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Webspread -- Description and Tutorial For version 1.6, which is freely distributable. All contents and the program are copyrighted by the author. (C) 1987, 88, 89, 90 By Brad Webb 321 North Monroe Street Watertown, WI 53094 Sections ======== Introduction The program What is a Spreadsheet? Webspread Webspread Commands Error Messages Using Formulas Standard Formulas Special Formulas Some Limitations Tutorial Making a Spreadsheet Starting, and Entering Text Entering Formulas and Numbers Future Plans Final Word Documentation Revision History INTRODUCTION ============ The ELPLan Spreadsheet appeared in the August, 1987 issue of Jumpdisk (C). At that time, I asked users to contact me about their experiences with the program. I would like to thank all those who responded. Webspread, a general update of ELPLan, is dedicated to you. (Webspread itself was also published in Jumpdisk in 1988.) It seems ELPLan was being used for everything from home budgets to small businesses. (We even had one business user call up with questions while preparing taxes -- on April 15, no less.) Even with varied use, common requests came up. In general, people wanted more speed. I also realized that the error checking needed beefing up in one or two areas. These features have been included in the versions of Webspread that have appeared since. Version 1.6 is the first that opens its own high resolution screen. The color scheme has been chosen to minimize interlace flicker on standard Amiga monitors. Other new features include the ability to enter data into a cell and move to another cell with a single press of a cursor key. Formerly you had to press the RETURN key to register your data, then move on to another cell. Error checking has been further enhanced as well. Webspread is a simple spreadsheet, but I have found it capable of meeting my home needs. If you have never worked with a spreadsheet before, I think you will find the tutorial included in this document of value to you. You may wish to provide a copy to anyone you know who is just starting to use a computer and who may be unfamiliar with spreadsheets. If you find the discussion of commands and spreadsheet theory in the next portions of this document confusing, don't despair. I have included a complete tutorial that should make everything much clearer once you have worked through it. This version of Webspread may be freely distributed. If you provide anyone with a copy, you must also include this document and neither this document or the program may be altered in any way. You may, however, add additional documents to the distribution if you wish. The author retains all rights to the program and this documentation file. Neither may be sold though a small disk copying fee may be charged. I would be happy to receive bug reports and upgrade requests at the above address. I will not be responsible for any damages or liabilities resulting from the use of this program -- use it at your own risk. It is necessary for legal reasons to state that, but you should also know that this is the only spreadsheet I use so I have confidence in it. WHAT IS A SPREADSHEET? A spreadsheet program is a computer version of the large green ledger sheets used by accountants from time immemorial. These sheets have ruled lines dividing them into rows and columns. The rows and columns can each be given titles, and information relating to those titles can be entered on the sheets where the rows and columns intersect. This allows the user to set up a neat display of information. For instance, your column titles could be the names of the months. Your row titles could consist of a list of your monthly bills. If you then wrote the amount paid for food in January where the food row and January column meet, and did the same for all your other expenses, you would have a method of tracking your household expenses. By totalling all the entries in the January column, you would know your expenses for that month. By totalling the food row, you would have the total you spent on food for the year. For easier reference, each row/column junction is called a "cell" and we talk about entering your information into the cells of the spreadsheet. The advantages of computerizing a spreadsheet are many. The computer can do the totalling for you. You just enter the information and instructions (a formula) for totalling it. You can even use the spreadsheet to look at different spending policies. By including columns for future months and entering different figures, you can have the computer tell you how your future expenses and savings might be affected by doing things in several ways. Businesses use spreadsheets extensively for these "what-if" projections. In fact,the extreme value of these exercises was the chief reason for the widespread adoption of personal computers in business. The homeowner can use a spreadsheet for "what-if" projections ("if we spend 10% less per month on entertainment, can we afford the new Amiga?"). You can use it to plan and track a budget, keep track of your computer club dues, paper route collections or any financial matter. You can even do non-financial data management with one. I used one for years to track assignments in a drafting department. We know of a family that uses one to inventory groceries and make up shopping lists. You can set up a blank spreadsheet with column and row headings, and the formulas needed to perform whatever calculations you wish to make. You can then copy this blank sheet over into a new file whenever you need it, enter the appropriate data for you new file, and use the Recalc command. In this way you could build up a set of budget files for every month of the year, for instance. Spreadsheets are very versatile programs, once you start letting your imagination loose. Figure 1: a portion of a simple Webspread spreadsheet. ____________________________________________________________________________ '/'Commands:Copy,Delete,Files,Goto,Insert,Memory,New,Quit,Recalc,Same,Width,$ @SUMB2.B5 A| B| C| D| E| F| G| 1 Widget Production 2 Type: Quantity: 3 small 10 4 medium 20 5 large 30 6 ========== 7 [ 60] o The top line on the screen is displaying the main, or "slash", commands. o The cursor (represented by a pair of brackets) is in the cell at position B7. That position contains the summation formula shown on the second line of the screen. The current value of the formula is 60, as shown in the cell itself (60 being the sum of the values in the cells B2 through B5). By changing the value in any of the cells B2 through B5 and then executing the "/Recalc" command combination, the cell at B7 would be re-evaluated and would display the results of the new calculation. WEBSPREAD The Webspread display consists of 44 rows for data, and as many columns as will fit on the screen using the width you select. The default screen has seven columns. Down the left of the screen are the row numbers. The top of the screen shows letters which name each column. The first position of each column is indicated by a (|) character. Above the column letters are two lines for displaying commands and entering information. We will refer to these lines as the upper and lower communication lines in the rest of these instructions. Most of the time, the upper communication line will display the commands you can use, and the lower line will be used for prompts from the program or data you are entering. Below these we find the spreadsheet cells themselves. Webspread provides you with 40 columns and 50 rows, for a total of 2000 cells. Each cell may contain text, a numeric value, or a formula. If you are just moving the cursor around the screen, the lower communication line will show the value or text entered into the cell where the cursor is. If there is a formula in the cell rather than text or a value, the formula will be displayed on the lower communication line while the cell itself will display the current value of the formula's calculations. This will always be a zero until the first Recalc command is used. Look at Figure 1 above to see a sample spreadsheet display. WEBSPREAD COMMANDS Webspread contains all of the basic spreadsheet functions. If you are already familiar with spreadsheets, you will feel at home with Webspread. Because a spreadsheet requires the use of the keyboard so extensively, it was written with minimal mouse controls so that you can keep your hands on the keys. The only time the mouse is used is to confirm that you want to do something drastic or if there is need for you to pause a moment. Examples: erase the sheet, end the program run, change calculation mode, or if Webspread needs to show you an error message. In these cases, you will be presented with a requester window. You move around the spreadsheet by pressing the cursor controls. A colored cursor will highlight the cell that is currently active. Each cell is identified by the column letter and row number that define its position. For example, the cell in the upper left hand corner of the sheet is cell A1. The commands which let you control most of Webspread's functions are accessed by pressing the "/" key. Once you do that, you will be asked to enter the first letter of the command you wish to execute, or the $ sign (to change the recalculation mode). The commands, and what they do are listed here: / Enables you to use the Main Commands. Press this key first, then wait for the prompt "Press C,D,F,G,I,M,N,Q,R,W or $: ". At that point, press a key to select one of the following commands. Copy - This is Webspread's cell copy command. When selected, a sub-menu will appear on the top communication line to let you select from among the following copy commands. (Copy) Across - this command will let you copy the current cell (marked by the cursor) to the right, as many times as you wish. You Will be prompted for the number of copies to make. If the cell contains a formula, it will be copied along with the most recently calculated value for the answer, even if the answer is no longer correct in the formula's new location. Using the Recalc command (see below) will properly re-evaluate the entire sheet. (Copy) Down - functions exactly as does the Across command, except copies down from the current cell. (Copy) Main-menu - returns you to the main (slash) command level. Use this when done with all your copy commands. (Copy) To - Lets you copy the contents of any one cell to any other. The cursor does not have to be in the cell to be copied. You will be prompted for the co-ordinates of the cell you want copied. You will then be asked where you want the copy put. Note that formulas will behave as explained under Across. Delete - Removes a row or a column of information from the spreadsheet. You will be asked first if you wish to delete a row or column, and then to specify either the row number or column letter. Note that no row numbers or column letters will disappear. Instead, the information in the row or column to be deleted will be eliminated and all the remaining data will be moved in to close up the space. Files - This command allows you access to all Webspread's file management commands. A sub-menu will appear to let you access the following commands. (Files) Change directory - Selecting the Change directory command (by pressing the "C" key) will allow you to enter a standard AmigaDOS pathway to the directory where you want your files kept. Directories correspond to the drawers visible on the Workbench. If you do not specify a pathway, Webspread will look for a disk named Webspread: Hard drive owners may wish to set up an alias, using Webspread: as an alias for wherever they wish to keep their spreadsheets. (Files) Files - Lists the files contained in the active directory. All files will be listed, not just Webspread's. This command is the equivalent of the AmigaDOS DIR command. Note that all Webspread files have either the extension .Sheet or .ASCII added to them. These extensions are added automatically by the program. You never have to type them, and in fact