XESS Spreadsheet - Version 5.0

Overview of XESS Spreadsheet

The XESS spreadsheet application is designed specifically for users who want familiar spreadsheet functionality and ease-of-use right on their X Windows platform without any emulators! By using the intuitive XESS user interface, you can easily access its powerful computational, reporting, and graphing tools.

You need only a few keystrokes or mouse clicks to analyze your data and then present the results with graphs ranging from simple line plots to 3D surfaces. You can create attractive reports just as easily. And you can just as easily publish them as web pages.

The XESS spreadsheet provides a flexible and comfortable visual environment in which to handle simple or complex calculations and data manipulations and anything in between. It calculates a full range of mathematical, statistical, matrix and string functions all with the ease of a familiar spreadsheet format with point-and-click screen displays and pull-down menus.

XESS 5.0 is fully upward compatible from XESS Version 4 (Xess4). References to XESS throughout this document refer to any version of the XESS spreadsheet. Things which are applicable to a specific version of the XESS spreadsheet or its environment are qualified as such.

The XESS product line includes spreadsheet products for most Linux, UNIX, OpenVMS, and Windows NT systems. Optional products provide additional capabilities, including a developer's SDK for tightly integrating with other applications, the xsBasic Macro Add-in facility, and industry-specific applications.

Computational Functions

Other features of XESS calculations include:

• lots of room for your data and calculations XESS supports up to 10 million rows, 4096 columns, and 4095 sheets.
• constraint expressions that indicate when a cell value is outside predetermined or calculated boundaries.
• goal-seeking to calculate the value of an independent variable needed to achieve a desired objective.
• sorting data rows in ascending or descending order, numerically or alphabetically.
• powerful Find and Replace tools that quickly identify occurrences of data that meet specified criteria and optionally replace with different values.
• broad range of mathematical, statistical, and financial functions.
• extracting data based on certain criteria to create internal data aggregates.

Supported File Types

XESS directly creates print files in two formats for printing later or incorporating into other documents: ASCII or PostScript. This gives you the freedom to use the format best suited for your application. Filters are provided which support print preview and printing to non-PostScript printers (e.g. PCL).

The PostScript output format gives you flexibility of producing WYSIWYG output, with the printed output matching the chosen font styles and sizes, graphs, and images on the display. The PostScript Files created by the XESS Print operation are widely accepted into other documents.

You can also produce output in LaTeX or HTML formats for use in other applications or for display using browser technology. You can create area, bar, stacked bar, line, scatter, X-Y, polar, histogram, pie, high-low, box, control, contour and surface graphs of the data in your spreadsheets, with user-selected formats, colors, scaling, axis characteristics, labeling, and annotation.

Using XESS

XESS was designed in accordance with Open Software Foundation, Inc. style guidelines for OSF/Motif software applications. Therefore, the look and feel of XESS should be familiar and intuitive to anyone who has used OSF/Motif applications before. In fact, OSF/Motif conventions such as pull-down menus, scroll bars, list boxes, pop-up dialog boxes, buttons to click on and off, and multiple windows should look familiar to anyone who has used a windows type program, including those that operate on Apple or IBM-compatible personal computers.

XESS is designed to be easy to learn and easy to use:

• Operations are grouped by function in clear, concise, pull-down menus. Making a menu selection is as easy as clicking a selection or pressing a single key or key combination on your keyboard.
• Frequently used pull-down or pop-up menus (e.g. the Cell Formats list box) can be separated from the activation menu button so that they remain on-screen until you explicitly close the window or exit the application.
• The look and feel of operations is consistent throughout the program. When you see how one dialog box works, you understand how all dialog boxes work. The interface is as invisible as possible; all you need to concentrate on is the work to be done, not how to get it done.
• If XESS needs more information to carry out an operation, it prompts you with messages, pop-up dialog boxes, and list boxes. At every step, it is clear what you need to do to complete the task.
• If you make a mistake, XESS tells you. Whereas some spreadsheets beep unintelligible warnings, XESS gives error messages in descriptive terms that actually help you solve the problem.
• An Undo feature lets you restore the sheet and recover from mistakes. Multiple levels of Undo are supported.
• A Redo feature lets you undo the last undo.
• Help for XESS operations and functions is only a keystroke away including a comprehensive Help Search facility.

Major Features of XESS

Accessing Workbooks

• Create or open any number of XESS workbooks in a given session, limited only by the room on your screen and your system's memory. Of course, you can open, save and rename existing XESS workbooks.
• Open native workbook/spreadsheet files from Excel and Lotus and import data from text files arranged in tabular format or with values separated by commas or user-specified delimiters.
• Dynamically link XESS workbook cells to cells in other XESS workbooks (saved on disk or opened concurrently). You can even establish links in an XESS workbook which point to specific cells in Excel and Lotus files residing on disk.
• Use any of six convenient methods for moving around the spreadsheet: the keyboard, the mouse, the scroll bars, the sheet tabs, and the Go To and Find operations.
• Use keyboard and one-character mnemonics to access frequently used menu selections, streamlining your work.
• Create multiple views of your workbook data, each in a separate window. Move intuitively among the views (windows) while performing spreadsheet operations such as selections.
• Lock title rows and columns that stay in view as you scroll through a large spreadsheet or between sheets in a workbook.

Manipulating the Workbook

• Copy and move formulas and values anywhere within the workbook with automatic formula adjustment, and easily cut/copy/paste data to and from other X Windows programs visible on your display as well as within the workbook.
• Select cells and ranges with simple mouse or keyboard actions, or with the Select Range and Select All operations.
• Clear the contents of a cell, range of cells or the entire active sheet with a few simple actions. Delete rows and columns at any time, including the data they contain. All formulas automatically adjust accordingly.
• Assign and use names rather than cell coordinates for cells and ranges. Once assigned, you can use these names anywhere a traditional cell reference is accepted.
• Undo multiple levels of any of the above with a single keystroke or mouse click. Redo the last Undo. Interacting with Other Applications
• Import, export, and paste data to and from other XESS workbooks, transferring data and formatting.
• Import formatted data from other programs, such as spreadsheet applications, tabular text reports, and user-defined delimited files. Export data to other programs in ASCII, XLS, WKS, WK1, WK3, LaTeX, PostScript, HTML tables, tab-separated value, comma-separated value formats, or user-defined delimiter.
• Establish dynamic (live) links with specific cells in Excel and Lotus workbook/spreadsheet files saved on disk such that each linked cell value is automatically retrieved when the XESS workbook is first opened and with each XESS calculation.

Functions and Tools

• Use the Go To operation to position to a specific point in the workbook or use the Find operation to locate cells containing desired values or meeting specific criteria.
• Use the Replace operation to selectively or globally modify cell contents in a workbook which meet specified criteria.
• Sort rows of data in ascending or descending order, naming the primary column on which to sort, and if necessary, naming secondary columns to use when any of the values are equivalent.
• Use the Transpose tool to transpose blocks of data (switch rows to columns) with various options.
• Assign or remove cell protection to cells and ranges. When enabled for the workbook, you may select from three levels of cell protection relaxed (min) to rigid (max) which prohibits any user-made changes to the contents of protected cells. (Cells can still be changed upon recalculation.) Completely remove cell protection easily with the Unprotect operation.

Defining the Appearance of the Spreadsheet and Display

• Set defaults for language, currency, decimal point, and thousands separator from your workstation's Locale setting.
• Select default characteristics that affect the entire workbook, such as the size and position of the spreadsheet, display colors, cell format and fonts, and column width.
• Assign different characteristics to selected sheets and cells or ranges, such as bold type for the totals row, a date format for a column of dates, or a wider column to accommodate large values.
• Completely hide rows and columns.
• Assign colors, patterns, and font characteristics (point size, family, etc.) to specific cells or cell ranges on a sheet in a workbook.
• Change the alignment and orientation of cell contents at will: left-justified, right-justified, centered, or center-across-selection horizontally, vertically, up, down.
• You can also select from many cell formats, including scientific notation, U.S. and International currency, date/time formats and others.
• Change grid line colors or remove altogether.
• Add Cell Notes and Cell Borders to specific cells or cell ranges on a sheet in a workbook.
• Include external graphical images in a wide variety of formats in your XESS spreadsheet or use the Overlay Editor to create graphical overlays which can be anchored to a location on the display or to a cell.
• Tailor the display using Display Options to further customize the XESS appearance such as removing row/column buttons.
• Set your own personal preferences for session and workbook defaults.

XESS Calculations and Functions

• Take advantage of natural, double-precision calculation, constraint-checking, and user-definable recalculation options.
• Use the sum button on the tool bar to insert quick calculations.
• Add criteria to calculations to check for valid results (constraint checking).
• Support all the arithmetic, conditional, and boolean operators available in the C programming language.
• Provide a wide variety of mathematical, statistical, conditional, string, and logical functions, designed specifically for scientific and engineering needs.
• Use special matrix functions that permit matrix, vector and Fourier transform operations.
• Perform iterative calculations.
• Perform "goal-seeking", deriving the value of an independent variable required to reach a stated objective for another cell.

