Make sure that your disk drive's BUSY light is off, then open the drive door and (if you haven't done so already) carefully remove your VisiCalc program diskette and replace it in the pocket on the inside front cover of this manual.
Take out the storage diskette onto which you saved the file, EXAMPLE.VC and insert it into drive 1. Be sure that the label on the diskette jacket is up and on the side of the diskette nearest you. Gently push the diskette all the way in, and close the drive door.
Now type the VisiCalc STORAGE command
IS.
The prompt line reads STORAGE: LSD I Q #To review the meanings of the characters LSD I Q #, check the section en-titled "Saving the Electronic Sheet on Diskette" at the end of Lesson One.
Press L The prompt line reads FILE TO LOAD. At thi$ pOint, }OU could simply type the name EXAMPLE, ending with the ® key. But let's try something else. We will scroll the file names from the storage diskette.
Loading the Sheet from Diskette Lesson Two
Press the. key once (don't forget to hold down the CTRL key while you do).
Your disk drive will whir for a moment as VisiCalc looks at the directory and the BUSY indicator lights on each drive will come on. Then the name EXAMPLE. VC will appear on the edit line. Note that VisiCalc has appended the .ve suffix. If a different name appears, press the. key repeatedly until you get the name EXAMPLE.Ve.
If the file you're looking for is not on the diskette, you will eventually scroll through all the file names on the diskette and out of the /SL command.
For more information on the scrolling, look up the File Name section of the STORAGE command Reference.
Assuming that you have the name EXAMPLE.Ve on the edit line, press ® Watch the characters flashing by at the left end of the edit line. These are' equivalent keystrokes to the ones you would type from the keyboard to set up the sheet. VisiCalc automatically "types" them in at high speed as they come back from the diskette. Once the loading process ends, your screen should resemble the photo below.
Replicating a Formula
Your screen should look exactly like the one pictured above. The cursor should be at B1. If not, type >B1® Further, if the number at B1 is not 100, just type 100 and press ®
At present, we have figures for sales, cost of goods, and gross profit for only one month (or year, or other period). Now, we'll project these figures out for twelve months.
Let's begin by assuming that SALES will increase by 10% each month. Press the. key to move the cursor to e1 and type: 1.1 *.®
VisiCalc Replicating a Formula keystrokes, VisiCalc provides a shortcut.
That shortcut is the REPLICATE command, and it can be used to make copies of, or to "replicate" formulas, labels, numbers, blank entries, etc. across columns, down rows and so forth. In this lesson, we'll use the replicate com-mand in just a couple of simple examples. The many uses of this comcom-mand are covered more fully in Lesson Three.
With the cursor at C1, type
fR
to enter the REPLICATE mode. The prompt line reads REPL I CATE: SOURCE RANGE OR RETURN, and the edit line C]" the coordinate of the formula on which the cursor rests, followed by the small rectangle. Because you're going to use only one formula as your source (not a range of formulas), press ® to select C1 as the single item to beOur intent is to project sales out for twelve months. The first month is shown at B1, the second at C1, and the twelfth month will be at M1. Hence, we want the formula replicated in the target range of positions from 01 to M1.
Press the. key to set the beginning of your target range at 01. Now type a period to tell VisiCalc that the next coordinate will be the second part of your target range. If you don't type the period, every use of the. will Simply create a new target start entry, instead of extending the ending coordinate of the target range. The period both acts as a delimiter and produces three periods following 01. The edit line now reads
C]' , , , C],: D]' , , ,
As you can see, by moving the cursor, we are indicating where we want copies of the formula to be placed. Now press the. key ten times (until the cursor rests beneath M1). Notice that as you mOve the cursor to 01, E1, F1, and so on, the "target range" on the edit line reads
D]' , , , D]" D]' , , , E]" D]' , , , F]"
and so on. VisiCalc is "filling in" the ending coordinate of the target range, just as it did when we moved the cursor in the middle of typing a formula.
When you have finished pressing. key ten times, the cursor will be resting at M1, and the edit line will read
C]' , , , C],: D]" ,M]'
33
Replicating a Formula
Lesson Two
If you moved too far w~th the ., you can move back with the •. Now press ®.
The cursor jumps back to C1, where the original formula is stored. The edit line reads
CL: D:1 • • • M:1: 1.1*8:1
The small rectangle is highlighting the coordinate 81 on the edit line. The prompt line reads