Webspread would become very confused if you did. The extensions are added so that you can tell what type of file each is when you list them with this selection. (Files) Load - This is the command to use to load files you have already saved. After selecting this command you will be asked to type in the name of the file you want loaded. Please note that you must not type the .Sheet extension. The program will add that for you. (Files) Main-menu - This command will return you to the main (slash) command level. Use it when done with all your Files commands. (Files) Output file - An output file is a special type of file created by Webspread. It consists of a simple text file containing a portion of your spreadsheet (or the entire sheet if you wish). Such a text file can be loaded into most word processors or text editors, including AmigaDOS's Ed text editor. This allows you to include your spreadsheets in reports or other documents. When selected, you will be prompted to enter a file name for your file. This name will have the extension .ASCII added to it by the program (please don't type it yourself!) so that you can easily find it later when you want to use it with your word processor. You will also be asked to enter the cell co-ordinates of the LOWER RIGHT-HAND CORNER of the area of the sheet you want included in the Output file. The UPPER LEFT-HAND CORNER of the saved portion will be the UPPER LEFT-HAND CORNER of the display on your computer screen. (Files) Print - Print allows you to get a paper copy of your spreadsheet. If the sheet won't all fit on one page, Webspread will automatically break it up to fit on several. There is no option to print out the sheet sideways. You do not have to print out the entire 2000 cell sheet. When you select this command, you will be asked to enter the cell co-ordinates of the LOWER RIGHT-HAND CORNER of the area of the sheet you want included in the print out. The UPPER LEFT-HAND CORNER of the printed portion will be the upper left hand cell of the screen display. MAKE SURE the upper left-hand corner of what you want printed is also the upper left hand cell on the screen BEFORE selecting this command. (Files) Save - This command allows you to save your spreadsheet to disk. When selected, it will prompt you for a filename to save the data under. Webspread will automatically append the extension .Sheet to your filename. Please don't type the extension in yourself. The use of the .Sheet extension provides an easy way for you to spot your Webspread files when doing a directory listing from AmigaDOS or a Files listing from within Webspread. (Files) Earlier Revision - This Files menu selection is intended to help you with files created by ELPLan. Ordinarily, ELPLan files should load with no trouble. In some cases, you may get an error message "Input past file end". This is really an informational message and is caused by the fact that Webspread files are longer. The Earlier Rev. menu selection is here only for use if you have difficulties in getting a good load with an old file. It will ensure the problem file loads. Once saved again, it will have become a Webspread file and will cause no further trouble. (Note that in testing, it was never necessary to use this menu item with any old files. However, if you ever need it here it is.) Goto - Provides an alternative to using the cursor keys to moving around in Webspread. After selecting Goto, you will be asked to enter the cell name. Type it in with no spaces or commas; for example ab32. There is no need to use capital letters. The screen will be redrawn to show your new position. If you enter the cell name backwards, Webspread will tell you so and give you a chance to re-enter the name. Insert - Allows you to add a row or column of data in the middle of your spreadsheet at any time. You will be asked which you wish to add, and then which row or column you want the new area IN FRONT OF. As with Delete, no row or column designators are added. The existing information is moved out to new positions. WARNING: anything in the previously outermost row or column is shoved off the spreadsheet and lost. (Actually, a buffer of one column and one row is provided, but it is dangerous to rely on this.) Memory - Reports how much free memory is available for your spreadsheet. It is a good idea to keep an eye on this, especially with large sheets and and other programs running in the system. Webspread can use all the memory attached to your system, not just the amount allocated to AmigaBASIC as in ELPLan. New - Clears the existing data from the spreadsheet, without exiting the program. You will be presented with a requester window to either confirm or cancel the command. Quit - Ends the program run. You will be provided with a requester window to either confirm or cancel this command. Recalc - This command tells Webspread to evaluate all the formulas that you have entered. You may use forward references in Webspread and they will be properly evaluated. ("Forward references" means that any formula may contain the results of a formula at a later position in the spreadsheet, one that will be calculated later in the evaluation process. Webspread always evaluates all formulas twice so that these forward references will be taken into account.) Width - Width lets you set the amount of spaces wide that your columns will be. Note that ALL columns must be the same width. $ - Pressing the dollar sign will bring up Webspread's calculation mode requester. You will have two boxes to "click" in, one for each mode. In "Currency" mode, all calculations are rounded off to two decimal positions. In "all decimals" mode, the computer will use as many decimal positions as needed to show the results of a calculation. If you are working with money, use the "Currency" mode. When this command is selected, Webspread will inform you of which mode is currently in use. ERASE - There is no special command in Webspread to erase a cell's data. Instead, all you have to do is enter a space. Position yourself in the cell