Creating Graphs and Reports

• Create print files in ASCII and PostScript formats, to be printed later or imported into other programs that recognize these formats. Filters convert the PostScript output for printing on non-PostScript printers (e.g. PCL, HPGL).
• Use numerous page layout options to create nicely formatted reports and preview before printing.
• Create area, bar, stacked bar, line, scatter, X-Y, polar, pie, histogram, high-low, box, control, contour, and surface graphs of the data in your spreadsheets. You can customize the graph to suit your application, defining such options as axis labeling and scaling, colors, line and marker patterns, titles, legends, and annotation.

How to Get Help

• on-line help, which displays a concise summary of specific functions at the touch of a button,
• descriptive error messages, which provide information to help you correct the error.

Using On-Line Help

• Help>Index is a complete help system with a multi-level list of topics, "hot" links to related topics, and a keyword search facility.
• Help buttons in each dialog link provide information on the function and options of the dialog.
• Tips are displayed in pop-up windows when the mouse cursor is placed over a toolbar button.
• Help on gives information about the elements of the display windows.

To select a help topic:

1. Select Index... from the Help menu. XESS displays the XESS Help dialog. Click on a topic in the Help Topics list that is shown with a page icon to view the help on that topic. When you click on a topic shown with a closed-book icon, the "book is opened" and topics within that book are shown and the closed-book icon is replaced with an opened-book icon. Clicking on this icon "closes the book".
2. In the XESS Help dialog box you will be able to read about the topic you selected. If necessary, use the scroll bars to view all the information about the topic.
3. Any keywords or phrases that are highlighted in the help text are links to other on-line help topics. Simply click on these keywords to go directly to the corresponding help topic. To return back to where your were, click the Back button.
4. Use the Search option of the Help dialog to locate topics which relate to the keywords you specify. Words that must be found in the topic should be preceded by a plus (+) character; those that must not, by a minus (-). The result of the search operation is a list of topics displayed in the Search Help File dialog. Click on these topics to view the related help. The topics that best match your query are displayed first in the list.
5. Click Cancel to dismiss the XESS Help dialog box

Through the Help menu, you can get information on:

• general system functions and menus,
• the current window,
• special keys and mnemonics,
• all the subjects available in the Help index, and
• using the Help facility.

The Help dialog can be resized to display more of the help at one time. The relative size of the help area versus the help topics area can be adjusted by dragging the indicator between the scroll bars. You can also get context sensitive help while performing an operation that uses a dialog box.

To get help from a dialog box:

1. Select an XESS operation, for example, select Save As from the File menu.
2. XESS displays the Open Sheet dialog box.
3. Click Help. XESS displays the Help dialog box. The dialog box contains information about opening workbooks. Use the scroll bars to view all the information.
4. Click Cancel to dismiss the XESS Help dialog box and resume the Save operation.

The help file is formatted as HTML which makes it possible to access on-line help outside XESS with a standard HTML browser such as that provided with Netscape.

Help is also available using the Help on feature or the [?] toolbar icon. First click Help on or [?], and then click on the feature of interest. XESS then displays a pop-up description of the feature. These pop-up features, tips, are automatically displayed when the cursor is over a toolbar icon.

Error Messages

For example:

The message:
       Error:  Goal Seek - variable cell must be a constant
means:
       The independent cell to be changed during Goal Seek 
       must not contain a formula.

XESS displays error messages on the Message Line at the bottom of the primary spreadsheet display. A full list of XESS error messages and values and what they mean is contained in Appendix C of the User's Guide.

Primary Spreadsheet Window

Components

• menu bar
• toolbar
• edit line
• spreadsheet data area
• select all button
• row and column borders
• scroll bars
• sheet tabs and sheet tab scroll buttons
• message line

You can control which of these are actually being displayed by using the Display Options dialog from the Options menu.

There is a primary XESS display for each open workbook.

Main Menu Bar

If you open multiple workbooks within the same XESS session, each workbook will be attached to its own main menu.

• The File menu contains operations that read or write files to disk or other devices, link external graphical images to specific cells, and print.
• The Edit menu contains operations that modify cells in the spreadsheet.
• The Search menu contains operations for locating cells based on their values, and for replacing values.
• The View menu contains operations associated with navigation and creating new views.
• The Format menu has operations for changing the cell format and appearance for a cell or a group of cells and Cell Notes.
• The Tools menu includes special functions such as Sort, Transpose, Goal Seek, and Overlay Editor.
• The Options menu contains operations that define default options for spreadsheet functions, appearance, and locale settings.
• The Graph menu contains operations for defining the appearance of a graphic display of spreadsheet data and displaying a graph.
• The Help menu gives you access to on-line help.

Toolbar

• New
• Open
• Save
• Print
• Cut to Clipboard
• Copy to Clipboard
• Paste from Clipboard
• Undo
• Redo
• Cell Format Type
• Cell Decimal Places
• Summation
• Bold toggle
• Italic toggle
• Underline toggle
• Left alignment
• Center alignment
• Right alignment
• Line graph
• Bar graph
• Overlay Editor
• Help on...

To display or remove the toolbar:

1. Select Display Options from the Options menu to display the dialog box.
2. Click the Toolbar check button on to display the toolbar or off to remove.
3. Click Apply or OK to complete the operation.

Edit Line

• viewing the full contents of the current cell, and
• entering and editing cell contents

Data Area

For sheets larger than the window, XESS shows only part of the sheet on screen at a time. To access other areas, you can scroll through the sheet using the scroll bars or the arrow keys on your keyboard. All components of the Data Area may be selectively removed from the display using the Display Options dialog.

XESS spreadsheets are a computerized version of a ledger pad, with information stored in a row-by-column table of cells. A group of sheets which work together and are saved in a single disk file is called a workbook. The cells in a sheet may contain several types of information:

Text

Text entries are useful for labeling columns and rows, for including comments about data values being calculated, and for managing textual data such as lists of names and addresses. A text string may be up to 4095 bytes. XESS accepts any character defined for your locale. By default, this is the ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) character set.

Numbers

XESS treats numeric entries as constants, which you may change by editing the cell but which are not changed when the workbook is recalculated.

Dates and Times

XESS accepts date and time entries in several formats and displays these in the format you choose. You can perform calculations with dates and times. XESS supports both 1900 and 1904 date systems for compatibility with other spreadsheet products.

Formulas

Formulas are the backbone of the spreadsheet, defining and calculating mathematical relationships between elements of the spreadsheet. XESS formulas can calculate with numbers, text, logical values, cell references, and other formulas.

Graphs

Graphs created in XESS can be stored directly in a cell in the sheet. Once stored in the sheet, standard operations can be used to change its cell location.

Images

Images created outside XESS may be included in the body of a sheet by establishing a link in the cell where you want the image to be displayed. Several image formats are supported. Refer to File->Link for more details.

A Cell Note can also be associated with each cell, but is not considered as the value of the cell. A cell with a cell note is displayed with a small dot in its upper right corner. When the mouse cursor is positioned over the cell, the note is displayed in a pop-up window.

Overlay Objects can be drawn and displayed on top of the Data Area. As an option, they can be positioned relative to a cell and will scroll in the display area along with the associated cell.

Column Border

Row Border

Select All Button

Sheet Border and Sheet Tabs

Sheet Tab Scroll Buttons

Message Line

Multiple Views

Each secondary window can be sized, navigated, and manipulated independently using the main menu bar along with standard scrolling and window management facilities.

To create a secondary data window:

1. Select Create New View from the View menu.

1. Select Cancel from the view window.

Display Options Dialog

Working with the Keyboard and the Mouse

Using the Mouse

To move the mouse pointer (which usually appears on screen as an arrow), move the mouse across your desktop or mouse pad. To move the mouse pointer further than your mouse area allows, lift the mouse off the surface and reposition it.

The mouse has two or three buttons. Most XESS operations require only the left button (MB1). The right mouse button (MB3) is used to activate a short-cut dialog. On a three-button mouse, the middle button (MB2) is the paste operation. On a two-button mouse, you simulate MB2 by simultaneously clicking MB1 and MB3.

Mouse Actions

Point

Move the mouse pointer to a specific area of the screen.

Click

Quickly press and release the left button.

Double-click

Quickly press and release the left button twice.

Hold down

Hold down the left button while you perform some action, such as moving the mouse.

Drag

Press the left button and hold it down while you move the pointer.

Release

Release the left button after dragging.

Select

Hold down the left left mouse button and drag it over the area to be selected.

Paste

Click the middle mouse button to copy a selection to a new location.

Using the Keyboard

XESS provides two faster methods for many operations:

• keyboard accelerators execute menu selections with simple key combinations, whether or not the menu is displayed.

  A keyboard accelerator is a key or key combination that invokes a menu selection without displaying the menu. Not every menu selection has a keyboard accelerator. Those that do are marked with the accelerator key or key combination on the menu.

• mnemonics execute menu selections with a single keystroke while that menu is displayed.

  A mnemonic is a single character that provides a shortcut for making selections from the keyboard. Mnemonics are usually the first character of a command and are always marked on the menu with an underscore. While a menu is displayed, simply press the mnemonic character.

Keyboard Accelerators

Many keyboard accelerators are formed by holding down the Ctrl key or the Meta key while pressing another key. This type of action is documented as Meta + key or Ctrl + key where key is the name of the key that is pressed. Depending on the system, the [Meta] key on your keyboard may be labeled [ALT], [Compose], [Meta], or be represented with a diamond.

