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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hecate.umd.edu!cs.umd.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!newsgate.duke.edu!nntprelay.mathworks.com!rill.news.pipex.net!pipex!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!laura.pcug.co.uk!alpha3!casfaq Newsgroups: comp.apps.spreadsheets,comp.answers,news.answers Followup-To: comp.apps.spreadsheets From: casfaq@locutus.ofB.ORG Reply-To: casfaq@locutus.ofB.ORG Subject: comp.apps.spreadsheets FAQ Summary: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about spreadsheets Message-ID: <19971009.casfaq.01@locutus.ofB.ORG> Supersedes: <19970923.casfaq.01@locutus.ofB.ORG> Date: 09 Oct 1997 00:00:00 +0100 Expires: 09 Nov 1997 12:00:00 GMT Organization: Private System, London SW19, UK Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU X-Posted-By: trivdb Lines: 1168 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.apps.spreadsheets:34101 comp.answers:28455 news.answers:114279 Archive-name: spreadsheets/faq Author: casfaq@locutus.ofB.ORG (Russell Schulz) Comp-apps-spreadsheets-archive-name: faq Posting-Frequency: biweekly Last-modified: 1997-Sep-27 comp.apps.spreadsheets == cas Frequently Asked Questions == FAQ ======================================================================== Contents: 1. Disclaimer 2. Spam 3. Can you answer my spreadsheet question? 4. How can I add a FAQ and its answer to the FAQ list? 5. Where can I learn about spreadsheets? 6. General spreadsheet issues 7. For the masses: Lotus 1-2-3 8. For the masses: Quattro 9. For the masses: Excel 10. Spreadsheet runtimes/compilers 11. Obscure: File formats 12. Obscure: Free spreadsheets, and source code 13. Obscure: Commercial spreadsheets for UNIX 14. Obscure: Legal issues 15. Miscellaneous 99. Credits ======================================================================== 1. Disclaimer Read at your own risk. The current, previous, or original authors make no claim as to fitness for any purpose or absence of any errors, and offer no warranty. Do not eat. ======================================================================== 2. Spam you wouldn't believe how much spam I get to this address. ======================================================================== 3. Can you answer my spreadsheet question? Probably not. Please don't mail it to me. There is no reason to assume I, personally, have ever even USED the spreadsheet you're wondering about. Of course, if you're going to be like John Torquato <results@pacbell.net> and send me insulting mail after I answer your question for free, but offended you because I suggested you look in the manuals first, don't bother mailing me at all. (Yes, this really happened.) Read the manuals, and the FAQ, and the materials pointed to by it. If you can't find an answer there, by all means post to the newsgroup. A FAQ list is intended to reduce traffic on a newsgroup, not eliminate it. If you can - clearly ask your question - show you've put in effort beforehand, and aren't just abusing the newsgroup the newsgroup readers can be very helpful. Don't be shy. My personal interest is in obscure, technical and/or historical trivia, like source code, free spreadsheets, and file formats, but not with how to do things which are documented in the manuals. I assume that future maintainers will rectify this imbalance. In the mean time, the whole of section 5 lists pointers to other places you can look which will probably have what you want. ======================================================================== 4. How can I add a FAQ and its answer to the FAQ list? Mail BOTH of them to me. Then I can add them to the FAQ and it should help people who have that same question later, as well as everyone who reads the group, because they won't see it asked and answered so often. Do not just post the message and hope that I will see it -- I don't read every message in the group. I do not work on this FAQ every day, but I will try to get updates incorporated in a timely manner. ======================================================================== 5. Where can I learn about spreadsheets? More entries are always helpful! Have any moved? Please let me know. Here are some places to look on