Currencies

Euro: the European Single Currency
 
On January 1, 1999 eleven European countries - Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain - gathered in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) have adopted a single currency, the euro. On June 19, 200O a twelfth country has entered the Ecomonic and Monetary Union: Greece.

How will the transition from the 12 national currencies to the single currency take place? Which is the euro time table?

• On December 31, 1998 the conversion rates between euro and the first 11 EMU member countries national currencies have irrevocably been fixed by the European Council.
• On January 1, 1999 euro has become official currency in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
• On June 19, 2000 Greece has entered EMU and the Greek Drachma's euro conversion rate has been irrevocably fixed.
• On January 1, 2001 euro has become official currency in Greece.
• On January 1, 2002 euro coins and banknotes will begin to circulate. 
• On February 28, 2002 the legal tender status of national coins and banknotes will be canceled.

EMU National Currencies
 
The EMU national currencies are the currencies of the 12 member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union - Belgian Franc, German Mark, Greek Drachma, Spanish Peseta, French Franc, Irish Punt, Italian Lira, Luxembourgian Franc, Dutch Guilder, Austrian Schilling, Portuguese Escudo and Finnish Mark.

On the basis of the irrevocable euro conversion rates fixed by the European Council, EMU national currencies all have become non-decimal subdenominations of the European single currency, the euro, exactly as the Pfenning or the centime are (decimal) subdenominations of the German Mark or French Franc, respectively.

The following table lists the 12 EMU national currencies, their ISO codes and their irrevocable euro conversion rates. Conversion rates have 6 significant digits.

    Currency                  ISO Code           Euro Conversion Rate
    -----------------------------------------------------------------  
    Belgian Franc                BEF                   40.3399
    German Mark                  DEM                   1.95583
    Greek Drachma

GRD

340.750
    Spanish Peseta               ESP                   166.386
    French Franc                 FRF                   6.55957
    Irish Punt                   IEP                   .787564
    Italian Lira                 ITL                   1936.27
    Luxembourgian Franc          LUF                   40.3399
    Dutch Guilder                NLG                   2.20371
    Austrian Schilling           ATS                   13.7603
    Portuguese Escudo            PTE                   200.482
    Finnish Mark                 FIM                   5.94573

Non-EMU Currencies
 
Non-EMU currencies are currencies which don't participate to the Economic and Monetary Union. They are characterized by floating euro exchange rates.

Euro Assistant Pro comes with 9 predefined non-EMU currencies - the 3 European Union currencies which didn't join the Economic and Monetary Union (Pound Sterling, Danish Krone, Swedish Krona) and 6 "important" non-EU currencies (US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, Norwegian Krone, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar) - but additional currencies can be defined and used (see Adding Custom Currencies).

Euro exchange rates of non-EMU currencies can be edited in the Edit Currency dialog box (Edit button in the Currencies dialog box) or automatically updated over the Internet (Update Rates command in the File menu).

Euro Assistant Pro requires euro exchange rates to range from 0.1 to 999,999 and considers just the first 6 significant digits. An exchange rate modification date is associated to each currency and displayed in the Currencies dialog box, so that you know when you last updated each rate.

Euro Assistant Pro's default euro exchange rates for the 10 predefined non-EMU currencies are the official euro exchange rates on January 8, 2001:

  Currency              ISO Code       Euro Exchange Rate (Jan 8, 2001)
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
  Danish Krone             DKK                     7.4651
  Swedish Krona            SEK                     8.9286
  Pound Sterling           GBP                     .63280

  Australian Dollar        AUD                     1.6745
  Canadian Dollar          CAD                     1.4212
  Suiss Franc              CHF                     1.5271
  Japanese Yen             JPY                     110.55
  Norwegian Krone          NOK                     8.2980
  US Dollar                USD                     0.9497

Base Currency
 
Though all Euro Assistant Pro currencies (both EMU and non-EMU) are defined through their euro rates and conversion calculations rely on euro rates, Euro Assistant Pro gives you the possibility to specify a different base currency which will affect the rates displayed in the Rate button and the text clippings obtained by dragging ISO codes to the desktop, a folder or a disk (see What's All in the Euro Assistant Pro Window? in the Euro Assistant Pro Window chapter).

Default base currency is the euro: to switch to a different base currency, select it in the Base Currency submenu of the File menu. Supposing that you have chosen the US Dollar as base currency, the Rate button will display the active currency's exchange rate against USD:

The base currency's choice is also taken into account when you drag and drop an ISO code associated to a zero display. If you drag and drop the base currency's ISO code (e.g. USD), you'll obtain a text clipping listing the exchange rates of all currencies listed in the Euro Assistant Pro window against the base currency. If you drag and drop an ISO code of a currency which is not the base currency (e.g. CHF), you'll get a text clipping with the dragged currency's exchange rate against the base currency.

                 dragging the base currency's ISO code            dragging a different ISO code

Besides having the possibility to choose a custom base currency, you can also specify how to display rates by acting on the Show Rate submenu of the Base Currency submenu.