you wish to blank, hit the space bar and then the return key or a cursor key. ERROR MESSAGES The following error messages may crop up during your use of Webspread. It would be a good idea to become familiar with them. File not found - will appear in the error message box when you try to load a file that does not exist. Click in either continue box and try again. (Do you have the full pathname specified?) E! - will appear when you have a number too large to display with the current cell width. Resize your column width to correct. Formula Error! Please re-enter - This message will appear during sheet evaluation if Webspread meets up with a formula it can't understand. A requester box will display the error message, along with the co-ordinates of the cell containing the offending formula. Error n has occurred - This message will show up in the error message box for any other problems the program runs into. "n" will be some number which designates a specific error. Some errors are as follows: Some Possible Error Messages: 5 - Illegal Function Call -- an improperly set up formula can cause this message. Check your formulas over carefully. You may also see this message if you run low on memory. 61- Disk Full -- quick, grab your previously formatted safety disk and save your work to that. You do have one around, don't you? 64- Bad File Name -- better try again with a different name. 70- Permission Denied -- is your disk write protected? 74- Unknown Volume -- you probably just misspelled the name of your data disk. Your Amiga Basic manual lists all the other errors you might come up with. Even though this is a compiled version of the program, it retains the same error numbers as in regular Amiga Basic. Webspread recovers well from most errors. In fact, error checking and recovery is improved over ELPLan's. (Thank you to all the users who provided input on this matter.) If you do have a problem, the cursor position may be unexpectedly moved and a second "ghost" cursor may exist on your screen. You can eliminate the "ghost" cursor by running the real cursor over it. (The real cursor is the one that moves when you hit the cursor keys.) USING FORMULAS With the commands just discussed you can manipulate your spreadsheet once you get it made, move around it, save it, recall it and even print it. The only thing we haven't discussed yet is how to make it calculate answers for you. Take a moment to look again at Figure 1. It should be fairly easy to figure out how to move about the sheet with the cursor controls, entering text or numeric values to build the simple spreadsheet shown. The key to making it all work, though, is the formula in cell B7 which automatically figures the total for us. This section of the instructions will deal with the entering of the formulas needed to make the sheet work. We will first look at the standard sort of formulas, and then at two special cases. STANDARD FORMULAS o Operators - Formulas in Webspread can use any of the mathematical operators. + - / * are used for addition, subtraction, division and multiplication respectively. All formulas need at least one operator. If you just want the value of one cell to be shown somewhere else as well, you can add 0 to it in its new location. For example, if you want the value of cell B6 to be shown in cell C7 also, you would use the following formula in cell C7: @B6+0 o Evaluating - Formulas are evaluated strictly from left to right. Parentheses are not supported. For example, the formula @A1+B2/B3 would be evaluated as follows: first, the value in cell A1 would be added to the value in cell B2. Then the result of that calculation would be divided by the value in cell B3. The result of the calculation would be displayed in whatever cell contained the above formula. o Relative cell references - Take a quick glance at the sample formulas shown below in Figure 2. The cell references in most of them are pretty easy to figure out. A few examples, though, contain some strange looking things. Those bracketed items are relative cell references, and they can add a great deal of power and flexibility to your spreadsheets. Instead of refering to an absolute location on the page using its co-ordinates, you can use a relative cell reference. This can be helpful if you expect to add or delete row or columns at a later date. The relative references mean "use the value in whatever cell is found a specific distance away". The reference can be to a cell that is a either a number of columns or rows away from the one containing the formula. The relative cell reference must be between square brackets. You enter either an R or a C depending on whether you want the reference to be in the horizontal or vertical direction. You then use either a minus or plus sign to indicate whether the desired cell is to the left or up (-) or right or down (+). Examples will show this best. [R-1] means to use the value in the cell one row above. [C+1] means to use the value in the cell one column to the right. o Using numbers - You can freely mix numbers and cell references in your formulas. That is, you can multiply cell A1 by 1.25, for instance, using the following formula: @A1*1.25 o Format - Formulas in Webspread are simple constructions. You string together the cell co-ordinates and numbers you want used and place the appropriate operators between any two as required. There are some simple rules to observe when doing this, however. - all formulas must begin with the commercial "at" symbol, @. - there must always be an operator between any two formula elements, and at least one operator in all formulas. - parenthetical operations are not supported. - relative cell references can be used at any point where an absolute cell reference could be used. - there must never be any spaces in the formulas. - the equal sign is always assumed, never written. The answer to the formula's evaluation will be placed in the cell containing the formula. - it is not necessary to use capital letters when entering formulas. Figure 2: Sample