page 1-1 CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED Welcome! Welcome to FREE & EASY! FREE & EASY is a new kind of program which lets you do "what if?" types of calculations and keeps track of numerical and financial information, among other things. FREE & EASY is similar to a spreadsheet but much more flexible; it does not squeeze you into a grid of cells and so allows FREEdom. FREE & EASY is also simple to learn and use. It works in much the same way as you would use a pencil and paper and is thus EASY! This chapter will introduce you to FREE & EASY. It will tell you how to install FREE & EASY on your system and how to start up the program. Summary of Disks System Requirements: Computer resources needed to run FREE & EASY are minimal. You will require an IBM-compatible computer with minimum 8086 processor, at least 512k of RAM memory, CGA video card and monitor, one floppy disk drive (although a hard disk is recommended) and DOS 3.3 or later. 5 1/4 inch 3 1/2 inch Files Description of Files disk # disk # 1 1 F.EXE executable file for FREE & EASY README.EXE information file SFE.BAT batch file to start FREE & EASY SETUP.EXE program to set up FREE & EASY on your hard disk SB.EXE screen blanking program VENDOR.DOC text file with information for shareware vendors 2 FREE0.HLP files for on-screen help FREE1.HLP 3 2 VIEW.EXE files used for on-screen LESSON1.DAT tutorials for LESSON2.DAT "A View of FREE & EASY" LESSON3.DAT LESSON4.DAT LESSON5.DAT 4 INSTR.EXE Instruction Book TITLE.TXT CONTENTS.TXT CHPT1.TXT CHPT2.TXT CHPT3.TXT CHPT4.TXT CHPT5.TXT CHPT6.TXT CHPT7.TXT page 1-2 CHPT8.TXT APPENA.TXT APPENB.TXT APPENC.TXT There are several other files included on these disks which are sample programs for FREE & EASY. (All have the file extension .FRE or .MAK) An explanation of these files is given in the text of the sheet. A summary of what is in each example sheet is in the sheet LIST.FRE. The first thing you should do is to check to make sure that all disks and files are present. If not, contact FREE & EASY for replacements. After this, back up all disks with the DOS copy command (see your DOS manual for further information). Running FREE & EASY from a Hard Disk The is the preferred way to run FREE & EASY. It is the most convenient and involves no floppy disk swapping. Several DOS commands are used in the set-up procedure. If you have difficulty understanding any of these procedures, consult your DOS manual for further explanation. The program SETUP.EXE can be used to install FREE & EASY on your hard disk. Just put the disk containing SETUP.EXE in the floppy drive and type SETUP at the DOS prompt, then follow the instructions. Alternately, you can do the installation yourself as described below: First, make a directory for the files you need to run FREE & EASY. Call this directory F&E (or another name, if you prefer). Thus all FREE & EASY files will be in C:\F&E. Copy F.EXE into C:\F&E. This is the minimum needed to run FREE & EASY. In addition, to have the on-screen helps available, you should copy FREE0.HLP and FREE1.HLP into this directory. You can optionally copy all other FREE & EASY files to this directory except the sample programs (those files with the extension .FRE or .MAK) Next make a directory to hold your FREE & EASY sample programs and the FREE & EASY applications you develop. Call this directory BIN (or another name if you prefer). Thus these files will be in C:\F&E\BIN. Copy all files with the extension .FRE or .MAK to this directory. When you start FREE & EASY, make the current drive and directory the one containing your FREE & EASY applications (C:\F&E\BIN in this case). Set the DOS path to this directory, to the directory containing F.EXE and to your DOS files (usually C:\DOS). FREE & EASY can then be started by typing "F" at the DOS prompt. The batch file SFE.BAT will start FREE & EASY as described above. The batch file contains: C: CD \ CD F&E\BIN page 1-3 SET PATH=C:\F&E;C:\DOS;C:F&E\BIN C:\F&E\F If you modify the installation procedure you can modify SFE.BAT to suit your own setup. Any text editor (or even the F.EXE program) can be used to do this. Running FREE & EASY from Two Floppy Drives FREE & EASY can also be run from two floppy drives. You should