The Business Master (3rd Edition)

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page 5-1 CHAPTER 5: FILES This chapter looks in detail at how FREE & EASY handles files. We will look at the relationship between files and sheets, how computer memory is handled and how to print files. All features described in this chapter are accessed through the "File" pull-down menu. FREE & EASY Files In FREE & EASY each sheet is stored as a separate DOS file. In many cases, the terms "sheet" and "file" can be used interchangeably. Because each sheet is a file, the rules for naming a sheet are similar to the rules for naming a DOS file. FREE & EASY adds the extension .FRE to the name of the sheet (file) if you do not add an extension. This is the recommended practice as it allows you to keep track of and distinguish between your FREE & EASY files and other files. Each sheet has a size. The length of the sheet is the "maximum number of lines" and the width is "maximum line size." As well, the "maximum number of cells" is also a characteristic of each sheet. Any of these values defining the size of a sheet (or file) can be changed at any time during a session of FREE & EASY. Memory Management FREE & EASY allocates the computer's memory dynamically. This means that memory is used as needed, rather than reserving a fixed amount of memory for a file. Every time you type in a character, start a new file, use the helps, add or modify a cell or use the clipboard, FREE & EASY is reallocating memory. This allows the most efficient use of the computer's memory and permits you to have as much data as possible in the computer's memory. During a session of FREE & EASY, it is possible to get an "out of memory" error. This can happen if you are working on a very large sheet or on several files (sheets) at the same time. There are many situations where this error can occur since FREE & EASY is always reallocating computer memory. You might not even be able to call up a help screen at this point since the helps have their memory dynamically allocated. If you get this error message, you can free up some computer memory by unloading a file or clearing the clipboard. Adding New Sheets The "New file ..." menu item can be used to start up a new sheet (or file) at any time. Any sheet already being worked on by FREE & EASY is not affected by this command. The only exception to this rule is if the file "UNTITLED" is loaded and it is completely empty of data (text, cells, ranges). In this case, this file is unloaded. This menu item leads to the "New File" pop-up menu. You must give the new sheet a name under the "File name" menu item. The file name must conform to the DOS rules. In general, alphanumeric characters or the underscore character can be used. The file name is page 5-2 converted to upper case and if a file extension is not specified, FREE & EASY will add the ".FRE" file extension. If you do not give a valid file name, either what you have typed will be converted to a valid file name (if possible) or the error message "File name does not conform to DOS rules" will be given. FREE & EASY also checks to ensure that the name you give is not the same as a sheet already loaded in memory. If it is, a "file by this name is already loaded" error message will occur. This is because FREE & EASY does not allow two sheets of the same name to be worked on at the same time. Although FREE & EASY allows you to add any file extension to the file name, it is strongly recommended to use the ".FRE" default file extension. This makes the "Manage" utilities much easier to use. It also allows you to handle file maintenance more easily as you can distinguish your FREE & EASY files from other files. Before you start the new file, you can adjust the file size. The "Number of lines" may vary from 20 to 2000, the "Line size" from 78 to 1000 and the "number of Cells" from 5 to 500. These numbers all represent the maximum number of lines, maximum line size and maximum number of cells which a sheet can have. Any of these values can be changed later with the "Rename/resize files ..." menu item. When you choose the "Start new file ..." menu item, FREE & EASY first checks that you have given a valid file name. If you have not, an appropriate error message is given. Next, the computer memory is checked to see if enough memory is free to start the new file. If not, the "out of memory" error message will be given. Otherwise, a new sheet is started and you exit from the menu and are in the new file. Starting a new file in no way affects any of the files (sheets) presently loaded in your FREE & EASY session. The next time you call the "New file" menu item, you will find the file sizes that you previously entered (number of lines, line size, and number of cells) as the default values. Moving around a Sheet and from Sheet to Sheet The "Number of lines" and "line size" you set in the "New file" menu item will determine the limits of where the cursor can move on the sheet. The "number of Cells" limits the maximum number of cells which can be added to the sheet. Remember that these values can always be changed in the "Rename/resize files" menu item. At the top of the window where the file is located, there is a number followed by the name of the sheet (file) e.g. 1:FILE3.FRE. The number refers to the order in which the file was added. FREE & EASY adds the files sequentially starting at 1. FREE & EASY allows up to 20 sheets in memory at one time or until all the memory is used up. (This is what will usually occur first.) You can change the file that is in the window by pressing F5. The next file in memory will appear in the window and the title will change. Shift-F5 can be used to go to the