the Internet I've seen suggested: History of Spreadsheets http://manuel.lit.tas.edu.au/buss/sssw/history3.htm [error 1997/Jun/01] http://libwww.stfx.ca/cs130/lectures/spreadsheets/intro.html John Walkenbach's "The Spreadsheet Page" http://www.cts.com/browse/jwalk/ http://www.j-walk.com/ss/ IUPUI's web site with FAQs for many spreadsheets http://www-lib.iupui.edu/toolbox/spreadsheets.html Unofficial Microsoft Excel Page http://www.vex.net/~negandhi/excel/ Microsoft Excel 97 and VBA http://www.100folhas.pt/software/excel.html Finding and Removing Excel links http://www2.kalanit.co.il/nachum/ Rick Desrosiers's page http://homepages.together.net/~rickd/ DIF file format information http://hcl.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa573/convert.txt DIF file format problems seen [not responding 1997/May/01] http://www.wco.com/~3d5d1wsw/Apple.III.info/DIF.txt spreadsheets in mathematics, statistics, and science education http://sunsite.univie.ac.at/Spreadsite/ spreadsheets and statistics http://www.cm.deakin.edu.au/~rodneyc/xlstats.html spreadsheets and differential equations http://www.sci.usq.edu.au/staff/robertsa/home.html (look for spreadsheet.sea.hqx) Richard Warr's spreadsheet page http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rdw/ German Excel Page http://www.vwa.ba-stuttgart.de/~mballweg/Excel/inhalt.htm BygWyg's Excel page http://members.aol.com/bygwyg/bygsoft/ Raymond Panko's Spreadsheet Research page http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/panko/ssr/ Arun Ubale's spreadsheet written in Java http://sunrise.cs.olemiss.edu/~cmubale/ Christopher B. Browne's spreadsheets page http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/spreadsheets.html Excel page with lots of examples http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Stephen_Bullen/ Xess lite screenshots http://www.prime-mover.org/About.html Byte review of Improv on the NeXT http://www.byte.com/ART/9401/SEC6/ART1.HTM [not correct anymore?!] I/US Forums (including Quattro Pro) http://www.i-us.com/ http://www.i-us.com/nojava/allmain.htm the Cobb Group (newsletters) http://www.cobb.com/ http://www.cobb.com/ime/index.htm Village Software - commerical spreadsheets for Excel, Lotus, Quattro http://www.villagesoft.com/ John Lacher - spreadsheet application development http://www.lacher.com/ Baarns Publishing's web site http://www.baarns.com/ Official product web pages: Official Lotus web site http://www.lotus.com/123/ http://www.support.lotus.com/csswww/123.htm http://www.support.lotus.com/csswww/FAQWIN.htm http://www.support.lotus.com/css/12396.htm http://www.lotus.com/downloads/ Lotus information ftp://ftp.support.lotus.com/pub/desktop/ ... Improv/technotes/next/technotes.zip ... Improv/technotes/windows/technotes.zip ... Symphony/technotes/standalone/technotes.zip ... Symphony/technotes/server_edition/technotes.zip ... SmartSuite/technotes/windows/standalone/technotes.zip ... SmartSuite/technotes/windows/server_edition/technotes.zip ... 123/technotes/dos/standalone/technotes.zip ... 123/technotes/dos/server_edition/technotes.zip ... 123/technotes/windows/server_edition/technotes.zip ... 123/technotes/windows/standalone/technotes.zip Lotus 123 User Discussion area http://www.support.lotus.com:9191/Free123opendatabase.nsf Official Quattro web site http://www.corel.ca/products/wordperfect/cqp/index.htm http://www.corel.ca/products/wordperfect/cqp7/index.htm http://www.corel.ca/support/contact/wp.htm Quattro Pro Manual http://206.116.221.5/products/wordperfect/qpr/manual/ [error 1997/Jun/01] http://205.227.112.10/search/QP.htm [error 1997/Jun/01] Quattro Knowledge Base http://205.227.112.10/search/QP.htm [error 1997/Jun/01] Quattro Pro Discussion Board http://www.corelnet.com/corelnet/hyper/quattalk/index.html [error 1997/Jun/01] Official Excel web site http://www.microsoft.com/excel/ http://www.microsoft.com/msexcel/ http://www.microsoft.com/msexcel/FreeStuff/fs_xl_mstools.htm http://www.microsoft.com/excel/work_visit.htm http://www.microsoft.com/officedev/ Official Excel FAQ http://www.microsoft.com/MSExcelSupport/content/faq/ Microsoft Knowledge Base http://www.microsoft.com/kb/ Official Wingz web site http://www.wingz.com/ http://www.wingz.com/wingz2.html Official Xess web site http://www.ais.com/ Official NExS web site http://www.xess.com/ Official Applixware web site http://www.applix.com/ http://www.redhat.com/products/ Official Star Division web site http://www.stardiv.de/ http://www.caldera.com/ [more precise URL desired] Official Spreadsheet 2000 (formerly Let's Keep It Simple) web site http://www.emer.com/s2k/ http://www.casadyg.com/ Official Improv web site ftp://ftp.support.lotus.com/pub/desktop/Improv/technotes/next/index.html Official Mesa web site http://www.plsys.co.uk/products/Mesa/ Official Mesa for OS/2 web site http://www.sundialsystems.com/ Official Quantrix web site http://www.lighthouse.com/ProductInfo/Quantrix.html [error 1997/Jun/01] http://www.lighthouse.com/ftp.html ftp://ftp.lighthouse.com/pub/products/Quantrix/ Official ParaSheet web site http://www.lighthouse.com/ProductInfo/ParaSheet.html [error 1997/Jun/01] http://www.lighthouse.com/ftp.html ftp://ftp.lighthouse.com/pub/products/ParaSheet/ Official As Easy As and Alite web site http://www.triusinc.com/ http://www.triusinc.com/spread.htm Official @Risk web site http://www.palisade.com/products/risk/ Official GS-Calc web site http://www.jps-development.com/gs-calc.htm Official `The File Formats Handbook' web site http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Guenter_Born/ http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Guenter_Born/file1.htm KMT Software; developers of templates, add-ons and developer tools http://www.kmt.com/ XRT/table widgets http://www.klg.com/xrt/table/ xlSTAT (a data analysis toolbox for Excel) home page http://seine.inapg.inra.fr/~fahmy/ Bob Flanagan's `Microsoft Visual Basic Macros Made Easy' online book http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bobf/vbhelp.htm Other: Mailing list: Excel General EXCEL-G for information, send mail with the line INFO EXCEL-G to LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM to subscribe to the list, send mail with the line SUB EXCEL-G user@domain.name Firstname Lastname to LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM Mailing list: Excel Developer EXCEL-L for information, send mail with the line INFO EXCEL-L to LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM to subscribe to the list, send mail with the line SUB EXCEL-L user@domain.name Firstname Lastname to LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM Newsgroups: Microsoft Excel access via NNTP at news://msnews.microsoft.com note that many of these are not legitimate RFC-1036-bis names, so they may not work with your particular newsreader microsoft.public.excel.123quattro Support for converting 1-2-3 or Quattro sheets into Microsoft Excel sheets. microsoft.public.excel.charting Support for building charts with Microsoft Excel microsoft.public.excel.crashesGPFs Post here for help with crashes or General Protection Faults. microsoft.public.excel.datamap Support for the Data Map feature microsoft.public.excel.interopoledde Assistance with OLE - DDE and other cross application issues. microsoft.public.excel.links Support for using links in Excel. microsoft.public.excel.macintosh Support for Excel issues on the Macintosh Operating System Platform microsoft.public.excel.misc Post general questions or questions that do not fit one of the other categores. microsoft.public.excel.printing Support for printing spreadsheets with Microsoft Excel microsoft.public.excel.programming Programming Excel using VBA or XLM. microsoft.public.excel.queryDAO Support of the Microsoft Query Tool and using Data Access Objects (DAO) in Excel. microsoft.public.excel.setup Setup and Installing Microsoft Excel. microsoft.public.excel.templates Assistance with the Village templates and other XLT files. microsoft.public.excel.worksheetfunctions Support for Worksheet functions only like =Lookup(), or =Linest(). microsoft.public.de.excel Deutsche Newsgroup fuer EXCEL ======================================================================== 6. General spreadsheet issues 6.1 Why does my spreadsheet say 0.1+0.1+0.1+0.1+0.1-0.5 isn't 0? if any computer package uses binary floating point numbers (and the vast majority do), then it can not represent the value 1/10 exactly (just like it can't represent the value 1/3 exactly). so, in each 0.1 there's a little roundoff error, and when