Supplement to Advantage Manual Documented in this text file will be additions and modifications done to The Advantage after the manual was printed. It is suggested that the user read the manual first before reading this. NOTE: The maximum size of a worsheet is 32000 rows by 32000 columns, not 65000 x 65000 as mentioned in the manual. 1.1 Notes - The Advantage now stores numbers internally with 18 digits of precision, and displays them with up to 13 digits of precision. - The 68881 and 68882 are now supported, resulting in large performance increases for those who own them. - Despite the increase in the number of significant digits, all operations involving calculations (like Fill, Delete, recalculate, etc) are faster. Improvements range from 5% to 40%. - The Advantage now loads and saves to a new file format. As a result, saves and loads have been sped up by more than 80% in some cases. Floppy disk users can expect a 30% spead increase. Files from 1.0 are still supported. - Files from 1.0 should be loaded, then re-saved. Some numeric entries may show small rounding errors from the old file format (not likely). - Lotus 123 support has been significantly enhanced with the addition of 36 functions that 123 supports, but Advantage 1.0 did not. People who do not own 123 can also use these new spreadsheet functions. Please refer to the section of this file named "New Functions" for descriptions of these functions. The Advantage now supports 126 spreadsheet functions. - SmallAdv has been replaced by Calc and Graph. Calc is The Advantage without the graphing module. Graph is The Advantage without the spreadsheet. Both programs are for 512K users. - International characters are supported. - The Edit mode is now optional, and defaults to off. While in the edit mode it was required that the CTRL key be held down to move the text cursor. The Edit mode can be turned on and off through a command line parameter, or a tool-type option. - Graph information is saved to the spreadsheet file (if any). - The user can "attach" a macro file to a spreadsheet so it will be automatically loaded when the spreadsheet is. - The user can specify that a macro be automatically executed upon a spreadsheet being loaded. - An ARexx script can be set to auto-execute when a spreadsheet is loaded. - Four new ARexx commands have been added. - Can link in data from spreadsheets on disk through the LINKDISK command. - Many minor enhancements, as well as bug fixes. StartUp Options There are several start up parameters which can be set in the Icons Tool Types section. These are: SCREENTYPE=WORKBENCH Loads on the WorkBench Screen. =INTERLACE Loads on a custom interlaced screen. =CUSTOM Loads on a custom screen. DEPTH=2 or 3 or 4 If loading on a custom screen, then loads with a screen of that depth. CURRENCY=$ Sets the currency symbol to a '$'. Up to two characters can be used. FASTREFRESH=ON Makes the windows smart refresh (fast, but uses lots of chip memory) =OFF Windows us simple refresh (slower, but more memory effiecient) CTRL=ON Arrow keys control cell cursor for use during editting. Need to hold the CTRL key to move the text cursor. =OFF Don't need to hold CTRL key to move text cursor. There are also several CLI parameters that can be used when loading in the program. All of these options are preceded by a '-'. -i : Load on an interlaced screen. -2, -3, -4 : If loading on a custom screen use 4, 8, or 16 colors. -w : Loads on the WorkBench screen. -r : Uses smart refresh windows. -f : Save icons with files. -k : Turns on mode where the CTRL key needs to be held to move the text cursor. -c$ : Uses '$' as the currency symbol. Up to two characters can be used. Example: Advantage -i -4 -f -cDM 512K Users Graph and Calc have been provided on the second disk for 512K users. Calc has all the functionality of The Advantage, except the Charting module. Graph is charting module by itself. Both run fine in 512K of memory. New Menu Items - There is a new menu item on the spreadsheet window not discussed in the manual. It is the Command.Names.Select Name. This menu item will bring up the list requester, and show all the available user definable names. If one of these names are selected, then the cell or range that the name represents will be selected. Example: If the user defines the name "MyCell" to be the Cell C5, then if he/she selects the menu item Command.Names.Select Name, and chooses MyCell from the requester, then the cell C5 will become the current cell. - There is a new option under Edit.Paste. It is Edit.Paste.Relative. This option will paste what is in the temporary work space back to the spreadsheet. However, in