The definition of keyboard accelerators can be changed by modifying the XESS resources. The ones documented below are the defaults.

XESS Keyboard Accelerators and special function keys are shown in the table below:

Delete

Clear

Ctrl + a

Select All

Ctrl + b

Bold Font

Ctrl + c

Insert Column

Ctrl + d

Redo

Ctrl + f

Copy Formula

Ctrl + g

Go To

Ctrl + i

Italic Font

Ctrl + m

Move

Ctrl + n

Normal Font

Ctrl + o

Open Sheet

Ctrl + r

Insert Row

Ctrl + s

Save

Ctrl + t

Insert Sheet

Ctrl + u

Undo

Ctrl + v

Copy Value

Ctrl + C

Delete Column

Ctrl + F

Format Range

Ctrl + I

Bold-Italic Font

Ctrl + R

Delete Row

Ctrl + T

Delete Sheet

Ctrl + V

Create new view

Ctrl + Space

Select

Ctrl + Meta + Space

Reselect

Meta + a

Automatic Alignment

Meta + c

Center Alignment

Meta + i

Center-over-selection Alignment

Meta + l

Left Alignment

Meta + p

Print Sheet

Meta + q

Quit

Meta + C

Close Sheet

Meta + N

New Sheet

Meta + R

Right Alignment

F1

Help

F2

Edit Cell

F3

Replace

Meta + F3

Replace Next Cell

F4

Toggle absolute/relative cell reference

F6

Find

F7

Find Next

F8

Find Previous

F9

Recalculate

F10

Shift focus to the menu bar

F11

Cancel Edit

Esc

Cancel Edit

Left Arrow

Move left one cell

Right Arrow

Move right one cell

Up Arrow

Move up one cell

Down Arrow

Move down one cell

Ctrl + Left Arrow

Page left

Ctrl + Right Arrow

Page right

Ctrl + Up Arrow,

Page up

Ctrl + Down Arrow

Page down

Next Page/Page Down

Page down

Prev Page/Page Up

Page up

Home

Top of sheet -- cell A1

End

Last non-empty row

Ctrl + End

Right-most non-empty column

Shift + any motion

Select while moving cursor

Meta + arrow key

Advance to next "break" in data in the specified direction

Mnemonics

To display a pull-down menu using mnemonics:

1. Press [F10] to shift keyboard focus to the menu bar (the File option will be highlighted by a square).
2. Type the underlined letter in the option you wish to select.
3. Repeat for each level of the menu structure until the final selection is made.

1. Press [Meta] and the underlined letter at the same time.

Mnemonics are a keyboard alternative to using the mouse or cursor to access menus. For tear-off menus, mnemonics can be used when the menu has focus.

How to Use Menus

When secondary data windows (Multiple Views) are displayed within the same workbook, the menu bar is not attached to each window; however, any operation invoked through the menu bar is applied to the window(s) containing the current cell.

To view a pull-down menu from the menu bar:

1. Move the mouse pointer to the desired menu title.
2. Press the left mouse button.

1. Press [F10] on the keyboard.
2. Use the arrow keys to move the highlight to the desired menu title.

1. Press [F10].
2. Type the underlined character in the menu selection you desire.

To select a menu action:

1. Display the pull-down menu from the menu bar.
2. Move the highlight to the desired menu selection.
3. Release the mouse button.

Menu selections can result in any of three actions:

• A menu selection can directly activate an operation such as Edit Cell, Select All, or Exit.
• A menu selection can lead to a cascading submenu that contains additional related operations or options. For instance, the Copy selection has a submenu that contains the selections Copy Formulas and Copy Values. The Font Style selection has a sub-menu that contains the selections Default, Normal, Bold, Italic, and Bold-Italic. Selections that have sub-menus are always marked with a right-arrow.
• A menu selection can display a pop-up dialog box for you to specify further information about the menu selection. For instance, the Go To selection from the View menu displays a dialog box for you to specify the destination of the Go To operation.

To display a submenu:

1. Display a pull-down main menu from the menu bar.
2. Move the highlight to a menu selection with an arrow next to it.
3. Move the mouse to the right to display the submenu.

1. Pressing the left mouse button, move the highlight to the desired selection.
2. Release the mouse button.

To avoid making a menu selection when you have displayed a menu, drag the pointer off the menu and release the mouse button. Keyboard users press the [Esc] or [F11] key.

Mouse Button 3 Popup Menu

To invoke the short-cut menu:

1. Select the cells to be effected.
2. Hold down MB3 and traverse as needed to the desired operation and release.

To disable MB3 popup, change the resource *popupMenu in the Xess5 resource file to False.

If you are in the middle of editing data in a cell and click MB3, some operations will be greyed out.

Tear-off Menus

When you are through using a tear-off menu, it may be dismissed. On the Motif Window Manager (mwm), to cancel (close) a tear-off menu, double-click the top left button of the tear-off window frame.

How to Use Dialog Boxes

• check buttons square buttons that are clicked on and off to activate any number of selections that are not mutually exclusive.
• option buttons rectangular button containing the current state of an option menu followed by a bar indicator; when clicked it displays the option menu.
• list boxes boxes that present lists of information or choices, with scroll bars that work just like the scroll bars on the main XESS window.
• slider bars that can be moved to change a parameter setting. Similar to a scroll bar.
• data entry lines or boxes lines and boxes that contain information you type, such as a file name or cell location.
• push buttons buttons that you click to activate your selection or cancel an operation, such as Start, OK, Apply, or Cancel. A Help button provides on-screen help describing dialog box functions.

Check Button

1. Move the mouse pointer to the desired selection.
2. Click the left button. The button will appear in reverse video or a different color, depending on your monitor.

Keyboard users: Press the space bar to display button options or change on/off state.

Option Button

1. Move the mouse pointer to the desired button.
2. Click the left button to display the option menu. While holding down the left mouse button move the pointer to the desired selection and release.

Slider Bar

1. Move the mouse pointer onto the slider bar.
2. Drag the mouse to the right or left until the desired parameter is displayed above the slider.

Data Entry Line or Box

1. Move the mouse pointer to the desired location on the line.
2. Click the left button. The vertical bar cursor will blink, indicating that XESS is ready to accept text in that space.
3. Use the keyboard and numeric keypad to enter the information.

OK and Apply Buttons

1. Move the mouse pointer to the OK button at the bottom of the dialog box.
2. Click the left mouse button. By clicking OK you activate your choices and dismiss the dialog box.

1. Move the mouse pointer to the Apply button at the bottom of the dialog box.
2. Click the left mouse button.

By clicking Apply you activate your choices and keep the dialog box open. With the Apply button, you are able to quickly readjust or add more settings without having to reopen the dialog box.

Any applied spreadsheet action which is destructive to the data can be reversed using Undo. Ten (10) levels of Undo are supported by default. You can reverse the most recent Undo with Redo.

Cancel Button

1. Move the mouse pointer to the Cancel button at the bottom of the dialog box.
2. Click the left mouse button.

Cancel does not undo changes that have already been applied.

Reset Button

Help Button

File Selection Dialog

The File Selection dialog box displays an alphabetical list of all the files in the selected directory whose names meet the criteria in your Filter. The current directory name is displayed at the top of the Directories list. If the lists are large, all the names may not fit in the boxes.

To move the selection highlight, use the up and down arrow keys, or move the mouse pointer to the desired name and click.

To scroll through the list of file names, click the up and down arrows along the right side of the list box, or drag the scroll box.

To jump to a specific alphabetical section of the list, type the first character(s) of the name of the file you are looking for in front of the asterisk (*). The dialog box then starts the display at the first file name starting with those characters.

To select a different directory, double-click on the directory name in the Directories list. XESS then displays the names of files in that directory in the Files list. Double-click on the second file in the Directories list change to the next-higher directory level.

To select a workbook, double-click on the workbook name, or click the name once and then click OK to complete the operation.

To cancel the operation after viewing the dialog box, click Cancel.

Window Frame and the Window Manager

You can have several windows open at once, move from window to window, change the size and position of windows on screen, and shuffle the order in which windows overlap one another. If several windows are open at once, all of them are active, but keyboard and mouse actions can address only one current window. In X Window System terminology, that window has the input focus.

The window frame and functions are not controlled by XESS but rather by your system's window manager program. The exact method for manipulating windows depends on the window manager program you are using. XESS should work with any X11 compliant window manager.

The following instructions assume that you are using the OSF/Motif Window Manager (mwm) from the Open Software Foundation, Inc. Other window managers have different window frames and use different mouse and keyboard sequences to perform comparable actions.

OSF/Motif Window Manager windows usually contain the following functional elements:

• a window menu icon, located in the top left corner of the window frame
• a minimize icon, located in the top right corner of the window frame, that reduces a normal-sized window to an icon
• a maximize icon, located in the top right corner of the window frame, that enlarges a normal-sized window to fill the computer screen or reduces a full-screen window to normal size
• a resize border, located at the borders, that permits you to change the dimensions of the window

The Window Manager provides several options for manipulating windows with the keyboard, mouse and built-in shortcuts.

Current Window

1. Move the mouse pointer into the window, or
2. Move the mouse pointer into the window and click the left mouse button.

Window Sizing

1. Move the mouse pointer to the larger box icon at the upper far right of the window frame.
2. Click the left mouse button.