you get enough of those errors together, you can sometimes see them. this is why you cannot reliably use simple equality tests on a binary-arithmetic computer (including in a spreadsheet) unless it is designed to represent such quantities exactly (for instance, by using integer hundredths, or using Binary Coded Decimal form). so, instead of testing for equality like =IF(Credits=Debits) you have to do it something like =IF(ABS(Credits-Debits)<0.0000001) because the first method may FAIL when you encounter this type of roundoff error. the numbers will LOOK the same, but they won't BE the same, as far as the computer can tell. frustratingly, Microsoft Excel _does_ store values as integer hundredths to make the files smaller, but it does _not_ use these precise values in its calculations, as that perfect accuracy would make it slower! even though later versions of Microsoft Excel do have an option `use values as displayed', it does not wholly work around this problem, as the calculations are still done internally in binary. however, the final test against `0' _could_ work, if placed in separate cells: the displayed value for 0.1+0.1+0.1+0.1+0.1-0.5 (when forced to show at most 2 decimal places) is definitely 0. 6.2 How can I save-as HTML? 6.2.1 built-in save-as HTML some spreadsheets have this built-in now. contact your vendor to see if there is a patch or add-on which will work for you. 6.2.2 dbQuickPage (HTML) dbQuickPage supports the following [...] Lotus 1-2-3 wk1, wk3, wk4 Excel 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 8.0 http://www.voicenet.com/~apd230/quickpage.html 6.3 How many columns or rows does my spreadsheet allow? look in your manual! why do so many people post this question world-wide? 6.3.1 Can I get more columns or rows than that? no -- did you think the manual was joking? a. perhaps there is another spreadsheet package which has enough columns or rows for your needs. b. if you cannot switch packages, try to rotate the data (since most spreadsheets allow many more rows than columns). c. if none of these work, split the data over multiple sheets, if your package has this capability. ======================================================================== 7. For the masses: Lotus 1-2-3 7.0 1-2-3 history [ I've been mailed a as-I-remember-it history, but I'd love to have an official one to point to here ] ======================================================================== 8. For the masses: Quattro 8.0 Quattro history 1-2-3 was the dominant spreadsheet on PCs for a long, long time. `quattro' is similar to the Latin and Spanish for `4'. get it? ======================================================================== 9. For the masses: Excel 9.0 Excel history http://www.microsoft.com/msexcel/productinfo/macintosh/xlhistry.htm http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q66/9/13.htm http://info.lut.ac.uk/departments/ps/Exceldir/ExcelHist.html 9.1 Why would anyone want to convert Excel 4 macros to VBA? - there are some compatibility problems with later versions - so they are easier to understand - so they are easier to modify - so you can learn VBA 9.1.1 Is there a tool which will convert Excel 4 macros to VBA? not that anyone knows of -- if you find one, tell us all 9.2 How can I do a Save-As or Exit without prompting the user? VBA: You can suppress the messages with: Application.DisplayAlerts = False Don't forget to turn them back on when you are finished with: Application.DisplayAlerts = True 9.3 How do I put long, multiline text string in a message box? VBA: Sub msg() MsgBox "This will print on line one" & Chr(13) & _ "this will print on line two" End Sub 9.4 Why do I get "File format no longer supported"? If some other application overwrites the OLE DLLs, you will get this error at odd times. One fix posted by scotfos [at] rosemount.com (Scot Foss) follows: Move these files to a different directory and then Uninstall Excel. If you reinstall Excel every thing should work. After reading through the related articles in dejanews one person said that Microsoft Video was the culprit that overwrote the DLLs. The only thing that I can think of that I installed in the last month was Microsoft Encarta, I haven't experimented to see if it was Encarta that messed up the