If you have any interest in designing business forms then you will like this desk accessory. Even if you don’t need business forms you might want to read about 1 Shot Worksheet™ because it does have other uses. It lets you design your own forms, such as invoices, sales records, receipts, estimated costs for projects, income statements, check records, expense statements, and any other forms you can think of. In addition, this is a spreadsheet accessory which lets you create mathematical formulas inside of the form you’re generating.
I recently received a catalog containing a thousand different preprinted business forms. I think most of them could be duplicated by using 1 Shot Worksheet. The package with this DA includes a number of templates of business forms. The developer calls them worksheets. See Figure 1.
If you have a small business, and a Macintosh available, there could be several advantages to designing your own forms. First, they can be personalized with your company name, second, you make the form to meet your particular needs, and third, you can fill out the forms (which have been saved as templates) and print them, using this DA, instead of feeding preprinted forms into your printer and using a piece of software made to match the blank form. Also, the form you create with 1 Shot Worksheet will probably contain some mathematical formulas. This keeps you from having to use a calculator each time and inserting the answers into the blank form. After all, this is a worksheet program as well as a forms generator. Although this DA is designed primarily to develop business forms, it can also be used to develop report forms for use in connection with your own personal record keeping. It is a very versatile program, and the benefits available to you are limited only by your imagination. Shown below are some worksheets furnished with the program which are useful for personal finances:
I think one of the best ways to describe this program is to go through the steps necessary to compose a form. Let’s assume that we are going to make a sales receipt form for a company to use while making its counter sales. To design the form, we use the “Layout Mode.” In this mode of the program you produce the basic form, with whatever math formulas you need. After the form is created in this mode, you switch to the “User Mode,” where you insert the appropriate numbers and let the program do the math.
The first step is to design the logo and, if you get fancy, you might want to make a graphic out of the company name. This must be done in other drawing programs if you want to go beyond the usual font type and style format which is available in this DA. But 1 Shot does support graphics; therefore, after copying the logo and company name to the clipboard, merely click on the “Picture” icon in 1 Shot and the graphics will appear in your worksheet. It can now be moved wherever you want it, and you can re-size it if necessary. This is a very beneficial feature of the program because it permits you to import graphics and make attractive designs for what would otherwise be a very dull form.
Next, we need to set up a receipt containing quantities bought, unit price, total costs, tax, etc. So we first make labels for columns, such as:
These labels can be enclosed in rectangles, or not, as you wish; and they can be moved (dragged) anywhere you might want them.
Next, we set up ranges of data fields, like cells in a spreadsheet. Unlike a spreadsheet, where the cells are numbered, our cells are going to be named. This is an excellent feature of the program because it is much easier to refer to the field names in the math formulas than to cell numbers. Now, look at the illustration shown below. The labels are on top. The lower portions are the ranges of data fields (cells) which we set up and named. We are still in the Layout Mode. The field names will not show up when we switch to the User Mode. Our labels will continue to show, but the fields will be blank in order to receive the numbers and text we will want to insert when filling out each form.
We now format the fields to show general numbers in the quantity field and dollars and cents in the other two. We are ready to put the formula in the Price Extended field. As you can see in the illustration below, the math formula for multiplying the unit price times the quantity uses the names we established for our fields instead of cell numbers. The (i)s (for index), after the field names, tell the program to perform the multiplication in order, i.e., quantity 1 will be multiplied by price 1; and quantity 2 will be multiplied by price 2, etc. The data ranges may be run down the page to include enough lines for the usual number of items sold.
It’s time to put in our sub-total, tax, and total labels and data fields at the bottom of the form. The labels, fields, and the arguments for the latter are shown below:
This is so easy it’s just like falling off a log! The program is intuitive, and you’ll notice how we were able to say the Total is the Sub Total plus the Tax instead of having a formula say something like cell D14=Sum of cells D13 and D12. Naming the fields makes a lot of sense for a small worksheet like the own we are creating in this form.
We are finally ready to switch to the User Mode and insert some numbers in the form. Just like a spreadsheet, when we insert the quantity and the unit price then 1 Shot does all of the math necessary to add, figure the tax, and give us the totals. The program has over 130 math functions, including financial, scientific, and engineering formulas. I have condensed the numbers into a small area in order to show them below:
Although 1 Shot is a DA it nevertheless has the capability of creating and opening files. These files are called Workbooks and each Workbook can have up to 32 worksheets. Furthermore, data fields which have formulas can refer to data fields on other pages of the Workbook. Each worksheet is limited to 100 items on a page, and an item is a field for holding information or a graphic. The DA has some draw tools which allow the user to make lines, rectangles, ovals, and rounded corner rectangles. Also, you can fill such shapes with the usual patterns.
I mentioned earlier that you can use your imagination on this one to draw up worksheets to suit your needs. This brings up the subject of any ideas which you may have. When I called Baseline Publishing, the president of the company, Mr. Matthew Smith, answered the phone. He said that they are “looking for suggestions.” If anybody has any ideas or suggestions as to how this program could be used in their business or personal life, Mr. Smith would like to hear from you. Of course, I will be happy to talk to anybody who might have an interest in this DA. (My America Online name is RayV19.)
***Caption for Fig.8: Shown above is an example of the type of personal record keeping form which can be drawn with this program. The example is furnished on the program disk along with others, but I have taken the liberty of changing some of the numbers. ------------------------------------------------
I used 1 Shot Worksheet™ on an SE/30, often opening it while writing this review in Design Studio; and I found it to be very stable. It always followed commands and did what I thought it was going to do, even when I was guessing. (I do that sometimes!) I tried using it with Stepping Out, Desk Paint™, and Desk Draw™, and a long list of desk accessories in my System folder. I experienced no system errors or hang ups. It appears to be very well written. The manual is 40 pages, and it looks like considerable effort went into the narrative while still maintaining a sense of humor. In one place, it says: “After you have made a backup copy put the master disk in a safe place away from rats, children, earthquakes, and IBM users.” That’s good advice!
The article above is reprinted from Mac Monitor, the newsletter of The Savannah Macintosh Users Group. It may be reprinted in a single issue of newsletters published by non-profit user groups. Payment shall consist of a single issue of the newsletter in which the article appears, sent to the following address:
