home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Shareware Grab Bag
/
Shareware Grab Bag.iso
/
006
/
freecalc.arc
/
FC.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1984-03-13
|
73KB
|
1,576 lines
F R E E C A L C
VERSION 1.0
A User Supported Electronic Spreadsheet
(C) Copyright 1984
Stilwell Software Products
All Rights Reserved
Stilwell Software Products
16403 North 43rd Drive
Glendale, AZ 85306
**** CONTENTS ****
USER SUPPORTED PROGRAMS ................................... 1
INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEETS ................... 2
INTRODUCTION TO FREECALC .................................. 3
GETTING STARTED ........................................... 5
DEMO #1 ................................................... 7
The ENTER Option .................................. 8
The FORMULA Option ................................ 9
The HELP Option .................................. 10
The Quit Option .................................. 10
DEMO #2 .................................................. 11
The RECALC Option ................................ 13
The PRINT Option ................................. 13
The ATTRIBUTES Option ............................ 14
The SAVE Option .................................. 15
The BLANK Option ................................. 15
The NEW Option ................................... 16
The GoTo Option .................................. 16
DEMO #3 .................................................. 17
USER SUPPLIED FORMULAS ........................... 18
ATTRIBUTES ............................................... 22
BLANK .................................................... 23
ENTER .................................................... 24
FORMULAS ................................................. 26
GoTo ..................................................... 28
HELP ..................................................... 29
LOAD ..................................................... 30
NEW ...................................................... 31
PRINT .................................................... 32
QUIT ..................................................... 33
RECALC ................................................... 34
SAVE ..................................................... 35
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY ................................... 36
(1)
USER SUPPORTED PROGRAMS
FREECALC is a piece of user supported software. What is meant
by that is, FREECALC is available to anyone who wants to use
it at no cost. This method of distributing computer software
allows the user to try the program without having to pay for
the program in advance. It also allows the user to freely share
programs with other users without the fear of prosecution by
the owners of the program.
If you find FREECALC of use you are asked to send a contribution
($35 is suggested) to its author:
Stilwell Software Products
16403 North 43rd Drive
Glendale, AZ 85306
By sending a contribution you will become a resister owner of
FREECALC. This will enable us to send you information on new
versions of FREECALC as they become available as well as other
new programs Stilwell Software Products will be developing.
By contributing you will also be supporting a means of software
development that will give you quality software at a greatly
reduced price.
You may receive a copy of FREECALC by one of three methods.
First, you can send a $35 contribution to the above address
and we will mail you a diskette which will contain the program
and the documentation.
The second way is for you to send a blank, formatted diskette
to the above address. You MUST include an addressed, postage
paid return mailer. You may then use the software and make
a contribution later if you wish. The third way is to get a
copy of the program from your local IBM-PC User's Group. You
can use the program and later make a contribution if you wish.
You are always free to make copies of FREECALC and to share
them with others. You are not permitted to sell FREECALC nor
can you include it with any product you are distributing. You
may not modify FREECALC in any way.
Regardless of how you get the program, if you find FREECALC
useful, your contribution will be greatly appreciated.
(2)
INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEETS
FREECALC is an a member of the type of programs called "electronic
spreadsheets". You can think of a spreadsheet (or "sheet")
as a big calculator. A spreadsheet cannot do anything you could
not do with a pencil, paper and calculator, it just allows you
to do your work many times faster. It also allows you to get
a printed copy of your work.
When speaking of spreadsheets it is hard not to use the phrase
"What if .... ?". The electronic spreadsheet allows the user
to look at the data in several different ways. If you have
a business you might ask the question "What if we hired 10 more
workers (for an example of this type of question see DEMO3,
a spreadsheet example included with FREECALC)?" After knowing
the answer to that question you might ask "What would be the
effect on the company if instead of hiring 10 new workers we
were to hire 20?" With a spreadsheet you can make one change
and get the answer to the above question. With a paper and
pencil method it may take you 30 minutes.
Spreadsheets are often used for forecasting and for budgeting.
FREECALC includes two spreadsheets for home budgets (DEMO1 AND
DEMO2) and one for a business budget (DEMO3). Spreadsheets
are not restricted to just dealing with dollars. Anywhere you
can define a relationship that involves numbers you can use
a spreadsheet.
(3)
INTRODUCTION TO FREECALC
FREECALC requires an IBM-PC and the following;
128KB RAM, if using DOS 1.1
192KB RAM, if using DOS 2.0 or 2.1
One single-sided disk drive (but you will have to put the
documentation on a second diskette)
Files on the FREECALC diskette;
FC.EXE - The actual FREECALC program
FC.HLP - The on-line help file, can be deleted from your work
disk if you need the space on your diskette.
READ.ME - Instructions on how to print FC.DOC.
FC.DOC - Documentation file, this can also be deleted from
your work disk to give you more room on your diskette.
DEMO1.FC - A sample spreadsheet. Very basic.
DEMO2.FC - A sample spreadsheet. A bit more involved than DEMO1.
DEMO3.FC - A sample spreadsheet. More involved than either DEMO1
or DEMO2. Makes use of "User Supplied" formulas,
rather than the "System Supplied" formulas used by
DEMO1 and DEMO2.
FREECALC is an electronic spreadsheet that has 100 rows and
25 columns. This means that it has 2500 "cells" or places to
store information. If you use DOS 1.1 FREECALC will need 128KB,
if you have more memory it will be used as well. If you have
DOS 2.0 or 2.1 you will need at least 192KB of memory.
FREECALC had been designed to give particular attention to the
needs of the first time spreadsheet user. For example, it is
possible for you to create a useful spreadsheet without any
knowledge of how to write a formula in FREECALC. This is made
possible by the system providing you with certain basic formulas
and allowing you to "point" to the numbers that you want to
be included in the formula. If you wanted to add a column of
numbers this is what you would do. Select the "Formula" option
at the Main Menu. Select the "System Supplied" option at the
Formula Menu. Next, you would move the cursor to the first
number that you want to add. You press the ENTER key two times
to tell the program that you are selecting that row and that
column. The program will then ask you to locate the last number
you want to include in the formula. You "point" to that number
by moving the cursor to the last number in the column and pressing
the ENTER key twice to make that selection. The last thing
that is asked is where you want the results to be placed. Once
again you move the cursor to the desired location and press
ENTER twice to make the selection. That is it! (4)
But don't think that FREECALC is only for beginners. The program
also has an area for you to enter your own formulas. These
formulas can be as complex as you like. They can contain any
number of expressions, and parentheses may be nested as deeply
as you wish.
FREECALC is distributed with three demo spreadsheets and a tutorial.
An attempt has been made to provide you with a system that is
both easy to learn and use, as well as powerful enough so that
after you have learned the system it will remain extremely valuable.