previous file. The order of these files can be changed (see chapter on Cell Evaluation). The active file page 5-3 (or active sheet) is the sheet in which the cursor is found. When you switch from sheet to sheet, the position of the cursor is remembered so that when you return to that sheet, you are at the same location as you were when you left the sheet. Disk Errors FREE & EASY has several features where it interacts with a disk, usually to load a file (sheet) or save a file (sheet). There are several situations where problems can be encountered, problems that originate with your computer system or DOS rather than with FREE & EASY. These are often called "critical errors". In all of these cases, you have the opportunity to correct the error and attempt the operation again or cancel the operation. If you are trying to save a file to a floppy disk and the disk is "write protected", you get the "write protected disk" warning. In this case, remove the write protect tab and try again. If you are attempting to read or write a file to a floppy disk and there is no floppy in the disk drive or the door latch is opened, you will get the "Disk drive not ready" warning. Insert a floppy disk and/or close the door latch and try again. If you are trying to use a disk that has not been formatted for DOS you will get the "Disk may not be formatted for DOS" warning. If you wish, you can temporarily exit FREE & EASY with the "DOS Shell ..." menu item and format a disk. Nothing is lost in your FREE & EASY session when you do this. Occasionally you may get the warning "Error with the disk, Consider backing up the disk." This occurs if DOS finds some problem with the disk. You should back up the disk right away and use the backed-up disk. Save The "Save" menu item is used to save the active file (the sheet where the cursor is found) to disk. You can also use the shortcut key control-S for this operation. The sheet is saved under its name to the current directory in the current drive. (These can be changed in the "Manage" pop-up menu). FREE & EASY saves sheets to disk in its own special format. These files can only be meaningfully read by FREE & EASY. (FREE & EASY does provide a way to save the text portion of the sheet as an ASCII text file which can be read by other programs.) If the sheet you are saving has the file name "UNTITLED" you will be asked to specify a file name. This is because the file name "UNTITLED" is not acceptable to FREE & EASY as a file to be saved. Save As The "Save As ..." menu item is used to save to disk the active sheet page 5-4 under a name which is different than its current name. After choosing this item, you are asked to specify a new name. The new name that you specify must be a valid name (see section "Adding New Sheets" in this chapter for rules for file name as well as an indication of the errors that may occur). Again, if you do not add a file name extension, FREE & EASY will automatically add the extension ".FRE" to the file name. Once the file has been saved, the name of the file that you have just saved will be changed to the new name that you have specified. Save as Text File It is possible that you might want to import the text portion of one of your sheets into another program (a word processing program for example) to do some further work on it. The "save as Text file ..." menu item allows you to do this by saving the active sheet as a text file. This command will save the text portion of the sheet (i.e. the cell data and ranges are not saved) to disk. A carriage return and line feed is added to the end of each line. Any program which has the ability to load ASCII text files can now load in the file. You can also use the DOS "type" command to look at or print the file. When you choose this menu item, you are asked to specify the name under which you wish to save the text file. The name that comes up is the name of the active file with the ".TXT" file extension added. You can accept this name or type in a new name. If you do not add a file extension, the extension ".TXT" will be used. Again, the name that you type in is checked to make sure it is an acceptable file name. See the section "Adding New Sheets" for details about rules for file names and errors that can occur. Save as Make File The make file is one of the most useful features of FREE & EASY. It allows you to start a session of FREE & EASY at exactly the same spot whereyou left off in your previous session. The "save as maKe file ..." menu item generates a make file which is saved to the current disk drive and directory. The make file contains information about what files are presently loaded as well as almost everything about the present status of your FREE & EASY session. Although the command saves the names of the files or sheets loaded (in the make file), the sheets themselves are not saved. They can be saved individually themselves or all saved at once with the "saVe all ..." menu item. When you choose this menu item, you are asked to specify the name under which you wish to save the make file. If you do not add a file extension, the extension ".MAK" is automatically added. The name that you type in is checked to make sure that it is an acceptable file name. See the section "Adding New Sheets" for details on rules for file names and errors that can occur. The complete list of information contained in the make is as follows: 1. The name of all files presently loaded. 2. The windows which are open as well as which file is in each window page 5-5 and the position of that file in the window. 3. The area of the sheet which has a highlight. 4. The active file and the active window. 