The Business Master (3rd Edition)

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page 4-1 CHAPTER 4: EDITING In this chapter we will look at the many editing features of FREE & EASY. FREE & EASY can be used as a text editor if you wish (to produce DOS batch files for example). The edit features work on the cells and ranges of the sheet as well as the text. You will find that these features allow you to make extensive modifications to a sheet without much difficulty. FREE & EASY also has complete search-and-replace capabilities, allowing you to find text in the sheet and easily change it. The editing features are found in the "eDit" pull-down menu. Edit Defaults The cut-and-paste features of FREE & EASY (menu items "dElete", "cUt to clipboard", "Copy to clipboard", "copY from clipboard") can work on text, cells, ranges or any combination of these. To choose which of these the editing features will work on, use the "edit Defaults ..." menu item. On the "Edit Defaults" pop-up menu, you can also change the tab settings of FREE & EASY. If you press TAB, the cursor will go to the next tab setting. If you press shift-TAB, the cursor will go to the previous tab settings. The spacing between the tab settings can be varied from 1 to 50. Highlighting On several menu items, you must highlight an area of the sheet before doing the operation. To highlight an area of the sheet, select the "Highlight" menu item or press control-H. This puts you in highlight mode. The highlighted area of the sheet always appears as a rectangle. One corner of the rectangle stays anchored in the same spot, and the opposite corner (corner with the cursor) moves and changes the box size. Use the regular cursor control keys (e.g. up, down, tab, page up, etc.) to move the cursor in highlight mode. F5 and F6 can be used to change the corner of the highlighted box in which the cursor is found. If F7 is pressed, the mode of highlighting changes so that instead of changing the size of the box, the cursor control keys change the whole position of the highlighted box. "Escape" can be pressed to cancel the highlighting operation, and the highlighted box will disappear. If Enter is pressed, the cursor returns to the original position and the box stays highlighted. At this point if you press any key (except those used in calling up a pull-down menu or a short-cut key combination to act on a highlighted) the highlighted box will disappear. The Clipboard The clipboard is a temporary area of computer memory set aside by FREE & EASY to store data. This data can be text, cells, ranges or any combination of these depending on the edit defaults. The amount of memory used by the clipboard expands and contracts depending upon what page 4-2 is in it. When using the clipboard, you may get an "out of memory" error, especially if several sheets are loaded into FREE & EASY and you are trying to put a large amount of data to the clipboard. Delete This command is used to delete a highlighted area of the sheet. This command will delete text, cells, ranges or any combination of the three depending on the edit defaults. Once the area of the sheet that you want to delete has been highlighted, use the "dElete" menu item. If you attempt to use this menu item without a highlighted area, you will get a "nothing has been highlighted" error message. Once the area has been highlighted, you can also hit the delete key to delete the area. If nothing has been highlighted and you hit the delete key, only the text at the cursor is deleted, and all text to the right of the cursor moves left one space. If you wish to delete a character without moving text to the right of the cursor, use the space bar. If you are deleting cells or ranges, the entire cell or range must be within the highlighted area to be deleted. Use this command with caution since once something has been deleted there is no way to get it back. Copy to Clipboard The "Copy to clipboard" menu item is used to make a copy of what is highlighted on the sheet in the clipboard. The sheet is not affected by this command. If you use this menu item and nothing has been highlighted, you get a "nothing has been highlighted" error message. This command will copy text, cells, ranges or any combination of the three depending upon the edit defaults. When you use this command, whatever is presently in the clipboard is erased. There is no way to get this data back. The new data is then put into the clipboard. If you are copying cells or ranges, the entire cell or range must be within the highlighted area in order to be copied to the clipboard. If an area of the sheet is highlighted, you can use the Insert key as a short-cut key for this command. If you press the Insert key and no text has been highlighted, you just toggle between insert mode and overstrike mode. Cut to Clipboard The "cUt to clipboard" menu item copies the highlighted area of the sheet to the clipboard and then deletes the highlighted area from the sheet. In effect, this command does the "Copy to clipboard" operation followed by the "dElete" operation. All aspects of these two menu items thus apply to this menu item as well. If an area of the sheet has been highlighted, you can use the shift-Delete as a short-cut for this menu item. page 4-3 Copy from Clipboard The "copY from clipboard" menu item puts a copy of the contents of the clipboard at the present cursor position. The contents of the clipboard remain intact. This means that you can make copies of the same clipboard contents at several locations in the sheet, or even in other sheets. You can also use the shift-Insert key to do this command. If you attempt this menu item and the clipboard has no contents, then you get "the clipboard is empty" error message. If, when you use this menu item the clipboard contents will go off the edge or bottom of the sheet, then you will get a "text cannot fit at this location" error message. This command puts whatever is in the clipboard on the sheet at the current cursor position regardless of what the present edit defaults are. For example, if you used the "Copy to clipboard" menu item with "include cells" set to "yes", and then you set "include cells" to "no" and used this command, the cells in the clipboard would still be copied to