RUN CALC 128 is a spreadsheet for managing home budgets and keeping track of expenses. Rows are numbered 1-250 and columns are labeled A-Z. Cells are designated by column, then row, such as A1, B26 and Z250. There are 6500 cells available, although you may run out of memory before you use that many. Column widths default to ten characters, but may be changed.
Whenever an error occurs or you press an inappropriate key, the computer beeps. Also, any time the computer is working, a Wait message flashes in the upper-right corner of the screen. A non-flashing Ready message means the computer is ready to accept input from the keyboard. You'll also encounter other status messages as you perform various operations. Information as to the cell content, cell position and data type within the cell are shown in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Should you forget the function of a key or the syntax of a function, press the help key. Press the escape key (or any other key) to exit back to your worksheet. Pressing escape in the Worksheet mode displays the main menu at the top of the screen. Once a menu is present, escape exits back to a previous menu or, ultimately, back to the worksheet. You can also obtain the main menu by pressing the slash (/) key. Escape will also exit safely from disk drive routines and generally keep you out of trouble.
Either set of cursor keys can be used to move to a particular cell. Once you begin entering or editing the data within a cell, only the left-and-right cursor keys are active. To avoid moving cell by cell, press the control key and one of the four upper cursor keys to move the cursor to an adjacent screen. Control/up or down jumps 20 rows at a time. Control/left or right displays the next group of columns. The number of columns that will fit on a screen depends on the width of the columns. Pressing the home key once moves the cursor to the upper-left cell shown on the screen. Pressing home again moves the cursor to the beginning of your worksheet (cell A1).
A cell may have one of three types of contents--a value, a formula or a label. A value must begin with a plus, minus or at symbol, then the program interprets the contents as a value. Characters typed in as values automatically convert to uppercase.
After you press return to make the computer accept a formula you've entered, it identifies all cells referred to by the formula and converts everything else to lowercase. The result of a value or formula is printed within the cell, normally right-justified with two decimal places. The contents of the cell, consisting of the data and the result, are also displayed at the top of the screen. Immediately after the cell identification, the result appears, followed by a left arrow. Then the data you entered for the cell is displayed. It may consist of a number value or a formula or function. A value entered as + 25 appears on the status line as A1: 25_+25. A formula entered as +25*100/2 appears as A1: 1250_+25*100/2. The left arrow points from the formula to the result.
Labels are simpler because the data you type in immediately becomes the result. Labels are normally printed left-justified within a cell, and may consist of any character typed from the keyboard, including punctuation and Commodore graphics characters, but excluding the plus, minus, at and back-arrow characters, which denote values and formulas.
When typing in labels, RUN Calc 128 automatically overlaps text data into the columns to the right, assuming they're empty. If the column to the right already contains data, only the number of characters that will fit in the current cell are printed. The entire text string appears at the top of the page, even if it's too long to fit in the cell.
Once the cursor is positioned in a cell, press the return or enter key to edit the data within the cell. After you make your corrections, return or enter exits the cell. You can erase the data within a cell quickly by moving to the cell, then pressing return, the space bar and return once more. When you're entering data at menu prompts, you must always press return to accept the input.
Any time you exit a cell containing a formula by pressing return, the formula is recalculated and the result displayed. If you've extensively altered your worksheet and want to recalculate it entirely, press the equals (=) key. Two passes are required to ensure accuracy.
Pressing the English pound (\) key displays the number of bytes free in the memory bank.
Most of the functions and operators that can be used in writing a Basic program can also be used in a formula within a cell. Refer to Table 1 for the Basic operators and functions that can be used in RUN Calc 128 formulas.
As you type in an equation, the characters appear in uppercase, but after you press return, only the cell coordinates remain capitalized. Functions not allowed by RUN Calc 128 are obvious, because the function letters remain in uppercase.
The trigonometric functions always return an angle in radians, not degrees. To convert a result in cell A1 from radians to degrees, use the expression +A1*180/3.14159.
The @ functions simplify mathematical operations on a range, or block, of adjoining cells. For instance, rather than typing +A1+A2+A3+A4+A5, it's simpler to type @SUM(A1..A5). The @ symbol must be the first character in the formula. Cell coordinates must be enclosed within parentheses and separated by two periods (no spaces allowed). The first set of coordinates is for the From cell, and the second is for the To cell.
Prompts requiring an input are accompanied by a flashing cursor. Press return after responding to any prompt.
Pressing the escape or slash key when working on your worksheet displays the main menu. From the main menu, you can go on to other menus or quit the program by pressing Q. Any option that will dramatically alter your worksheet will display an "Are you sure?" prompt.
C--clears, or erases, all the cells in the entire worksheet, leaving the column widths as you last defined them. To start over completely, with the default column values, you must quit the program and run it again.
P--Prompts for the range, or block, of cells to be printed. The current cell coordinates are preprinted in the prompt. Enter the starting and ending cell coordinates in the form From..To, as in A1..F20. RUN Calc 128 works with any Commodore or compatible printer.
W--Displays the Worksheet menu, where you can define and modify the layout of your worksheet, including altering the width and print format of the columns, as well as delete, insert and erase data selectively.
F--Displays the Disk Files menu, where you can perform all operations related to the disk drive. Note that RUN Calc 128 uses only drive device 8.
F--Displays a Format Column menu, where you can specify how you want the data justified.
W--Produces a prompt asking for the width of the current column. You can enter a width of 1-74 characters. Some column formats require at least four characters. After you press return, the column and screen are reprinted with the necessary adjustments. Column formats return to the default settings after a width adjustment, so you have to reset the format at the Format Column menu.
D--Deletes either the column or row that the cursor is currently positioned in. Press C for column, R for row or escape to exit. When a column is deleted, all columns to the right and the data in them are shifted to the left (column E becomes D, and so forth). Deleted rows make data below the current row shift up a row (row 100 becomes 99). RUN Calc 128 automatically adjusts the cell coordinates if @ functions occur in a cell, but normal formulas and functions need to be adjusted manually.
I--Followed by C or R, this command inserts either a column or row to the left of or above the current cursor position. Columns to the right of the insert shift right (E becomes F) and rows below the insert shift down (99 becomes 100). Cell coordinates within formulas may have to be adjusted accordingly.
E--Displays the Erase menu. Pressing C or R erases the data within the current column or row. The column