5. The default file. This includes the following: number of lines line size maximum number of cells 6. The insert/overstrike setting. 7. The evaluation defaults. These include the following: trig functions search priority for names check cell evaluation order search all files for cell names search all files for variable names search all files for range names assign a variable to a cell value 8. The edit defaults. These include the following: include text in editing include cells in editing include ranges in editing tab settings 9. The find text and the replace text. 10. The search-and-replace present settings. These include the following: match upper/lower whole word scope direction verify keep line length 11. The present settings of table of cells. These include the following: rows columns space between rows space between columns 12. The present settings of table of data. These include the following: rows columns space between rows space between columns starting value increment 13. The printer defaults. These include the following: page length top margin bottom margin printer number add title stop between pages Save All The "saVe all" menu item is used to save to disk all sheets (files) page 5-6 which are currently being worked on. If the file "UNTITLED" has not yet been given a proper name, you are asked to name this file. As well, this command saves a make file (file with ".MAK" file name extension). See "Save as Make File" section of this chapter for details on make files. If a make file has not yet been named, you are asked to assign a file name to the make file. All file names that are typed in are checked to ensure that they are acceptable. See the section "Adding New Sheets" for details on rules for file names and errors that can occur. Before exiting FREE & EASY this is a good command to give as it ensures that no data is lost and that you will be able to start your next session of FREE & EASY at the same spot where you left off during your previous session. Manage Files The "Manage ..." menu item in the "File" pull-down menu leads to the "Manage Files" pop-up menu. From this menu there are many operations which can be done, including loading and unloading sheets (files), changing the default file, changing the current path and drive, and deleting files from the disk. All of these operations are described in greater detail. The "Manage Files" pop-up menu has several sections to it and these are briefly described. The left hand part of the box contains the menu. A menu item is chosen in the usual way. Across the top of the box is the current drive and directory. For example: if the directory was "C:\F&E\BIN", the current drive would be "C:" and the current directory "BIN". Below this line is the default file. This is usually "*.FRE" unless you change it yourself. The large box in the middle is all of the files in the current directory based upon the default file. For example, if the default file is "*.FRE", then only files with the ".FRE" file extension would be shown. (This is equivalent to giving the DOS command "DIR *.FRE"). Under the box the number of files matching the default file is given. The next box to the right shows the sheets (files) that are presently loaded into FREE & EASY. The number of files loaded is given below this box. The box at the far right shows all the paths available from the current directory. The line at the very bottom of the pop-up menu is the name of the make file presently loaded (if any). Computer memory for looking at the contents of various directories is allocated dynamically. Thus it is possible to get an "out of memory" error when using any of the "manage file" menu items, or even when calling up the "manage file" pop-up menu. Load File The "Load file" menu item on the "Manage Files" pop-up menu is used to load from disk a file into FREE & EASY. After choosing this menu item, use the cursor control keys to highlight the file in the files box that you wish to load and press Enter or the space bar. Press Escape to go back to the "Manage Files" menu. To load a file, it must have been previously saved in the FREE & EASY format. If you try to load a file page 5-7 that is not in the FREE & EASY format (usually a file with the ".FRE" file extension is of proper format), the file will not load and you will get an error message. You can load up to 20 files or load until all the computer memory is used up, whichever occurs first. If either one of these conditions occurs, the appropriate error message will be given and the file will not load. When a file is successfully loaded, it will appear at the end of the list in the "loaded" box and the number of files loaded number will increase by 1. If the file "UNTITLED" is completely empty, this file will be unloaded before the file is loaded. It is also possible to get other errors with the disk drive or other DOS errors. If there is a problem, FREE & EASY will display the appropriate message with suggestions for corrective action. See the section "Disk Errors" in this chapter for further explanation of these types of errors. Load as Text The "load TXT" menu item in the "Manage files" pop-up menu is used to load from a disk a file which is in the ASCII text format. This file must have been previously saved with the "save as Text file" menu item or by another program which can save files in this format. After you choose this menu item, the default file automatically changes to "*.TXT" if it is in the "*.FRE" form. Otherwise the default file remains unchanged. After this, choose the file to load by highlighting the file with the cursor control keys and then press Enter or the space bar. Press Escape to go back to the manage file menu. When FREE & EASY loads a text file, it converts the file to its own type