After selecting Multiplan from the main screen, you may want to change your screen colors. Do this by hitting the space bar until the background and foreground colors are to your liking. Make sure your MP disk is in the drive(any drive) and hit enter.
Multiplan will automatically load. At the bottom of your screen, you will see a command line. You may select a command by typing its first letter or you can press the space bar until the command you want is highlighted and use enter to select it. Many of the commands have several options which will automatically appear on the command line when selected. Use the same method to select options. Whenever the word Command shows at the bottom of your screen, Multiplan expects you to type a command, enter a value or enter a formula. The first character you type designates what is chosen. A letter designates a command, a number designates a value and an equal (=) sign designates a formula. The most frequent mistake you will probably make is when entering text. Alpha is automatically highlighted when you enter Multiplan and is selected if you hit enter or an A. I often forget to do this when typing text. I begin typing in my text and am surprised to see that MP thinks I want to delete something (if my text began with a d) or move something (if my text began with an m) Get the picture? Thank heaven for the cancel key. Just hit CNTRL = and this will cancel the unwanted command.
The first command you will want to select after entering MP is O for Options. You will then be given another Command line. Yes is highlighted for recalc. You will want to change this to No. Do this by entering N or hit space bar until No is highlighted and then hit enter. THIS IS IMPORTANT, OTHERWISE MP WILL RECALCULATE THE ENTIRE SPREADSHEET EVERY TIME YOU MAKE AN ENTRY. Don't worry. If at anytime you want to have an individual cell recalculated, you may just move the pointer to that cell and hit E for edit. That cell will be recalcuated for you. You may also recalculate the entire sheet at any time by hitting FCTN 8.
Now on to making a template. Let's begin by making a simple checkbook balancing model that will allow you to balance your checkbook easily and also provide you with a means of tracking expenses for your budget on another spreadsheet using the Xternal copy command (we'll cover that in a future article). The first step I take is to change the default formatting commands to what I will most commonly use in that particular spreadsheet. Do this by selecting F for Format and then choose D for default. You then have a choice of cells or width. The preset default for width is 8 however I usually change it to 10. F for Format, D for Default 8( W for Width. I then change the default for cells. (F for format, D for default and C for cells) There are three characteristics of the Format Default for cells, alignment, code and number of decimal places. When you first select this command, the defaults are set to General Alignment, General Format and 0 decimal places. General alignment is fine for now so tab over (CNTRL A or CNTRL 2) and change the format code to Fixed by typing F. DO NOT PRESS ENTER as yet. Enter is the signal for MP to execute the command and we are not finished as yet. Tab over to number of decimal places and type 2. Check the format now, Gen alignment, Fixed format and 2 decimal places. If it is not correct, just tab around until you get it right, then hit ENTER.
To keep it simple, let's choose seven categories: Food, Rent, Utilities, Insurance, Charges, Auto and Miscellaneous.Let's make line one the title for the worksheet. CNTRL 1 will take the cell pointer to the first cell if it is not already there. You may want to change the format for cell one to continuous code. F for format, C for cells and tab to the code and hit C. This will allow you to make your title as many characters as you choose. Suppose we enter Checks for January 1988. Remember, first hit A or enter for alpha. If you typed quickly, you may notice your title says Cecks for.... This is because MP is primed to accept words or numbers here and it needs a second to think things over. So try to get into the habit of typing your first letter, pausing for a beat and then type the rest as quickly as you like. If you notice the error before you hit enter, you can use the back character key (FCTN 4) and back space to the letter after the missing one, type it in, hit enter and all will be well. Now for the column headings. Move the pointer to R3C1, using the arrow keys. There will be 11 columns on the spreadsheet, headed: Check #, Deposit, Food, Rent, Utilities, Insurance, Charges, Auto, Misc. and Balance. Select the Alpha Command and type in Check#, use the right arrow key and type in Paid to, press right arrow key and so on until all headings are entered. OUT OF SPACE..MORE NEXT MONTH.
Just wanted to say 'I'm glad I found you!' Pulled out my TI and have started to play with it again. I forgot how much fun it was. Wish there were more people out there still using it!
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