A WORD OF CAUTION. If you need to use a spreadsheet for hours
at a time for five days a week you may find that other spreadsheets
will better suit your needs. Although FREECALC's 2500 cells
will be enough storage for most users, some might find it limiting
for very large tasks. Work is currently underway at Stilwell
Software Products to increase the number of cells available
on the sheet and to speed the operation of the spreadsheet.
Until that version becomes available a few users might find
that one of the other popular spreadsheets will best meet their
needs.
(5)
GETTING STARTED
FIRST!! The first thing to do with any software is to make
a copy of the original. You will probably want to store the
original and use only the copy (the "work diskette"). This
will insure that you have a good copy of the program should
anything ever happen to your work diskette.
TO MAKE A COPY. Put a blank diskette in drive B and a diskette
that has the FORMAT program (supplied on the DOS diskette from
IBM) in the A drive. Type "FORMAT B: /S" (don't type the quotes).
This will format the diskette and put a copy of the operating
system on your diskette. STEP 2. Remove from drive A the FORMAT
diskette and insert the FREECALC diskette. Type "COPY *.* B:"
(don't type the quotes). This will copy all the files from
the FREECALC diskette to your work diskette. We suggest you
put a write protect tab on the FREECALC diskette if you have
not already done so, and store the diskette. (To do this put
a piece of tape, which came with your diskettes, over the notch
in the upper-right corner of the diskette).
Now you are ready to start the program. To do that just type
the letters "FC".
Once the program loads you will see the start-up screen. When
you are ready to continue simply press any key. The next screen
will be a blank spreadsheet. The white box in row 1 column
1 is called the "cursor". The cursor represents your location
on the spreadsheet. You might want to first practice moving
the cursor around. There are several ways of moving the cursor.
The arrow keys on the number pad moves the cursor in the direction
of the arrow. The `Home' key moves the cursor to the TOP-LEFT
position of the screen. The `End' key move the cursor to the
LOWER-RIGHT position of the screen. The `Pg Up' key moves the
cursor to the screen area ABOVE your present position. That
is, you will be moved to the 20 rows ABOVE your present location.
The `Pg Dn' key moves the cursor to the screen area BELOW your
present position.
Holding the `Ctrl' key down while pressing the the `Home' key
will move you to the START of the spreadsheet. Holding the
`Ctrl' key down while pressing the `End' key will move you to
the END of the spreadsheet.
By this time you might have noticed another cursor, or white
box, on the screen. This second cursor is located on one of
the two Action lines on the bottom of the screen. This cursor
also represents your location. This time, rather than representing (6)
your location on the spreadsheet, the Action Cursor represents
your location on the Action Menu. The Action Menu is how you
will select some of the various options of FREECALC. To move
the Action Cursor you press the `F9' function key (located at
the lower-left side of the keyboard) to move left, and the `F10'
function key to move right. To select one of the actions move
the Action cursor so that it is over the desired word. Then
press the `ENTER' key. To speed things up a bit you can also
just type the first letter of the desired action when the Action
Menu is displayed.
At this point you might want to try moving both of the cursors
around until you are comfortable with how this part of
the program works.
If you select something on the Action Menu but later want to
cancel your request and return to the Action Menu press the
gray `Esc' key (located in the upper-left part of the keyboard).
(7)
DEMO1
DEMO1 is a sample spreadsheet which has been included to help
you get a feel for how spreadsheets work. People who have used
spreadsheets before might want to skip this section. It is
assumed that you have already read the section called "Getting
Started".
To examine DEMO1 we need to first get the FREECALC program started.
If you have not already done so, put the FREECALC diskette in
drive A and type the letters "FC". The start-up screen will
appear first. When you are ready to continue press any key.
The screen will have the numbers 1 to 7 across the top. These
numbers represent the "names" of the columns. On the left side
of the screen are the numbers 1 to 20. These numbers represent
"names" for the rows. FREECALC has 100 rows and 25 columns.
This allows for 2500 "cells", or places where information can
be stored.
The white box in row 1, column 1 is called a cursor. Along
the bottom of the screen is the two line Action Menu. The Action
Menu also has a white box called an Action Cursor.
What we want to do now is to load the spreadsheet called DEMO1.
------------------------ LOAD OPTION ----------------------------
There are two ways of doing this. One is to move the Action
Cursor over to where the word "Load" is, and press then ENTER
key. The other way is to simply type the letter "L", for "Load".
You may now select the "Load" option in either of the above
mentioned ways.
The Action Menu has now been replaced with the Load Menu. We
are given two options here. First we can load a file. The
second option is to display the file names of all spreadsheets
on our disk drives. At this point we just want to load the
file. At a later point you might want to try to retrieve the
names of the spreadsheets on your diskette.
You should now see the Load Menu. Move the Action Cursor (by
using the `F9' or `F10' function keys) so that the cursor is
over the option "Load". Press the ENTER key to select this
option (the same results can be obtained by pressing the first
letter of the desired action - in this case the letter "L").
(8)
Next the program asks you for the name of the file. The file
we want is called DEMO1. Type in the word DEMO1 and press the
ENTER key. If you typed the name wrong, or if you do not have
that file on the disk an error message will appear on the screen.
If this happens to you, either type the name in correctly, or
press the `Esc' key if you want to return to the Main Menu.
Once the program has accepted the name for the file a message
will appear on the screen informing you that the file is being
loaded. After the file has been read into the computer's memory,
another message will be added to the screen informing you that
the program is recalculating the values of the formulas from
the spreadsheet. Once these two functions have been completed,
the spreadsheet will appear on the screen, and you will be returned
to the Main Menu.
DEMO1 is a fictitious home budget. This spreadsheet will total
up a household's expenses, its income, and subtract the expenses
from the income. You can get a feel for how it works by changing
some of the values on the sheet. To start with, move the cursor
to the position where the number "650.00" is located. To do
this, select the arrow key for the direction you want to move
and then press that key.
Once you have positioned yourself at the number "650.00" type
the number "550.00" and press the ENTER key. You will notice
that the "END OF MONTH TOTAL" at the bottom of the "Expenses"
column has been changed to "1560.00". This means that our expenses
for the month have been reduced by 100 (650-550=100). Also
note that the "END OF MONTH BALANCE" has increased by 100.
This is due to the fact that we have 100 fewer dollars budgeted
for expenses for the month than we did before. You might want
to change some of the other numbers (reduce or increase the
income and see what happens) until you feel comfortable.
------------------------- ENTER OPTION --------------------------
The labels (the words on the sheet that indicate what the numbers
mean) can also be changed. We can easily change, for example,
the word "Food" which is under the "Expenses" column, to the
word "Groceries". To do so, move the cursor to the location
to where the word "Food" is presently at. Next, select the
"Enter" option from the Main Menu. Remember, this can be done
by moving the Action Cursor to the word "Enter" and pressing
the ENTER key, or by typing the first letter of the desired
action ("E", in this case). The Enter Menu will then prompt
you as to what type of data you wish to enter. Since we want
to enter a word we will select
"Alpha". Place the Action Cursor over the word "Alpha" and
press the ENTER key, or type the letter "A", for "Alpha".