of format for internal use. Cells and ranges can now be added to the file. If you later save the file, it will be saved in the FREE & EASY format, unless you save it with the "save as Text file ..." menu item. Comments regarding maximum number of files to load and errors that can occur apply here as they did in the "Load File" section of this chapter. It is recommended that you use FREE & EASY text file features when you want to import or export text files from other programs or use the DOS "type" command to see or print out a file. Otherwise you should stay with files which use the FREE & EASY format and ".FRE" file extension. Load as Make The "load MAK" menu item in the "Manage files" pop-up menu is used to inspect a make file and set up FREE & EASY according to information in this file. The file must have been saved with the "save as maKe file ..." menu item. After you choose this item, if the default file is "*.FRE" the default file changes to "*.MAK". You then move the highlight to the file that you want to load and press Enter or the space bar. If the file you choose is not a make file generated by FREE page 5-8 & EASY, an error message is given and nothing else happens. If the file chosen is a make file, all files presently loaded are unloaded. All "*.FRE" files specified by the make file are then loaded, and then FREE & EASY is set up according to the instructions in the make file. See the section "Save as Make File" in this chapter for details about what the make file will configure. The name of the make file loaded is now at the bottom of the menu. Error comments described in the "Load File" section of this chapter apply to this menu item as well. Unload The "Unload" menu item in the "Manage Files" pop-up menu is used to unload files already loaded into computer memory. After choosing this menu item, you highlight with the cursor control keys the file that you wish to unload. Press Enter or the Space Bar to unload the file. Unload as many files as desired in this way and then press Escape to return to the menu. If there is only one file left and you delete it, FREE & EASY automatically starts the empty file "UNTITLED." When you unload a file, no confirmation is requested. If the file you are unloading has not been previously saved to disk, there is no way to recover that file once it has been unloaded. Delete The "Delete" menu item in the "Manage Files" pop-up menu is used to delete files from the current directory of the disk. After you choose this menu item, you highlight the file that you wish to delete and press Enter or the Space Bar. You can delete as many files as you wish and then press Escape to return to the menu. When you delete a file you are not asked for any confirmation. This command is equivalent to the DOS "DEL" command. Once deleted, a file cannot be recovered from the disk (unless you have an "Undelete" utility). The same disk errors which can occur when you try to load files apply to this menu item as well. Directory The current disk drive and current directory are shown at the top of the "Manage Files" menu. When a file is saved, this is the place that it is saved to, and when a file is loaded, this is the place it is loaded from. This, however, can be changed with the "Directory" menu item in the "Manage files" pop-up menu. After you choose this menu item you highlight the new drive or directory you want and press Enter or the space bar. The number of drives and directories available is shown at the bottom of the directory box. The directory at the top of the box will change as will the files in the file box. This command does not affect the files loaded or the default file. Press Escape to go back to the menu. page 5-9 To change the drive, highlight a letter (A:, B:, or C: for example) and hit enter. To change a directory, highlight a directory or ".." to go back one directory. Refer to your DOS manual for more details on the structure of directories, subdirectories, etc. The same disk errors which can occur when trying to load files apply to this menu item as well. Default File The "dEfault" menu item in the "Manage Files" pop-up menu is used to set the default file. The default file is used to tell FREE & EASY which files to display out of the current directory. For example, when you call up the "Manage Files" pop-up menu it is set to "*.FRE"; thus only files with the ".FRE" file extension are shown. You could change the default file to "*.*" in which case all files in the current directory would be shown. (See your DOS manual for further explanation of the default file.) If you do not change the default file, you will find that it changes by itself for certain menu items. It is recommended that you leave the default file as is, and as well do not add file extensions when you save sheets or start new sheets. In this way, there is less chance of making an error when you are working with files. Unload MAK The "uNload MAK" menu item in the "Manage Files" pop-up menu is used to clear the current make file. The line at the bottom of the Manage Files box will read "No make file loaded." No other files (e.g. *.FRE files) are affected by this command. Unload All The "unload All" menu item in the "Manage Files" pop-up menu is used to unload all the files (sheets) presently loaded into computer memory as well as the make file if one is loaded. After unloading all the files, FREE & EASY automatically starts the empty file "UNTITLED". When you choose this menu item, you are asked to confirm that you really want to unload all the files. If any of the files you are unloading have not been previously saved to disk, there is no way to recover the file once it has been unloaded. Rename/Resize File When