1. Click the window menu icon at the top left of the window frame.
2. Select Maximize from the window menu.

To return a maximized spreadsheet to normal size:

1. Move the mouse pointer to the maximize button at the upper right corner of the window frame.
2. Click the left mouse button.

1. Click the window menu icon at the top left of the window frame.
2. Select Restore from the window menu.

To change the dimensions of the window:

1. Position the mouse pointer in the window border. The pointer will change shape.
2. Press and hold the left mouse button. Drag the mouse until the fine cross-lines indicate the desired dimension.
3. Release the mouse button.

1. Click on the window menu icon at the top left of the window frame.
2. Select Size from the window menu.
3. Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse until the cross-lines indicate the desired dimension.
4. Release the mouse button.

Iconifying

1. Move the mouse pointer to the smaller box icon at the upper right of the window frame.
2. Click the left mouse button.

1. Click the window menu icon at the top left of the window frame.
2. Select Minimize from the window menu.

To restore a spreadsheet that has been turned into an icon:

1. Move the mouse pointer to the icon.
2. Click the left mouse button.
3. Select Restore.

1. Move the mouse pointer to the icon.
2. Double click the left mouse button.

Moving a Window

1. Move the mouse pointer to the title bar.
2. Press the mouse button. While holding the mouse button down, move the mouse to reposition the window.
3. Release the mouse button.

1. Click the window menu icon at the top left of the window frame.
2. Select Move from the window menu.
3. Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse until the cross-lines indicate the desired position.
4. Release the mouse button.

To move the current window behind another window:

1. Click the window menu icon at the top left of the window frame.
2. Select Lower from the window menu.

1. Display the File menu from the menu bar.
2. Select Quit from the File menu.

Keyboard shortcuts can be used to perform these functions. The keystrokes are marked beside the selection on the menus.

User Preferences Dialog

Smart Text Entry

	1-919-942-7801
	561-042-563

Smart Date Entry

and

Smart Time Entry

Enable In Cell Editor

Enable Multiple Workbooks

Remember Cursor Position

Disable Bell

Editor Colors Match Cell

Use @ for Functions

Use ! for Sheet Names

Enable Visual Bell

Enable Toolbar Animation

Normal Cursor

Working Cursor

Scrolling Speed

How XESS Handles Errors

Calculation Errors

For example:

If you try to invert a 3 x 2 matrix, XESS highlights the cell where the formula was entered, and displays the message, "Error - @INVERT, matrix must be square" in the cell containing the invalid formula. In addition, the message, "Cell xx:Error - @INVERT must be square" appears on the Message Line.

Syntax Errors

XESS will not allow a syntactically incorrect expression to be entered.

For example:

If you enter the formula @DATE(1/10), XESS displays the message, "ERROR: not enough arguments to function", on the Message Line and the cursor is positioned to the right of the 0 on the Edit Line. You must correct or erase the invalid expression.

Operational Errors

For example:

If you enter an invalid cell address in a dialog box which requires that data to continue, XESS displays the XESS Message dialog box which contains the message, ERROR: - illegal range specification. You must press Cancel to remove the box and continue.

Accessing Workbooks

Building a New Workbook

If you are already working in a spreadsheet workbook and want to erase all cells and start again with an empty workbook:

1. Display the File menu from the menu bar.
2. Select Close from the File menu.
3. Display the File menu again and then select New.

If you are working in a workbook and want to begin working in a different workbook:

1. Display the File menu from the menu bar.
2. Select Open... and XESS will display the Open Sheet dialog box for selecting the name of the workbook you wish to use.

If you have set User Preferences to single-workbook mode and have made changes to the current workbook, XESS will first ask if you want to save the changes before loading the new workbook. In multiple-workbook mode, the new workbook is displayed in a new primary window.

Loading an Existing Workbook

The .xs5 file format consists entirely of printable characters. This makes it easy for you to copy XESS files from one system to another regardless of the operating system or file structure. It also means that XESS files can be mailed among systems without additional processing.

XESS can also access spreadsheets and workbooks in several other popular formats: .xs, .xs3, and .xs4 sheets compatible with previous versions of XESS; and .wk1, .wks, .wk3 (wk3/wk4), and .xls sheets compatible with most other spreadsheet systems.

You can get an existing workbook, view it, change it, recalculate it, and then save it (overwriting the original version) or exit without affecting the original version. You can load and use workbooks from other spreadsheet programs or load data from text files in a variety of formats.

To load an existing XESS, WK*, or XLS workbook:

1. Select Open... from the File menu. XESS displays the Open Sheet dialog box.
2. Select the type of spreadsheet file you wish to read: XS5, XS4, XS3, XS, WK1, WKS, WK3/WK4, or XLS.
3. Click the Selection entry box and type the name of the file you wish to use, or select a file by highlighting its name in the Files list using the mouse.

Adjacent to the Files list is the Directories list. The files shown in the Files list are those files found in the directory whose name is highlighted in the Directories list.

The dialog box displays an alphabetical list of all files whose names meet the criteria in your File Filter. If the list is large, all the document names may not fit in the box.

• To move the selection highlight, use the up and down arrow keys, or move the mouse pointer to the desired name and click.
• To scroll through the list of document names, click the up and down arrows along the right side of the list box or drag the scroll box.
• To jump to a specific alphabetical section of the list, type the first character(s) of the name of the document you are looking for in front of the asterisk (*). The dialog box then displays the first file name beginning with these characters.
• To select a file, double-click on the file name, or click the name once and then click the OK button. XESS opens the workbook with the same window size and position that were in effect when the file was last saved.
• To select a different directory, double-click on the directory name in the Directories list. XESS then displays the names of files in that directory in the Files list. (The .. entry allows you to change to the next highest level of the directory structures.)
• To avoid opening a file after viewing the dialog box, click Cancel.

If you do not find the file name you are looking for, check the File Format and the File Filter in the dialog box to make sure you are searching in the correct disk or disk directory and for the desired spreadsheet type.

The File Filter

XESS changes the default filter to match the file format you requested. For example, if you set File Format to WKS, the File Filter appears as *.wks and the Files list includes all files with names ending in .wks.

On Linux and UNIX systems, the default extension allows filenames in upper, lower, or mixed case, similar to the following: .[Xx][Ss]5. On OpenVMS and Windows NT, the same extension is displayed as .xs5 but is not case sensitive.

You can change the file filter to display only certain groups of files. This is especially useful when you have many files on the disk and the list is cumbersome to search. For example, you can change the file filter to display:

• files in a specified directory or sub-directory,
• files whose names have a character match to designated characters, or
• files with a specified extension.

One way to change the file filter is to double-click on a different directory. Alternatively, you can change the file filter by doing the following:

1. While the dialog box is displayed, click on the text of the File Filter. XESS displays a blinking cursor in the File Filter area.
2. Using the keyboard, type the desired file filter. You can use the asterisk (*) as a wildcard. For instance, the file filter *.xs5 tells XESS to display files with the .xs5 extension, no matter what characters precede the extension. The file filter test*.xs tells XESS to display all files whose names begin with test and end with the .xs extension.
3. Press [Enter] or click on the Filter button. XESS displays file names that meet the criteria specified in the new file filter.

Loading a Workbook in a Different Format

Note that there are differences between spreadsheet programs, so you may have to modify certain formulas or cells to get the spreadsheet to work properly in XESS. You can load most spreadsheets without any difficulty, but those with complex interactions that use macros or certain functions may require some modification.

When loading an XLS or WK* file into XESS, formulas which contain functions that exist in the source spreadsheet product but not in XESS will generate a standard formula error indicating that the function does not exist. Formulas containing ambiguous function references are converted to text strings in XESS for manual intervention.

In addition, with the Import operation, you can load tabular data from text files in several formats which include comma-separated values (CSV), tab-separated values (TSV), user-defined delimiter, and HTML.

Saving the Workbook

To save a workbook that has not yet been named:

1. Select Save As from the File menu. XESS displays the Save Sheet dialog box.
2. Select the type of spreadsheet file you wish to create: XS5, XS4, XS3, WK1, WK3/WK4, WKS, XLS, or XLS V4.
3. Enter the name of your file in the Selection area of the dialog. Alternatively, use the Files display and select the file name there.
4. Click OK or press [Enter]. To cancel the operation, click Cancel.

To save a workbook that has already been named:

1. Display the File menu from the menu bar.
2. Select Save from the File menu. XESS saves the sheet using the current name and displays a message on the Message Line.

The Save and Save As operations do not remove your workbook from memory, so you can continue to make changes to it after saving. You should, in fact, save your work periodically during a session to minimize the risk of losing work if the computer system is interrupted for any reason.

If you Save the current workbook, it will have the same file name as the file already on your disk. The old version of this file is renamed to have a tilde character (~) at the end of the name before the workbook is saved with the file name.

Saving a Workbook in a Different Format

When saving an XLS or WK* file from XESS, formula which contain functions that exist in XESS but not in Excel or Lotus are converted to text strings when XESS creates the XLS or WK* file.

In addition, with the Export operation, you can save tabular data into text files in several formats which include comma-separated values (CSV), tab-separated values (TSV), user-defined separators, LaTeX (TEX), and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

Naming the Workbook File

You should use names that are descriptive or mnemonic, so you can easily identify the file from a directory listing, possibly weeks or months after you have last used the file. If you have several files that are similar, you can differentiate between them by adding dates or code numbers, for example, MFG_391 or TEST91.