The entry you are about to make will be placed at the location
of the cursor. If you find that you are not at the correct (9)
place, you may move the cursor (by means of the arrow keys)
to the desired location, and your entry will be placed there.
We are now ready to type the word "Groceries". If you make
a mistake in the spelling you may backspace by using the gray
backspace key (it has an arrow pointing to the left), which
is located on the top row, right-hand of the keyboard.
After entering the word you will need to press the ENTER key.
You will then notice that word you have typed will appear
on the screen instead of the word "Food".
You might have noticed that when the cursor is placed at any
of the cells which are labeled "END OF MONTH..." that a line
is displayed under the Main Menu. If you have not seen this
yet, then move the cursor to one of the totals and look at the
line below the Main Menu. This line is the formula for that
cell. This is how the program "knows" what kind of action you
wish to perform on a group of numbers. In the case of the total
for the "Expenses" column, the formula is the sum of the first
expense through the last expense.
To get some experience with the formulas let's change one of
them.
--------------------- FORMULA OPTION ----------------------------
Just for this lesson, let's say that instead of wanting to know
the sum of the expenses, we wanted to know the average of the
expenses. To enter a formula we need to select the "Formula"
option on the Main Menu. Either move the Action Cursor to the
word "Formula" or type the letter "F", for the word "Formula".
The Main Menu will be replaced by the Formula Menu. The first
question is what type of formula do we want. For now we want
to use the "System Supplied" formulas. To do so, place the
Action Cursor over the words "System Supplied" and press the
ENTER key, or type the letter "S", for "System".
Next, we see a list of the types of formulas that the system
can provide for us. We want to compute the average of a group
of numbers, so either move the Action Cursor to the word "Ave",
and press the ENTER key, or type the letter "A", for average.
FREECALC needs to know the starting location of the row and
column that you want to average. First the program will ask
you for the starting row. You may type in the number of the
starting row, or you may move the cursor to the location of
the starting row.
The movement of the cursor is a feature of FREECALC that allows
you to "point" to locations on the spreadsheet. You can move
the cursor in any of the standard ways (arrow keys, `Home', (10)
`End', `Pg Up', `Pg Dn', etc.). Once you have positioned yourself
on the desired row press the ENTER key. Next the program will
prompt you to enter the starting column number. If you have
positioned yourself on the cell which will be the starting cell
to be average, then all you need to do is to press the ENTER
key. If you are not at the correct location, then either move
the cursor, or type in the number for the starting column.
After determining the starting position to be averaged, the
program needs to know the ending position. It will prompt you
for the ending row and columns. Enter that information as you
did for the starting position.
The last step is to determine the location where you want the
results stored. This position is entered in the same manner
as the starting and ending positions.
After entering the ending position, FREECALC will compute the
result and display that number where you requested it to be.
If at any point you do not wish to continue, you can (as in
other parts of the program), respond to the prompt with the
`Esc' key. This will cancel the current Menu and return you
to the Main Menu.
-------------------------- HELP OPTION --------------------------
When you are at the Main Menu you may select the "Help" option
if you want some assistance. The "Help" feature will provide
you with information on how to move the cursor around and how
to select an option from the Main Menu. You can select the
"Help" option in one of two ways. First, you can move the Action
Cursor (by using the `F9' or `F10' function keys) over to the
word "Help" and then press the ENTER key. The second way is
to type the letter "H", for help.
You might want to play with this spreadsheet for a bit before
proceeding to the next spreadsheet (DEMO2). DEMO2 will build
on what you have learned in DEMO1.
------------------------- QUIT OPTION ---------------------------
If you want to end this session with FREECALC you must first
return to the Main Menu from wherever you are at (this can
be done by pressing the `Esc' key). Once you are at the Main
Menu you will need to select the "Quit" option. Just as you
can with all options, you can select the option in one of two
ways. First, you can move the Action Cursor to the word "Quit"
and then press the ENTER key. Or you can type the letter "Q",
for quit.
Once this is done, the Quit Menu will ask if you are certain
that you want to quit. Either move the Action Cursor to the
word "Yes" and press the ENTER key, or type the letter "Y",
for "Yes". (11)
DEMO2
DEMO1 can give you an idea of what a spreadsheet can do. The
problem with DEMO1 is that it is very limited. First, it is
only one month. You might want to look at several months at
a time.
Second, it does not take into account that you may have income
left over from the previous month to help you meet the expenses
of the current month. DEMO2 will deal with these two issues
and will allow us to examine a couple of other features of FREECALC.
GETTING STARTED. If FREECALC is not currently running on your
computer, then get it started and load the spreadsheet DEMO2
(if you are not sure how to do this see the section on loading
a file in DEMO1 - remember to load DEMO2 and not DEMO1).
If you are currently running FREECALC then return to the Main
Menu and select the "Load" option. At the Load Menu you will
want to select the "Load" option. If you currently have a spread-
sheet loaded into FREECALC the program will ask you if you
want to continue. This is a safety feature. When loading a
spreadsheet any sheet that is in the program's memory will be
lost. If you made a lot of changes and have not saved the sheet,
you would lose those changes if you tried to load another sheet.
This feature just allows you to stop the loading process and
save a sheet, if you wish. For our purposes, we will select
to continue.
Move the Action Cursor to "Yes" or type the letter "Y", for
yes. The program will say that it is working. What it is actually
doing is erasing the old spreadsheet from its memory. Once
this is completed you will be prompted for the name of the
spreadsheet that you want to load. Enter "DEMO2" for this example.
After DEMO2 is loaded you might notice something a bit different
than DEMO1. DEMO2 is a larger spreadsheet than was DEMO1.
As a result, we have less free space in this sheet than in DEMO1
(you can see the amount of free space available by looking at
the center of the bottom line on the screen). You need not
worry about the amount of free space on this sheet, but you
might want to watch this amount on really large sheets if you
have a machine with 128KB. FREECALC will provide you with
a message once you have 4% or less of the available memory
remaining. This will give you time to save the current spreadsheet,
or to reduce its size.
DEMO2 offers a couple of features that DEMO1 did not have.
First of all, you might notice that there are more Expenses
on this sheet. In fact, there are more than you can see on
a single screen. To see the rest of the first month's budget (12)
press the `Pg Dn' key. This will move you to the 20 lines below
what is currently on the screen. You can now see the rest of
the expenses, the INCOME area, and the END OF MONTH BALANCE.
You might also notice that there are lines under both the EXPENSES
and the INCOME columns that have nothing on them. This is to
allow you to enter items into either of these columns. You
might want set up your own home budget using DEMO2.
