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From: josh@osf.org (Joshua Goldman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Year-to-Date computation in AppleWorks
Message-ID: <20054@paperboy.OSF.ORG>
Date: 15 Mar 91 17:54:59 GMT
References: <1991Mar15.082727@aten.cca.rok.com>
Sender: news@OSF.ORG
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Lines: 77

In article <1991Mar15.082727@aten.cca.rok.com>, mlc@aten.cca.rok.com (Michael L. Cook) writes:
|> I tried posting this last month, but I don't know whether it got sent
|> since I didn't receive any responses.  (Yes, I'm a new user.)
|> If there is no easy solution, I'd like to know that, too.  Thanks.
|> 
|> 
|> Question: Is there an easy way to have the "Year-to-Date" (YTD) values
|>           automatically calculated based on entering new values in the
|>           "This month" cells?  This is a kind of spread-sheet circularity.
|> 
|> Currently, I enter the "This month" value, then manually add the new
|> value and the old YTD value to produce the new YTD value, which I then
|> manually enter into the spread-sheet.
|> 
...
|> I am using AppleWorks 2.0 on a IIc.
|> 
|> Example spread-sheet:
|> 
|>           1              2              3              4 ....
|> A                   This month     Year-to-Date
|> B
|> C      Item 1       $ 123.45       $ 567.32
|> D      Item 2       $  43.20       $ 102.45
|> E       etc.
|> F       ....
|> G                   ========       ========
|> H      Totals:      @SUM(A2...G2)  @SUM(A3...G3) 
|> 

I haven't done Appleworks spreadsheets in a long time, but you might get the functionality you want with the following spreadsheet.  It takes some manual intervention, but not as much as your current mechanism:
|>           1              2              3              4 ....
|> A                   Prev months    This month     Year-to-Date
|> B
|> C      Item 1       $ 443.87       $ 123.45       C2+C3
|> D      Item 2       $  59.20       $  43.20       D2+D3
|> E       etc.
|> F       ....
|> G                   ========       ========
|> H      Totals:      @SUM(A2...G2)  @SUM(A3...G3) 
|> 

When you're ready to add a new months data:

   1. Copy column 4 to column 2 by value not by formula.  I assume that you
      can do this in Appleworks.

   2. Check and make sure that the copy succeeded and that there are values in
      column 2.

   3. Zero (or blank the values in column 3.

   4. Enter your new values in Col 3.

Things to watch out for:

  Losing your format in column 3 when you blank it out.

  You are copying from cell C4 to C2.  Since C2 is used in the calculation for
  C4, there is a potential problem for Appleworks to do things in a stupid order
  and mess things up.  It should work, but I haven't tried it.  

Good luck.

|> Thanks for any tips.
|> 
|> --
|> 
|> Michael Cook
|> Internet: mlc%gva.decnet@consrt.rok.com
|> "Post no bills"

-- 
Joshua Goldman josh@osf.org (617)-621-8857
Open Software Foundation
11 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142