EBM S/800 - USER MANUAL

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WORKSHEET MODE

The EBM S/800 includes a built-in spreadsheet package. Type F3 to enter Worksheet Mode, type F3 again to display the current worksheet filename in the Status Bar.

S/800 spreadsheets are specially-formulated text files, and must end with the extension .8ws Should you wish to see how they are constructed, load a .8ws file into any text editor, including the S/800's Editor Mode. To force a .8ws file to load as text, type LOAD EDITOR "myFile.8ws" in Terminal Mode. LOAD "myFile.8ws" will load the file into Worksheet Mode.

CAPS LOCK - Toggle Capital Letter Lock Mode. Status bar will highlight CAP when set.

NUM LOCK - Toggle Number Lock Mode. Status bar will highlight NUM when set. Both 2 and 5 move down, meaning 8 and 4/5/6 provide all four arrow keys in the now expected inverted T formation.

SCROLL LOCK - Toggle Scroll Lock Mode. Status bar will highlight SCR when set. In Scroll Lock Mode, UP/DOWN, PGUP/PGDN and HOME/END scroll the worksheet vertically without changing the cell selection, and LEFT/RIGHT scroll the worksheet horizontally. Toggle off to return to your original view and organise/edit cells.

CTRL+TAB - Toggle Reveal Codes, showing the raw cell codes in place of formatted data.

CTRL+N - Create a new blank worksheet. The free edition allows one open worksheet; the Executive Edition allows up to 16.

CTRL+S - Save the current worksheet.

CTRL+SHIFT+S - Save As, type the new filename in the Status Bar.

CTRL+SHIFT+A - Save All, saves all modified worksheets. Untitled worksheets will not be saved.

CTRL+SHIFT+R - Reload, the open copy of the worksheet will be replaced by the file stored on the disk.

CTRL+W - Close, closes the worksheet.

ALT+PGUP/PGDN/HOME/END - Cycle between open worksheets.

ALT+CTRL+PGUP/PGDN/HOME/END - Reorder open worksheets.

CTRL+SHIFT+MINUS/EQUALS - Insert a row/column at the cursor position.

SHIFT+MINUS/EQUALS - Delete the current row/column, or all rows/columns in the current selection.

CTRL+COMMA/PERIOD or CTRL+SQUARE BRACKETS - Decrease/increase column width.

CTRL+Z/Y - Undo/Redo.

CTRL+C/X/V - Copy/Cut/Paste cells.

CTRL+G - Go to cell. Type cell reference, e.g. C8 or M123

WORKSHEET MODE: FILE MANAGEMENT

S/800 worksheets use the .8ws extension. Type LOAD "FILENAME.8WS" in Terminal Mode to load a worksheet file. To force a .8ws file to load as text in Editor Mode, type LOAD EDITOR "FILENAME.8WS"

CTRL+S - Save the current worksheet.

CTRL+SHIFT+S - Save As, type the new filename in the Status Bar.

CTRL+SHIFT+A - Save All, saves all modified worksheets.

CTRL+W - Close, closes the current worksheet.

Importing Excel Spreadsheets

The S/800 can import .xlsx spreadsheet files, converting individual tabs to .8ws worksheet files. Unsupported formatting and other unsupported features will be ignored without warning. The original .xlsx file will be left unchanged, so check the .8ws file, and close the file if it does not work as intended.

IMPORTANT: You must keep your original .xlsx file in case you later become aware of data lost from the .8ws file due to these limitations.

LOAD "FILE.XLSX" - Convert and load all tabs from an Excel spreadsheet. Each tab is saved as a separate .8ws file and loaded into Worksheet Mode. If a .8ws file already exists for a tab, that tab is skipped.

LOAD "FILE.XLSX" "TAB NAME" - Convert and load the named tab from an Excel spreadsheet. The converted file is saved as a .8ws file and loaded into Worksheet Mode.

CONVERT "FILE.XLSX" "TAB NAME" - Convert the named tab without loading. The .8ws file is saved to the current folder.