A second feature of this sheet is the item "Left from Last Month"
which is found under the "Income" column. This item is the
balance (either positive or negative) from the previous month.
For the first month, the amount remaining from the previous
month is zero. If you move to the next month (press the `Ctrl'
key while pressing the right arrow), you will see there is a
value for this item.
DEMO2 has four months in it, April, May, June and July. April
and May are physically located next to each other. June is
locate after the 40 rows that April uses (June starts at row
41, column 1). July is located after the 40 rows that May uses
(July start in row 41 column 15).
To get a feel for this sheet move back to the start of the sheet.
To do this, hold down the `Ctrl' key while pressing the `Home'
key. For this example, let's say that our landlord has reduced
our rent (for this month only) by $100. To make that change
in our budget, move the cursor to the "Rent/Mortgage" amount
("500.00"). Change that amount by typing "400.00" (do not type
the quotes) and then press the ENTER key. Now press the `Pg
Dn' key. This will move you to the second half of the sheet
for the first month. Notice that the "Expenses" column has
been changed. Instead of "2705.00" it now says "2605.00".
The "End of Month Balance" has also been changed. We now have
an additional 100.00 at the end of the month ("295.00" instead
of "195.00"). If you hold down the `Ctrl' key while you press
the left-arrow key you will see that the change we made on April's
budget has effected May's budget as well. In May we have increased
the amount of money carried over from the previous month ("Left
from Last Month" used to be "195.00" now it says "295.00").
We have also increased by $100.00 the total amount of money
in the "END OF MONTH TOTAL" under the "Income" column for May,
and have increased the amount of money at the "END OF MONTH
BALANCE" for the month of May. You may already have guessed
that this will, in turn, increase items on June's budget, which
will increase items on July's budget. You may want to move
the cursor around to see these changes as well.
Now we can start to see the power of FREECALC. Our landlord
gave us a reduction in rent for one month, but we can see the
effect of that change in the budgets for the four months we
have on this sheet. If we spend $100 less in April, and we (13)
do not have any additional expenses May, June or July, we will
have an additional $100 at the end of our time period (July).
In the real world though, we might find a place for that $100.
We might want to go on a short trip in May, or send in an additional
$100 on one of the credit cards, or whatever. FREECALC allows
for that as well. You might want to try to enter an additional
expense of $100 in May and you will see the $100 that we had
"extra" from rent be used for this additional expense.
You might want to play around with changing different numbers
until you get a good feel for how this sheet is set up.
------------------------ RECALC OPTION --------------------------
One thing you might have noticed is that when you change a number
a message is displayed beneath the Main Menu which says that
the sheet is being recalculated. When you have a small sheet
this is not a problem because the recalculation is performed
very swiftly. But when you have a large sheet with lots of
formulas this can get to be time consuming. FREECALC allows
for you to turn the "Recalc" feature off if you want to. To
do so, return to the Main Menu. Select the "Recalc" option.
The Recalc Menu offers two options. The first is to "Recalc"
after each numeric entry (the "Yes" option), and the second
is not to "Recalc" after each numeric entry (the "No" option).
If you do not wish to "Recalc" after each numeric entry select
the "No" option.
------------------------- PRINT OPTION --------------------------
Printing a spreadsheet with FREECALC is fairly easy. First,
return to the Main Menu if you are not already there. Next,
select the "Print" option. The Print Menu will replace the
Main Menu. The first piece of information that is needed is
the first row that you wish to print. As with other areas in
which you are asked to provide a row or column to a prompt,
you may move the cursor around with any of the standard methods.
This movement will cause the present location of the cursor
to be entered on the prompt line. If you want, you could just
type the line number in, rather than moving the cursor about.
The next prompt is for the starting column number. If you have
used the cursor to locate the upper-left corner of the area
you wish to be printed, then the correct column is already on
the prompt line. By pressing the ENTER key your desired column
will be selected. If you have not used the cursor to select
the location, then type the column number that you want to start
printing from.
If we wanted to print the budget for the month of April this
is what we would do. First press `Ctrl' and the `Home' key (14)
(this will move us to the start of the sheet). Next, select
"Print" from the Main Menu. The third step is to press the
ENTER key twice (this tells the program that we want our present
location to be the upper-left corner of the printout). Next,
we are prompted for the ending row number. Since we want to
print the April budget and since the April budget continues
to the area beneath our present screen we press the `Pg Dn'
key. The program needs to know the lower-right corner that
we want to print. To move the cursor to that point press the
`End' key and press the ENTER key twice to select that location.
The next item we see on the screen is information for us. We
are informed that what we have selected to print will take 70
columns. We are given a chance to change our minds about what
it is that we want to print at this point. If we do not want
to continue with the printing we can select the "No" option
(we can also press the `Esc' key to return to the Main Menu).
Another reason we are provided with this information is to allow
us to make sure that our printer can print what we have selected
for it to print. If you had selected to start printing at column
1, and to stop printing at column 10 you would have requested
that 100 characters be printed. If your printer can only handle
80 characters per line then your output would not look as expected!
After we have verified that what we have selected was indeed
what we wanted (by pressing the ENTER key), we get another prompt
from FREECALC. This prompt request that we turn on the printer
and press a key when the printer is ready. Once we have done
that, the selected information will be passed to the printer.
----------------------- ATTRIBUTES OPTIONS ----------------------
The next option we will use is the option that allows us to
change the number of digits following the decimal point. The
present sheet allows you to deal with dollars and cents. You
may find that you are not interested in the cents, that whole
dollars are really all you care about. The "Attributes" option
on the Main Menu allows you to change the attributes of the
numbers in your spreadsheet.
Return to the Main Menu, if you have not already have done so.
Either move the Action Cursor to the word "Attributes" and press
the ENTER key, or type the letter "A", for the word "Attributes".
You will then be prompted as to the number of digits you want
to follow the decimal point. You may select any number between
zero and four. If you select zero, for example, all computations
will still be performed as before. You will just see the result
without any digits after the decimal point. The result will
be rounded if necessary (the result of "1.8" will be displayed
as "2" on your screen). Go ahead and select zero and see what
changes are made to your screen. (15)
After you have select the number of digits that you desire the
screen will be changed to display the numbers as you requested.
A WORD OF CAUTION. FREECALC only allows you to use numbers
with seven or fewer digits. If you have large numbers in your
spreadsheet (for example, "1000000") and then request that the
numbers be displayed with, for example, four digits after the
decimal point, the number will extend beyond the column it is
in. It will also be preceded with a "%". It is up to you to
check for this if you do not want it to happen. If this does
occur, you can easily correct the problem by returning to the
"Attributes" option and selecting fewer digits to follow the
decimal point. Remember that the "Attribute" option only effects
the display of the numbers. The numbers are still stored in
the computer with the maximum precision permitted by FREECALC.