Follow these conventions in assigning file names:

• File names follow the conventions for the host file system. They can usually be at least eight characters long and can consist of both letters and numbers. (Some systems support names as long as 127 characters.)
• Be careful when using upper-case and lower-case letters. Some systems are case sensitive; others, case insensitive. For example, under some systems (e.g. OpenVMS, Windows NT), "USRTEST.XS5" is considered identical to "usrtest.xs5". On other systems, including UNIX and its derivatives, the previous names represent different files.
• Do not use spaces in a file name. You can use an underline character (_) or hyphen (-) to simulate spaces, for example, ekg-200 or EKG_200.
• Unless you have a specific reason to change the file extension (transferring the file to a different program, for example), let XESS assign the default file extension.

Copying, Moving, Renaming, or Deleting Files

Opening Multiple Workbooks

Ending an XESS Session

To save the changed version, click the Save button. XESS saves the new version (possibly overwriting a previous version) and ends the session.

To discard your changes and preserve the workbook on disk, click Discard. XESS discards the version on screen and ends the session.

To cancel the Exit operation, click the Cancel button. XESS returns you to the active workspace without saving or discarding anything.

Moving Around the Spreadsheet

• the mouse or the keyboard arrow keys to move the cell cursor,
• the data scroll bars to scroll to another view of the sheet,
• the sheet tabs to select a different sheet in the workbook,
• the End key to go to the last row used in the current column of the current sheet,
• the Go To operation to move to a designated cell address,
• the Find operation to move to a cell with a specified content,
• the Create View operation to permit multiple windows in the same workbook, or
• the Top and Bottom operations for moving within a view.

Moving with the Keyboard

Because the spreadsheet window can show only part of a large sheet, you may need to scroll through the sheet to view other sections. The arrow keys can be used to scroll to the remote areas of the sheet as described below.

To move the view to the right:

1. Hold down the right arrow key and watch the sheet scroll to the right.
2. Release the arrow key once you reached the desired view area.

Similarly, use the down, up, and left arrow keys to move the view other areas of the sheet.

The Ctrl key plus the arrow keys allow you to move the cell cursor around the sheet a page at a time. Hold down the Ctrl key while using the arrow keys to move an entire window (page) in any direction. Your keyboard may also have specific keys for moving a page at a time. These are usually labeled PageUp and PageDown or PrevScreen and LastScreen.

The Meta key plus the arrow keys advance the cursor to the next "break" in the current row or column. (On many keyboards, Meta is labeled ALT.) For example, Meta+Down advances to the last entry in the current column -- the one with an empty cell below it. A subsequent Meta+ Down might take you to the absolute last row available.

Other keys may be available on your keyboard which help you move around the workbook:

Ctrl + g

Go To

Ctrl + V

Create new view

F6

Find

F7

Find Next

F8

Find Previous

Left Arrow

Move left one cell

Right Arrow

Move right one cell

Up Arrow

Move up one cell

Down Arrow

Move down one cell

Ctrl + Left Arrow

Page left

Ctrl + Right Arrow

Page right

Ctrl + Up Arrow,

Page up

Ctrl + Down Arrow

Page down

Next Page/Page Down

Page down

Prev Page/Page Up

Page up

Home

Top of sheet -- cell A1

End

Last non-empty row

Ctrl + End

Right-most non-empty column

Meta + arrow key

Advance to next "break" in data in the specified direction

Moving with the Mouse

To move the view to the right:

1. First position the cell cursor somewhere in the rightmost column that is displayed.
2. Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse (still holding down the left mouse button) a little to the right and watch the sheet scroll to the right.
3. Release the left mouse button once you reach the desired view area.

To move the view down:

1. First position the cell cursor somewhere in the last displayed row of the sheet.
2. Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse (still holding down the left mouse button) a little towards the bottom and watch the sheet scroll down.
3. Release the left mouse button once you reach the desired view area.

Similarly, follow the steps above to scroll towards the left and top of the sheet.

Moving with the Scroll Bars

• the size of your sheet view relative to the total area used by the sheet, and
• the current position of the sheet view in relation to the total area used by the sheet.

Each view has its own scroll bars. If the slider fills the entire scroll bar, then the current view displays the entire sheet.

To move the view left or right one column at a time:

1. Move the mouse pointer to the arrow at the left or right of the horizontal scroll bar.
2. Click the left mouse button.

To move the view up or down one row at a time:

1. Move the mouse pointer to the arrow at the top or bottom of the vertical scroll bar.
2. Click the left mouse button.

To move the view one page at a time:

1. Move the mouse pointer to an empty area at either end of the scroll bar.
2. Click the left mouse button.

To move the view anywhere in the sheet:

1. Move the mouse pointer into the slider.
2. Press the left mouse button and drag the slider until the view reaches the desired location.
3. Release the mouse button.

Moving with the Goto Dialog

To go to a designated cell:

1. Select Go To... from the View menu. XESS displays the Goto Cell dialog box.
2. In the Enter Cell Address entry box, type the address of the cell to which the cursor should move. Named ranges may be used for the cell address.
3. Click OK to carry out the command and dismiss the dialog box. Click Apply to carry out the command and leave the dialog box open. Click Cancel to cancel the operation.

If the cell is not currently visible, XESS changes the view so that the requested cell is in the displayed area of the sheet.

The Goto Cell dialog can reference sheet names and named ranges. This allows you to move the cell cursor to a cell anywhere on any sheet in the workbook.

Moving with the Find Tool

For example, you can search for cells whose values are greater than 100 and less than 150, or for cells whose values are less than the average of the three preceding cells. This facility is extremely useful for spotting patterns in large, complex data sets.

You can tell XESS which part of the workbook to search, whether to search by row or by column, and whether to search for text characters or numeric values.

To use the Find tool:

1. Select Find... from the Search menu or press the [F6] key. XESS displays the Find dialog box.
2. In the Find dialog box, make the following entries to carry out the Find operation:

   Search Range

   Specify the range of cells in which XESS should search, by entering two corner coordinates (e.g. A1..Z55). The default range is the entire sheet. If a range was selected when you invoked the Find operation, the default is this selected range.

   Target

   Specify the string or value as it would appear formatted in the cell. To find a numeric value that meets certain criteria, enter an expression in Target. For example, to find values less than 20, specify the Filter as #<20 and do a numeric search. The Target criteria are explained in detail below.

3. By default, XESS searches row by row. Change the selection box to Search by Column to start searching column by column.
4. Select Text Comparison, Regular Expression, or Numeric Comparison to indicate whether the Find operation does character comparisons, regular expressions, or evaluates numeric and logical expressions. These are described in detail in following sections.
5. For Text Comparison and Regular Expressions searching:
   1. Use the Ignore case toggle button to determine whether or not upper/lower case is taken into consideration with the Find operation. If you wish to find both upper and lower case occurrences of alphabetic characters, click the toggle button on to Ignore case. Otherwise, if this toggle button is off, the Find operation will be case sensitive.
   2. Use the Ignore accents toggle button to determine whether or not accents used in the extended ISO 8859 character pages are taken into consideration with the Find operation. If you wish to find both unaccented and accented occurrences of the same alphabetic character, click the toggle button on to Ignore accents. Otherwise, if this toggle button is off, the Find operation will differentiate between accented and unaccented characters.
   3. Use the Match whole word to require that parts of words do not satisfy the search.
6. To start the search, select Apply or OK. Select Find Next ([F7]) and Find Previous ([F8]) on the Search menu to find additional cells meeting the search requirements.

The initial settings for the Ignore case and Ignore accents toggles are determined by the respective collating settings for case and accents in the Workbook Defaults dialog. Once you override either setting from the Find dialog, it will be remembered with subsequent Find operations within the same session.

Find Next

To find the next occurrence of the value or string being searched, select Find Next button from the Search menu. Alternatively, press F7 key to repeat the search. The Find operation (described above) must precede the Find Next operation.

Find Previous

To find the previous value that was searched, select Find Previous from the Search menu. Alternatively, press F8 key to search the previous value.

Target Criteria

To find a character string, type the string inside the Target entry box as it would appear when formatted in the cell. For example:

                Doe, John

To find a character string that matches a pattern, select Regular Expression and enter the desired pattern in the Target area. For example:

                A[B-Z]

This finds a cell containing an A followed by another letter other than an A.

To find a numeric value, either a constant or a calculated value, type the value exactly as it would appear formatted in the cell. For example:

                $1,000,000

To find numeric values that meet certain criteria, enter the target with a constraint expression. # is used to represent the current cell being examined. Select Numeric Comparison. For example:

• To find values less than 20, specify the target as:

  	 #<20
  
  

• To find values greater than or equal to 50, specify the target as:

  	#<=50
  
  

• To find cells whose values are less than 600 and whose neighboring cells in the same column have values less than 500, specify the target as: #<600 && #{0,-1}<500 && #{0,1}<500
• To find the cell containing the date August 22, 1991, specify the target as:

  	#==@DATE(1991,8,22)
  
  

How XESS Evaluates Target Criteria

• XESS begins the search at the top left corner of the selected range. Subsequent searches with Find Next and Find Previous start at the current cell.
• You can use regular expressions to define text (non-numeric) searches. Regular expressions specify a set of strings of characters. In a regular expression, a character normally matches with the same character in the matching string. A few characters have special meanings:

  .