The new filename is constructed from the spreadsheet filename and the tab name separated by two underscores, for example LOAD "GameNotes.xlsx" "MEMORYMAP" creates and loads GameNotes__MEMORYMAP.8ws

If the tab name is not found, the S/800 will list the available tabs.

What Gets Converted

Text, numbers and dates are converted, and horizontal alignment is preserved.

Supported formulas are converted to S/800 formula syntax: SUM, MAX, MIN, and COUNT, along with cell references and arithmetic.

Excel's DEC2HEX function is converted to the S/800's hexadecimal display formatting code. For example =DEC2HEX(A1,4) in Excel becomes x4=[A1] in the S/800 - the value of cell A1 will then be displayed as a 4-digit hexadecimal number. The S/800 supports 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64-digit hexadecimal display; unsupported widths are rounded upwards to the next supported width.

Unsupported formulas are stored as the original formula as text.

Boolean cells are stored as text: TRUE or FALSE.

Limitations

The S/800 supports columns A to Z and up to 1000 rows. Columns beyond Z and rows beyond 1000 are silently ignored during conversion.

Cell contents are limited to 63 characters. Longer entries are truncated.

Charts, images, conditional formatting, merged cells and other advanced features are ignored.

Characters outside the S/800's character set (ASCII 31-127) are replaced with an inverted question mark. Pound sterling is mapped to the S/800's pound sterling character £ (127), and the copyright symbol is mapped to its dedicated copyright character © (31). All other special characters are replaced with an inverted question mark.

Hex Values in Formulas

If a formula references a text cell whose contents can be read as a hexadecimal value, the S/800 will interpret it as such. For example, if cell A1 contains the text 'FF and cell B1 contains the formula =[A1]+1, cell B1 will display 256. This makes it straightforward to input hex values in a human readable format.

WORKSHEET MODE: CELL EDITING AND FORMATTING

Navigating and selecting

Navigate the worksheet with the arrow keys, PGUP/PGDN, HOME/END and TAB.

CTRL+ARROWS - Jump to the next non-empty cell boundary.

HOME/END - Jump to cell A1, or the last cell containing data.

Organising cells

SHIFT+ARROWS/PGUP/PGDN/HOME/END - Select a range of cells.

CTRL+A - Select all cells containing data.

CTRL+MINUS/EQUALS - Select the current row/column.

ALT+UP/DOWN - Sort column/s in ascending/descending order. When a range of cells is selected, a prompt will ask you to type the letter of the column you wish to sort by.

DELETE - Clear the current cell or selection.

Editing Individual Cells

ENTER or TAB - Enter Cell Edit Mode to edit the current cell. The cell contents can be edited in the Status Bar. To replace cell data with new data, just start typing.

INSERT - Toggle Insert/Overtype Mode. Status bar will display INS or OVR

CAPS LOCK - Toggle Capital Letter Lock Mode. Status bar will highlight CAP when set.

ENTER - Accept the edit and return to the worksheet.

TAB - Accept the edit and move right one column.

CTRL+ENTER - Accept the edit and move down one row.

ESC - Cancel the edit.

Each cell contains data preceded by a signifier, which may be preceded by formatting codes. The signifier characters are:

' signifies TEXT
@ signifies DATE
# signifies VALUE
= signifies FORMULA

Codes

In Cell Edit Mode, codes may be edited manually as below.

1 / 2 / 3 - Each mode highlights the cell in a unique style. When editing manually, the highlight digit must be the first character in the cell to avoid confusion with the two-character codes that consist of a letter followed by a digit (such as p2 to force two decimal places).
l / r / c - Align left, right, or centre.
i - Infinity. Repeat the cell contents to fill the cell, e.g. fill a cell with hyphens or equals signs to underline a heading. Patterns of multiple characters are permitted.
o - Overflow into empty cells to the right.
p1-p9 - Force decimal places, e.g. p2 displays 3 as 3.00
z2-z9 - Force minimum digits, e.g. z3 displays 1 as 001
b4 / b8 / b16 - Binary display.
x4 / x8 / x16 / x32 / x64 - Hexadecimal display.