------------------------ SAVE OPTION ----------------------------
You may have been making some changes to your spreadsheet and
wondered how you can save those changes. You would not want
to have to re-enter the changes each time you start using this
spreadsheet. To save the current spreadsheet, return to the
Main Menu, if you have not already done so. Select the "Save"
option by either moving the Action Cursor to the word save and
pressing the ENTER key, or by typing the letter "S", for the
word "Save".
Next, the Save Menu will offer three options. Select the "Save"
option by either moving the Action Cursor to the word "Save"
and pressing the ENTER key, or by typing the letter "S", for
the word "Save". The Save Menu will ask you for the name of
the file you wish to save. If you have "Loaded" a file from
the diskette previously, FREECALC will supply you with the name
of the file you loaded. If you do not wish to call this new
spreadsheet the name that appears on the screen just start typing
the new name and the old name will disappear. If you want to
call your present sheet the same name as what appears on the
screen, press the ENTER key and the current file will be written
to the diskette.
If you want to write the current sheet to a drive other than
the current default drive you will have to add the drive letter
and a colon to the name of the file you wish to save. For example,
if the default drive is "A" and we want to save the file DEMO2
to the "B" drive we would type "B:DEMO2" (do not type the quotes).
----------------------- BLANK OPTION ----------------------------
While using DEMO2 you might have wished that you could just
erase a value of one of the cells. The "Blank" option on the
Main Menu does just that. After selecting the "Blank" option
you are asked the row of the cell you wish to erase. Once again, (16)
you can move the cursor around by any of the standard methods.
After entering the row you will be prompt for the column. Once
you have entered that information, the contents of the cell
will be erased.
You should note, FREECALC will recalculate (if the "Recalc"
option is on) all formulas to insure that the erased value will
no longer be reflected in any of the results of the formulas.
----------------------------- GoTo ------------------------------
The next option to be utilized in DEMO2 is the "GoTo" option
on the Main Menu. This option allows you to quickly move from
your present location to somewhere else on the spreadsheet.
Select this option and try it out. Let's move to row 30, column
15. After the "GoTo" option has been selected the program will
ask for the row we want to go to. Type the number 30 and then
press the ENTER key. Next it will ask us for the column. Type
the number 15 and press the ENTER key. The program will move
us to row 30, column 15.
-------------------------- NEW OPTION ---------------------------
If we want to clear the present screen and start a new spreadsheet
(one that we are not loading from a diskette) we will want to
select the "New" option from the Main Menu. To start this option,
either move the Action Cursor to the word "New" and press the
ENTER key, or type the letter "N", for "New".
We will be informed that this action will cause the present
spreadsheet to be erased from the screen. The spreadsheet will
still exist on our diskette if we have saved it. All that will
be lost will be any changes we have made since we have last
saved the spreadsheet to the diskette. If we have already saved
the diskette, or if we do not want to save the present sheet
we will want to respond yes to the prompt asking if we want
to continue. If we do not want to erase the present sheet,
then move the Action Cursor to the word "No" and press return,
or type the letter "N", for the word "No".
If you requested the program to continue to erase the present
spreadsheet from the screen, FREECALC will respond by displaying
the start-up screen. When you are ready to continue press any
key. You will then be given a blank spreadsheet. You can load
a sheet, or just start entering a new sheet from scratch.
We have certainly covered a great deal in DEMO2. You might
want to work on some of the options covered until you feel ready
to move on to the third and final lesson, DEMO3.
(17)
DEMO3
In DEMO2 we were able to use most of the features of FREECALC.
One of the things that DEMO2 did not allow was for us to write
our own formulas. If, for example, we wanted to multiply the
value of a cell by .25 we would have been unable to do so with
the "System Supplied" formulas used in DEMO2. In DEMO3 we will
be using formulas created by you. If all you ever need are
the "System Supplied" formulas you may want to skip over most
of this section.
If you do not already have FREECALC up and running on your machine,
then do that now.
Once you are at the Main Menu select the "Load" option by either
of the two methods. You can move the Action Cursor to the word
"Load" and press the ENTER key, or type the letter "L", for
the word "Load". The Load Menu will prompt you for an action.
Select the "Load" option. When you are prompted for a file
name type in the name "DEMO3". This file will take a bit of
time to recalculate due to the number of formulas it has - so
be patient.
DEMO3 is a budget forecast for a fictitious business. The budget
includes personal cost, fringe benefits, phone, travel, rent,
medical, and equipment cost. Five years are examined. This
spreadsheet helps to answer the question "What will be the effect
on the budget if we add X more employees?"
The current plan for this company is to add five employees a
year over the next four years. But you cannot just add the
straight personnel cost of five employees and be done with it.
We have set up certain assumptions about the relationships between
employee cost and the budget for this company. Even though
these assumptions have been simplified for use in the demo,
you can easy see how long it would take you to recompute the
budget each time you wanted to see the effect of a different
number of employees. Here are the assumptions for DEMO3.
PERSONAL cost for any year is equal to the personnel cost per
employee for the previous year times the total number of employees
for the current year times 10%. This means that we expect our
personnel cost to rise 10% per year.
FRINGE BENEFITS are equal to 25% of the personnel cost.
PHONE cost are expected to increase 10% per year.
TRAVEL is figured in 1984 to be $800 per person. In future
years it is expected to increase over the 1984 figure by 10%
per person. (18)
RENT is a constant $60,000.
MEDICAL is expected to increase 10% per year.
EQUIPMENT is also expected to increase 10% per year.
On the second to the last line we also compute the amount of
dollars the budget differs from the previous year. This number
can be either positive or negative (we could get a negative
result if we laid off a lot of employees, for example). The
last line is the percent of change in the budget of one year
to the previous year. This number can also be negative.
You might best get a feel for this spreadsheet by changing the
number of employees for one of the four future years. For example,
try reducing the number of employees in the year 1986 to 30
instead of 60. You will notice that it takes a while to recalculate
this spreadsheet. This is due to the large number of formulas.
A WORD OF CAUTION. FREECALC can only handle numbers less than
10,000,000. For most situations this will give you enough to
work with. It is possible, though, to increase the number of
employees in this spreadsheet so that you will produce a result
that is equal to or greater than 10,000,000. If that happens,
all is not lost. Just change the number back to a smaller number.
If you need for the number to be larger that 10,000,000 you
might want to set up your spreadsheet so that you deal with
1,000's of dollars rather that each dollars. For example, the
personnel cost for the year 1984 could be represented as 1000,
and the label could say "Personnel (in 1,000's)". This would
allow you to deal with very large numbers and still stay within
the limitations of FREECALC.
