! is pressed. At startup, the AUTO option is set. As numbers and formulas are entered, the message "CALCULATING" will appear, and the cursor will "ripple" down the screen each time before the next field can be entered. As the spreadsheet gets larger, this pause can become annoying. To turn off the automatic recalculation, select the MANUAL option. The ZERO-AS-BLANK option tells PC-CALC to display all cells whose contents are zero as blank cells. At startup, the default is to display zeros (0, .0, .00, etc.) in the cell. Select this option to display them as blanks. This is a "toggle" option; to restore the original default of displaying zeros as 0, .0, etc. select ZERO-AS-BLANK a second time. Example: A spread sheet is getting large, and every time a number is typed in, a recalculation is done which takes several seconds to complete. Turn off automatic recalculation with this command: /G M Later when recalculation is desired, you can type ! to force recalculation. If you get to the point of fine- tuning the spreadsheet and would like to have recalculation turned back on, enter: /G A COMMAND REFERENCE: GLOBAL (/G) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 24 INSERT COMMAND (/I) Purpose: To insert a row or column in the spreadsheet. Prompts: After entering /I you are asked: "Insert Row or Column?" to which you reply either R or C. The next prompt is: "Enter row number. New row will be inserted above it." or "Enter Column letter. New column will be inserted to the left of it." The default, if RETURN is pressed, is to use the row number or column letter of the current cell (the one where the cell cursor is currently located). Remarks: If a column is inserted, all the columns to the right of it will shift right. Likewise, if a row is inserted, all the rows below it will shift down to make room. Any formulas referring to the shifted cells will have their coordinates adjusted so they are still pointing at the same data. Another way to insert a row is to move the cell cursor one row below where the new row is desired and press CONTROL-N. Example: A spreadsheet lists all customers and their aged accounts receivable. A new customer needs to be added between rows 21 and 22. To insert the row, either move the cursor to row 22 and enter: /I R (RETURN) or if you are not at row 22, enter: /I R 22 (RETURN) Row 22 will become blank, and the data that was on row 22 will move to 23, 23 will move to 24, etc. COMMAND REFERENCE: INSERT (/I) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 25 LOAD COMMAND (/L) Purpose: To load a spreadsheet file into memory so it can be altered or printed. Prompts: After entering /L you are prompted: "Enter the file name. (RETURN or A:, B:, etc. for directory.)" At this point, you have two choices: display a disk directory or load a spreadsheet file. If you press RETURN, the directory of the currently logged disk drive is displayed. By entering A:, B:, etc. you can display any disk directory in the system. If instead you enter a file name, PC-CALC will load that file. The file must be one that was produced earlier by PC-CALC, or one that was created by another program to exact PC-CALC specifications, as defined later in this manual. The file name can be any valid MS-DOS file name; i.e. eight characters or less, optional extension, optional drive designation. Some examples of valid file names are: LOAN1 B:WORKSHT5.OLD X A:HOMEWRK.A After entering the file name, press RETURN and the file will be loaded. Remarks: First the file is opened. If it does not exist, or if it is not a valid PC-CALC file, an error message will be given, and you are allowed to try again. As the file is loading, the cursor coordinate in the lower left corner of the screen will display the progress of the load. When the load is completed, the spreadsheet will be displayed. The current cell is saved along with the data, so when the spreadsheet is loaded and displayed, the cursor will be located at the same cell position as it was when it was saved. To exit from /L without loading a file, press the CONTROL-C key. COMMAND REFERENCE: LOAD (/L) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 26 PRINT COMMAND (/P) Purpose: To print a hard copy report of a spreadsheet. Prompts: After entering /P you are prompted: "Enter range to be printed (or RETURN for all)." The word ALL will appear on the data line. If you want to print only part of the spreadsheet, enter the coordinates as a range (for example: A1:G15) over the word ALL, then press RETURN or comma. To print the complete spreadsheet, press RETURN. The next prompt is: "Enter page width (number of characters across printout)." The number 80 will appear on the data line. If the printer is set up to accomodate an eighty-character printout, just press RETURN. Otherwise, enter the width of the printer page. The next prompt is: "Enter page length (number of lines per page)." The number 60 will appear on the data line. If you are printing on normal eleven-inch paper, at six lines per