you start up FREE & EASY, the file "UNTITLED" has a default size. When you add a new file with the "New file ..." menu item, you can accept the default size or adjust the file to suit your needs. You also give the new file a name. However, you are free at any time to change the name and size of the file with the "Rename/resize file ..." menu item. This menu item leads to the "Rename/Resize File" pop-up page 5-10 menu. The "Next file" menu item can be used to look at the size of all files loaded into memory. This menu item goes through all files sequentially. At the left side of the box is the file name, and the maximum allowable lines, line size and cells for that file. At the right side of the box is the present size of the file, i.e. the number of lines (last line with text), length of the longest line, number of cells and number of ranges. The "File name" menu item is used to change the file name. The file name must conform to DOS rules for file names. In general, any alphanumeric or underscore characters can be used. The file name is converted to upper case, and if a file extension is not specified, FREE & EASY will add the ".FRE" extension automatically. If you do not give a valid name, either what you type will be converted to a valid name if possible, or the error message "File name does not conform to DOS rules" will be given. FREE & EASY also checks to make sure that the name you typed in is not the same as a file (sheet) already loaded into memory. If it is, a "file by this name is already loaded" error is given. This is because FREE & EASY does not allow two sheets of the same name to be loaded at the same time. The menu items "max number Lines", "max line Size" and "max number Cells" are used to change the maximum allowable size of the file. The file is not actually changed until the "cHange file" menu item is chosen. When you change the file, if one or more of the maximum allowable sizes (Lines, line size or cells) is lower than the present file size (e.g. if the number of cells is 25, but you set "max number Cells" to 20), then data will be lost. (In the example given, 5 cells will be lost). If this is the case, a warning will be given and you will be asked to confirm that you really want to proceed with this operation. Once data has been lost, there is no way to recover it (unless the file has been previously saved to disk). The "mInimize file size" menu item is used to set the maximum number of lines, maximum line size, and maximum number of cells to the minimum value without losing any data. This menu item is useful once you have completed a sheet and want to minimize a file in order to save computer memory and disk space. If required, the file can also be made larger at any time. Do not expect this command to greatly reduce the size of the file as FREE & EASY is always dynamically allocating computer memory that the sheets are using in order to keep the sheets to an optimum size. Print The "Print ..." menu item leads to the "Print" pop-up menu which allows you to print out sheets to a printer. Only the text portion of the file is printed. If you plan to print out a sheet, it is a good idea to match the size of the sheet to the size of the printer. For example, if your printer will print lines 80 columns wide, set your sheet maximum line size to 80. You can adjust the printer defaults in the "print dEfaults ..." menu item. page 5-11 If you tell FREE & EASY to print a sheet and the printer is not turned on, out of paper, or otherwise unable to print for some reason, the error message "printer not responding" will be given. You can print out either the active file, all the files loaded into memory or the highlighted text of a file only. If you choose the "highlighted text" menu item and no text has been highlighted, you will get the "no text has been highlighted" error message. From this pop-up menu, you can also send a line feed or a form feed to the printer. Since FREE & EASY uses line feeds instead of a form feed to go to the next page, the printer can have any number of lines for its form feed. Print Defaults The "print dEfaults ..." menu item allows you to adjust the way in which FREE & EASY prints out sheet(s). The "Page length" menu item allows you to vary the page length. It can be adjusted from 20 to 300. For most printers, an 8 1/2 X 11-inch paper has 66 lines. The "top margin" and "bottom margin" adjust the number of blank lines at the top and bottom of the page. The range for these is 0 to 10. The "printer Number" identifies which printer the file is sent to for printing. Usually this is set to 1. The range is 1 to 4. See your DOS manual for more information. The "add Title" menu item gives the option of adding the file title at the top of the first page. You can also use the "Stop between pages" menu item to have the printing stop to add a new page to the printer. To change the print defaults you must choose the "Accept these defaults" menu item. DOS Shell The "DOS Shell ..." menu item allows you to temporarily leave FREE & EASY. The DOS prompt (e.g. c:\F&E\BIN) comes up when this menu item is selected. In order to use this feature, DOS must be able to find the file "COMMAND.COM". (See your DOS manual for details about set up of DOS for your computer.) Otherwise, the "cannot find COMMAND.COM" error is given. As well, there must be enough memory left to load the COMMAND.COM. If not, the "out of memory" error message is given. To return to FREE & EASY, type "EXIT" at the DOS prompt and press Enter. You will return to FREE & EASY at exactly the same point you left without any loss of data. At the DOS prompt, you are free to run any other program (if enough memory is left) or use other DOS commands.