Using Writer

Hi People

For the initial posts we have been looking at developing a couple of spreadsheets, so this time we are going to look at the Word compatible Writer module of OpenOffice.org.

It is a sophisticated document creating package, with the capability of saving the output to many types of format, notably :  .doc & .pdf


Most people will recognise both of these as being the formats used by Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat respectively.

So with out further explanation, let's dive in!

Open the Writer module, (either by opening the OpenOffice.org package and using the control panel, or by locating the Writer program in the programs list) and have a good look at the toolbars at the top.  Some of the buttons will be familiar (being the same or very similar to the ones in Word - excluding the new 'ribbon' arrangement in Office 2007 and 2010 - for Windows)

Writer's Toolbars

The lower of the two toolbars, has the standard options, such as

Font 

•  Size, 
• Style, 
• Bold, 
• Underline, 
• Colour 
• Type

Text

• Alignment (Left, Centred, Right and Justified)
• Indents, 
• Bullets,
• Highlighting

The remaining bar has a number of extra tools, most of which are found somewhere in Word, with one major exception.

I will leave you to figure out which tool button it is (clue - it is actually written on the button)

Thank You for your attention

Prometheus1618

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Personal Accounts - Conditional Formatting - Part 4

Hi People

The conditional formatting item is available on the 'Format' menu

The 'Conditional Formatting' option on the 'Format' menu

When you click on the 'Conditional Formatting' option, you will see the condition entry form

Several things to note here are

• the Condition 1 box is ticked, ready for the first entry
• there are 4 boxes of information required, to start with
• a maximum of 3 conditions are available

Click on the first box to change 'Cell value is' to 'formula is' 

When you change the 'Cell value is' to 'formula is', the middle box disappears, making way for a larger box into which you can type your calculation.  We are going to put the following calculation in

=OR(D7="d";D7="D")

The first calculation for the cell 

This will look familiar to you as it is one of the tests that make up the long calculation we studied several posts ago.  On clicking the 'New Style...' button you will find a window with 8 tabs.  Select the tab marked 'Background'

The 'Background' tab window

Select the red background for debits

Having selected the red background, by left clicking it, left click the 'OK' button and now left click in the 'Condition 2' box.  This will activate the second condition.

The two calculations for the conditional formatting styles (notice the third condition has not been activated)

Again change the 'Value is' to 'Formula is' and type in the formula

=OR(D7="c", D7="C")

Left click the 'New Style....' button and select a suitable green or blue color for the background of credits to the account.

Now left click the 'OK' button and let's test the results

From the picture below you can see what happens when you enter various credits and debits.

The final layout for the basic Home accounts program

Keep this spreadsheet handy as we will further develop it in a later post.

Next time we will look at the Writer program with Open Office.

Thank You for stopping by

Prometheus1618

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Personal Accounts - Conditional Formatting - part 3

Hi People

Let's have a look at the spreadsheet pictures and show you some of the things we have been discussing.

This picture shows the result of an unexpected value in D7.  See the WHAT! in F7

Notice here that the next entry still causes an error in the 'Balance' column - column F

When the errors are corrected, the system goes on working

In this picture a Credit or 'C' transaction is made, and the value of the balance goes up.  Whilst it has been tested the spreadsheet does need much more testing before being happy with the results being seen.

A large withdrawal here has caused the spreadsheet to use its internal conditional formatting.  The  -£17.17 in the 'Balance' column is in red numbers

The last picture above shows that some colour conditional formatting is used in the Currency format for numbers.  We can further enhance the conditional formatting if we wish.

We could highlight the transaction amounts if they are credits or debits for instance

Conditional Formatting is found under the 'Format' menu options, about half way down.

For what we are going to do is fairly involved, so the details we will leave until next time

Thank You for stopping by

Prometheus1618

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Personal Accounts - Conditional Formatting part 2

Hi People

The formula I left you with last time was quite large wasn't it.  Let's have another look at it.

=IF(E7="";"";IF(OR(D7="C";D7="c");E7+F6;IF(OR(D7="D";D7="d");F6-E7;"WHAT!")))

This formula has been entered as a replacement for the original formula in cell F7 (this is the 'Balance' column)

To break it down, I will highlight the parts as we go through them

First of all we check to see if cell E7 has anything at all in it (that is, it is not empty - note that a 'space' entry is not an empty cell), as is highlighted below.  Why do we check E7?  If E7 is empty then there is no transaction.

=IF(E7="";"";IF(OR(D7="C";D7="c");E7+F6;IF(OR(D7="D";D7="d");F6-E7;"WHAT!")))