inch, press RETURN. Otherwise, figure out how many lines will print on a page and enter it. The next prompt is: "Options: D=dbl space, S=setup, P=pause, C=contents, B=border, O=offset" If no special options are desired, just press RETURN. Otherwise, enter one or more option characters and press RETURN. The options are: D - Double space the printout. Puts an extra blank line between each line of your spreadsheet. S - Allows you to send special setup codes to the printer, to change character size, etc. If S is selected, another prompt will follow, allowing the setup codes to be entered. P - If the report is more than one page, PC-CALC will pause after each page. This option is useful when using a printer that takes single sheets of paper. COMMAND REFERENCE: PRINT (/P) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 27 C - Prints the contents of each cell rather than the display. Each non-blank cell is displayed, one per line, with its coordinate, attributes and contents. B - Causes the row and column borders to be displayed on the printed spreadsheet. O - Specifies a left margin width on the report. If not specified, the default is seven. If "O" is entered, you are prompted for a new offset (see below). If "S" was specified above, the following prompt will be given next: "Enter printer setup codes, then RETURN." Press any key at this time, and its ASCII value will be sent directly to the printer. For example, if the sequence "ESC,A" sets your printer to twelve characters per inch, press the Escape key, then the capital A. When all the setup codes have been entered, press RETURN. If "O" (offset) was specified as one of the options above, PC-CALC will now prompt: "Enter the page offset (left-margin size)." The data line will contain a "7". Enter any number, from 0 to 99, and that many blanks will be printed to the left of the spreadsheet. Remarks: PC-CALC will print an output page only as wide as the specified "page width". When the spreadsheet has been completely printed for that width, PC-CALC will check to see if some of your spreadsheet was not printed. If so, PC-CALC will make a second pass, printing the right-hand side of the spreadsheet. If it is extremely wide, PC-CALC will continue making passes through the spreadsheet until it is all printed. These pages can then be attached to produce a wide spreadsheet from a narrow printer. Examples: EXAMPLE #1: The spreadsheet is only four columns wide, and 99 lines long. No special printing options are required. Enter: /P (RETURN) (RETURN) (RETURN) (RETURN) By pressing RETURN on all four prompts, you will let COMMAND REFERENCE: PRINT (/P) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 28 PC-CALC use its defaults for all prompts: - The entire spreadsheet will be printed. - The page width will be 80 characters, which is adequate for this narrow spreadsheet. - The page length of 60 will cause 60 lines to be printed on the first page, and 39 lines on the second page. - Borders will not be printed, because the B option was not specified. - The printout will be single spaced. - There will be a 7 character left margin (page offset). EXAMPLE #2: The spreadsheet is 230 characters wide. The printer has wide paper in it, and with compressed print can print 232 characters across. The report is to be doublespaced. Enter: /P 232,,DO (RETURN) Since you entered an option of "O", PC-CALC will prompt for a page offset. Enter 2. Since the printer will only handle 232 characters, and the spreadsheet is 230 characters wide, you can only afford a two character left margin. If you didn't change the offset, the last five characters of the spreadsheet would print on a second page. COMMAND REFERENCE: PRINT (/P) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 29 QUIT COMMAND (/Q) Purpose: To exit from PC-CALC to the operating system. Prompts: After entering /Q you are prompted: "Quit? Y or N." To exit, enter "Y". To continue with the spreadsheet, reply "N" or CONTROL-C. Remarks: If the spreadsheet currently in memory has not been saved, it will be lost. Use the Save Command (/S) to save the spreadsheet before exiting. To prevent accidental loss of data, PC-CALC asks for confirmation (Quit? Y or N) before exiting. Example: You have saved the current spreadsheet and want to exit so you can run another program. Enter: /Q Y and PC-CALC will end. The screen will be cleared, and at the top will be the operating system prompt: A> COMMAND REFERENCE: QUIT (/Q) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 30 REPLICATE COMMAND (/R) Purpose: To copy data from a cell or range to another cell, range or block, and optionally adjust the cell coordinates in formulas. The format attributes such as decimals, commas, etc. are copied along with the data. This powerful command allows cells to be copied over and over, with formulas adjusted, saving considerable data entry. Prompts: After entering /R you are prompted: "Enter the "from" range." Enter a single cell or a range of cells (example: A1:G1). If the "from" cell is the current cell (where the cell cursor is currently), just press RETURN. The current cell will be used. The next prompt is: "Enter the "to" range." Once again, enter a single cell or a range of cells. This range specifies the receiving field. If the "to" cell is the current cell, just press RETURN. If your ranges are valid, the data in the "from" range will now be copied to the "to" range. During the copying operation if a formula is encountered in the "from" range, a message will be given for each of the variables in the formula. For example: "(A5) Adjust A3 Y or N?" This sample message says that in the "from" cell A5 it found a formula. That formula contained a reference to A3. If you reply Y to this message, each replication of A5 will be changed so the formula refers to A4, then A5, then A6, etc. If you reply N to this message, all replications will refer to A3, unchanged. See the examples below for more information. Remarks: A single cell may be replicated to a group of contiguous cells, either across a row or down a column. Specify the single cell as the "from" cell, then specify the range of "to" cells, either across a row or down a column. A group of contiguous cells may be replicated to another group of cells. If the "from" group are all in COMMAND REFERENCE: REPLICATE (/R) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 31 a row, then the "to" group must either be all in a row, or they must be a "block" of cells. To illustrate the latter case, consider this example: A B C D E 1 Qtr 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr 4 2 3 Sales (from) (to) (to) (to) 4 CGS (from) (to) (to) (to) 5 Gross (from) (to) (to) (to) Values or formulas have been entered into column B for the first quarter, and now you want to replicate those formulas to the next three quarters. To accomplish this, enter: /R B3:B5,C3:E3 (RETURN) The "from" range, B3:B5 will be replicated to each of the columns C, D and E. The "to" range designation is sometimes confusing, because it designates the "top" of the block, rather than the upper right and lower left corners of the block. In this example each of the values in B3 through B5 are copied to the three adjacent columns. If there are any formulas in B3:B5, PC-CALC will ask for adjustment (see example below). The replicate command may be used to copy values, formulas or text. Just reply "N" to any "adjust" messages. Examples: EXAMPLE #1: Referring to the example above in the Remarks section, let's look at the contents of each cell. Suppose the contents prior to the replicate were: A B C D E 1 Qtr 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr 4 2 3 Sales 250000 4 CGS B3*.7 5 Gross B3-B4 Performing the replicate command discussed earlier: /R B3:B5,C3:E3 (RETURN) Would cause the contents of B3, B4 and B5 to be copied to the next three columns. But in the process of copying, PC-CALC would issue three messages: (B4) Adjust B3 Y or N? (B5) Adjust B3 Y or N? (B5) Adjust B4 Y or N? COMMAND REFERENCE: REPLICATE (/R) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 32 In this example, reply "Y" to all three of the messages. Doing so will yield the following result: A B C D E 1 Qtr 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr 4 2 3 Sales 250000 250000 250000 250000 4 CGS B3*.7 C3*.7 D3*.7 E3*.7 5 Gross B3-B4 C3-C4 D3-D4 E3-E4 Without the adjustment, the formulas in rows 4 and 5 would still be pointing at column B. By adjusting, they now point to their respective columns. EXAMPLE #2: At the beginning of this manual in the section titled "A Brief Tutorial" there was an exercise which computed interest on a savings account for three years. Now let's use the Replicate Command to carry the computation out for twenty years. Recall that the original spreadsheet looked like this: A B C D 1 2 Compute Annual Interest 3 4 Rate: 5.50 5 6 Year Balance Interest 7 1983 5,000.00 275.00 8 1984 5,275.00 290.13 9 1985 5,565.13 306.08 10 11 Totals 5,871.21 871.21 This time, rather than type in all the data for every year, let's set up the first and second detail lines: B7 1983 (A value instead of text.) C7 5000 D7 C7*C4/100 B8 B7+1 (A formula instead of text.) C8 C7+D7 D8 C8*C4/100 Notice that the year number is set up as a value instead of text. This allows it to be incremented by one for the next twenty years, rather than typing in the year numbers twenty times. Of course the years will be right justified and will contain commas and decimals, so use the /F command to format column B as follows: /F B1:B255,J,L (left justify) /F B1:B255,D,0 (no decimals) /F B1:B255,C,N (no commas) COMMAND REFERENCE: REPLICATE (/R) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 33 Now replicate row 8. To get the full twenty years, you need to go all the way down to line 26. The command looks like this: /R B8:D8,B9:B26 This Replicate Command takes a little longer, because of it's size. During the Replicate there will be five "adjust" messages: (B8) Adjust B7 Y or N? (C8) Adjust C7 Y or