Webspread formulas: @A1+B1-C1 @C2*D2 @AB32/BB32 @AB1+[R-1] @[C-10]-[C-11] @B2*2.75 @G17+0 SPECIAL FORMULAS Webspread provides two special types of formulas to add extra flexibility and power to your spreadsheets. These are the Summation Formula and the ELFFs Call formula. Both are described in detail below. o Summation Formula - These formulas let you sum a range of cells. A range of cells means a grouping of cells that are all touching. The values contained in the cells of the range will all be added together and the result placed in the cell that holds the formula. Cells containing text within the range will be ignored. The formula is written simply: first the command @SUM, then the first cell co-ordinate in the range, then a dot (period) and lastly the final cell co-ordinate in the range. No spaces are used. You do not have to type in capital letters. The range may be set up in several ways: - As a range of cells in the same row but in different columns. Example: @SUMA1.E1 - As a range of cells in the same column but in different rows. Example: @SUMA1.A6 - As a rectangular area. Example: @SUMA1.C3 Finally, you may use relative cell references if you wish, just as discussed above in the section on standard formulas. An example: @SUM[R-10].[R-1] One last rule on summation formulas: the second cell cited must always be either more to the right or lower (ie. higher column or row designator) than the first. o ELFFs Call Formulas - The ELFFs Call formulas allow you to extract data from a file maintained by the ELFFs Datafile Manager program. You use this formula type to refer to a specific dataline within a specific ELFFs created file. The contents of that dataline will be extracted from the file and placed in the cell containing the formula. Let's look at a sample formula and explain how it works. @ELFDiskName:Directory/Filename\n Where: - @ELF is the first item in the formula. - Next comes the pathway to the file desired, in standard AmigaDOS format. . DiskName is the volume name of the diskette containing the file, if different than the diskette in use. It is always a good idea to use the actual volume name in these formulas to prevent "file not found" errors if you ever put the wrong disk in the drive. . Directory/ defines the directory on the diskette DiskName, where our file resides and . Filename is the actual file we want. . If there are spaces in your pathname, there is no need to enclose everything in quotation marks as when using DOS. Just type it in spaces and all. In fact, if you do use quotes you will confuse Webspread. - \n is special note to Webspread. "n" should be replaced with the dataline number containing the information desired. It is important to put the reversed slash in to set this number off from the pathname. Note: ELFFs appeared in the November 1986 edition of Jumpdisk. It is not in the public domain and may only be legally obtained by purchasing a past issue from Jumpdisk. The address is 1493 Mt. View Avenue, Chico, CA 95926. ELFFs is a BASIC program. SOME LIMITATIONS As with all programs, there are some limitations to Webspread that you should be aware of. First, the loading and saving of sheets is slow. This is a result of it's being written in Basic. The compiler does not speed this up as much as I would like. Second, Webspread can only handle formulas feeding formulas to a depth of two. What does that mean in English? It means if the results of one formula's calculation feed another formula, accuracy will always be maintained. However, if the second formula's results feed a third, accuracy may be lost. Example: if a formula in cell T3 produces an answer which is used in a formula in cell G6, there will be no problem. However, if the answer obtained in G6 is used by another cell, say B4 or whatever, accuracy could be completely lost because there are three cells linked together. [Actually, as long as the cell designation is always higher or equal in both the column and row of the cell using another's results, accuracy will be maintained forever. In other words, if cell A3 feeds G4 and G4 feeds H4, no problems will arise. If you go H4 to G4, then G4 to A3 in your formula linking, H4 and G4 will be fine. The value in A3 will be indeterminate. All this is because Webspread calculates cells starting with A1 and going across and down. It does this twice, hence it can pick up links two deep in the direction different from the calculation flow.] TUTORIAL ======== MAKING A SPREADSHEET Its time now to put together everything we've just learned about Webspread and see how it works in practice. To accomplish that, let's go through the creation of the spreadsheet used in Figure 3 step by step. Along the way we'll add a few things to show how to use more features of Webspread. Figure 3: a Webspread spreadsheet for Wizbang Widgets. ______________________________________________________________________ |'/'Commands:Copy,Delete,Files,Goto,Insert,Memory,New,Quit,Recalc,,Widt> |@SUMB4.B6 \ | A| B| C| D| E| F| G| \ | 1 July Widget Production / | 2 Cost Total < | 3 Type: Quantity: Price: Income: Each: cost: Profit: | | 4 small 10 50 500 30 300 200 > | 5 medium 20 60 1200 40 800 400 / | 6 large 30 70 2100 50 1500 600 \ | 7 .............................................................