page 7-1 CHAPTER 7: USING MULTIPLE WINDOWS One of the useful features of FREE & EASY is the ability to open more than one window at one time. This, combined with the ability to use more than one sheet (file) at a time, provides a great deal of versatility in setting up sheets and doing calculations. When you first start up FREE & EASY, only one window is open. This window fills the whole screen except for the menu bar, the cell bar (at the top of the screen) and the prompt bar (at the bottom of the screen). Up to five windows may be opened at one time. (You will see how to add windows as well as change window size and move windows around the screen later in this chapter) Each window has a border and at the top of the window is the name of the sheet (file) contained within the window. The number of the sheet in the evaluation order is in front of the name of the sheet. The active window (the one with the cursor in it) has a double border. You change the active window by pressing F6. Press F5 to change the sheet which is in the active window. Remember also that the make file saves the configuration of windows on the screen as well as the sheet that is in each window. All features used to manipulate the windows are found in the "View" pull-down menu. Why Use Multiple Windows Often when working with FREE & easy you can be working with a very large sheet. Usually you cannot see the whole sheet on the screen at one time. If you make a change in one part of the sheet, it can affect another part of the sheet. For example, changing a variable value in the top of the sheet could affect the value of a cell at the bottom of the sheet. Rather than making the change, recalculating and jumping to another part of the sheet to see the result of the sheet, you could use two windows to see different parts of the sheet at the same time. You might also want to use multiple windows if you have more than one sheet loaded at a time so thay you can put each sheet into its own window. Change Window Size The "change window Size ..." menu item is used to modify the size of the active window. When you select this menu item, the cursor disappears. The arrow keys are then used to change the active window (the window with the double border) size. The up and down arrows change the window's height, and the left and right arrows change the window's width. During the adjustment, the top left corner of the window stays anchored. It is not possible to make the window bigger than the screen or overlap another window. Press Enter or Escape to leave this mode. This operation does not affect the sheet within this window. page 7-2 Move Window The "Move window ..." menu item is used to move the active window around the screen. When you select this menu item, the cursor disappears. The up, down, left and right arrow keys are used to move the window. The window cannot be moved off the screen or overlap with another window. Press Enter or Escape to leave this mode. This operation does not affect the sheet within this menu. Open Window The "Open window ..." menu item is used to start a new window on the screen. A maximum of five windows can be opened at one time. If you attempt to use this menu item and five windows are already opened, you get a "maximum number of windows are already opened" error message. Also, in order to use this menu item there must be room on the screen for a new window. (You must have previously closed a window or made one of the windows smaller). When you choose this menu item, the cursor will appear outside of all the open windows on the screen. Move the cursor with the arrow keys to the location on the screen where you wish to start the new window and press Enter. A new window will appear with the active sheet in it. The window will fill all the available free area without overlapping another window. It is possible to move the cursor to an area of the screen in which there is not room to start a new window. If this is the case, the error message "not enough room to start window" will appear. At any time during this operation, you can press Escape to cancel. Close Window The "Close window" menu item is used to remove the active window from the screen. When this menu item is chosen, the area of the screen with the active window becomes blank and another window on the screen becomes the active window. There must always be at least one window open. If you choose this menu item and only one window is open, nothing will happen. (No error message is given.) With this operation, all sheets remain loaded and no data is lost. Maximize and Minimize a Window's Size The "mAximize window size" and "mInimize window size" menu items are used to make a window as large as possible or as small as possible respectively. If the "mAximize window size" menu item is chosen, the active window expands to the largest size possible without overlapping another window or expanding off the edge of the screen. If the "mInimize window size" menu item is chosen, the active window is reduced to a size of one row by fourteen columns. If one of these menu items is chosen and the active window is already page 7-3 at maximum or minimum size, nothing happens and no error message is given. With this operation, all sheets remain loaded and no data is lost. Short-Cut to Open 1, 2, 3 or 4 Windows The menu items "1 window", "2 windows", "3 windows" and "4 windows" are used to set up the screen with the indicated number of windows. The windows set up in these menu items are of equal size with no area of the screen left without a window in it. These commands are not affected by which windows are presently opened on the screen. If more than one file is loaded, a different file will be put into each window. With these menu items, all files remain loaded and no data is lost.