N? (C8) Adjust D7 Y or N? (D8) Adjust C8 Y or N? (D8) Adjust C4 Y or N? Here is a case where adjustment is required on all but one of the fields: the last one. If you responded "Y" to all these messages, you would get some weird results. C4 is the interest rate field, which is a fixed field at the top of the spreadsheet. The interest rate is going to stay in C4 forever. So you must respond "N" to the last "adjust" message, or the Replicate Command will use a different (and unpredictable) interest for every year: C4, C5, C6, C7, etc. So give it four Y's and an N. Now the replicate is complete. In the tutorial there was a "Totals" line. So, at B28 enter the text "Totals", at C28 enter the formula C26+D26, and at D28 enter the formula SUM(D7:D26). Your spreadsheet will re-calculate and the interest for 20 years will be displayed. COMMAND REFERENCE: REPLICATE (/R) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 34 SAVE COMMAND (/S) Purpose: To save a spreadsheet file on disk so it can be retrieved later for altering or printing. Prompts: After entering /S you are prompted: "Enter the file name. (RETURN or A:, B:, etc. for directory.)" At this point, you have two choices: display a disk directory or save the spreadsheet file. If you press RETURN, the directory of the currently logged disk drive is displayed. By entering A:, B:, etc. you can display any disk directory in the system. If instead you enter a file name, PC-CALC will save the currently displayed spreadsheet onto disk, giving it that name. The file name can be any valid MS-DOS file name; i.e. eight characters or less, optional extension, optional drive designation. Some examples of valid file names are: LOAN1 B:WORKSHT5.OLD X A:HOMEWRK.A After entering the file name, press RETURN and the file will be saved. Remarks: First the file is opened. If a file with that name already exists on the disk, you are prompted: "File exists. Overwrite? (Y or N)" If the file with the same name can be erased, and this one written over it, reply "Y". If the file cannot be overwritten, reply "N" and PC-CALC will prompt you for a different name. As the file is being saved, the cursor coordinate in the lower left corner of the screen will display the progress. A message appears saying "Saving file; stand by . . .". When this message goes away, the save is completed. The contents, value and attributes of each cell are saved, as well as the column width, current cell cursor position, current settings of the global options, and current settings of the print options. COMMAND REFERENCE: SAVE (/S) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 35 Example: A spreadsheet has been completed and printed. It is to be saved on disk for future reference. The name it is to be called is "PAYABLES". Enter: /S PAYABLES (RETURN) A month ago a spreadsheet with the same name was saved on this disk. The message: "File Exists. Overwrite? (Y or N)" appears. Since the new spreadsheet is an updated version of old PAYABLES file, reply "Y" and the new spreadsheet replaces the old one. COMMAND REFERENCE: SAVE (/S) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 36 SUM FUNCTION Purpose: To sum a range of numbers and return the result to the current cell or formula. Prompts: None. Remarks: SUM is a function, rather than a command. SUM(m:n) can be entered into a cell, causing the specified range to be added up, and used as the cell value. Or the SUM function can be used in a formula. Examples: EXAMPLE #1: Column B has a string of numbers from B7 to B26 which are to be added up. The result is to be placed in B27. At B27 enter: SUM(B7:B26) After recalculation, B27 will contain the sum. EXAMPLE #2: A spreadsheet has a string of expense dollar amounts, running from C8 to C15. These are to be subtracted from the gross profit figure in C6, and the result is to be printed in C17. Move the cell cursor to C17 and enter: C6-SUM(C8:C15) COMMAND REFERENCE: SUM FUNCTION PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 37 ZAP COMMAND (/Z) Purpose: To clear the spreadsheet area and reset all the system defaults. Prompts: After entering /Z you are prompted: "Clear contents? (Y or N)." To clear the current contents of every cell, and reset all the system defaults, enter "Y". To leave the current spreadsheet as is, reply "N" or CONTROL-C. Remarks: If the spreadsheet currently in memory has not been saved, it will be lost. Use the Save Command (/S) to save the spreadsheet before exiting. To prevent accidental loss of data, PC-CALC asks for confirmation (Clear contents?) before clearing. An alternate method of clearing memory is to use the /B ALL command, which blanks every cell on the spreadsheet. The difference between the two commands is that /Z resets all PC-CALC defaults, just as if the program were restarted. Global settings, printer settings, cell attributes and column widths are all reset. With /B ALL only the cell contents are cleared. Although /B ALL is slower, it may be useful when making two or more spread sheets