any formulas it will adjust the cell references so that the relative offset from the destination cell remains constant. Example: If the user copies the cell B2 which has the contents: "=A1" and pastes relative to D7, then the formula in D7 will contain "=C6". - There is a new set of menu items under Macros. Macros.Auto.Macro File allows a macro file to be "attached" to a spreadsheet. After a spreadsheet is loaded, then this macro file will be automatically loaded in. Only one macro file per spreadsheet is allowed. - Macros.Auto.Macro allows the user to specify that a macro be automatically executed when the spreadsheet is loaded. The user should make sure that the macro file chosen is one from the macro file specified in Macros.Auto.Macro File. Only one macro can be auto-executed per spreadsheet. - Macros.Auto.ARexx allows the user to specify an ARexx script to be played when the spreadsheet is loaded. The ARexx script is launched AFTER any macro files are openned, and after any macros are auto-executed. This allows ARexx to have macros automatically available to it. macro can be auto-executed Saving Charts to IFF format The Advantage normally needs a fair amount of CHIP memory to save a chart to an IFF file. However, if the Borderless option is turned on (Graph menu item: Prefs.Borderless.On) the The Advantage needs no CHIP memory to save a chart to an IFF file. This should be used as the normal mode of saving charts to an IFF file since then a full screen size chart is generated. Maxi Plan File Support The Advantage can import MaxiPlan files. To access this feature, use the menu item Project.Open.MaxiPlan. The file requester will come up asking for the name of the MaxiPlan file to be loaded. The Advantage can NOT save files in MaxiPlan format. This feature is provided only as a data transfer mechanism to former MaxiPlan users, and as a method to import worksheet files already out there in MaxiPlan format. Limitations: - All formatting informations is lost - User definable names and ranges will not be imported. The user will have to re-define them within The Advantage - The following MaxiPlan functions are not supported: REFER, ATAN2. Cells with these functions will appear as normal, but will flagged in the Advantage as having an error. - MaxiPlan allows certain incorrect formulas to be accepted. The Advantage does not allow this, and all such incorrect formulas will be flagged as errors. Examples of such incorrect formulas are leaving out parameters in functions, "=ACOS(4(", "=(1+1", etc - Macro files are NOT supported. Lotus 1-2-3 File Support The Advantage can now import and export Lotus 1-2-3 files. To import a 1-2-3 file, use the menu item Project.Open.1-2-3. To save a worksheet in 1-2-3 format, use the menu item Project.Save As.1-2-3. Because of the fundamental differences between The Advantage and Lotus 1-2-3, some information will be lost if a 1-2-3 file is loaded into The Advantage and re-saved as a 1-2-3 file. Limitations of importing a 1-2-3 file: - Some formatting information will be lost. - All graph and window information will be lost - Several Lotus 1-2-3 functions are not supported within The Advantage, either because there is no analog in The Advantage, or the analog is sufficiently different to not allow a conversion. The following Lotus 1-2-3 functions are not supported: ATAN2, CELLPOINTER, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, CELL, @, ISAAP, ISAAF. A cell with one of these functions will appear as a formula cell with an error message attached to it. - Macro files are not supported. - 123 versions 1, 1a, 2, and 2.2 are supported. Symphony 1.0 files also supported. NOTE: It appears that Analyze! does not save its spreadsheets in pure 123 format. Cells using the Frac (and other Analyze spreadsheet formulas that are not found in 123) command will be turned into value cells (the formula will be lost). Limitations of exporting a 1-2-3 file: - Some formatting information will be lost. - Several Advantage functions are not supported within Lotus 1-2-3, either because there is no direct analog, or the analog is sufficiently different to not allow a conversion. The following Advantage functions are not supported in 1-2-3: FVV, NPER, RATE, ISNV, TYPE, AND OR, XOR, PRINTIF, SAYIF, E, FAC, FIB, LOG, ROUND, SIGN, ACOSH, ASINH, ATANH, COSH, DEGTORAD, RADTODEG, SINH, TANH, CELL, COL, LCELL, LRANGE, RANGE, ROW, HOUR, HLOOK, VLOOK, MINUTES, TODAY, NOW, STD, VAR, SECONDS, WEEKDAY, COLOR, STYLE, SETCOLOR, SETSTYLE A cell containing one of these functions will be saved as a Label cell in 1-2-3. - User definable functions are not supported - Macro files are not supported Please keep this limitations in mind when importing and exporting 1-2-3 files. Multiple Font Support The Advantage supports multiple fonts within the Charts. The fonts are standard Amiga fonts (found within the FONTS: directory). Fonts can be selected for the Header, SubHeader, XLabel, YLabel, and Legends. The Advantage supports multiple sizes of these fonts, and supports the following font styles: Plain, bold, italic, underlined, shadowed, outlined, extruded and embossed. To change a font, go to the Font menu on the Advantage chart, and select the name of the item for which you wish to change the font. A font requester will come up. Simply select the new name of the font, and the new size. It may take several seconds for the font requester to come up, so be patient. Formatting The Y Axis on Charts The text appearing by the Y Axis on a chart is formatted according to the first cell in the range of data to be charted. This allows the user the same formatting control available to the individual cells of the worksheet. 3D Pie Chart Features The 3d pie charts have been enhanced to support all the features the 2d pie charts supported. Any of the first 10 pieces can be exploaded. Each of the pieces can show their percent composition of the whole, along with text labelling which piece it is. Stacked Area Charts The Area charts can now be stacked. This option shows up on the requester after the main graph requester. ARexx Support Along with the ARexx support outlined in the manual, the user can now "Attach" an ARexx script to any cell. To attach an ARexx script to a cell, select the Menu item Macros.ARexx.Attach. The file requester will come up; select the name of the script you wish to attach to the cell. To execute the script, double click on the cell. When The Advantage is launched from the WorkBench, a small window is opened on the WorkBench screen. This window is used for input and output to ARexx. However, if the WorkBench screen is closed, the user will no longer have access to ARexx. Even if the WorkBench screen is openned back up again, there will be no access to ARexx. New ARexx functions have been added. - GetString allows the user to get a string from the data entry box on the window. This function should facilitate data entry. The format of GetString is as follows: GetString "Message to go in Message Box" "Initial String" - LoadSpread loads in a spreadsheet from disk. Clears any data in the current window. LoadSpread "Filename" - SaveSpread saves a spreadsheet already in memory to disk. SaveSpread "FileName" - LoadMacro loads in a macro file from disk. LoadMacro "FileName" - CloseAllMacros closes all the macros in memory. Probaby should be used before LoadMacro to eliminate macro name conflicts. CloseAllMacros doesn't need any parameters. As mentioned in the manual, the user needs to purchase ARexx, a separate commercial program, in order to use the ARexx features of The Advantage. Transcript Support Through Transcript, The Advantage supports "extended cell notes". If the user owns Transcript, the he/she can attach large cell notes to The Advantage. These large cell notes are separate ascii text files, probably created by Transcript, but not necessarily. To attach an extended cell note to The Advantage, select the menu item Commands.Cell Note.Extended. The file requester will come up; simply select the file. Next time the user double clicks on this cell, the file selected will be loaded in Transcript, and the Transcript screen will be brought to the front. NOTE: The user HAS to have Transcript running in order for this feature to work properly. Users who don't own Transcript will still be able to attach these extended cell notes, but will not be able to see or edit them from within The Advantage. There are several potential uses for these extended cell notes. People who share worksheets can use them as messages to explain what is on a particular worksheet, and how to use it. They can be used to explain changes to the worksheet, or other such information. In a financial report, these text files could explain why a certain aberation in earnings or sales occured. There are many similiar uses. As mentioned in the manual, Transcript is a seperate commercial program which must be purchased seperately in order to use the Transcript features of The Advantage. New Functions There are 36 new spreadsheet functions in The Advantage. They are provided mainly to support Lotus 123 import and export of spreadsheet files, however they probably will be of use to everyone who owns the Advantage. One major change to The Advantage is that formulas