DLLs, so I can't be sure. Here's the list of the files: I deleted Excel and backed up and deleted the following files, and reinstalled Excel from the MS-Office disks. OLE2.DLL OLE2.REG OLE2CONV.DLL OLE2DISP.DLL OLE2NLS.DLL OLE2PROX.DLL VBA.DLL VBAEN.DLL VBAEN.OLB STDOLE.TLB STORAGE.DLL TYPELIB.DLL 9.5 What's this about the 15 digit numbers that return 0.64 or 1.28? according to Microsoft, the problem numbers are: > 140737488355328 = 2^47 > 281474976710656 = 2^48 > 562949953421312 = 2^49 > multiples of ten also cause problems, such as 1.40737488355328 see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q128/6/50.htm see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q128/3/32.htm 9.6 How can I view Excel files without Excel? see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q141/2/24.htm 9.7 What's this about an Excel virus? see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q154/1/31.htm 9.8 When I start up Excel, it tries to open a lot of files; some of them are non-Excel files (sometimes my AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, sometimes all my Windows files) that it tries to open as Excel workbooks. What happened? it is opening all the files in the Alternative Startup File Location. delete the setting via: Excel 4: load the AltStart addin and clear the entry Later: Tools|Options|General|Alternate Startup File Location 9.9 Any number I type in gets divided by a power of 10. Why? Excel has an option `Fixed Decimal Places', which divides all constants entered directly in the cell by a power of 10 (e.g., entering 622 would change to 6.22). change the setting to `0' via: Tools|Options|Edit|Fixed Decimal Places 9.10 Excel complains about TIMER.DRV on startup. What can I do? see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q109/7/78.htm 9.11 I get odd (square?) characters where I expect commas (thousands) or slashes (dates). What happened? check your International settings in Control Panel. when these get corrupted, Excel will still use them, with painful results. 9.12 How can I add 14:00 to 14:00 and get the cell to say 28:00 instead of 04:00? > For Excel 5, 7, 8 > format the cell: [h]:mm > > Excel 97 makes it easier now, by including the format among the pull > down choices for a time format. 9.13 Why is =-1^2 positive and =0-1^2 negative? see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q132/6/86.htm nonstandard operator precedence -- the `unary minus' has a high precedence, as normal, but the `exponentiation operator' has a higher one, which is NOT normal. Excel treats it as (-1)^2, while most languages would as -(1^2). (you can ALWAYS use parentheses to force either interpretation.) note that Excel formulas and VBA formulas disagree on the order. I had thought it might have been there for Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility; however: Bill Clark tested it and reported: > Qbasic produces -1 > DOS Quatro Pro V5 produces -1 > Lotus 123r5w produces -1 > Excel 5 VBA produces -1 > dBase 4 produces 1 > GNU G77 Fortran (OS/2) produces -1 > Base32 (OS/2 Dbase clone) produces 1 John Whittington reported: > SAS produces -1 > Minitab produces -1 > MS BASIC produces -1 > MS Word for Windows Table Formula produces 1 Anthony Berglas pointed out an odd problem with ordering between / (division) and \ (integer division) in VBA: > ? 60 \ 5 * 2 > 6 > ? 60 / 5 * 2 > 24 9.14 How can I save a chart as a GIF file? see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q168/5/61.htm see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q166/3/38.htm 9.15 Excel says I have links -- but I can't find them. Where are they? 1. formulas find the filename the link is to (Edit|Links) select all sheets search for that filename 2. names search through the list of names 3. buttons _is_ there a good way to search these? 