Psion Spreadsheets

Characters.

Calculates the complete character set of your PDA, and lets you copy characters to other applications.

Convert.

Convert easily between many different units.

Easter.

Calculate the date of Easter for any year since 1900.

Batteries.

Keep track of how long your batteries last, and estimate when your current set will run out.

Credit Card/Travel Expenses.

Keep track of your credit card payments or travel expenses, even if you pay in several different currencies.

Shared Costs.

Keep track of shared costs for any group of two or more people, for instance, a group of students living together, or a group of people on holiday together.

Characters

chars.spr

You can either download this spreadsheet, or create it for yourself:

1. Open a new spreadsheet.
2. In the first cell type the following:

       =char((cell("row",b1:b1)-1)*16+cell("col",a2:a2)-1)
   

3. If all is well the word "Error" appears in the cell.
4. Copy the cell.
5. Select the 16 columns A:P (hold shift down and use the right arrow), and set their width to one (menu View>Column widths).
6. Still holding shift, select rows 1:16. Now you should have 16 rows of 16 columns selected.
7. Do "Insert". If all is well, each cell now contains the next character in the character set.

• The first couple of lines will be blank on some PDAs, since they are non-printable characters.
• To use a character in another application, select the cell containing the character, go to the other application, and use "Bring".

Convert

convert.spr

There is no set-up needed for this spreadsheet. To use it, enter the number of units in A1, and the name of the unit in B1, and read off the conversion.

Notes:

• Most variant names of units are allowed (such as foot, feet, ', etc.), but if in doubt, use the singular, and use lower case letters. Use "f" for degrees fahrenheit, "c" for degrees celsius.
• The US and UK use different volumes for the pint (and related measures). Set G1 to "US" or "UK" to select which version you want for those measures.
• Unfortunately, because of problems with the spreadsheet program, this spreadsheet will not work on a Series 5.

Easter

easter.spr

There is no set-up needed for this spreadsheet. To use it, just enter the year you are interested in (1900 and later), and read off the date of Easter for that year.

Batteries

battery.spr

To use this spreadsheet:

1. Go to System, and look at Info>Usage Monitor (see the first image above)
2. Copy the details of your previous set of batteries to the spreadsheet: put the date of insertion (in the form =date(97, 06, 29)) into cell B3, and the total battery used (the mAh value) into cell C3. Including the Hours and Average Current values is optional, and only needed if you want to keep these values for future reference.
3. Now do the same for your current batteries from the live readings (only use the date and mAh values).
4. The spreadsheet will now tell you how many days your batteries have been in use (F5), and give an estimate of how many days they are likely to last (G5). C2 gives the estimated date that you will have to replace your batteries.

• This is only an estimate, based on the capacity of your last batteries, and assumes you will continue to use your machine at the same rate as you have been since inserting the new batteries.
• The estimate gets better the longer the batteries have been in use. In particular, in the first few days, the estimate is likely to be too low.
• You should re-enter the current mAh value whenever you want an update.
• Don't enter the number in the first column. The spreadsheet does that for you.
• When you insert a new set of batteries, you can immediately add a new row. (use "+now" for the date, which will preserve the date and time, and is less typing. But don't use "=now", which will reset the date each time the sheet gets recalculated!). The earlier row then says how many days you got out of your last set of batteries.

Credit Card/Travel Expenses

credit.spr

To set up this spreadsheet:

1. Enter the currencies you are likely to use in cells I3:J7. Enter the symbol you will use for that currency in the first column, and its exchange rate in the second. This amount is how much of your own currency you have to pay to buy one of the other currency. If the rates are quoted the other way round in your country (i.e. as the amount of a currency that you get for one of your currency), use that figure, and put any character (e.g. a /) in cell H2.

   You do not need to enter your default currency.

1. Each time you use your credit card, enter the date, who it was paid to, for what, the amount, and if not the default, which currency. Cell F1 then shows your outstanding credit debt in your default currency.
2. When you get a credit card statement, go through the statement, and put any character in column F against items that are on the statement ("y" is used in the example above). The total in F1 will be adjusted to match.

• Remember "+now" (but not "=now") is the easiest way to enter the current date.
• The total will only be an estimate based on the currency rates you have quoted. These can fluctuate from day to day.
• Column G shows the amount converted to your default currency.
• If you need more than 5 currencies, you will have to alter the expression used in column G.
• You can use this spreadsheet for recording any set of payments, not just credit card use.
• The total in cell D1 is given in your default currency. If you want it expressed in another currency, put that currency (e.g. $) in cell E1.
• Unfortunately, on a Series 5 the currencies have to be listed in alphabetical order.

Shared Costs

share.spr

To set up the spreadsheet:

1. In cells G5, I5, etc., insert the names of the people involved. The spreadsheet uses the first letter of the name to identify each person, so use lower case (to make typing easier) and decide how you are going to refer to people who have the same initial letter (for instance use "john" and "Joan", so that you refer to one as "j" and the other as "J"). As a check, the spreadsheet reports in A3 how many people it thinks you have entered.

1. Each time that someone spends money that has to be shared, enter the date (optional), what it was for (optional), the amount, the identifying letter of the person spending, and the identifying letters of all the people sharing that cost (including the person paying if that person is also sharing the cost). If you leave this field blank, the amount will be shared amongst everyone.

   The cost will be shared equally among all those sharing, and added to their total "bill". The amount spent will be subtracted from the person paying.

   The total amount paid out is shown in cell C5. The next person who should spend something (the person with the highest bill) is shown in B4.

2. At the end of the holiday, or whenever you want to settle accounts, you can see how much each person owes or is owed.

   For each person there are two columns: spent, and due. These are totalled at the top of the column (for instance G3 and H4 above), and the difference is shown below the person's name (H6) as either owing or being owed. The spreadsheet ensures that the totals owed and owable themselves all total to zero.

• Remember "+now" (but not "=now") is the easiest way to enter the current date.
• If more than one person pays for one item, insert them as separate entries for each person paying, and the amount that they paid.
• If someone buys something for someone else, or lends them money, you can still use the sheet: just enter the amount, the lender's initial under "Who", and the borrowers initial under "For". Paying back likewise, but the other way round.
• Cells C3 and C4, and column F do some error checking. If C3 indicates "Who Error", typically the error will be that nothing or a non-existent person has been entered under "Who"; if C4 indicates "For Error" either someone has been entered twice, or a non-existent person has been entered. In either case, column F will show which row is in error. If both C3 and C5 report an error, either both things mentioned above are wrong, or there are entries beyond the last row (50). In that case, you will have to copy a row and paste it in rows beyond row 50.
• The sheet is set up for a maximum of 6 people (columns G:R). If you need more, you should copy a pair of columns and paste them beyond column R.