Choose the Against Base Currency option, if you want that rates are always calculated against the base currency, even when they refer to currencies which are stronger than your base currency. Supposing again USD is base currency, you'll have for instance:

                        1 USD = 1.05296 EUR
                        1 USD = 1.60798 CHF
                        1 USD = 116.405 JPY
                        1 USD = .666316 GBP

Choose the Against Stronger Currency option instead, if you want to display rates which are always greater than the unit. Supposing now ITL is base currency, you'll have for instance:

                        1 EUR = 1936.27 ITL
                        1 CHF = 1267.94 ITL
                        1 JPY = 17.5149 ITL
                        1 GBP = 3059.85 ITL

The Against Base Currency option is best suited for high value currencies (EUR, USD, GBP, ... ), whereas the Against Stronger Currency option should be chosen when the base currency is a low value currency (ITL, ESP, PTE, ... ).

Currencies Dialog Box
 
The Currencies dialog box provides you with currency information (names, ISO codes, euro exchange (conversion) rates and corresponding modification dates, roundings) and lets you edit euro exchange rates, change roundings and add, edit or delete custom currencies.

To bring up the Currencies dialog box, choose the Currencies command in the File menu or click the Rate button in the Euro Assistant Pro window.

To edit a currency, double-click it or select it and click Edit. You can edit an EMU currency's rounding, a non-EMU currency's euro exchange rate and rounding and a custom currency's name, ISO code, euro exchange rate, flag and rounding. Remember that Euro Assistant Pro requires euro exchange rates to range from 0.1 to 999,999.

To add a new custom currency, click Add. To delete a custom currency finally, select it and click Delete. Custom currencies which are displayed in the Euro Assistant Pro window cannot be deleted.

Adding Custom Currencies
 
To add a new custom currency, choose the Currencies command in the File menu and bring up the Currencies dialog box. Then click the Add button.

In the Add Currency dialog box enter the new currency's name, ISO code and euro exchange rate (the rate must range from 0.1 to 999,999) and specify the desired rounding.

If you don't know the ISO code (a standardized three-character abbreviation) of your new currency, select the currency's name in the list: the ISO code will be automatically inserted into the corresponding edit box.

If you want to associate a flag to the new currency, click the Flag popup button to select a flag from the Flags plug-in.

The Flags plug-in is enclosed in the Euro Assistant Pro package and comes with more than 50 flags from all over the world, but you can also edit it and add any other custom flag you need (see Creating Custom Flags).

Remember that the Flags plug-in must be stored in the same folder as the Euro Assistant Pro application to be effective. If the Flags plug-in is in a different folder, quit Euro Assistant Pro, move the plug-in to the Euro Assistant Pro folder, then open Euro Assistant Pro again (see also Flags Troubleshooting).

Click OK to close the dialog box and add the new currency.

Creating Custom Flags
 
The flags you can associate to custom currencies are stored in the Flags plug-in file. The plug-in comes with more than 50 flags from all over the world, but you can also create and add other flags to it. All you need is a resource editor (ResEdit for instance).

If resources have no secrets for you, here is how you can add a new flag:

- make sure Euro Assistant Pro is not running;
- open the Flags Plug-In file with your favorite resource editor;
- create a new resource of type 'cicn';
- set the color icon size to 13 x 17 pixels and draw the flag's color image, B&W image and mask (remember that images and mask must have the same shape and size);
- edit the 'cicn' ID so that it ranges from 300 to 511;
- enter the country name into the 'cicn' resource's name;
- save and close the Flags Plug-In file.

If you don't know what resources are or never edited them, don't worry, here is a step-by-step guide that will teach you how to create your own flags.

• Using ResEdit as resource editor

What are resources first of all? Resources are the basic components of all Macintosh software: icons, menus, dialog and alert boxes, windows, fonts, cursors, ... If you want to edit them, you'll need a resource editor. If you don't already have one, use ResEdit which was developed by Apple, is freeware and whose latest version (2.1.3) can be downloaded at the Apple software updates web page at http://asu.info.apple.com/.

• Opening the Flags plug-in with ResEdit

Important: If you are reading this, you are most probabaly new to ResEdit. In this case make a backup copy of the Flags Plug-In file before you start editing it.

Make sure Euro Assistant Pro is not running and launch ResEdit. Click anywhere to close ResEdit's splash screen and open the Flags Plug-In file.

The plug-in contains three different types of resources: 'cicn' (color icons), 'STR ' (strings) and 'vers' (version information).