9.15.1 How can I get a list of names defined in a spreadsheet in a form I can search for, print, compare with others, etc.? it's built-in => Insert|Name|Paste|Paste List see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q50/2/61.htm 9.16 How come my SUM(IF()) formula doesn't work? Excel (even v8, xl97) does not handle AND() or OR() in array formulas; other versions have also had problems with MIN() and MAX() in array formulas. see http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q77/6/76.htm but I recommend avoiding their booleans-are-numbers type coercion, by changing IF(and(a=b,c=d),x,y) to IF( if(a=b,1,0) * if(c=d,1,0) <>0 ,x,y) IF(or(a=b,c=d),x,y) to IF( if(a=b,1,0) + if(c=d,1,0) <>0 ,x,y) ======================================================================== 10. Spreadsheet runtimes/compilers 10.0 References 10.1 Baler and Visual Baler http://www.techtools.com/vbaler.htm http://nyweb.com/lotus/visbaler.htm 10.2 xlsexe Compuserve: 71031,1123 America Online: RobertL469 Centerline Software 3351 Turner Plaza #108 Abilene, TX 79606 ftp://ftp.zdnet.com/pccomp/1001/xlsexe.zip 10.3 Formula One (available from Programmer's Paradise) http://www.visualcomp.com/f1net/download.htm ======================================================================== 11. Obscure: File formats 11.0 General References File Formats for Popular PC Software by Jeff Walden ISBN 0-471-83671-0 John Wiley & Sons Copyright 1986 Spreadsheet file formats for: Lotus 1-2-3 1, 1A, 2.0 Symphony 1, 1.1 Ability DIF (Data Interchange Format) Multiplan (SYLK) 1.2 IBM Plans+ 1.0 Supercalc 3 Release 2 SDI (Super Data Interchange) 2.0 Visicalc 177Y2 More File Formats for Popular PC Software by Jeff Walden ISBN 0-471-85077-2 John Wiley & Sons Copyright 1987 Spreadsheet file formats for: Framework II Supercalc 4 The File Formats Handbook by Guenter Born ISBN 1-85032-117-5 International Thomson Publishing, London 1274 pages Copyright 1995 (I think) Spreadsheet file formats for: LOTUS 1-2-3 WKS/WK1 file format LOTUS 1-2-3 WK3 file format LOTUS 1-2-3 FRM file format LOTUS 1-2-3 PIC format LOTUS Symphony format Data Interchange Format (DIF) Super Data Interchange format (SDI) Standard Interface format (SIF) Symbolic Link Format (SYLK) Excel binary interchange format (BIFF) Dr. Dobb's Essential Books on File Formats 6 books on one CD Born: The File Formats Handbook Walden: More File Formats for Popular PC Software Kay: Graphics File Formats Kientzie: Internet File Formats Swan: Inside Windows File Formats Taylor: File Formats orders@mfi.com http://www.ddj.com/cdrom/ 11.1 Tab-delimited format Stores: Values Each column is separated by ASCII tabs (9). Each row is separated by local end-of-line, be it ASCII LF (10) or ASCII CRLF (13,10). e.g., First<tab>Second<tab>3<tab>Fourth, and Second-Last<tab>Fifth 11.2 CSV (Comma-Separated Values) format Stores: Values each column is separated by commas. each row is separated by local end-of-line, be it ASCII LF (10) or ASCII CRLF (13,10). usually, if a comma is needed, the entire field will be surrounded by quotation marks. some packages enclose any string value (and some numeric values) in quotation marks. to represent a quotation mark within a field, double it (don't use `\"'). e.g., First,Second,3,"Fourth, and Second-Last",Fifth "First","Second",3,"Fourth, and Second-Last","Fifth" "this field has a ""quoted"" word in it","yes it does" 11.3 DIF (Data Interchange Format) [ if ANYONE has a pointer to this format on the web, PLEASE tell me ] [ note that this is not Directory Interchange Format, documented at <http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/difguide/difman.html>. ] Stores: Values, Equations This file format requires more explanation than just a simple example. _File Formats..._ says: And special thanks to Lotus Development Corporation for the foresight and kindness to place the information about their file format in the public domain. [ is this WKS only or DIF only or both or what? ] 11.4 Lotus-based formats 11.4.1 WKS format Stores: Values, Equations, Simple formatting File format descriptions can be found via the following anonymous ftp sites SITE: ftp://ftp.coast.net/Coast/msdos/lotus123/wksffmt.zip OR: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/simtelnet/msdos/spredsht/ http://www.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/lotus123.html FILE: wksffmt.zip SIZE: 22,575 DATE: 900626 DESCRIPTION: Description of Lotus .WKS & .WK1 file formats Lotus File Formats For 1-2-3, Symphony and Jazz by ... ISBN 0-201-16824-3 Lotus Books Addison-Wesley Published 1987 11.4.2 WK1 format Stores: Values, Equations, Formatting, Named Regions [?] Also See WKS format 11.4.3 WQ1 format Stores: Values, Equations, Formatting, Named Regions [?] [is this the same as any Lotus format?] 