\ | 8 TOTALS: 60 3800 2600 1200 < We will take a few minutes and together create the spreadsheet shown, including the data and formulas, then play with it some when we are done. When we have accomplished all this, you will be well on your way to using the basic Webspread features in building your own spreadsheets. Before we start, you may wish to make a paper copy of these instructions, so you can more easily use the program and still read the instructions. (The combination of Webspread and this document may use too much memory to have both available on the screen at the same time in your computer.) STARTING, AND ENTERING TEXT Begin by loading and running Webspread. After a few moments to display the title screen and to set things up, the cursor appears. Study the layout of the screen first. Each row has a number to identify it, and each column is identified by a letter, as already mentioned. Note that the column letters are always at the far right of the column, and that a ("|") character starts the next column. Let's try the cursor keys first, to begin familiarizing ourselves with Webspread. Try the cursor down, right,up and left keys. Note how the cursor moves on the spreadsheet, filling the active cell with color. The spreadsheet we are going to build is for a financial record so we will want our sheet in currency mode. Press the slash ("/") key to obtain the command prompt. Now, press the $ (shift-4). Up will pop a requester box, telling you that you are in currency mode (the default setting). You can click on either the "Currency" box or the "All dec(imals)." box to select the mode of operation. Click on the "Currency" box. (I know, we were already in that mode but I wanted you to see how to set the mode in case you need to do so at some point.) Now, cursor over to cell C1. That is the third cell in on the top row. Type "July Widget" and hit <RETURN>. You will see that the "t" on the end of Widget does not show up on the spreadsheet. That is because our cells are only 10 characters wide. We could resize the cells to 11 characters, and then all of our text would show. It has not been forgotten by Webspread, but just cannot all be shown at once. (Look at the lower communication line to prove this to yourself.) We won't resize the width of our columns, however, as 10 spaces is fine for most of the sheet. Instead, cursor to cell D1 and enter "t Producti", then on to E1 and type in "on". You can either press the RETURN key to enter data into a cell and then move to another cell with a cursor key, or just press the appropriate cursor key and Webspread will know to enter your data before leaving the current cell. We now have a complete title on our spreadsheet. If you make a mistake and type anything into the wrong cell, just enter a space to blank the cell. Just for fun, let's try another way of moving about the screen. Press the slash key. When prompted, enter "g" for Goto. You will be asked for a set of cell co-ordinates. Enter "a3" and press <RETURN>. The screen will be redrawn with you at cell A3. Enter " Type:" (that's 5 spaces at the beginning). The reason for entering the spaces is that Webspread always pulls text to the left of a cell, and numbers to the right. After entering " Type:", hit the right cursor key to move to cell B3. Enter " Quantity:" (1 space). Move to C3 and enter " Price:" (4 spaces). Next, in D3 enter " Income:" (3 spaces). In E2 enter " Cost" (6 spaces) while in E3 enter " Each:" (5 spaces). F2 gets " Total:" (5 spaces), F3 should have " cost:" (5 spaces) and in G3 enter " Profit:" (3 spaces). Move to column A and enter "small" in A4, "medium" in A5, "large" in A6 and down in A8 put "TOTALS:". That concludes the text we need for our example spreadsheet. You may wish to use the "Goto" command at this point to put the cursor in cell A1 and thus display all the sheet. We will put in the line of dots to set off our calculations from the total line next. When you create your own spreadsheets, you will probably find it easier to see what is going on if you use blank space and lines to set off the various areas, as we are doing here. (Be careful with dashes in your lines. If Webspread sees a dash as the first character in a cell, it will expect a negative number. Dashes may be used in text if preceded by another character that is clearly non-numeric or if in a cell that will not be refered to by any formula.) Move to cell B7. When there, enter a series of dots. You will need at least 10. (Remember that when entering non-numbers, Webspread will display as much of what you enter as will fit in the cell. The remainder will be remembered, but not shown. Therefore, if you accidentally enter 11 or 12 dots, it won't matter.) While in B7 select the "Copy" command. When prompted, press "A" for across. Then enter "5" for number of copies. You will see your dots appear in a row. Type "M" to return to the Main Menu. Now we are ready to use our blank sheet. ENTERING FORMULAS AND NUMBERS Move to cell B4. In our example, the Wizbang Widget Company sold 10 of the small variety in July (they are a little company) so we enter a 10 here. Note that unlike text, a number is justified to the right. Also, whereas Webspread simply shows as much text as will fit in a cell, if a number is too long to fit in a cell you will see an error signal in the cell. The error signal is E!. The number is there, it just can't be displayed in the cell. We show you an error message, as to display just the portion of the number that would fit could be very misleading. All you have to do is select an appropriate value for the column width, and the error message will be replaced by your entry. Why not move to B5 and try it? Enter an 11 digit number. Next, use the Width command to resize you columns to 11 or 12 and see what happens. Remember to restore the Width to 10 when done. Then, just enter 20 at this point and it will replace the current entry in the cell. Place a 30 in cell B6. We will continue adding our known, fixed numbers. This includes the price Wizbang sells its various widgets for, and how much it costs them to manufacture each type. Go ahead and enter all the numbers in column C and column E. Now we are ready for the real power in our spreadsheet, the formulas. First, we need to know how much income we received from each type of widget. The income produced is the asking price times the number we sold. Move to cell D4, where we want the income from the sale of the small widgets. We need to take the quantity sold, contained in cell B4, and multiply it by the price of each, contained in cell C4, and place the answer in cell D4. The answer will automatically appear in the cell containing the formula, which is why we moved to cell D4. To multiply the contents of the cells B4 and C4 we enter @B4*C4 which is pretty