with similar layouts. Another alternate method of clearing memory is to use the /Q command to exit to the operating system, then restart PC-CALC. Example: The spreadsheet currently on the screen has been saved on disk. The spreadsheet area is to be cleared. Enter: /Z Y A message appears saying "Clearing contents. Stand by..." and after a few seconds, a blank screen appears with the cursor at A1 and the column widths reset to the startup length. COMMAND REFERENCE: ZAP (/Z) PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 38 PC-CALC FILE FORMAT This section is intended for programmers whose programs access data in PC-CALC files, or whose programs create PC-CALC files. The file format is designed so user programs can access it easily. Numbers are stored in string format; Formulas are stored in external format (exactly as they are entered); Attributes are stored as a string of characters, rather than internal binary flags. On cells with formulas, both the formula and the computed value are stored, allowing other programs to access the result without having to go through any computations. READING THE FILE In MicroSoft BASIC, use the LINE INPUT# command to read data from the file. All data fields are string format. Numeric data can be read into a string workarea, then converted to a double-precision numeric value using the VAL function. See the sample at the end of this section for more details. HEADER RECORD The first record is the header record. It looks like this: PC-CALC 1.0 To verify that the input file is a PC-CALC file, check the first seven characters of this record for the letters "PC-CALC". The "1.0" is the version number of PC-CALC that produced the output. If you are creating a PC-CALC file in your own program, it is recommended that you use "0.0" through "0.9" in this field, so it is evident that the file was not created by PC-CALC, but by another program. You can also put descriptive info in the record, starting at column 20, to describe the source and/or contents of the file. CELL CONTENTS Following the header record are the contents of each cell. Only those cells that have something in them are saved on disk. Each cell is saved as a series of five fields. They are: PC-CALC FILE FORMAT PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 39 - Cell letter (expressed as a number from 1 to 26) - Cell row - Cell attributes (such as left-adjust, decimals, etc.) - Cell value - Formula (this field is null on text fields) To read these fields, start by reading the cell letter. Check to see if it equals "END". If it does equal "END", you have reached the end of the cell contents fields. Otherwise, read the other four fields, using LINE INPUT# commands. CELL ATTRIBUTES The "cell attributes" field is a variable-length field, one or more bytes in length. The first byte identifies the type of contents in the cell. The first byte may be any one of the following: "T" - Cell contains text. "V" - Cell contains a numeric value. "F" - Cell contains a formula. " " - Cell is empty (except for attribute data). Other bytes of the attribute field are as follows: Position 2: Justification "L" = left-justify cell. "R" = right-justify cell. " " = use system default. Position 3: Decimal positions "0" to "9" = number of decimal places. " " = use system default. Position 4: Commas on numbers "Y" = Print number with commas. "N" = Print number without commas. " " = Use system default. Positions 5-20: For future use. Please note that the attribute field is variable length. If attributes on the right are blank, the field may be shortened. PC-CALC FILE FORMAT PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 40 SAMPLE FILE For example, a small PC-CALC file with only three cells might look like this: PC-CALC 1.0 1 1 TL Sample Spreadsheet 2 3 V 123.00 123 3 3 F 246.00 B3*2 END In the example, the spreadsheet has cells with data at A1, B3 and C3. At A1, the cell contains text, because the first letter of the attribute is "T". The second letter of the attribute is "L", which indicates that the data is to be left-justified in the cell. Cell B3 contains the value 123.00, and so its attribute is "V" for value. The field with "123" is the actual value that was entered in that cell; it may not always be a single number. For example, it could contain "100+23". But the field that contains "123.00" will always be a single numeric value. To use it in your program, convert it to a double-precision number: LINE INPUT# DISKIN,VALUE$ VALUE# = VAL(VALUE$) The formula at cell C3 has a value of 246.00 and a formula of B3*2. Since B3 contains the value 123.00, the formula was evaluated by PC-CALC and came up with the value 246.00. Finally, the table ends with the word "END". REMAINING FIELDS OPTIONAL The fields explained below, which follow the "END" statement, are optional. If the file ends with "END", or with only some of the optional fields, PC-CALC will load the fields that are present, and use system defaults for the rest. COLUMN WIDTH Immediately following