11.5 SYLK format [ if ANYONE has a pointer to this format on the web, PLEASE tell me ] 11.5.1 documented SYLK Stores: Values, Equations, Formatting, Named Regions used by Excel 4 and earlier, and all other SYLK software used by Excel 7 (as far as I can tell, except where using features not covered by the original specification) documented in Multimate manuals (and Walden's and later books) documented in `sylksum.doc', which I can no longer find from Microsoft's ftp site or web site [do they still have a BBS I could check?] 11.5.2 Excel 5 SYLK Stores: Values, Equations, Formatting, Named Regions, Charts [?] used by Excel 5 (only?) Born's book documents some (all?) extensions, but I am still looking for documention for them from Microsoft -- what good is having two file formats (Excel XLS and Excel SYLK) that only Excel can read?! in particular, the unnecessary `M'atrix modifier has caused me problems with software expecting to read a documented SYLK file. Excel 7 (95) seems to be MUCH better at following the documented format (in that it no longer adds spurious `M'atrix modifiers like Excel 5 did). 11.6 Excel formats 11.6.1 Excel 1.0 format 11.6.2 Excel 1.5 format 11.6.3 Excel 2/2.1 format 11.6.4 Excel 3 format 11.6.5 Excel 4 format Stores: Values, Equations, Formatting, Named Regions, Charts, Multiple Worksheets, ... Try to find the Excel 4 SDK (out of print) from Microsoft. 11.6.6 Excel 5/7 format Stores: Values, Equations, Formatting, Named Regions, Charts, Multiple Worksheets, ... Buy the Excel 5 SDK from Microsoft -- your bookstore can order it from Microsoft Press (1-800-MS-PRESS). Microsoft Excel Developer's Kit: Version 5 MS Press: ISBN 1-55615-632-4 Rumor has it that, because they are OLE compound documents, there will be NO official libraries to create them, except those provided by Microsoft on the MS-Windows platform. The 'LAOLA' package is an OLE wrapper library for non-windows platforms. See: <http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~schwartz/pmh/laola.html> (this non-API method is not guaranteed to work for future versions of OLE -- it only attempts to unravel the current binary file formats.) 11.6.7 Excel 8 format [ anyone? ] ======================================================================== 12. Obscure: Free spreadsheets, and source code 12.1 sc Spreadsheet Calculator SimTel: sc621.zip http://www.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/spredsht.html ftp://ftp.coast.net/Coast/msdos/spredsht/sc621.zip 12.1.1 ss interface additions to sc 6.2.1 by: Art Mulder (art.mulder@ualberta.ca) latest version: 1.3.3 ftp://ftp.cs.ualberta.ca/pub/spreadsheet/ 12.1.2 xspread xspread was based on sc. The program xspread is a public domain spreadsheet which runs under X Windows or ascii terminals. Xspread uses the X Window system if available or curses and term[cap/info] for ascii displays. A manual is included. They are available from the usual X ftp places, and locally at ftp://ftp.cs.uwm.edu/pub/soft-eng/ 129.89.9.18 soft-eng@cs.uwm.edu 12.2 oleo GNU spreadsheet ftp.prep.ai.mit.edu ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/oleo-1.6.tar.gz 12.3 teapot Teapot (Table Editor And Planner, Or: Teapot!) http://cantor.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/~michael/projects/teapot-en.html 12.4 Borland MicroCalc Borland's Turbo Pascal and Turbo C and Turbo C++ compiler packages have often included source code to a small spreadsheet. 12.5 Herb Schildt's sparse array code Herb Schildt's book C: The Complete Reference has a section on sparse arrays. His main example of where you'd use them is in a spreadsheet. ISBN 0-07-881263-1 (McGraw-Hill 1987) 12.6 SIAG (Scheme In A Grid) http://www.edu.stockholm.se/~ulric/siag/ 12.7 Dismal (Dis Mode Ain't Lotus) mode for XEmacs ======================================================================== 13. Obscure: Commercial spreadsheets for UNIX 13.0 Section criteria I will happily include a pointer to any Internet resource (in Section 4) for any spreadsheet manufacturer. In this section, I will also put email addresses and a few telephone numbers (toll-free wherever you are, and internationally-accessible for the rest of the world) for ones which run natively