straight forward. The @ symbol tells Webspread to treat this entry as a formula. (NOTE - even though we show cell names all in capital letters to make them easier to read, you don't have to type them in that way. Webspread doesn't care whether you type a1 or A1. Either will work just as well.) You will see a zero appear in cell D4. That is because the formula has not been evaluated yet, so Webspread has not calculated a value for the cell. We will show you how to evaluate a spreadsheet with the "Recalc" command in a few minutes. Now, move to D5 and enter a similar formula to multiply the medium sized Widgets' price by quantity. The formula that goes here is @B5*C5. Try "large" on your own. If you figured you needed to enter @B6*C6 in cell D6 you were right. There is an easier way to do what we just did! Since this is a tutorial, we wanted you to try things every way possible, and the absolute method of refering to a cell that you just used is very important. We'll use the Total cost: column to show you an easier way to set up formulas, when there are several of them that must do just about the same thing. To begin, move to cell F4, please. Now, type in @[C-4]*[C-1] (remember, you don't need to capitalize the Cs unless you just wish to.) We have just entered a relative formula. It means the following: "take the value in the cell that is 4 columns back from this one (which would be cell B4) and multiply it by the value in the cell that is 1 column back from this one (E4)". That, of course, would figure our total cost for us: quantity made times the cost to make each one = total cost. Now, if we typed the exact same formula in cell F5, the formula would figure the total cost of the medium sized Widgets for us, since the cells refered to would now be the ones in row 5. There is an easy way to do this, without retyping anything. We will use the "Copy" command, just as we did when we put in our row of dots. This time, choose "Down" by pressing "D" at the prompt, then "2" for number of copies. Your formula will be copied into cells F5 and F6. Move next to cell G4. We'll use the relative method and "Copy" command here too, to handle our profit calculations. Try to figure the formula out yourself first, then continue reading. OK, the formula for cell G4 is @[C-3]-[C-1] since Income less Total Cost gives us our profit. @D4-F4 would work too, but we couldn't just copy that to cells G5 and G6 and use it there. If you came up with the correct formula (either one) congratulations! If not, don't worry about it for now. We're still new at this. Just enter the relative formula in G4 and copy it to cells G5 and G6 as explained in the last paragraph. Those who put the absolute reference formula in cell G4 go ahead and set up cells G5 and G6 either way. You may be wondering at this point why anyone would wish to use the absolute method we showed you first, when the relative method is so much more flexible. Well, for one thing, the absolute method is simpler. If you have a unique formula that you will not be copying, and you don't anticipate adding rows or columns in between the ones you need, the absolute method is fine. Also, you can "pin down" one end of a range and let the other end vary, by using both methods together. Example: formula @SUMA1.[R-1] will sum all the cells from A1 to one before the cell containing the formula. If you add any rows at a later date, the absolute reference to cell A1 will ensure that your range goes all the way back no matter where your added row falls. We will discuss how to use the @SUM command in just a few minutes. Time to pause and reflect on what we've done. We have learned how to enter text. We've learned how to make it look good across many cells and also how to line it up the the right if we need to (the use of spaces). We've learned how to enter numbers, and also how to enter formulas with both absolute and relative cell references. We've learned how to duplicate cell contents to save typing (and minimize the chances for error from typos, too). We may not be CPAs yet, but we aren't doing too badly either. There is one more formula type we want to review in this tutorial. That is the summation command. It is very handy for figuring totals, and since that is what one row of our spreadsheet mainly does, we will use this function there. Move to cell B8 please. Once there, enter the following formula: @SUMB4.B6 (once again, capital letters are optional). Note that there are no spaces anywhere in the formula, and that there is only one dot between the cell references. What we have told Webspread to do is sum up the value of all the cells between B4 and B6. That will neatly give us our total quantity. Note that you can sum a range of cells in a given column or a row, or even a rectangular area. You must always specify the upper or leftmost cell of the range first. For a rectangular area, specify the upper left then the lower right corner. If you include any cells with text in them in your range, they will be ignored by the @SUM command. We can use our relative cell references with the @SUM command. This can come in handy if you later expect to insert a column or row in the center of your range. Move to cell D8 and we'll put a relative summation formula there to figure total income. Enter @SUM[R-4].