the sheet. If necessary when you use this command, FREE & EASY will remove text or cells to make room for the data being copied from the clipboard to the sheet. If this is the case, FREE & EASY will warn you that data will be lost and ask for confirmation that you want to proceed. Cells only partially within the block where the clipboard contents will be copied to will also be removed. Ranges are not removed by this command. If there is a cell in the clipboard with a name the same as that of a cell already on the sheet, when FREE & EASY copies the cell in the clipboard to the sheet, it will not copy the cell's name. This is because two cells in the sheet cannot have the same name. If there is a range in the clipboard with a name the same as that of a range already on the sheet, FREE & EASY will not copy that range to the sheet. That is because two ranges in the sheet cannot have the same name. Remember that sheet locations in cell contents can be relative to the cell location or absolute. Thus if you move or copy the cell, the sheet location which is relative in the cell contents changes according to that new location of the cell. If because of the new location of the cell, the cell contents have a location which is off the sheet, the location in the cell contents that is shown will be off the sheet. An evaluation error will occur for this cell when it is evaluated. (The location can come back onto the sheet if the cell is moved again). When cells are copied from the clipboard to the sheet, they are not automatically evaluated. You must use one of the cell evaluation commands to do this. Clear Clipboard The "cLear clipboard" menu item removes all the contents of the clipboard. If the clipboard contains a large amount of data (the page 4-4 entire contents of a sheet could be in the clipboard if the entire sheet is highlighted before using "cUt to clipboard" or "Copy to clipboard" menu items) and an "out of memory" error message is given, this menu item can be used free up more memory. Once this command has been given, there is no way to recover what was in the clipboard. Clear All Text The "clear all Text" menu item removes all text from the sheet. Cells or ranges are not affected. FREE & EASY asks for confirmation that you really want to do this before proceeding. Clear All Text, Cells and Ranges The "clear All text, cells, ranges" menu item removes all data from the sheet. Only the file name remains. FREE & EASY asks for confirmation that you really want to do this before proceeding. This command is useful if you want to start from scratch on a sheet. Inserting or Deleting Rows or Columns The "Ins/del rows or columns ..." menu item leads to a pop-up menu which allows you to insert or delete a desired number of rows or columns on the sheet. These commands are useful if you want to make room for more data on the sheet or eliminate a large amount of data. Use these commands with care since all the affected parts of the sheet are not necessarily seen on the monitor. The "insert Row(s) ..." menu item is used to insert rows (or lines) on the sheet. You are asked to specify the number of rows to insert. The number of rows specified will be inserted at the present cursor position. All text, cells and ranges at or below the cursor are pushed down on the sheet the number of rows specified. A range with its top above the cursor is not affected (i.e. it is not stretched out by this operation). It is possible that some data can get pushed off the bottom of the sheet by this operation. If this is to occur, the warning "data will be lost" is given and confirmation to proceed is requested. If the bottom of a range is off the sheet but its top is still on the sheet, the range is lost (i.e. range is not resized to fit the sheet). If you only want to insert one row you can use the control-L key as a short cut key. The "insert Column(s) ..." menu item is used to insert columns on the sheet. You are asked to specify the number of columns to insert. The number of columns specified will be inserted at the present cursor position. All text, cells and ranges at or to the right of the cursor are pushed right on the sheet by the number of columns specified. A range with its left side or cell with its left side to the left of the cursor is not affected (i.e. the cell or range is not stretched out by this operation). It is possible that some data can get pushed off the right edge of the sheet by this operation. If this is to occur, the warning "data will be lost" is given and confirmation to proceed is requested. If the right side of the range is off the sheet but the page 4-5 left side is on or if the right side of the cell is off the sheet but the left size on the sheet, the range or cell is lost (i.e. The range or cell is not resized to fit the sheet). The "delete roW(s)" menu item is used to delete rows (or lines) on the sheet. You are asked to specify the number of rows to delete. The number of rows specified will then be deleted at the present cursor position and below. All text, cells and ranges below the deleted rows are moved up on the sheet the number of rows specified. For a range to be deleted by this operation, it must be completely within the rows to be deleted. (i.e. It is not shrunk by this operation.) If data will be lost, no warning is given. If you simply want to delete one row, you can use the control-Y key as a short-cut key. The "delete coLumn(s)" menu item is used to delete columns on the sheet. You are asked to specify the number of columns to delete. The number of columns specified will then be deleted at the present cursor position and to the right. All text, cells and ranges to the right of the deleted columns are shifted to the left by the number of columns specified. For a cell or a range to be deleted by this operation, the cell or range must be completely within the columns to be deleted (i.e. the cell or range is not shrunk by this operation). If data will be lost, there is no warning given. Cursor Control Keys FREE & EASY provides several ways to move the cursor around the sheet. These are summarized as follows: If the cursor is at the edge of the window, the sheet will scroll up, down, left or right to keep the cursor in the window. up: Moves the cursor up one