  A period matches any character (e.g. A.C matches "ABC" or "AXC").

  ^

  Matches only at the beginning of a field (e.g. ^ABC matches "ABC" but not "AABC").

  $

  Matches only at the end of a field (e.g. ABC$ matches "AABC" but not "ABCD").

  [x-y]

  Matches any character between the character x and the character y (e.g. [0-5]$ finds fields ending in the characters 0 through 5).

  [xyz]

  Matches any character in the list xyz (e.g. [05]$ finds fields ending in either a 0 or a 5). This form and the one above can be combined. [27-9]$ will find fields ending with the characters 2, 7, 8, or 9.

  \

  Uses the next character as its actual value rather than with special meaning (e.g. \\, \$ ).

  \<

  Match the beginning of a word.

  \>

  Match the end of a word.

  *

  Match 0 or more of the expression to the left.

  +

  Match 1 or more of the expression to the left.

  \( ... \)

  Match the expression with the delimiters. Useful when you want to add a closure operator to the right of it.

  These methods can be combined. Thus, the filter [brc]at finds "bat," "rat" and "cat."
• By default, XESS looks for your search string in any part of a cell entry. If you search for the word "Test," XESS locates cells containing the strings "Test1," "Test2," "TestFinal," and so on.
• When conducting a text search, XESS formats the cell entry before searching. For example, XESS would recognize the dollar sign ($) and commas in numbers formatted in the Dollars format, rather than the generic manner in which they were entered.

Creating Multiple Views

Secondary windows do not include a menu bar. However, any menu or operation selected from the main menu on the primary window is applied to any secondary window which has the current or selected cell(s) in view.

To create a secondary window of the spreadsheet data:

1. Select Create New View from the View menu.

1. Click Cancel on the window to be removed.

Setting and Clearing View Titles

• The Lock View Titles option on the View menu establishes rows at the top of the sheet for column headings and columns on the left as row headings. The title rows scroll with the view from left to right but remain in the same position at the top of the sheet as you scroll up and down.

  The title columns scroll with the view as you move up and down but remain in the same position at the left of the sheet as you scroll right and left.

  Row and column titles must be entered before the view titles are locked. After view titles are set, the cursor no longer moves into the title area.

• The Unlock View Titles option removes title status from all existing title rows and columns.

Entering Data

This section describes how to enter data in your spreadsheet and how to enable cell protection. For more information about editing cells, moving and copying data, and manipulating spreadsheets, refer to Manipulating the Spreadsheet. For more information about using formulas to calculate values, refer to Calculations.

About Cells

A cell is the intersection of a row and column within a sheet in a workbook. Cells can contain numeric or text constants, dates and time, formulas, images, and graphs. Constants and calculated values are visible on screen, but the formulas that produce those values are generally invisible.

Formulas are viewed and changed directly in the cell if in-cell edit is enabled or in the Edit Line otherwise; they appear only when the cell is highlighted. The current cell is typically outlined in red in the body of the sheet; in addition the row and column button of the current cell is a different color from the other row/column buttons. This is the cell that will be affected by your next action.

Each cell is identified by an address that contains the column and row coordinates of a specific sheet in the workbook. For instance, the address of the first cell in the workbook is typically Sheet1!A1; the cell in column D, row 4 of Sheet 10 has the cell address Sheet10!D4. With 4096 columns, 10,000,000 rows, and 4095 sheets an XESS workbook may contain more 167 trillion cells. However, the actual size of your workbook is limited by the memory capacity of your computer system, which is far less than the theoretical size of the workbook.

The amount of information in each cell and the nature of the entries themselves determine how many cell entries you can make before you run out of memory. There is a good reason, though, for XESS to provide a spreadsheet grid larger than you can ever fill; it gives you the flexibility to develop long, narrow sheets or wide ones with few rows.

The actual size of a given workbook can be determined with the Workbook Statistics Tool.

Cell Ranges

Ranges can also be be 3-dimensional by referencing cells on more than one sheet in a workbook. For example, Sheet1!A1..Sheet10!A1 creates a rectangular group which cuts through the third dimension of a workbook.

You can reference ranges in other workbooks by including the filename of the other workbook in the range specification. Thus,

        =@SUM("OtherSheets.xs5"::A.A1..C.A10) 

Input Mode and Edit Mode

Input Mode

Input Mode allows you to enter data into a blank cell or retype the contents of a cell.

To enter input mode, press any alphanumeric key on your keyboard. You can then enter text, numeric values or formulas. XESS stays in input mode until you press [Enter], move the cell cursor to another cell location by using the up or down arrow keys, or click the accept or reject indicators left of the edit line.

Edit Mode

Edit Mode allows you to modify the contents of a cell without retyping the entire contents. Use the mouse or the arrow keys to position the cell cursor to the cell to be edited.

To enter edit mode, either use the mouse to position the cursor in the current cell contents in the Edit Line, choose Edit Cell from the Edit menu, or use the [F2] key. You may edit either in the Edit Line or within the cell itself.

Use the [Delete] or [Backspace] key to erase and enter the correct entry.

Use the left and right arrow keys to move within the cell.

After making your changes, click the accept or reject buttons, press [Enter], or use the up or down arrow keys to complete the edit. You can cancel Edit Mode by pressing the [esc] key or by clicking the reject button.

In both input mode and edit mode, data entered from the keyboard appears in the line in the Edit Line of the main view of the current sheet. When you complete the entry with [Enter] or its equivalent, XESS inserts the new value into the current cell. In input mode, you can also use any arrow key to complete the entry and move one cell in the direction of the arrow.

You can change the current cell by:

• pressing an arrow key to complete an entry in input mode. The cursor moves one cell in the arrow direction.
• pressing the up or down arrow key to complete an entry in edit mode. XESS accepts the entry and moves the cursor one cell in the arrow direction.

  Cell entries often look different on the input/edit lines than they do in the cells. For example, if a cell contains a formula that produces a value, the input/edit lines show the formula, not the value. If a cell is formatted for scientific notation or a special date format, it appears in the cell in its special format but appears on the input/edit lines just as you typed it.

• In input mode, any input beginning with + - . , @ = or a digit 0 - 9 is assumed to be a formula, unless the cell is already formatted to be text, a date, or time. Otherwise the entry is assumed to be text. In edit mode, XESS does not differentiate between formula and text entries except that formula always begin with the = character.
• In input mode, an entry is completed by pressing [Enter] or any arrow key. In edit mode, the left and right arrow keys move the position of the character cursor within the current value for the cell.
• In input mode, you cannot use the arrow keys to move the text cursor. In edit mode, you can use the arrow keys to move over characters without deleting them. In either mode you can use the mouse to reposition the text cursor. Characters can then be inserted or deleted at the text cursor.
• In input mode, cell and range references are appended to the characters already entered. In edit mode, cell and range references are inserted into the string at the cursor location.

When you are modifying the Edit Line, various editing options are usually available:

left arrow

Move the character cursor a single character.

right arrow

Move the character cursor a single character.

Ctrl + left

Moves the character cursor a word left.

Ctrl + right

Moves the character cursor a word right.

Meta + left

Moves to the beginning of the line.

Meta + right

Moves to the end of the line.

Shift

With one of the above, selects characters to be deleted or replaced.

Cell Contents

Text Entries

Text entries are useful for labeling columns and rows, for including comments about data values being calculated, and for using XESS to manage textual information, such as names, addresses or whatever your application may require.

Numeric Values

If a cell entry begins with a digit from 0 - 9, XESS treats the entry as a numeric entry. XESS also recognizes the following symbols as indicators of numeric entries: + - . (and , in some locales)

You can format numeric values to be displayed in several ways, including fixed formats, scientific notation, currency, fractions, and hex.

Dates and Times

XESS provides special, built-in features for displaying date entries in the format you choose. Date and time entries begin with the the slash (/). Example date and time formats include:

 
    24-Oct-99
    24-Oct
    10/24
    4-Jul-1776
    11/23/1963
    24.10.91
    2001-10-24
    14:27

Dates and times can also be entered without the initial slash. In this mode, both the day and year must be entered or the cell must already be formatted as date.

Formulas

Formulas establish and calculate mathematical relationships between spreadsheet elements. XESS formulas can calculate with numbers, text, logical values, cell references, and other formulas. For example, you can easily calculate the sum of a series of cells, the total of values in a column, or the absolute value of another cell entry.

Graphs

Graphs can be inserted into cells. The anchor cell becomes the upper left corner of the embedded graph. Graph objects in cells can be moved with the Copy Formulas operation.

Entering Text

XESS treats text and numeric entries differently, so you differentiate between text and numeric values when entering cell contents.

To enter most text into a cell, just type the text string as you want it to appear. If the text you wish to enter would normally be considered a formula or a date, then you must precede the actual text with the ' (apostrophe) character.

If you make an entry that is not text but which returns an error when treated as a formula, XESS inserts an error message but remains in input mode.