[R-2] and we are all set. If you already figured out that this formula could be copied to G8 to give us our total profit, good for you. Go ahead and copy the formula to G8 at this time. (Total profit could also be calculated by subtracting the value in cell F8 from the value in cell D8. You might want to try entering a formula to do this.) At this point, save your spreadsheet for future reference. That way, if you do something to destroy it, you can always reload it. Press the slash key, then F for Files. Press the C key to tell Webspread you want to set the Current directory, that is, to define where to save the file. If you are unsure right now where you want your files stored, enter the name of the drive holding the disk containing Webspread (such as df0:). Now, press S for Save. Use the file name "Tutorial" or something else easy to remember. Our spreadsheet doesn't look too attractive with no totals figured anywhere. To make all the formulas do their work, we use the Recalc command. Press the slash key, then R when prompted to enter a letter. After a few moments all your formulas will be evaluated. You should see the numbers as shown in Figure 3. If you don't, take a look at your formulas and the above paragraphs. Make sure they all agree, then use Recalc again. Once this is done, try experimenting by entering other numbers into the spreadsheet and recalculating it. Use some negative numbers, too. When you have a display you especially like, place your cursor at cell A1. Then, select F from the Main Command Menu (slash commands). Then, select O (Output file) from the Files menu that appears. You will be asked for the lower right hand co-ordinate of a rectangular area of your spreadsheet. The cell G8 is the lower right hand co-ordinate of our tutorial sheet, so enter that. Give the file a name ("Tutorial" will do again). Webspread will save a "picture" of your spreadsheet in a file that can be loaded into Ed or a wordprocessor and used there (as long as the wordprocessor can use regular ASCII files. Check your manual if in doubt.) You can use this method to prepare fancier printouts, or to include spreadsheets in reports. Note that output files will have the extension .ASCII added to the name you select, so you can use the same name as for your regular Webspread files with no danger of one overwriting the other. If you have a printer attached to your system, Webspread will make a printed copy of your spreadsheet for you. Make certain that the upper left hand cell of the area you want printed is in the upper left hand corner of the screen and then procede as you did for the Output file. This is a good time to revisit the mode command. Using the slash key then the dollar sign key, call up the mode requester. Click in the "All dec." box to change modes. Now, go to cell D4 and change the entry there to 500.123. Use the recalc command and note what happened in cell D8, the total for the D column. Now, go back to the mode command and change to the currency mode again. Follow up with another recalc. What happened in cell D8? A reason for always using the currency mode when doing financial work stems from the built in limitations every computer has. Sooner or later, a number will come along that has more decimals than can be readily handled and some portion of the number will be dropped. This is almost always an insignificant amount, but it can mess up the display of financial data. With currency mode on, such errors are compensated for and everything is rounded off properly to the correct two place decimal. If instead you need to show as much of the decimals calculated as possible, use the "All decimals" mode. There is one more experiment for you to try. Select the Insert command and insert a row before row 5. (Press the slash key, then the I key when asked for a command letter. Follow the on screen prompts from there.) The purpose for this exercise is simply to show you how easy it is to make room in the middle of a spreadsheet if you forget things. Columns can be added just as easily. You WILL have to remember to adjust any formulas that may now be refering to the wrong cells. That concludes our tutorial. We have really only begun to explore what you can do with the program. Look over the command and formulas sections of this document, and experiment. Users of the ELFFs datafile manager will especially want to do this, in order to learn how to integrate their ELFFs' files with their spreadsheets. All the information you need is right there. FUTURE PLANS ============ Webspread is not shareware in the usual sense in that I am not asking you to send me money for this program if you find it of use. However, I do have some plans for improving Webspread (though no guarantees that I will ever get around to them. Working a full time job during the days and for Jumpdisk in the evenings doesn't leave as much time for programming as I'd like.) If the updates come to pass and you have sent a donation that will cover me mailing you information, I will let you know about any updates. Otherwise, keep an eye on the boards to see if an update shows up. With that in mind, perhaps you would like to know what I am considering doing. Most important is a rewrite in a faster language. I have already begun preparations for a rewrite in Modula II. This should help out in several areas, including the scrolling speeds and loading speeds. I may switch to the much under-rated FBasic system from Delphi Noetic Systems instead. It's too early to tell at this stage, but either should be an improvement. The key buffer should be cleared regularly so the program doesn't keep trying to scroll forever when you hold the cursor key down for awhile and then release it. It's a little thing, but it bothers me and so probably bothers you. Those are firmly in the specification for an upgrade. Being considered is a better method of handling formulas refered to by other formulas to remove the two deep limitation. Also being considered is optional mouse control. How about letting me know what you would like to see as well? FINAL WORD ========== I hope you enjoy Webspread. I have found it adequate for all my needs. As before, I would be interested in hearing from anyone who finds an unusual use for Webspread or the Webspread/ELFFs combination. And remember to read Jumpdisk, the first disk magazine for the Amiga (published every month for over forty months as I write this!). Documentation Revision History ============================== 10 May, 1988 for Webspread.V1.0 revised 11 July 1989 for Webspread.V1.1 revised 15 July 1989 for distribution revised 09 August 1989 for WebspreadV1.2 revised 28 December 1989 for WebspreadV1.3H-beta revised 7 January 1990 for WebspreadV1.6-Beta revised 30 January 1990 for WebspreadV1.6