row. down: Moves the cursor down one row. right: Moves the cursor right one column. left: Moves the cursor left one column. pagedown: Moves the cursor down one window height and scrolls the sheet up. pageup: Moves the cursor up one window height and scrolls the sheet down. control-page down: Moves the cursor to the right one window length and scrolls the sheet to the left. control-page up: Moves the cursor to the left one window length and scrolls the sheet to the right. home: Moves the cursor to the start of the row if the cursor is not already there. If the cursor is at the start of the row, moves the cursor to the top left corner of the window. If the cursor is at the top left corner of the page 4-6 window, moves the cursor to the top left corner of the file. end: Moves the cursor to the end of the row if the cursor is not already there. If the cursor is at the end of the row, moves the cursor to the end of the last row of the row in the bottom window. If already there, moves the cursor to the end of the last row in the sheet. control-right: Moves cursor to the start of the next word. control-left: Moves the cursor to the start of the previous word. tab: Moves the cursor to the next tab stop (see edit defaults to adjust the tab stops). shift-tab: Moves the cursor to the previous tab stop. Find The "Find ..." menu item is used to search the sheet(s) for a certain piece of text. The "Find ..." menu item in the "Edit" pull-down menu leads to the "Find" pop-up menu. Here you enter the text to find, as well as the search conditions. If you highlight a piece of text on the sheet before you call up this menu and the highlighting is only on one line, you will note that this text is in the text to be found. If you have previously used the find menu, you will see the previous text in the text to be found. In any case, you can accept or change the text to be found. Any text up to 1000 characters long can be entered here. After inputing the text to find, you set the search conditions. The "Match upper/lower" menu item tells FREE & EASY whether to match the upper and lower case of the text to find with the text in the sheet. If, for example, the text to find is "Free" then if "Match up/lower" is set to "yes" then "free" in the sheet would not be found, but if set to "no" it would be found. The "Whole word" menu item is used to tell FREE & EASY to find the text by itself if set to "yes" or within another word if set to "no". If the find text is "free" then the "free" in "freedom" will be found if "Whole word" is set to "no" but will not be found if set to "yes". If "Whole word" is set to "yes," the text to find must be bounded by the edge of the sheet, a space or one of the following characters- . , ? ! ; + - * / ^ . The "Scope" menu item tells whether FREE & EASY should search the "active file" only (sheet the cursor is in) or "all loaded files" for the find text. The "Direction" menu item tells FREE & EASY whether it should be looking "forwards" or "backwards" in the file. Once everything in this menu is as you desire, choose the "Go" menu item. If no find expression has been inputed, an error message "No search expression inputed" will occur. The search is always started at page 4-7 the cursor position and goes forwards or backwards in the sheet depending on which you have chosen. The search continues until the text is found. When the text has been located, the cursor goes to the found text and it is highlighted. If no text is found to match the find text by the time the start or end of the sheet (depending on what the "Direction" is set to) is reached, the message "No text found" is given. If the search "Scope" is set to "all files loaded", the next or previous sheet will be searched. While FREE & EASY is searching, it displays the name of the sheet it is searching and the line number it is searching. Find Next The "find Next (forwards)" and "find next (Backwards)" menu items are used to find the next occurrence of the find text most recently specified in the "Find" menu item. The short-cut keys F3 and shift-F3 can be used respectively. These can be useful in stepping through a sheet and looking at all occurrences of a certain text. The find defaults used are those last set in the "Find" menu. If nothing has been specified for find text a "no search expression is inputed" error is given. The same find options (whole word, match up/lower, etc.) as specified by the last find operation are used. If no find text is specified, the "no search expression inputed" error message is given. If you highlight some text before using find next and the highlighting is one line, then the text searched for is the highlighted text. Replace The "Replace" menu item in the "Edit" pull-down menu leads to the "Replace" pop-up menu. This feature is used as a quick way to change one occurrence of a certain text with another occurrence. The "Find" text is replaced with the "Change to" text. Several of the menu items in the "Replace" pop-up menu are the same as in the "Find" pop-up menu. These include find, match upper/lower, whole word, scope and direction. These options work the same way as they do in the find feature. There are two additional options in "replace." If the "Verify" menu option is "yes" then FREE & EASY asks for confirmation before making each replacement. This is the safest way to use replace as it lets you see each item that is being replaced. If "Verify" is set to "no" then all occurrences of the find text are replaced without question. You should only use this option with caution as it is possible to change something in the sheet which you did not intend to change. If the "Keep line length" menu option is "yes" then the length of the line where the expression is replaced is kept the same, even if it means overlapping text which is not meant to be replaced. If this option is "no" the line length is adjusted if the "Find" text and "Change to" text are not the same length. This can lead to data being pushed off the edge of the sheet if the "Change to" text is longer than the "Find" text. In either of these cases, if replacement will result in data being lost, a "data will be lost replacing this expression" warning will be given and confirmation asked in order to replace the text.