can now return strings, and accept strings (or even label cells in their place) as parameters. A string would have a value of zero in places where a number is expected. Functions: CHAR(Value) Returns the ascii character equivalent of Value. Accepts values between 32 and 255. CLEAN(String) Removes control characters from strings. Used to "clean" text imported from word processors that have formatting characters. CODE(String) Returns the ascii value of the first character in the string. CTERM(Interest, Future Value, Present Value) Calculates the number of periods it takes for an investment (present value) to grow to a future value earning a fixed interest, and compounding at the end of each period. DATEVALUE(String) Converts the string to internal Advantage Date format. DDB(Cost, Salvage, Life, Period) Calculates the depreciation allowance of asset for a specified period. Uses the double-declining balance method. ERR() Sets a cell's error flag. EXACT(String1, String2) IF both strings are exactly the same, returns 1, else returns 0. Use this function when the case of the string is important. Example ="String 1"="string 1" this forumula would return 1, however =EXACT("String 1","string 1") would return 0. FIND(Search String, String, Start Position) Returns the position in String where Search String is first found. It begins searching at Start Position (0 is the first character). ISNA() Same as ISERR(). Added for 123 compatibility. ISNUMBER(Cell) Checks whether Cell contains a valid number. If so, returns 1, else it returns 0. ISSTRING(Cell) Checks whether Cell contains a string. If so, returns 1, else it returns 0. IF ISSTRING references formula cell that returns a string then it will return 1. LCOLS(Range) Returns the number of columns in the range. LEFT(String, Value) Returns first Value characters of String. LENGTH(String) Counts the number of characters in String. LHOUR(Value) If Value is in Advantage internal time format, returns the Hour of Value. LINKDISK(String, Cell) Returns the value (or string) in the specified cell from a spreadsheet on disk. String is the full pathname of a spreadsheet file on disk. Cell is the cell the user wants the value from. LMINUTE(Value) If Value is in Advantage internal time format, returns the Minute of Value. LOWER(String) Forces all characters in String to lower case. LSECOND(Value) If Value is in Advantage internal time format, returns the Second of Value. LRATE(Future Value, Present Value, Term) Calculates the interest rate required for an investment (Present Value) to grow to a Future Value, over Term compounding periods. LROWS(Range) Counts the number of rows in RANGE MID(String, Start Number, Value) Returns Value characters from String, beginning with the character at Start Number N(Range) Returns the entry in the first cell of Range as a value. NA() Same as ERR(). Added for 123 compatibility. PROPER(String) Converts the letters in string to proper capitalization. The first letter in each word is changed to upper case, the rest to lower. Example: =PROPER("abc-def TEST") would return: "Abc-Def Test" REPEAT(String, Value) Returns String Value times. Example Repeat("=",5) would return "=====". REPLACE(Original String, Start, Num Del, New String) Insert New String in Original String at place Start, after deleting Num Del characters from Original String from place Start. RIGHT(String, Value) Returns the rightmost Value characters. S(Range) Returns the first cell in Range as a string. SLN(Cost, Salvage, Life) Calculates the straight-line depreciation allowance of an asset for one period. STRING(Value, N) Converts Value into a string with N decimal places. SYD(Cost, Salvage, Life, Period) Calculates the sum of the years' digits depreciation allowance of an asset for a specified Period. TERM(Payments, Interest, Future Value) Calculates the number of payments to accumulate Future Value. Assumes one Payment per period, payments of equal value, and compounding interest. TIMEVALUE(String) Converts String into internal time format. TRIM(String) Removes all leading, trailing and consecutive spaces from String. UPPER(String) Converst all characters in String to upper case. VALUE(String) Converst String into a number. Programmer's Note I have spent over two years developping The Advantage. If you, the Amiga community, wish to continue to have such applications developped for the Amiga, please spread the word, not the disk. A special thanks to some of the people who have helped me through the past couple years in developping The Advantage: David Jones Kailash Ambwani Roger Curren Leon Frenkel Robb Moore Ken Yeast Brad Schenk Michal Todorovic