the "END" statement are twenty-six column PC-CALC FILE FORMAT PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 41 width fields. These fields are numeric integers, with values from 1 to 30, and they are followed by another "END" statement. The reason for this second "END" statement is that the number of columns may be increased in a future release, and PC-CALC needs to know when column width numbers stop. OTHER PARAMETERS Following the column widths are the following parameters: - Letter number of cell cursor position (1 to 26) - Row number of cell cursor position (1 to 255) - Row/col or col/row sequence setting (0=row, 1=col) - Border on/off setting (0=on, 1=off) - Default decimal places (0 to 9) - Default justification- left/right(" "=none, L=left, R=right) - Default commas - yes/no (" "=none, Y=yes, N=no) - Zeros as blanks - yes/no (0=no, 1=yes) - Print width (1 to 999) - Print length (1 to 999) - Print options (D=double space, etc. See print command.) - Print page offset (0 to 99) As this product is enhanced, more special parameters will be added at the end. The program checks for end-of-file as it loads, so if some new parameters are missing, the module will still load. It will use system defaults for the missing parameters. None of these parameters are required for the spread sheet to display, and it is recommended that programs passing data to PC- CALC not pass these parameters unless it is absolutely necessary. Bad data in one of the fields can cause unpredictable results. SAMPLE BASIC SUBROUTINE This routine demonstrates how a program might read a PC-CALC file. The routine puts the value of each numeric cell into a two- dimensional array called TABLE#. The routine assumes that housekeeping functions such as opening files, dimensioning arrays, etc. have been performed earlier. 1000 LINE INPUT# DISKIN,LETTER$ 'Read letter. IF LETTER$ = "END" THEN RETURN 'If END, exit. LETTER = VAL(LETTER$) 'Convert to numeric. LINE INPUT# DISKIN,LINE$ 'Input line number. ROW = VAL(LINE$) 'Convert to numeric. LINE INPUT# DISKIN,ATTRIBUTES$ 'Read attributes. LINE INPUT# DISKIN,VALUE$ 'Read value of cell. LINE INPUT# DISKIN,FORMULA$ 'Read formula. TYPE$ = LEFT$(ATTRIBUTES$,1) 'Extract type code. IF TYPE$ = "T" THEN RETURN 'Ignore text and IF TYPE$ = " " THEN RETURN 'null fields. TABLE#(LETTER,ROW) = VAL(VALUE$) 'Put number in table. GOTO 1000 'Loop. PC-CALC FILE FORMAT PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 42 VERSION NUMBERS AND MAJOR ENHANCEMENTS PC-CALC 1.0 (January 1984) - Enhanced /Print options: added page length, titles, borders, offset, setup and number of copies. - Added support for Home, End, Cancel, Pg Up and Pg Down keys. - Added new global command: Zeros-as-blanks. - Added directory display to /Load and /Save commands. - Added /Edit command. - Added /Configure command. THE FILES ON THE PC-CALC DISK The following files are included on your PC-CALC diskette: 1. PC-CALC.EXE: This is the main PC-CALC program. It must be on the currently logged disk drive. 2. PC-CALC2.EXE: This is an overlay program used by PC-CALC for certain functions such as printing, loading files, etc. It must be on the currently logged disk drive. 3. PC-OVL.EXE: This program is also an overlay, and must be on the currently logged disk drive. 4. PC-CALC.DOC: This is the documentation file you are reading now. This file is not needed to run PC-CALC, so it can be deleted from your working disk. 5. DOC.BAT: This batch file is used to print the documentation file "PC-CALC.DOC". This file is not needed to run PC-CALC, so it can be deleted from your working disk. 6. PC-CALC.MSG: This is the file where PC-CALC has its messages stored. It must be on the currently logged disk drive, or PC-CALC will not run. 7. EXAMPLE: This is a sample interest computation spreadsheet. This same spreadsheet is described in the "Brief Tutorial" and in the section on the Replicate Command (/R). THE FILES ON THE PC-CALC DISK PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 43 SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: What is your update policy? A: All registered (contributing) users will be notified when a new version of PC-CALC becomes available. The cost of an update will usually be $15 (to registered users). If you aren't a contributing user you will not receive notification of updates. Q: What should I do when I have a question or a problem? A: Our aim is to produce the highest quality, lowest cost software in the industry. You can help us achieve that goal by sending us a self-addressed, stamped envelope along with your inquiry or problem. We prefer that you do not telephone because escalating telephone costs may force us to increase prices. There is also a "User Response Form" near the end of this document which may be of help. Q: Can I obtain the source code for the program? A: Sorry, but the source code is not for sale at this time. Q: Do you pay taxes on the money you receive? A: Yes, we pay all applicable federal, state and local taxes. Q: In what language was PC-CALC written? A: It was written in BASIC, then compiled with the Microsoft BASIC Compiler. There are also some assembler subroutines. Q: Do you have any other programs you are distributing? A: Yes. PC-FILE, a data base manager program ($49); and PC-DIAL, a communications program ($25). Q: What else are you working on? A: A graphics program, and enhancements to our existing products. For example, enhancements to PC-CALC currently in process: - Additional print options - * format option, for simple bar graphs with ***** - Zero column width for "hidden" columns - Centering justification of fields - Additional format options: floating $, %, (123), etc. - Title locking In the section titled "User Response Form" we list some future enhancements, and ask you to indicate which ones are the most desirable to you. By filling out and returning the form, you can help us decide which improvements should be made first. Q: What computers does PC-FILE run on? A: Based on our users responses, we know that PC-CALC runs on the IBM PC, IBM XT, IBM PCjr, CORONA, TAVA, and the ZENITH Z-150 series. If you have tested PC-CALC on another brand, we would appreciate your notifying us so we can add it to the list. SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 44 DISCLAIMER You assume the responsibility for the selection of the programs to achieve the results you desire and for the installation, use and results from the programs. ButtonWare makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents hereof and disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the programs is with you. In no event will the Author be liable to you for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use these programs, even if the Author has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. RESTRICTED PERMISSION TO COPY PC-Calc(tm) is NOT a public domain program, and never has been. It is Copyright(C) 1984 by Jim Button. The conditions under which you may copy the PC-Calc programs and documentation are clearly outlined below. WARNING!!! The author intends to vigorously prosecute copyright violations. Individuals are granted permission by the author to freely copy the PC-Calc diskette for their own use or for others to evaluate, so long as no price or other consideration is charged. Computer clubs and user groups which purchase advertising space in any publication may not distribute PC-Calc under any conditions. You are not considered to be a "non-profit" club. Computer clubs (non-profit) are granted permission by the author to copy the PC-Calc diskette and share it with their members, so long as: - The organization has officially paid for its master copy of PC-Calc. - No price or other consideration is charged. However, a distribution fee may be charged for the cost of the diskette, so long as it is not more than $6 total. - Club members who receive the programs are informed in writing of the user-supported concept and encouraged to support it with their payments. PERMISSION TO COPY PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 45 - The program or documentation are not modified in any way and are distributed together. - The PC-Calc diskette may not be packaged together with any other programs or materials. It may not be bundled and sold as part of some other more inclusive package. - The programs may not be "rented" to others. - The programs may not be distributed via computerized "bulletin boards" or through any other telecommunications link. Companies, schools, universities, government and other organizations are granted permission by the author to copy the PC-Calc programs and documentation for use on other computers and at other locations in the organization, so long as: - The full registration fee of $45 has been paid for the original copy of the program. - A usage fee of $40 is paid to ButtonWare for each additional building where PC-Calc will be used. Within any building for which the usage fee has been paid, PC-Calc may be copied freely for use on any computer in that building. PERMISSION TO COPY PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 46 THE USER-SUPPORTED CONCEPT You are encouraged to copy and share this program with others. If after evaluating this program you find it to be useful, I trust you to send a $45 payment to: Jim Button P.O. Box 5786 Bellevue WA 98006 User-suppported software is an experiment in distributing computer programs, based on these beliefs: 1. That the value and utility of software is best assessed by the user on his/her own system. 2. That the creation of personal computer software can and should be supported by the computing community. 