• Creating a new 'cicn' resource

Euro Assistant Pro's flags are color icon resources. Create therefore a new resource of type 'cicn' by choosing the Create New Resource command in the Resource menu. A dialog box is brought up: scroll to 'cicn'.

Then click OK to create a new color icon and open ResEdit's color icon editor.

• Resizing your new color icon

Euro Assistant Pro's flags are 13 pixel high and 17 pixel wide. Resize your new icon which is 32 x 32 pixels by default. From the cicn menu choose Icon Size and enter 13 and 17 in the corresponding edit boxes of the Icon Size dialog box. Then click OK. 

• Drawing your flag

Selecting the appropriate drawing tools (pencil, rect tool, paint bucket, ... ) and colors draw your flag. If you want you can tear off the color selector pop-up menu to have it always open. The colors available in the color selectors depend on which palette is selected in the Color menu.

Draw the color image first, then drag the color small view and drop it onto the B&W small view window to automatically generate a corresponding B&W image.

The B&W image created by ResEdit will generally need some manual adjustments (you could for instance decide to use patterns to simulate intermediate colors and add missing parts of your color image - light colors are transformed into white).

The bottom small view window contains the so-called icon mask. ResEdit automatically fills it for you when it creates a 'cicn' resource, but if your flag doesn't completely fill the 13 x 17 pixel rectangle, then you should adjust the mask by dragging the color small view onto the mask small view window, so that color image, B&W image and mask all have the same shape and size.

Once you have finished drawing the three views of your flag, close the color icon editor by clicking the window's close box. Your new color icon will appear in the cicn picker window.

• Changing the ID number and name of your color icon

Resources in a file are univocally defined by a type (e.g. 'cicn') and a unique ID number. Generally resource ID numbers can range from 128 to 32767, but Euro Assistant Pro requires flag IDs to range from 300 to 511. Since the color icon representing your flag has ID 128 (or in any case smaller than 300), you'll have to edit it.

Select your 'cicn' resource in the cicn picker window, choose Get Resource Info from the Resource menu and enter a unique ID ranging from 300 to 511 (e.g. 400) in the Info dialog box.

Your new 'cicn' resource can also have a name and the Info dialog box asks you to specify it: enter the name of the country corresponding to your flag and close the dialog box by clicking its close box.

Save the Flags Plug-In file (Save command in the File menu) and close it by clicking the file window's close box. Quit ResEdit.

Flags Troubleshooting
 
• I want to create a new flag, but I can't open the Flags Plug-In file with my resource editor.

The Flags plug-in cannot be opened by your resource editor because it is already in use by another application, namely Euro Assistant Pro. Quit Euro Assistant Pro and retry.

• Flags are not available in the Add/Edit Currency dialog box.

To be effective, the Flags plug-in must be stored in the same folder as the Euro Assistant Pro application. Quit Euro Assistant Pro and check whether the Flags plug-in is in a different folder. If so, move the Flags Plug-In file into the Euro Assistant Pro folder and open Euro Assistant Pro again.

• The Flags Plug-In is stored in the Euro Assistant Pro folder, but one or more or all flags are not available in the Add/Edit Currency dialog box

a) Flags, that is corresponding 'cicn' resources, must have IDs ranging from 300 to 511. Open the Flags Plug-In file with your resource editor and check your 'cicn' IDs.

b) Euro Assistant Pro cannot open the Flags Plug-In file at startup, because it is already open from your resource editor. Quit Euro Assistant Pro, activate the resource editor and close the plug-in. Launch Euro Assistant Pro again.

• All my custom currencies have grey flags with a question mark. The Edit Currency dialog box says the plug-in is not available.

a) Since the last time you used Euro Assistant Pro, you moved the Flags plug-in out of the Euro Assistant Pro folder. Quit Euro Assistant Pro, move the Flags plug-in back into the Euro Assistant Pro folder and open Euro Assistant Pro again.

b) Euro Assistant Pro cannot open the Flags Plug-In file at startup, because it is already open from your resource editor. Quit Euro Assistant Pro, activate the resource editor and close the plug-in. Launch Euro Assistant Pro again.

• One of my custom currencies has a grey flag with a question mark. The Edit Currency dialog box says the flag is not available.

You deleted the 'cicn' resource representing the missing flag or changed its resource ID. Quit Euro Assistant Pro and open the Flags plug-in with your resource editor.
Check whether the flag is still available. If so, check whether the corresponding 'cicn' resource's ID is in the 300-511 range. If needed, edit the 'cicn' ID number, save and close the plug-in.
If the flag is missing, you evidently deleted the corresponding 'cicn' resource by mistake: create the flag again. Save and close the plug-in.
Open Euro Assistant Pro and choose Currencies from the File menu. Select the currency with the question mark flag and click Edit to add the flag again.