Next we check if the cell E7 has an Upper Case 'C' or lower case 'c' in it. If it has then we add the content of E7 to the balance from F6.  Again this is highlighted below.  You will notice the use of the OR function which checks the entries inside the bracket for an entry which is true, if one or more are then the 'E7+F6' part is 'executed' (which means 'used' or 'run' or 'done').  If no entry is true then the next part of the calculation is done (which means 'used' or 'run' or 'executed')

=IF(E7="";"";IF(OR(D7="C";D7="c");E7+F6;IF(OR(D7="D";D7="d");F6-E7;"WHAT!")))

Now if the testing has got this far then a further check is made on the contents of cell D7 for an Upper Case 'D' or lower case 'd' (using the OR function again).   The highlighted section is the part to check out.
If a 'D' or 'd' is found then the contents of E7 are subtracted from F6.  Note that if the formula was E7-F6 we would get a very different - extremely different answer so make sure that you always check subtractions and divisions CAREFULLY or you could end up with some pretty weird results.  This was the second item you should have noticed from the end of the last post.

=IF(E7="";"";IF(OR(D7="C";D7="c");E7+F6;IF(OR(D7="D";D7="d");F6-E7;"WHAT!")))

Finally we have a SHOUT 'WHAT!' if the value is anything other than

• an empty cell
• a 'c' or 'C' entry
• a 'd' or 'D' entry

=IF(E7="";"";IF(OR(D7="C";D7="c");E7+F6;IF(OR(D7="D";D7="d");F6-E7;"WHAT!")))

If you see this check the column D entry and note also this will affect every entry in the F column after the error so it does continue to SHOUT at you.

That's all this time people

Next time we will look at a little inbuilt conditional formatting for colour etc..

Thank You

Prometheus1618

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Personal Accounts - Conditional Formatting

Hi People

In the last entry, we discussed the options for detecting debits and credits on our simple Personal Accounts spreadsheet.
And having decided on the extra column to make the user think about what is to be done, we require some alteration for the calculations in column F (after the insertion of the new column D), from F7 (not F6!) down.

Currently the calculation in F7 looks like this

=IF(E7="";"";E7+F6)

[ Note  how the values have been changed.
Before the insertion of the new D column the calculation looked like this
=IF(D7="","",D7+E6) ]

First of all we need to test the letter in column D for the letters C,c,D,d.  Any other entry should produce a bold error message.

You will notice that we check for capital C and normal c (Upper Case = Capital, Lower Case = normal) and also for Upper Case D and Lower Case d.  This is because we do not know if the user works with Upper Case or Lower Case letters, so we cover both possible entries.

The error message should be immediately obvious so I suggest a word all in Upper Case letters. I have chosen the word WHAT! to make it stand out.  We shall make it stand out even more later, with conditional formatting

OK take a look at the formula below.  Yes I think a number of you will experiencing a sharp intake of breath, but when broken down into its parts it is really quite simple.

=IF(E7="";"";IF(OR(D7="C";D7="c");E7+F6;IF(OR(D7="D";D7="d");F6-E7;"WHAT!")))

I am going to leave you with this formula to have a look at for next time and then we will break it down to show you what it means.  You will notice two things specifically (if your very sharp), one of which is not so obvious, but its effect would be alarming for the user.

Until next time, Thank You

Prometheus1618






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The Personal Accounts Spreadsheet continues

Hi People

Did anyone have a look at the possibilities for correcting the mistake over a debit being added to the balance, instead of taking it away from the balance.

Well there are a number of options here, two of which we will explore in more detail.

Firstly there is the use of minus values in the 'Amount' column, whenever a Debit is required (when money is taken away from the balance - this is known as a 'Debit'), the value must be put in with a minus sign to allow the calculation in the 'Balance' column to work correctly.

Using this method is going to require the user to make sure that the values are entered with the minus sign when required.  This will easily cause errors in entries as the minus sign will be forgotten, occasionally.

The second method will require the use of an additional column between the 'Type' and the 'Amount' columns.

This column will be used to put the letter 'D' or 'C' into the appropriate row.  The letter entered will be tested, and one of three outcomes will  result in either the Balance being credited (added to), debited (reduced) or NO Change (if any other letter or character other than 'C' or 'D' is placed in the cell).

This is the method we will adopt as it will provide some 'error checking' as well as a thought provoking entry in the new 'D' column

We will make this more obvious by using 'conditional formatting' to colour the amount depending on a '(D)ebit, (C)redit or error input (any other letter, number or character - apart from no value - that is no entry)

Are we ready to do this?

Place the mouse pointer over the boundary line between the C and D columns ( that is at the top of the columns), this will create a double headed arrow if you have in the right place.  Now RIGHT click and select 'Insert columns' and a new empty 'D' column.

All the calculations have been automatically changed to make sure they work as they did before the column was inserted.

We will change the calculation in the Balance column to create the right result for debit and credit transactions and this will be looked at next time


Thank You

Prometheus1618



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