on Unix. 13.1 WingZ wingz-sales@wingz.com 13.2 Xess info@ais.com, support@ais.com 1-919-942-7801 1-800-334-5510 13.3 NeXS nexs-info@xess.com 1-919-387-0076 ======================================================================== 14. Obscure: Legal issues 14.1 Patents 14.1.1 Natural Order Recalc see http://www.lpf.org/Patents/against-software-patents.html see http://www.lpf.org/Links/prep.ai.mit.edu/techrev.patent see http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/bull/12/bull12.txt see http://www.hotwired.com/wired/2.07/features/patents.html 14.2 Interface Copyright 14.2.1 Lotus vs. Borland and Paperback Software see http://www.lotus.com/corpcomm/27b2.htm see http://www.borland.com/ProgServ/US/legal/lawsuits.html [error 1997/Jun/01] see http://www.lpf.org/Copyright/look-and-feel.html ======================================================================== 15. Miscellaneous ======================================================================== 99. Credits I expect most of the information in this FAQ to be supplied by people other than myself -- it's just going to work better that way. The newsgroup readers have a LOT more spreadsheet experience than I ever will (unless I multiply myself by a few thousand, which is not legal with today's tax laws). These people have contributed to the well-being of the FAQ: jwalk [at] cts.com (John Walkenbach) RussTiller [at] aol.com jolliffe [at] bbsrc.ac.uk (Lyn Jolliffe) negandhi [at] vex.net (Neil Negandhi) cingram [at] gtri.gatech.edu (Chris Ingram) arthur [at] ais.com BaarnsDon [at] msn.com (Donald Baarns) nachum [at] netvision.net.il (Nachum Ginat) dtsmith [at] mindspring.com (Dale Smith) neuwirth [at] smc.univie.ac.at (Erich Neuwirth) hans [at] usit.net (Ed Hansberry) tkm [at] xess.com (Tom Miller) helberg [at] maddog.fammed.wisc.edu (Clay Helberg) booter [at] fea.com (Elaine Richards) 76712.626 [at] compuserve.com (Richard Warr) 100322.1465 [at] compuserve.com (Born Guenter) vlod [at] iisc.co.uk (vlod kalicun) steve [at] emer.com (Steve Wilson) fahmy [at] ulb.ac.be (FAHMY Thierry) steelera [at] pilot.msu.edu (Ray M. Steele) pjraval [at] ix.netcom.com (P. Raval) dsherman [at] iwaynet.net (David Sherman) Dave_Weintraub [at] jhuapl.edu (Dave Weintraub) michael [at] cantor.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Michael Haardt) aroberts [at] usq.edu.au (Tony Roberts) eonsol [at] cix.compulink.co.uk (Jeff Hall) softbase [at] mercury.interpath.com (Scott McMahan - Softbase Systems) nlunger [at] epix.net (Norman Lunger) phillip [at] pm.cse.rmit.edu.au (Phillip Musumeci) bygwyg [at] aol.com the_mrs [at] geocities.com abarr [at] onramp.net (Allen F. Barr) scotfos [at] rosemount.com (Scot Foss) billo [at] hermes.bc.edu (E. J. Billo) gharmer [at] vitgcrp1.telecom.com.au (Greg Harmer) G.Dunn [at] Queens-Belfast.ac.uk (George Dunn) lyn.jolliffe [at] bbsrc.ac.uk (Lyn Jolliffe) ma [at] informatik.uni-kiel.de (Martin Ameskamp) peter.allan [at] aeat.co.uk (Peter Allan) Rsclient [at] aol.com (Peter Smith) T.Harden [at] tu-bs.de (Torsten Harden) eschner [at] w-4.de (Hanfred Eschner) goinssouth [at] worldnet.att.net (Steven Goins) gswebstr [at] budget.com.au (Graham Webster) panko [at] hawaii.edu (Ray Panko) arun [at] fsc.fujitsu.com (Arun Ubale) dcromley [at] wyoming.com (Dave Cromley) apd230 [at] voicenet.com (Maciej Gorny) october [at] direct.ca (Kris Plasun) wclark [at] worldnet.att.net (Bill Clark) berglas [at] it.uq.edu.au (Anthony Berglas) johnw [at] MAG-NET.CO.UK (John Whittington) stimpy [at] maas.net (Jon Dalberg) anonymous (Brian Ewins) hidronet [at] mail.telepac.pt (R. Carvalho) jrlatour [at] SPAMARAMA.perigee.net (John) n.youngman [at] videonetworks.com (Neil Youngman) paul-lemay [at] home.com (Paul Lemay) breiter [at] mathematik.Uni-Osnabrueck.DE (Bernhard Reiter) jkinlan [at] kmt.com (Jim Kinlan) mbetz [at] bellatlantic.net (Mark Betz) cbbrowne [at] news.brownes.org (Christopher B. Browne) warren [at] borg.com (Warren A. Hall) hidronet [at] mail.telepac.pt (Ricardo Carvalho) reckteac [at] ibex.ca (Achim Rectenwald) greg [at] gtravis.ucs.indiana.edu (Gregory R. Travis) bod [at] compusol.com.au (Brendan O'Dea) ats [at] acm.org (Alan Shutko) Thanks. ======================================================================== thus endeth the cas FAQ.