Title: SPREADSHEET from Database Software Authors: DATABASE SOFTWARE Cost: #29.95 for a suite of five programs called MINI OFFICE PROFESSIONAL. Reviewed By: Gerry Austin. The Spreadsheet is a very powerful module that allows you to perform complex repetitive calculations and manipulate your numeric data. Once created you can get a hard-copy or SAVE in a format suitable for using with the Graphics module providing Bar or Pie Charts and Line Graphs to dramatically display your results. Time spent at the planning stage before you even turn on your PCW is well worth while although the program is flexible enough to allow you to change the Spreadsheet structure later. Using pencil and paper to begin with helps clarify exactly what it is that you want your Spreadsheet to do for you, whether it's just a convenient record of your weekly/monthly household expenses or a timesaving management tool for the Businessman to perform complicated budgeting tasks and calculate his net profit. When you have designed the structure and layout on paper select the EDIT DATA option from the Spreadsheet main menu and enter these headings and labels into the PCW (this is straightforward). Now define the calculations you desire to take place when your data is entered. In addition to the usual mathematical functions of (), +, -, /[divide], *[multiply], <, =, >, <=, >=, <>, you can also use AND, OR, XOR, NOT(), WITH (to include text), and functions such as ABS, ACS, ASN, ATN, COS, DEG, EXP, INT, LOG, RAD, SIN, SGN, SQR, TAN. Commands may also be nested and there is also a MEAN (average); MAX, MIN (to return largest or smallest number in a list), plus more. Just in case you lose sight of a particular formula you can track its location with the LIST FORMULAE option from the main menu, then, from EDIT DATA, go directly to that or any other chosen cell location by using the GOTO Command. You can also allow the program to make decisions depending upon the result of an IF THEN ELSE like statement. For example, should you want to be given a warning if your expenses are higher than income then you can pre-program this option into the appropriate place of the Spreadsheet. The program will take the necessary action depending upon the outcome of the calculation. It is a good idea to SAVE the basic Spreadsheet structure, as a template, to have an empty sheet labelled and with headings, calculations defined and ready to go when entering next weeks/months data. Now that you have set up your Spreadsheet the data can be entered. Individual cells are referenced by their co-ordinates: Columns are identified by letters A through Z (and AA, AB etc for larger sheets); Rows are numbered. Therefore cell A1 would be the first square in the top left hand corner. Whilst EDITING, the cell that is active (highlighted with a bar-cursor in reverse video) has its contents shown at the head of the sheet in the status line. Commands to move around your sheet are abundant, making use of the PCW's special keys and, like the Wordprocessing module, speed abounds. You can set the spreadsheet to Auto-Update or carry out the calculations 'on demand'. There are some handy extras as well. The ability to invoke the Automatic Cursor mode, which allows you to choose which direction you move around the sheet each time RETURN is pressed. This can save lots of time when working on a large Spreadsheet. There is also an instant SAVE facility; Error checking when entering Formulae; LOCK individual cells, whole rows or columns to bar further entry; COPY function to easily duplicate single cells, entire rows or columns; WINDOWing which allows you to divide your spreadsheet up into as many as seven sections. By using the WINDOW function you can highlight parts of the sheet on your printout and store your data ready to be imported into the Graphics module. At any time you can change the sheet screen display by selecting the ALTER SPREADSHEET option from the main menu. This allows you to increase or decrease the sheet size but with a handy safeguard which won't let you reduce it any smaller than the size already in use by EDIT mode. The cell display can also be changed by width; number of decimal places displayed (0-4); justify your text and data left, right or centre; choose single or double line spacing on screen and when printed. You will probably want to have a hard-copy of your Spreadsheet and this has been cleverly handled by the program which uses both the PCW and any Epson compatible parallel printer connected to an appropriate RS232 Interface. When printing your sheet you can select the CONDENSED or SIDEWAYS option, convenient when your Spreadsheet isn't too large and you want it all on one piece of paper, otherwise it will be printed in sections and you will have to paste them together. You may also select the printer WIDTH (anywhere between 80 and 135 characters), select a desired WINDOW to be printed bold, and choose between NLQ or DRAFT output. Unfortunately you can't have any two items from the PRINT STYLE selection, so a SIDEWAYS CONDENSED print in NLQ isn't possible. The DISC UTILITIES Menu, which is common to all the Mini Office Professional modules, allows you to CATALOGUE DISC (this is done in the order selected from Sort Files By:); SORT FILES BY allows you to toggle between Filenames or Extenders. Filenames will CATALOGUE Discs in alphabetical order and Extenders selects the module specific file extension types and displays them in alphabetical order. For example a disc file EXPENSES.SPR has the extension .SPR which is automatically selected when saving Spreadsheets, whereas .DBS is used by the Database module, and so on. A data disc full of files from all five modules can be sorted by extenders thus each modules files are immediately distinguishable by their own extensions and grouped together alphabetically. You may also SELECT DRIVE (A: or B:) and USER NUMBER (0-15), and you can also RENAME and ERASE files. Sadly Format disc and Copy disc options are not present, this would have allowed the average user to pack his CP/M utilities discs away, forever! If you're not careful the Spreadsheet can become too complicated, especially if not thought out carefully when there are several screenfulls of cells. There are two example Spreadsheets provided and the manual talks you through creating one of them, which acts as a useful tutorial. Unless you are familiar with the spreadsheet concept it may take a while for you to get to grips with this program which offers a powerful addition to any software library. But, once mastered, you will soon be wondering how you ever managed with a pocket calculator and pencil and paper to do those routine financial, numerical or statistical calculations. Not too many years ago a sophisticated Spreadsheet like this would have set you back hundreds of pounds. This one comes with four other very useful programs for under #30. What price for a full-blown Spreadsheet now?