Character Sets

Treating Numeric Entries as Text

If Smart Text Entry is set in the User Preferences dialog, then cells formatted as Text assume that their input will also be text strings (and not numbers or formulas), unless the initial character entered is:

	=	number or formula
	/	date or time
	//g 	graph
	//r 	repeating character
	\ 	escaped character
	'	string

	01754

Repeating Characters

             Type:  //r-

This feature can be useful for drawing lines to demarcate areas of your spreadsheet when printed. Another way is to fill a cell with hyphens and plus signs:

	Type:  //r-+

However, if you wish to enter a character string that begins with a slash (/), you must be sure to begin the entry with the special text-indicator characters ' (apostrophe).

Entering Text Wider than One Cell

If you change the alignment of the data in the cell, the text will overflow or be truncated as needed on the left, the right, or both. You can format the entire column with the Snap Column Width to Contents option to adjust the column width to contain the entire string.

Text Wrapping

To edit an entry that is displayed over more than one cell, position the cell cursor to the cell actually containing the value. XESS displays the full entry in the Edit Line. Press [F2].

XESS lets you change the width of columns to accommodate entries up to 255 characters long.

Entering Special Characters

Entering Numeric Values

• To enter a positive number, use the number keys to type the number, with or without a + indicator. If you do not type a plus (+), XESS assumes the number is positive.
• To enter a negative number, type a minus sign (-) and the number. Do not use parentheses to indicate negatives. However, if you change the numeric format to Dollars or Comma, XESS displays negative numbers in parentheses.
• Do not use spaces, commas, or currency symbols when entering numbers. If you wish, you can display these items with the value by choosing the appropriate cell format or by creating a custom format. In locales which use comma rather than period as the decimal point, commas may be used as a decimal point when entering numbers. In these locales, semi-colon (;) is used in formulas to separate items in a list, rather than comma (,).
• Be careful not to substitute a lower case L for the numeral 1 or an upper case O for the numeral 0.
• You can use scientific notation to enter a number, with the convention that the letter e separates the fraction from the base 10 exponent. 1.23e3 is the equivalent of 1230.

Entering Numeric Values Wider than the Cell

Changing the Numeric Format

• To change the default formatting for the entire sheet, use the Cell Defaults dialog box, available from the Options menu on the menu bar.
• To change formatting for a selected cell or range of cells, use the Cell Format dialog box from the Format menu.
• To change formatting for a selected cell or range of cells, use the format icon button on the toolbar.
• To change formatting for a selected cell or range of cells, select the cell(s) to be affected and press MB3 (the right mouse button) to display the short-cut popup menu and select Cell Format.

XESS Formats

Scientific

Displays the number in scientific notation (exponent form) with N significant digits.

Fixed

Displays the number using a fixed number of decimal places, specified by N.

General

Displays the number in fixed format or scientific notation, whichever fits. Trailing zeros are not displayed.

Dollars

Displays the number with a leading $ sign and with comma delimiters, as in $1,000,000. Negative values are displayed in parentheses.

Currency

Displays the number using the relevant currency settings from the workstation's Locale.

Custom

Displays the number using the combination of specification from the Custom dialog which allows you to override all settings defined by Locale.

Comma

Displays the number with comma delimiters, as in 1,000,000. Negative values are displayed in parentheses.

Percent

Display the number as a percentage, multiplying it by 100. For example, the value .1 is displayed as 10.00%.

Fraction

Displays the non-integer part of a number as a fraction instead of decimal.

MM/DD/YY

Displays the integer portion of a date/time value in the format 08/01/99.

DD-MMM-YY

Displays the integer portion of a date/time value as a Gregorian date, in the format 08-Aug-91.

MMM-YY

Displays the integer portion of a date/time value in the format Aug-99.

DD-MMM

Displays the integer portion of a date/time value in the format 08-Aug.

YY-MM-DD

Displays the integer portion of a date/time value in the format 99-08-01.

YYYY-MM-DD

Displays the integer portion of a date/time value in the format 2000-01-01.

DD.MM.YY

Displays the integer portion of a date/time value in the format 01.08.99.

HH:MM

Displays the fractional portion of a date/time value in the format 06:15.

HH:MM:SS

Displays the fractional portion of a date/time value in the format 06:15:30.

Hex

Displays the integer portion of the number in base 16 with a leading 0x indicator. For example, the value 30.5 would be displayed as 0x1e.

Logic

Displays 0 as 0, displays 1 as 1, and displays all other values as ? .

Hidden

Cell contents are not displayed.

Text

Displays the characters which were entered to create the cell rather than the resulting value of the cell.

When Default is chosen, the Decimal Places value is taken from the Cell Defaults dialog, not the Cell Format dialog.

The @TEXT function provides a higher-level of user control of formatting.

Entering Dates and Times

If Smart Date Entry or Smart Time Entry is not enabled, then for XESS to interpret the entry as a date or time, you must begin all date and time entries by typing a slash (/) before the desired value. Type a / followed by the date or time in any of the date/time formats. The dates and times entered with this method are also converted to the equivalent references to @DATE and @TIME.

Date/Time            Entered as      Generates

19 July 1990         /07/19/90       @DATE(1990,7,19)
27 September 1991    /27-sep-91      @DATE(1991,9,27)
01 August 1999       /01-Aug         @DATE(1999,8,1)
01 Aug 2003          /Aug-2003       @DATE(2003,8,1)
21 May 1621          /1621-05-21     @DATE(1621,5,21)
21 May 1621          /21.05.1621     @DATE(1621,5,21)
12:30                /12:30          @TIME(12,30,0)

Using Date Functions to Enter Dates

XESS internally stores date and time information using the same convention as other popular spreadsheet programs:

Dates

are represented as an integer equal to the number of days before or since December 30, 1899 (or January 1, 1904 in the 1904 date system).

Times

are represented as fractions of a day, starting at midnight. For example, 6:00 am is stored as .25 (a quarter of a 24-hour day).

You can use date values in calculations. For example, subtracting 05-Oct-1999 from 10-Oct-1999 yields a value of 5 days.

Entering the Current Date or Time

Entering Sequences of Values Quickly

Entering Formulas

	=A1+B2-C4/(E1+E2)

Once entered in a cell, formulas are hidden behind the scenes, performing their work in the background and displaying only the result of their calculation. To view the formula in a cell, move the cell cursor to the cell. XESS displays the formula in the Edit Line.

You can edit the formula or values in cells by selecting the Edit Cell option from the Edit menu or by positioning into the cell contents in the Edit Line with the mouse.

Point-and-Click Entry

If you type a non-formula cell value intended for the current cell and then click the mouse in a different cell, the data will be accepted into the current cell before the current cell is moved to the new mouse location. If you type/edit a formula, and click the mouse on different cell, XESS will treat this as true formula point/click mode and adjust the formula in the edit line with the cell address.

Built-in Functions

Entering Graphs

To embed a graph in the sheet using the menus:

1. Position the cursor cell where you want the top left corner of the graph to be.
2. Select Insert in Sheet from the Graph menu.
3. Select the desired graph from the Choose Graph dialog box.
4. Click OK or Apply to complete the operation.

To embed a graph in the sheet from the edit line:

1. Position the cell cursor in the cell where you want the top left corner of the graph to be.
2. Move the mouse pointer to the edit line and type the string //gn where n is the number assigned to the graph when you first saved it in the Graph Editor. (One way to determine the graph number is to select Edit Graph from the Graph menu).
3. Press [Enter] or click the accept button in the Edit Line to complete the entry.

Entering Images

To insert a link to an image into a cell:

1. Place the cursor on the cell to contain the image.
2. Select Link from the File menu.
3. In the Link Image dialog, select the image type and filename. Press OK.

Cell Notes

To enter a note in a cell or to modify an existing note:

1. Place the cell cursor in the desired cell.
2. Choose Cell Note... from the Format menu.
3. Enter or edit the text of the note in the dialog box.
4. Click OK.

To delete a note from a cell:

1. Place the cell cursor in the desired cell.
2. Choose Delete Cell Note from the Edit menu.

Cell notes are saved in the spreadsheet file. Cell notes can be copied along with other cell values and attributes. This is controlled by the Copy Options dialog.

Protecting Cells from Modification

XESS provides a global setting Cell Protection in the Workbook Defaults dialog which controls whether or not protection is enabled and, if so, the level of cell protection being enforced for the entire workbook:

• Off
• Max
• Mid
• Min

Off means that protection is disable or not enforced. Max does not allow any modification, manipulation, or movement of protected cells by the user, except through recalculation. The Mid and Min settings relax the stringency of the protection checking. For example, clearing an unprotected range within a protected workbook is allowed in both. The Min setting also allows relocation and reordering of data in protected workbooks.

Like color, font, format, etc. each cell has a protection attribute: Default, Protected, or Unprotected. The protection attribute of cells or ranges are set via the Tools->Cell Protection menu. It may be set to:

• Default
• Unprotect
• Protect

The default value of the protection attribute is defined by the Protection field in Cell Defaults dialog. Cell protection is controlled by three operations:

• Cell Protection in the Workbook Defaults dialog box turns cell protection on and specifies the level of protection to be enforced for cells that have been designated as protected.
• The Protection option menu in the Cell Defaults dialog box applies the selected protection option to all cells in the sheet.
• The Cell Protection option from the Tools menu protects, unprotects, or assigns the cell protection default to selected cells, overriding the setting in Cell Defaults. However, cell protection must first be enabled in the Sheet Defaults dialog box for this setting to have any effect.