have the DOS path as: SET PATH=A:\;B:\. Make the current drive A: and put the disk with the on-screen helps (FREE0.HLP and FREE1.HLP) in drive B: Put the disk containing F.EXE in drive A: and type "F" at the DOS prompt. When FREE & EASY has finished loading remove this disk and insert a disk which will contain your FREE & EASY applications. Running FREE & EASY from One Floppy Drive FREE & EASY can even run from just one floppy drive although you will have to do some disk swapping. To start up, put the disk containing F.EXE in the floppy drive and type "F" at the DOS prompt. After FREE & EASY has finished loading in, remove this disk. You will have to insert the disk containing the on-screen helps (FREE0.HLP and FREE1.HLP) or the disk containing your FREE & EASY applications as required. FREE & EASY will tell you if the drive is empty or it cannot find a file. FREE & EASY Helps and Prompts During a session of FREE & EASY you can always get help by pressing F1. There are over 200 help topics available. Helps are context sensitive; virtually every situation you are in, every error or warning has an associated help topic. Help topics are also hyperlinked; you can access related help topics from within a help screen. FREE & EASY also has a prompt bar at the bottom of the screen. The prompts are also context sensitive and change according to the situation. You are encouraged to use these aids in order to help you learn FREE & EASY. A View of FREE & EASY These are tutorials consisting of 5 lessons designed for the beginner to quickly teach the basics of FREE & EASY. Each lesson covers a different aspect of FREE & EASY and takes about 20 minutes to complete. To start "A View of FREE & EASY" insert the disk containing VIEW.EXE into a floppy drive and type "VIEW" at the DOS prompt. The files LESSON1.DAT, LESSON2.DAT, LESSON3.DAT, LESSON4.DAT and LESSON5.DAT must also be on the disk. Once "A View of FREE & EASY" is started, just page 1-4 follow the instructions on the screen to do the lessons. "A View of FREE & EASY" can also be installed on your hard disk. It can also be accessed through the "Help" pull down menu from within the FREE & EASY environment. Monochrome and LCD Monitors During startup of FREE & EASY and all executable files in the FREE & EASY package if a monochrome videocard is detected the display is adjusted accordingly. If you desire you can add the switches /B (for black and white) or /R (for reverse black and white) to change the display colors. The switch /R gives a superior display for many LCD monitors (found on many laptop computers). Learning FREE & EASY There are several approaches that can be used to learn FREE & EASY. One way is simply to start up the program and begin using it. You can always use the prompt bar and helps to learn as you go along. You may prefer to go through the Instruction Book in detail, chapter by chapter to learn all the features of FREE & EASY. The Instruction Book is on floppy disk and can be installed on your hard disk. You can access the instruction by typing "INSTR" at the DOS prompt and then just follow the on screen instructions. The Instruction Book can also be accessed through the "Help" pull down menu within the FREE & EASY environment. The Instruction Book can be printed one chapter at a time or all at once. A third possibility is to do each lesson in "A View of FREE & EASY". After doing each lesson, try using the new features that you have learned about in your own session of FREE & EASY. After completing all the lessons, use the Instruction Book as a reference for more details on various topics as needed. Chapter 2 in the Instruction Book also gives a good overview of FREE & EASY. After completing this chapter, you should be ready to start using FREE & EASY treating the remaining portion of the Instruction Book as a reference tool. Opening Screen Bypass The opening screen (showing FREE & EASY copyright information can be bypassed by using the /S switch at the DOS prompt when starting up FREE & EASY. (e.g. F.EXE /S) This screen will still be shown momentarily while FREE & EASY is searching directories for the location of help files, etc. This feature is available on the registered version of FREE & EASY but not the shareware version.