-------------------- USER SUPPLIED FORMULAS ---------------------
The "User Supplied Formulas" are accessed through the "Formula"
option on the Main Menu. Let's change one of the formulas to
get a feel for how the "User Supplied" formulas work. Before
we get started, first turn the "Recalc" feature off. This will
allow us to change a formula and not have to wait for FREECALC
to recalculate each formula. To turn the "Recalc" off we select
the "Recalc" option from the Main Menu. We do this by either
moving the Action Cursor to the word "Recalc" and pressing the
ENTER key, or by typing the letter "R", for the word "Recalc".
The Recalc Menu provides us with a prompt asking if we want
the formulas to be recalculated after each numeric entry. We
want to respond "No" to this question. To do so, we need to
move the Action Cursor to the word "No" and press the ENTER
key, or type the letter "N", for "No". We will then be returned
to the Main Menu. (19)
At the Main Menu we will select the "Formula" option. This
option may be selected by moving the Action Cursor to the word
"Formula" and pressing the ENTER key, or by typing the letter
"F", for "Formula".
The Formula Menu allows us to select either to enter "System
Supplied" formulas or "User Supplied" formulas. We want to
select the "User Supplied" option. Move the Action Cursor to
the words "User Supplied" and press ENTER, or type the letter
"U", for "User Supplied".
We will now be asked where we want to locate the results of
the formula. The formula we want to change is the medical expenses
for the years 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988. The current spreadsheet
does not allow the number of employees to be reflected in the
medical expenses. We want to change that now, since we know
that as the number of employees increase so will the cost of
our medical coverage.
Move the cursor to the location where the Medical cost are entered
for the year 1985. The number there should be "1650". Press
the ENTER key twice to indicate to FREECALC that you want the
result of the formula placed at your current location.
The old formula took the cost of medical expenses for the previous
year and added 10% to those cost for the current year's medical
budget. What we want to do now is to have the medical cost
reflect the number of employees we have planned for that year.
The new relationship for the cost of medical expenses will be;
"Medical expenses are the cost per employee for the previous
year, times the number of employees for the current year times
a 10% increase in cost".
FREECALC has provided us with a prompt to enter the formula
so let's do that now. To indicate reference to a row on the
spreadsheet we will use the letter "R" (either upper or lower
case). To reference a column we will use the letter "C". For
example, if we wanted to reference the cell which is located
in row 1, column 1, we would type "R1C1" into our formula.
The formula we want to enter is "(R14C3 / R6C3) * R6C4 * 1.10"
(do not type the quotes). Type this formula and then press the
ENTER key to enter the formula into the system. This formula
request that FREECALC perform three operations. First we have
asked the system to compute the amount of money spent per person
on medical expenses by the company in 1984 ("(R14C3 / R6C3)").
The second part of the formula instructs the system to multiply
the cost per person in 1984 by the number of employees we expect
to have in 1985. Given the same cost of medical coverage in
1984 and 1985 this would be all we would need. But we have
built in an additional assumption into this model. We have
assumed that the cost of medical coverage will increase by 10%
per year. To compute this increase, we instructed FREECALC (20)
to multiply the cost of medical coverage per employee by 1.10
(that is, 110%- the current cost plus a 10% increase).
Once you have entered the formula and pressed the ENTER key
a new value will be entered for the cell where we are located.
FREECALC examines your formula for various types of error.
If you make an error FREECALC will let you know and give you
the chance to re-enter the formula.
You might have noticed that although the current cell has been
changed, the column total remained the same. This is because
we have requested that FREECALC not recalculate all of the formulas
after each entry. Only the formula we are currently creating
will be recalculated.
We now need to change the formula for the years 1986, 1987 and
1988. We should be at the Main Menu now. Select the "Formula"
option as we did before. At the Formula Menu we will want to
select the "User Supplied" option as we did last time. We now
will be asked for the location for where we want to place the
results. Move the cursor to the location of the medical expenses
for the year 1986 and press the ENTER key twice to select this
location.
The formula we will want to enter for this cell is "(R14C4 /
R6C4) * R6C5 * 1.10" (you do not type the quotes).
Once the formula is entered for 1986 we will be ready to enter
1987's formula. Answer the prompts from the Main Menu down
through the Formula Menu just as you did before. When prompted
for the location of the results for the formula move the cursor
to the medical expenses for the year 1987, and press the ENTER
key twice. The formula we will enter for this cell is "(R14C5
/ R6C5) * R6C6 * 1.10" (you do not type the quotes).
We are now ready to enter the last formula. Respond to the
prompts as we did before until we get to the point where we
are asked for the location for the results. Move the cursor
to the cell that has the medical expenses for the year 1988.
Press the ENTER key twice to select that location for the results.
The formula for 1988 is "(R14C6 / R6C6) * R6C7 * 1.10" (you
do not type the quotes).
We have now changed the formulas for the medical expenses.
To see the impact our changes have had on the overall budget
we will need to return to the Main Menu. Select the "Recalc"
option. When the Recalc Menu appears we need to select "Yes"
by either moving the Action Cursor to the word "Yes", and pressing
the ENTER key, or typing the letter "Y", for the word "Yes".
This will cause FREECALC to recalculate all the formulas on
our spreadsheet and to display those results. (21)
You might want to try to alter some of the other formulas so
that you are comfortable with how the "User Supplied" formulas
work.
Once you have completed this final lesson you have been exposed
to all of the major features of FREECALC. You will now, with
a little bit of practice, be able to write spreadsheets on your
own. If you ever have any trouble, refer back these lessons
and review the areas that you are having trouble with.
(22)
A T T R I B U T E S
This option will allow you to change the number of digits that
follow the decimal point. The options are any number between
zero and four.
After changing the number of digits, the screen will be redisplayed
to reflect the change you requested. If you save the spreadsheet,
the next time you load it from the diskette FREECALC will "remember"
the number of digits you requested, and continue to display
to screen accordingly.
The numbers are still stored by FREECALC as you have entered
them. This option changes only the DISPLAY of the numbers -
not the actual value of the numbers.
It is possible to cause a number to be too large to be properly
displayed by the use of this option. For example, say that
you entered the number 1000000 (which is a valid number for
FREECALC) and later wanted to change the spreadsheet so that
you could display four digits following the decimal point.
This would mean that you wanted to display the number 1000000.0000.
Since FREECALC only has room to display 10 characters in a cell,
this cell will "spill" over to the next cell. FREECALC will
not check to see if this has happened. It is left to you to
watch for this and to correct the problem if it happens (this
can usually be corrected by selecting to display fewer digits
after the decimal point).
(23)
B L A N K
The "Blank" option allows you to erase the contents of one cell.
This is useful when you have found that you have entered something
incorrectly, or when you are redesigning a spreadsheet and want
to erase the contents of some of the old cells.
You will be prompted as to the row and column of the cell that
you want to erase. As with other options, you can move the
cursor around by any of the standard methods to select the location,
or you can type the number of the row and column.
Once you have selected the cell to be erase, FREECALC will recalc-
ulate (if the "Recalc" feature is on) all formulas to insure
that the erased value will no longer be reflected in any of
the results of the formulas.