To enable or disable cell protection for the entire workbook:

1. Select Workbook Defaults from the Options menu to display the Workbook Defaults dialog box.
2. Select the type of Cell Protection desired.
3. Apply your selection by clicking OK or Apply.

To set default cell protection for the entire workbook:

1. Select Cell Defaults from the Options menu to display the Cell Defaults dialog box.
2. Move the pointer to the Protection option button. While holding down the left mouse button to display the options, point to desired option and release.
3. Move the pointer to the Recalc Mode option button. While holding down the left mouse button to display the options point to desired option and release.

To apply cell protection to a selected cell or range:

1. Select the cell or range to be protected.
2. Select Cell Protection from the Tools menu.
3. Select Protect from the cascade menu.

To remove cell protection from a selected cell or range:

1. Select the cell or range of cells for which protection should be removed.
2. Select Cell Protection from the Tools menu.
3. Select Unprotect from the cascade menu.

To apply the default cell protection to a selected cell or range:

1. Select the cell or range to be protected.
2. Select Cell Protection from the Tools menu.
3. Select Default from the cascade menu.

Cells are protected by default. If Cell Protection is on, then all cells will be protected until changed.

Correcting Entry Errors

The Undo option is context-sensitive and the menu reflects which operation is to be removed. For example, if the last operation were Copy Formulas the menu would read Undo Copy. To Undo the Copy Formulas operation, select Undo Copy from the Edit menu.

If you accidentally Undo too many levels, use the Redo operation to redo the operation that was undone.

By default, you can undo 10 previous operations. This is can be changed in the resource file.

Manipulating Data and the Edit Menu

Undo

Undoes the last operation performed on the workbook. The Undo operation is context-sensitive and removes the most recent operation.

Redo

Performs again the operation that was just canceled with Undo.

Edit Cell

Switches into Edit Mode so that you can edit the contents of the current cell.

Cut to Clipboard

Copies the selected cells to the Clipboard and removes them from the sheet.

Copy to Clipboard

Copies the selected cells to the Clipboard.

Paste from Clipboard

Copies the Clipboard to the cells beginning at the cell cursor.

Select All

Highlights (selects) the entire sheet for use by the next operation.

Select...

Highlights a range of cells to be affected by a subsequent operation.

Reselect

Selects the most recent selection.

Named Range...

Defines and manipulates named ranges.

Move

Moves a selected cell or range of cells (including all data values, formulas, formatting and cell references) to a designated location, overwriting existing data in the destination range.

Copy

Duplicates the contents of a range of cells and writes them one or more times into a specified area of the workbook.

Clear

Erases all data values and formulas in a selected cell or range of cells. The cells and their formatting are retained.

Insert

Inserts a row, a column, or a page break into the sheet at the present position of the cursor or inserts a sheet before the current sheet.

Delete

Removes rows, columns, page breaks, or sheets from the workbook. When a row or column of cells is deleted, they no longer exist and other cells shift up and left to replace them.

Mouse Button 3 (MB3) Popup Menu

If you happen to click MB3 during an edit operation, some selections will be greyed out.

You may disable the MB3 functionality by setting the resource, *popupMenu, in the Xess5 resource file to False.

Undo

The Undo operation allows you to undo the most recent operations performed on the workbook. Undo is context-sensitive. For example, if the last operation were Copy Formulas, the menu would read Undo Copy.

If there is not a command that can be undone, the Undo option will appear dim on the Edit menu and you can not select it.

Note: If Undo results in restoring cells to the empty state, some of their cell attributes may not be restored.

Redo

Selecting Cells and Ranges

Before you do an operation that manipulates cell contents, you must select which cell(s) you wish to affect. For example:

• To clear the contents of cells A1 through A5, you must first select the range A1 through A5. When you initiate the Clear operation from the Edit menu. XESS clears the contents of each cell in the range.
• To copy the values of cells A1 through E5, you must first select the range A1 through E5. XESS prompts you to specify the destination.

XESS offers five options for selecting cells:

• using the mouse to highlight the desired cell(s),
• using the select button to select all cells in the sheet.
• using the Select... operation to specify the cell(s) by address,
• using the Select All option or
• using the shift key with the arrow keys.

In each case, XESS highlights the selection. If no range or cell is selected, most XESS operations apply to the current cell.

Most operations affect all the cells in the selected range (for example: Clear, Cell Color, or Copy). Certain operations restrict the ranges that they use. For example, if you have 10 rows of numbers each in columns A and B and select all of both columns (using the column buttons) to define a graph, the graph operation will only use the 10 data points and ignore the thousands of empty cells.

Selecting Ranges Using the Mouse

1. Move the mouse pointer to the desired cell.
2. Click the left mouse button and drag the mouse pointer just outside of the cell boundary, and then back in.
3. Release the mouse button. The selected cell will be highlighted.

If there is not an explicit selection of a cell or range, most operations affect the current cell, the one where the cell cursor is positioned.

To edit the contents of the current cell, use Edit Cell, or place the mouse cursor in the Edit Line and click the left mouse button.

If you wish to move, copy or clear cell contents, click once on the cell, then select the appropriate function from the Edit menu.

To select a range of cells using the mouse:

1. Move the mouse pointer to one corner of the range.
2. Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse (still holding down the left mouse button) to the opposite corner of the range.
3. Release the mouse button. The selected range will be highlighted.

To select a row using the mouse:

1. Move the mouse pointer to the row border. For example, move the mouse pointer to the number of the row you wish to select.
2. Press the left mouse button to select the whole row.
3. Drag the mouse pointer up or down if you wish to select several contiguous rows.
4. Release the mouse button. The selected row(s) will be highlighted.

To select a column using the mouse:

1. Move the mouse pointer to the column border. For example, move the mouse pointer to the letter of the column you wish to select.
2. Press the left mouse button to select the column.
3. Drag the mouse pointer to the left or right if you wish to select several contiguous columns.
4. Release the mouse button. The selected column(s) will be highlighted.

To extend a selection with the mouse:

Use the Shift key with the left mouse button to extend or reduce a selection. The current selection will be adjusted so that the newly-selected cell becomes one of the corners of the selection.

Multiple views of the workbook can be used when extending selections. For example, select the top elements in one view and shift-click the bottom cell in another view. The selection is extended as if it were all in a single view.

To select the entire sheet with the mouse:

Use either the Select All option of the Edit menu or click on the push button at the top of the row numbers and to the left of the column names. This selects the entire sheet.

Selecting Ranges Using the Select Range Dialog

To select a cell using the Select Range dialog:

1. Choose Select... from the Edit menu. XESS displays the Select Range dialog box.
2. In the Selection entry box, type the cell address or range in the dialog box. For example, type in B17. Named ranges can also be used.
3. Apply your selection by clicking OK or Apply or by typing [Enter].

To select a range of cells using the Select operation:

1. Choose Select... from the Edit menu. XESS displays the Select Range dialog box.
2. In the Selection entry box, type the addresses of two cells in opposite corners of the desired range, separated by two periods ( .. ). For example, to select a range from A14 to B27, type A14..B27. Named ranges can also be used.
3. Apply your selection by clicking OK or Apply or by typing [Enter].

To select all cells using the Select All command, choose Select All from the Edit menu. XESS selects the range which covers all cells in the sheet.

If you are working in edit mode or input mode, XESS assumes that Select All is meant to be an insertion into the content of the current cell. Therefore, XESS does not leave the selection highlighted for subsequent action; it inserts the range address into the edit line text at the current cursor position.

Selecting Ranges Using the Keyboard

1. Using the arrow keys, move the cell cursor to the desired cell.
2. Hold the Shift key and move the cursor to an adjacent cell and back to the desired cell. The desired cell will be highlighted.

If you wish to edit the contents of the cell, press the accelerator key for Edit Cell (usually [F2]) to enter edit mode. You can then use the keyboard to change cell contents.

To select a range of cells using the keyboard:

1. Using the arrow keys, move the cursor to one corner of the range.
2. Hold down the Shift key.
3. Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the diagonally opposite corner of the range.
4. If this is the selection of a destination for a move or copy, type [Enter] to complete the operation.

To select all cells using the keyboard, press Ctrl+a. This is the accelerator for Select All.

To enter a selection into the Edit Line: Press [Enter] after making the selection with the arrow keys and Shift.

Deselecting Cells and Ranges

To cancel a selection using the mouse, click the left mouse button on any cell.

To cancel a selection using the keyboard, move the cursor without depressing the Shift key. XESS will de-select the current cell or range.

Note: Any motion such as the arrow keys (without Shift), scrolling, Goto, Top, and Bottom also cancels the selection.

Reselecting a Range of Cells

Specifying Cells and Ranges in Dialog Boxes

To specify a cell in a dialog box:

1. Enter the address of the cell. For example: A1.

1. Use the mouse to point to the cell, and then click the left mouse button (This moves the cell cursor.). Now position the mouse over the dialog entry and press the middle mouse button (MB2). XESS pastes the cell name into the dialog as a relative reference. To paste an absolute reference, hold the Ctrl key when you press the middle mouse button.

To specify a range in a dialog box:

1. Type the addresses of opposite corners of the range, se