3. That copying of programs should be encouraged, rather than restricted. Anyone may legally obtain an evaluation copy of the program from a friend or computer club. After you've had a chance to use and evaluate the program in your own environment, you're trusted to either forward a payment to the author, or to discontinue use of the program. In any case, you are encouraged to copy the program for evaluation by others. Free distribution of software and voluntary payment for its use eliminates costs for advertising and copy protection schemes. Users obtain quality software at greatly reduced cost. They can try it out before buying, and do so at their own pace and in the comfort of their own home or office. The best programs will survive, based purely on their quality and usefulness. Please join the experiment. If you believe in these ideals, your contribution is solicited to help make them work. THE USER-SUPPORTED CONCEPT PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 47 USER RESPONSE FORM We are always interested in knowing more about our users. This information helps us to channel our efforts in the directions you want. Please help us by completing this questionaire and mailing it to: Jim Button P.O. Box 5786 Bellevue WA 98006 1. Here are some of the enhancements to PC-CALC that are planned. Help us prioritize these enhancements. Put a check mark beside each feature you would find useful. Put two check marks beside any that you feel are absolutely essential. Some improvements are already in process. They are listed in the section titled "Some Frequently Asked Questions". ___ More than 26 columns. ___ More than 255 lines. ___ Statistical functions: Min, max, average, std deviation. ___ Math functions: log, sq.root, sine, cosine, etc. ___ Financial functions: net pr. value, int. rate of return. ___ Table lookup function (for tax tables, etc.). ___ Input and display numbers in scientific notation. ___ Greater precision than nine decimal places. ___ Help screens. ___ Split screen or "window" command. ___ Faster calculation. ___ Faster screen display. ___ Larger memory workspace. ___ Formulas larger than 64 characters. ___ Command files or keyboard macros. ___ Consolidation (combining two or more spreadsheets into one summary spreadsheet). ___ Loading/Saving part of a spreadsheet. ___ Accessing cells from another spreadsheet. ___ Calendar/time functions and arithmetic. ___ DIF files (data interchange format). ___ Password security/encryption. ___ Sort command. ___ If/Then function. ___ Protect/Unprotect cells (so data can't be altered). ___ Natural or topological recalculation. (allows forward refs) ___ Interface to word processing. ___ Interface to communications program. ___ Interface to graphics program. ___ _________________________________________________________ ___ _________________________________________________________ ___ _________________________________________________________ (Continued on next page). PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 48 USER RESPONSE FORM (PAGE 2 OF 2) 2. Where did you hear about PC-CALC?_____________________________ 3. System being used to run PC-CALC: a) Computer brand/model?________________________________________ b) Amount of computer memory?___________________________________ c) Type of disk?________________________________________________ d) Monochrome or color display?_________________________________ e) 40 or 80 column display?_____________________________________ f) Printer brand/model?_________________________________________ 4. For what types of applications do you use PC-CALC? _____________________________________________________________ 5. Name and address (optional): _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ 6. ____ Contributing user ____ Non-contributing user (If you are a non-contributing user, we are interested in knowing why. Is the price too high? Do you already own a spreadsheet package? Is PC-CALC missing some features you need? Tell us in the section below.) 7. If you find a bug in PC-CALC, an error in the documentation, or you just have a suggestion for doing it a better way, we would like to hear from you. Please write your comments here, or attach a separate sheet. _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ PC-CALC(tm) USER GUIDE Page 49 Many of you have written requesting an invoice so that you could initiate payment through your company accounting system. The following invoice is provided for those of you in this category, or for those who wish an invoice for your tax records. Perhaps it will serve the purpose. ________________________________________________________________ ----------------- INVOICE ----------------- Purchased from: JIM BUTTON Federal Employer I.D.# 91-1228699 ButtonWare Washington State Tax # C 600 508 801 P.O. Box 5786 Bellevue WA 98006 DATE: / / Invoice No. 840101 ----------------------------------------------------------------- PRICE PRICE PRODUCT QTY EACH EXTENDED ---------------------------------- --- ----- -------- "PC-CALC" Visible Spreadsheet Software Package Version 1.0 1 $45 $ 45 -------- Usage fee for additional copies (each building) $40 $ --- -------- 7.9% state sales tax (Washington state residents) $ -------- TOTAL: $ -------- Please make check payable to: JIM BUTTON You may retain this invoice for your tax records.