(24)
E N T E R
"Enter" is selected to input values into the spreadsheet. The
values can be labels for the rows and columns, or they can be
numbers.
The Enter Menu first prompts you to select the type of information
that you want to enter. You may select either "Alpha" or "Numeric".
There are two differences between the two types of data. First,
only data which was entered with the "Numeric" option can be
used in formulas. You can enter numeric values by using the
"Alpha" mode, but those cells will not be used by any formulas.
If a formula makes a reference to an "Alpha" cell, either directly
or indirectly (by use of the "THRU" format of a formula), the
formula will interpret the value of the cell to be zero. The
second difference is that only data entered with the "Numeric"
option will be effected by the changing of the "Attributes"
option (that is, the number of digits that will follow the decimal
point).
You will be prompted to inform FREECALC of the location that
you want to put the information you are about to enter. You
can move the cursor around by any of the usual methods (for
example, the arrow keys, `Pg Up', `Pg Dn', `Home', `End', etc.),
or you can type the actual number of the row and column that
you wish to place your entry.
After selecting the "Alpha" option you will be prompted to enter
the value for the cell. Beneath this prompt is the Justification
Menu. This will allow you to have your alpha input either left
justified, right justified, or centered. You may select any
of these options by moving the Action Cursor (`F9' to move left,
`F10' to move right). Whatever the Justification is set on
when you enter the value for the cell will be the Justification
used for that specific cell. This will allow you to change
the Justification at any point during the process of entering
information to the cell.
In the "Alpha" mode, you will be allowed to enter 10 characters
(including spaces). When you have finished typing the desired
value of a cell you do not have to press the ENTER key to cause
the value to be entered into the spreadsheet. The value of
the cell can also be entered into the system by pressing one
of the four arrow keys. This will enable you to stay in the
mode ("Alpha" or "Numeric") you are presently in. This will
speed up data entry since you will not be returned to the Main
Menu and will not be required to specify the location that you
want your entries to go to. This feature is useful if you want
to enter a label that is longer than the 10 character limit. (25)
Once you have reached the 10 character limit, press the left
arrow and you will be transferred to the next cell. Your previous
10 characters will be displayed in your last cell.
Numeric values can be entered directly from the Main Menu.
By typing a numeric value when you are at the Main Menu FREECALC
will put you into the "enter mode" for numbers.
When entering in the numeric mode, you may use only seven digits.
(26)
F O R M U L A
The Formula Menu provides you with two options. You can select
"System Supplied" formulas, or "User Supplied" formulas.
SYSTEM SUPPLIED FORMULAS are probably the easy formulas to use.
Included in the "System Supplied" formulas are; Sum, Minus,
Average, Greatest Value, Least Value, and Count. You may select
any of these formulas and the system will then prompt you as
to the location of the starting and ending rows and columns.
If, for example, you wanted to average a column of numbers you
would do the following. Enter the row that the column starts
in. Next, enter the column that you want to average. The third
step is to enter the the row that the column ends in. The fourth
step is to enter the column that you want to average. The next
two prompts will be for the location of the results. As with
other prompts you can move the cursor around by any of the usual
methods.
If you enter the same row when prompted for the starting and
ending row FREECALC "knows" that you want to perform some action
on a column (for example, to add up a column of numbers). Likewise,
if you enter the same column when prompted for the starting
and ending columns FREECALC "knows" that you want to perform
the action on row of numbers. The only exception to this is
when you select the "Minus" formula. For that formula, the
results will always be the starting cell minus the ending cell.
When using any of the "System Supplied" formulas, if you enter
different rows and columns for the starting and ending points,
FREECALC will take the location of the two cells which were
specified by the start and end locations.
USER SUPPLIED FORMULAS are a bit harder to use, but will provide
you with great power. The "User Supplied" formulas allow an
added flexibility to generating formulas. A formula can be
as complex as you like, with multiple levels of nested parentheses
permitted. The only limitation is that the formula not contain
more that 57 characters (this includes spaces). The formulas
do not have to contain location of cells on the spreadsheet.
For example, the formula "5 + 1 * 6 + (3 + (4 * .25))" is permitted.
You may also use the "System Supplied Functions" "Sum" and "Ave"
(average). An example is, "SUM R1C1 THRU R3C1". This formula
will cause the value of row 1, column 1 to be added to that
of row 2, column 1 which will be added to the value of row 3,
column 1. The "System Supplied Functions" can be used anywhere
in a formula. For example, "5 * (SUM R1C1 THRU R3C1)".
To specify the location of a cell you will use the letter "R"
for the row and the letter "C" for the column. If you wanted
to use the value of the cell at row 1, column 1 you would enter (27)
that part of the formula as "R1C1" (the "R" and "C" can be either
upper or lower case). Do not enter a space between the row
and the column. You can move the cursor around while you are
entering a formula but the location of the cursor will not be
entered into the formula as it is for the "System Supplied"
formulas.
When you are changing a formula it is sometimes nice to know
what the formula was before. The problem is that the line where
the formula would normally appear is being used to display examples.
The formula can be displayed by pressing one of the arrow keys
and then pressing the arrow key for the opposite direction. This
will cause the example line to be erased and the old formula
for the cell you are at to be displayed.
All "User Supplied" formulas are edited by FREECALC to catch
some of the common types of errors. If, for example, you do
not have the same number of left parentheses as you do right
parentheses you will receive an error message. You will then
be given the chance to re-enter the formula.
(29)
G O T O
Quickly moving from your present location to another point in
the spreadsheet can accomplished by the use of the "GoTo" option.
When this option is selected FREECALC will prompt you to enter
the row and column that you wish to move to. Your new location
will then be displayed on the screen.
You can also use the arrow keys to move you in the direction
of the arrow. The `Ctrl' key press down while the arrow keys
are pressed will move you one screen area at a time in the direction
of the arrow. The `Pg Up' key will move you to the screen area
above your current location. The `Pg Dn' key will move you
one screen area below your current location. The `Home' key
will move you to the upper-left corner of the screen. The `End'
key will move you to the lower-right corner of the screen.
If you hold down the `Ctrl' key while you press the `Home' key
you will be moved to the start of the spreadsheet. If you hold
down the `Ctrl' key while you press the `End' key you will be
moved to the first column of the last row of the spreadsheet.
(29)
H E L P
The "Help" option will provide you with a certain amount of
on-line assistance. This option provides you with information
on how to move the cursor around in the spreadsheet as well
as how to select an option from the Main Menu.
If you do not have this file on your diskette you will receive
a message if you select this option.
If you are short of space on your diskette, you can remove this
file (FC.HLP), once you feel you do longer need its information.
(30)
L O A D
"Load" will enable you to copy the contents of a file on a diskette
to your screen so that it can be viewed, printed or modified.
