1. Now you will practice several commands which move the cursor longer distances. These are the 'edge-wise' commands, which are displayed on the right-hand side of the cursor Help Menu. (If you have erased the Help Menu, call it up again by typing '?', followed by option '1'.)
€) ...
~€) ... f)
S-~ (8--([)
TOP OF COLUMN command BOTTOM OF COLUMN command BEGINNING OF LINE command END OF LINE Command
2. With the cursor anywhere in the middle of the 'Cash Flow' spreadsheet, type the TOP OF COLUMN command:
@~~ ... ~
Perfect Calc immediately moves the cursor to the top entry in the column that it occupies.
3. Now move the cursor in the opposite direction. Type the BOTTOM OF COL-UMN command:
Perfect Calc jumps the cursor to -the bottom 'boundary' of the Cash Flow spreadsheet, redrawing the screen to do so. Notice that the command does not move the cursor to the extreme limit of Perfect Calc's spreadsheet (i.e. line 255), but only to the bottom boundary of your spreadsheet, which is deter-mined by the lowest entry in the spreadsheet.
The other edge-wise commands function similarly: they move only to the boundaries of the defined or currently used spreadsheet.
Tutorial---Moving About the Spreadsheet 63
4. Now move the cursor to the right-most boundary of the Cash Flow spread-sheet, by typing the END OF LINE command:
a-I)
Again, the command does not skip the cursor to column' Z', the last and far-thest column in Perfect Calc's spreadsheet, but rather to the last column in the Cash Flow spreadsheet.
5. Give the BEGINNING OF LINE command to move the cursor back to column
a-a
followed by the TOP OF COLUMN command to move the cursor to position 'al':
Note that all of the edge-wise cursor commands will always, after redrawing the screen as necessary, position the cursor on the screen so that the maximum amount of data contained in the line or column is showing. That is, in moving the cursor to the end of a line, Perfect Calc will position the cursor at the right margin of the screen. Similarly, when moving it to the bottom of a column, it will place the cursor at the bottom margin of the screen.
Because it may at times be inconvenient to view or to work with a data entry at the extreme lower margin of the screen, Perfect Calc provides a command for centering the line which the cursor is occuping. This is the REDRAW SCREEN command.
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64 Moving About the Spreadsheet
6. Move the cursor to the last entry in its column using the BOTTOM OF COL-UMN command:
followed by the REDRAW SCREEN command:
(or Escape ... Control---L for the alternate command set.)
Perfect Calc immediately adjusts all text upward, positioning the last line in the center of the screen.
Move the cursor back to the top of the column using the TOP OF COLUMN command:
TUtorial---Moving About the Spreadsheet 65
Page-Wise Screen Commands
Perfect Calc provides several commands for scrolling rapidly through the spreadsheet, to areas beyond even the boundaries of the currently defined spread-sheet. These are the 'page-wise screen commands', which are presented in the Help l\t1:enu (option '2': Moving the Screen)_
C-V· View next page downward C-Z* View next page upward C-X,C-V· Page down, other window C-X,C-Z· Page up, other window
COl redraw window, centering cursor's line
ESC v· view next page to the right ESC z· view next page to the left C-X,v* page right, other window C-X,z* page left, other window
C-= Control Key ESC = Escape key * = May be repeated via C-U Next key continues operation Control-L redraws window
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66 Moving About the Spreadsheet
We will examine only those screen commands in the top two lines of this menu.
The 'other window I commands will be presented in Chapter XII.
1. With the cursor positioned anywhere in the middle of the screen, type the PAGE DOWN command:
Perfect Calc moves the screen down one full screen of lines. The cursor con-tinues to display in the same relative position on the screen. That is , if the cur-sor is near the top margin of the screen when the command is given, it will ap-pear at the same spot when the screen is redrawn one Ipagel down. This action is typical of all of the screen commands. (To center the cursor I use the REDRAW SCREEN Command [Control---L or Escape ... Control---L] for the alternate command set.)
2. Continue to practice the four screen commands I moving the screen to the ex-treme perimeters of Perfect Calc/s spreadsheet (and back). When you have finished I position the cursor at the lowest I right-most entry position of Perfect Calc/s spreadsheet I entry position 'Z255/.
Note: The universal repeat command may be used with the screen motion com-mands for large jumps like these. All"repeatable" commands are marked with an asterisk in the help information area.
Tutorial---Moving About the Spreadsheet 67
The GOTO Command
The last command in this tutorial is Perfect Calc's GOTO command, which allows you to skip directly to any entry position in the spreadsheet. Use this com-mand to return from 'Z255' to position 'aI' of the Cash Flow Assessment program spreadsheet.
1. Type the GOTO command:
(right 'angle-bracket')
(You may need to use the shift key to type this character.)
Perfect Calc responds with the message in the Prompt Line at the bottom of your screen:
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68 Moving About the Spreadsheet
Enter the coordinates of the position you wish to 'go to', followed by a carriage return:
GO TO: al <CR>
Perfect Calc jumps the cursor to position 'aI' in the top left-hand corner of the spreadsheet.
This concludes the practice tutorial on cursor and screen commands. To exit Perfect Calc, type the QUIT command:
Perfect Calc returns you to your disk operating system (DOS).