send commands to the disk drive. The directory command is
the simplest to use. Press CTRL-4 (think of the dollar sign, as j (
in LOAD "$",8 to list the directory from BASIC). The screen L^J
clears and the directory is displayed. Press RETURN to return
to the normal screen. You may pause the directory display \ { with the space bar.
To save a spreadsheet to disk, press the f8 function key
(SHIFT-f7). SpeedCalc prints "SAVE:" on the command line, jt followed by an underline cursor. Enter a valid Commodore
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filename and press RETURN. (If you change your mind and decide not to save anything, press RETURN without typing a filename.) The disk drive spins for a few moments, then SpeedCalc prints the drive status in the command line. The message "00,OK,00, 00" means there were no errors.
To load a saved file from disk, press the f7 key. Again, SpeedCalc prompts you to enter the filename and displays the disk status when the operation is complete. SpeedCalc files are saved as PRG (program) file types, but do not load as normal program files. SpeedCalc uses special header bytes to identify a SpeedCalc file. If you try to load anything other than a valid SpeedCalc file, you'll see the message NOT A SPEEDCALC FILE.
You can send Commodore disk commands to the drive with CTRL-T—press CTRL and the t (up-arrow) key together.
SpeedCalc prompts you to enter a disk command. The CTRL-t command works much like the Commodore Wedge utility. If you press RETURN without typing a command, SpeedCalc dis plays the drive status and sends no command. You need not enclose the command in quotation marks or type ,8 after it.
For example, press CTRL-t, then enter 10 to initialize a disk.
Consult your disk drive manual for more information about Commodore disk commands.
Printing
SpeedCalc lets you print data to three different devices: to the screen for previewing output, to a printer for permanent docu mentation, or to a disk file for integrating the data with an other program.
To preview your spreadsheet on the screen, place the r^m) cursor below and to the right of the section of the sheet you i l wish to view, press SHIFT-CTRL-P, then press S (screen out
put) when prompted. Naturally, the display will look odd if
^^ your sheet is wider than 40 columns. Think of each pair of 40-I | column lines as one 80-column printed line.
To print a hardcopy of the spreadsheet, press CTRL-P. If
^ your printer is configured like most, this should produce a sat-/ \ isfactory printout. This command sends output to the printer
as device number 4 with a secondary address of 7 (uppercase/
fmm^ lowercase on most systems). Before using this command, you
\ i must position the cursor below and to the right of the block of
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Chapter 3
cells you wish to print. The upper-left corner of the printout starts at cell AA1. The entire width you define by this position is used. Therefore, don't try to print overly wide spreadsheets that won't fit on the paper. If you want to print a spreadsheet wider than 80 columns, many printers have a condensed mode that lets you fit 132 characters on a line. You can set this by switching an internal DIP switch, or by sending a
CHR$ code from BASIC before running SpeedCalc. Many ) j printers respond to this command for condensed mode: OPEN ^^
4,4: PRINT#4,CHR$(15):CLOSE 4.
To send output to a printer with a device number other than 4 or a secondary address other than 7, enter SHIFT-CTRL-P, then enter the device number and secondary address when prompted. During a printout, you can pause the output by pressing SHIFT or SHIFT LOCK. The screen border turns white and printing ceases until you release SHIFT. Press RUN/STOP to abort printing.
You can also print SpeedCalc data to a disk file for use with terminal programs, databases, or word processors (includ ing SpeedScript). Select the D option after pressing CTRL-SHIFT-P, then enter the filename you wish the new file to have. The data is saved as a program (PRG) file of that name.
The disk file is an exact Commodore ASCII image of what would go to the printer.
Note that printing to disk creates a different file than does saving to disk. You should save files that you wish to reload into SpeedCalc and print files that you wish to convert for SpeedScript or other programs. While you may pause this oper ation with SHIFT as with printer output, do not use RUN/STOP to abort printing to disk. This may create a "poison" (unclosed) file which can be safely removed only by validating the disk.
Using SpeedCalc Data with SpeedScript
SpeedCalc sends data to the printer in simple, plain-vanilla
form. That may be fine for personal use, but if you're creating ) ( a document for others to view, you may want special features *"*
such as boldface, underlining, and so on. Since SpeedScript al
ready offers a way to access these features (and many more), s I no attempt has been made to include them in SpeedCalc. All
that's needed is to use the SpeedScript File Converter program
to convert SpeedCalc files into a form that SpeedScript can load. ) j
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Then you can edit the file with SpeedScript as you would any other document—inserting printer control codes, reformatting the text, merging it with other text, and so on.
To change a SpeedCalc spreadsheet into a file that Speed-Script can read, you'll need to do the following:
1. After creating and saving a spreadsheet with SpeedCalc, print it to disk as described above (be sure the cursor is to the right and below the data you want).
2. Exit SpeedCalc, then load and run the SpeedScript File Con verter program (stored on the disk with this book with the name SSFC). The program prompts you to enter the input filename (enter the filename of the SpeedCalc file you printed to disk). Then it asks you to enter the output file name (the name of the SpeedScript file you want to create;
of course, this name should be different from the first).
Press D for disk. Finally, you should select option 3, Com modore ASCII to SpeedScript.
3. After the File Converter has finished, load and run Speed-Script, then load the new SpeedScript file as you would any SpeedScript document. The data appears on the screen, ready to be edited in any way you wish.
Following this chapter are clip-out charts for SpeedCalc commands and keyboard reference.
Table 3-1. SpeedCalc Commands Blank (erase) current cell Copy block verbatim Set number of decimals Edit current cell
Change cell format Goto selected cell Move block verbatim Print sheet
Turn on/off auto recalculation Change column width
Change decimal mode for all cells Move block relative
Print to screen, disk, or printer Display current recalculation mode Change width of all columns Erase entire sheet
g 3 a a o 3
Figure3-1.SpeedCalcKeyboardReference UseCTRLlwithmostcommands v/SHIFT: PrinttoScran, Disk,orPrinter Coupon* column. v/SHIFT: Godovn onecolumn.Goright onecolumn. WSHtFT: Goleft onecolumn.
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