The Load Menu offers two options. You can load a file, or find
out the names of all the FREECALC spreadsheets on a diskette.
If you request that a file be loaded and you already have a
spreadsheet on the screen, FREECALC will ask if you want to
continue. The reason for this is that when loading a file,
the old file is erased from the memory of the computer. The
old file still exists on the diskette (if it has been saved
to diskette at some point), but any changes you have made since
the last time you saved the spreadsheet will be lost if you
load. If you have made no changes, or if you do not care to
save the changes you have made, then you should select to continue.
If you want to save the current file before loading another,
respond "No" and you will be returned to the Main Menu.
If the file name you requested to be loaded is not on the diskette
you will receive a message from FREECALC and be given the chance
to re-enter the name of the file. If you do not want to continue
at this point, you may press the `Esc' key to return to the
Main Menu.
If the file you wish to load is on a drive other than the default
drive, you will have to add the drive letter and a colon to
the name that you enter. For example, let's say we wanted to
load the file DEMO3. The default drive is the "A" drive but
the diskette that DEMO3 is on is in the "B" drive. We will
have to respond to the prompt with the filename "B:DEMO3".
(31)
N E W
The "New" option will allow you to clear the present screen
and start a new spreadsheet. If you are currently working on
a spreadsheet, FREECALC will inform you that the current work
will be lost. As long as everything you want has been saved
to the diskette you can continue. If not, than you will want
to respond "No" to the prompt asking if you want to continue.
The only time you need to use this option is if you have been
working on a spreadsheet and you now want to start a new sheet
from scratch. If you load a sheet from a diskette, the old
sheet will be erased from the FREECALC's memory and this step
will not be needed. It is only needed when you want to start
a brand new spreadsheet.
(32)
P R I N T
To copy a spreadsheet to paper FREECALC need to know two pieces
of information. It needs to know the upper-left and lower-right
corners of the area of the spreadsheet you want to print.
After we have described the area of the screen we want to print
FREECALC will inform us as to the number of characters it will
print in a single line. The reason for this is to give us the
chance to verify that the correct area of the screen will be
printed. If, for example, we have a printer that can only print
80 characters on a line, and if we instructed FREECALC to print
100 characters than the printed results will not be as we expected.
Some dot matrix printers will allow us to print in a "compressed
mode". What this means is that the printer will print smaller
letters so that we can get more information on a single line.
You might be able to change your printer from printing 80 characters
on a line to printing 137 characters. If you have a wide spreadsheet
that you want to print on a 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper
you might want to check to see if your printer has a compress
mode.
(33)
Q U I T
The "Quit" option is selected when we have completed the work
that we want to do during this session with FREECALC.
FREECALC will prompt you to insure that you do in fact want
to quit if you are currently working on a spreadsheet. This
is a safety feature. It serves to remind you to save your sheet
before quitting if you have made any changes that are important.
(34)
R E C A L C
Every time a number or a formula is entered FREECALC will evaluate
all formulas in the spreadsheet. This is done so that you can
see the effect of changing any one number on the entire spreadsheet.
At times this is not desirable. If you are entering many numbers
you might not be interested in the effect a single number has
on the spreadsheet. You just want to enter the numbers as fast
as you possible can. You can turn off the "Recalc" feature
by selecting the "Recalc" option at the Main Menu and selecting
"No" at the Recalc Menu. You should remember to turn "Recalc"
back on before trying to evaluate the effects of the number
you have entered.
It is possible to get results from your formulas which do not
appear to be correct. The problem is usually from your formulas
making a "forward reference". To understand the problem you
must first understand how FREECALC evaluates the formulas.
When FREECALC is instructed to recalculate the formulas in a
spreadsheet it starts with row 1 column 1 and check through
row 1 column 25. Once those formulas have been evaluated, FREECALC
will continue to row 2 column 1 and evaluate all formulas on
that row. This process continues, row by row, to the end of
the spreadsheet.
Let's say, for example, we had a formula on row 1 that made
a reference to the results of a formula on row 2. Since FREECALC
has not yet evaluate the results of the formula on row 2, the
reference in the formula in row 1 will be zero. This is called
making a forward reference. We are referencing a cell that
has no value yet (or at least not the correct value). In general,
it is a good practice not to make any forward references when
creating your spreadsheets. This can be done by placing your
formulas in the spreadsheet so that the cells that they reference
will always be above and to the left of the formula.
If you find this all a little confusing, rest assured that it
is! FREECALC attempts to help you out by actually recalculating
all formulas three separate times. After making one pass through
the spreadsheet FREECALC returns and makes another and then
still one more. This allows two levels of forward references
to be accurately evaluated. This will greatly reduce the chances
that you will write a spreadsheet that will have a forward reference
that will not be correctly evaluated. If you do feel that your
formulas are not producing the correct results, you may have
more that two levels of forward references. Select the "Recalc"
option and then select the "Yes" option from the Recalc Menu.
This will cause FREECALC to recalculate all formulas again. (35)
S A V E
To write a spreadsheet to a diskette you will want to use the
"Save" option. The Save Menu has three options. You can "save"
the spreadsheet to the diskette, you can get a display of all
the names of your spreadsheets on a diskette, or you can erase
a spreadsheet file from your diskette. The erase feature is
important if you are trying to save a spreadsheet and you find
there is not enough room on the diskette. By erasing a sheet
that you no longer need, you can make room for your current
spreadsheet on the diskette.
If you have loaded the file you wanted to save from diskette,
FREECALC will place the name of the file you loaded on the prompt
line. If you want to save the current spreadsheet with that
name, press the ENTER key. If you want to call this sheet something
else, just start typing the new name and the old name will be
erased from the screen. The old file will remain, unchanged,
on the diskette.
If you want to save a spreadsheet to a drive other than the
default drive you will have to add the drive letter and a colon
to the filename. If, for example, you wanted to save the file
"DEMO1" to the B drive you should type "B:DEMO1".
(36)
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
FREECALC and the documentation are distributed "AS IS" and without
warranties as to performance. Any statements by the author
do not constitute warranties and shall not be relied on by the
user in deciding whether to contribute to the author.
FREECALC is distributed without any express or implied warranties
whatsoever. Because of the diversity of conditions and hardware
under which this program may be use, no warranty of fitness
for a particular purpose is offered. The user is advise to
test the program thoroughly before relying on it. Any liability
of the author will be limited exclusively to product replacement.
If you have any questions, or comments, please write to:
Stilwell Software Products
16403 North 43rd Drive
Glendale, AZ 85306
**********************
* INVOICE *
**********************
Stilwell Software Products
16403 North 43rd Drive
Glendale, AZ 85306
DATE Invoice #84072
****************************************************************
PRICE
"FREECALC" an electronic
spreadsheet and documentation $35.00
TAX 0
*********
PAY THIS AMOUNT $35.00
****************************************************************
You may keep this invoice for your records.