Outside of Cell Edit Mode, many codes can be applied using formatting keys. Typically, the codes can be applied to individual cells or a selection.

CTRL+1/2/3 - Set highlight mode 1, 2 or 3.

CTRL+L/E/R - Align cell/s: Left, Centre, Right.

CTRL+0 - Cycle through highlight modes.

CTRL+9 - Cycle the column's default signifier. New cells in the column will use this signifier.

CTRL+U - Remove all formatting codes from the cell or selection, keeping only the signifier character and data.

Examples of cell contents as they appear in Reveal Codes mode:

'Hello - text cell containing Hello
#42 - numeric cell containing 42
r#42 - numeric 42, right-aligned
c'TITLE - text TITLE, centred
p2#3 - numeric 3, displayed as 3.00
z3#7 - numeric 7, displayed as 007
1r#99 - numeric 99, highlight mode 1, right-aligned
x8#255 - numeric 255, displayed as FF in 8-bit hexadecimal
i'= - equals sign as text, repeated to fill the cell

When a numeric value does not fit in a cell, whether stored directly or the result of a formula, the cell fills with asterisks.

WORKSHEET MODE: DATES

Dates are entered using the date format defined for your worksheet, which defaults to D/M/Y for day, month, year. For example, 25/12/1972

When typing a date, you may use any non-digit character as a separator, regardless of the separaters in the format string. For example, with the format D/M/Y or the format D M Y, you may prefer to type 25.12.1972

The year may be entered as two or four digits. Two-digit years are treated as 19XX, so 72 becomes 1972.

The date is validated when the edit is accepted, including leap years.

Internally, dates are stored as the number of days since 1 January 1970 so that they can be used in formulas for date arithmetic. Reveal Codes mode shows these values. For example, a formula subtracting one date cell from another will result in the number of days between the two dates.

Type @25/12/1972 into a cell and the cell will store @797 (days since 1 January 1970) and display 25/12/1972 on screen. When you next edit the cell, the date will appear in the Status Bar in your chosen date format.

Formatting codes can be included before the @ signifier, e.g. c@25/12/1972 is a centred date. The cell will store c@797 and display 25/12/1972 centred in the column.

Changing the Date Format

Type CTRL+D in Worksheet Mode to edit the date format string.

The format string uses the letters D, M, and Y to represent day, month, and year. Each letter must appear exactly once. Any other character is treated as a literal separator and will appear in the displayed date.

D/M/Y - displays as 25/12/1972 (UK)
M/D/Y - displays as 12/25/1972 (US)
Y-M-D - displays as 1972-12-25 (ISO)
D.M.Y - displays as 25.12.1972
(Y)M/D - displays as (1972)12/25

The date format is saved in the S800.ini file and applies to all worksheets.

WORKSHEET MODE: FORMULAS

Formula cells contain an expression preceded by an equals character, which may be preceded by formatting codes such as c for centering.

Formulas support plus, minus, multiply (asterisk), divide (forward slash), modulo (percentage symbol), unary minus (minus symbol before a value or cell reference), and parentheses, with correct operator precedence.

Cell references use square bracket notation, for example [A1] or [C12] to reference the numeric value of the target cell.

Four range functions are available: SUM, MAX, MIN, and COUNT. These take a range in square brackets, for example SUM[A1:A10] or COUNT[B2:D5]. SUM, MAX, and MIN operate on numeric cells only. COUNT counts all non-empty cells in the range, including text.

When rows or columns are inserted or deleted, and when cells are copied and pasted, formula references are adjusted automatically. A formula that references itself will display !ERR.

[A1] is a relative reference - column and row adapt when the formula is copied or when rows or columns are inserted or deleted. To make the column or row absolute, prefix the column letter, row number or both with a $ dollar sign: [$A45] locks the column, [A$45] locks the row, [$A$45] locks both.

Examples of formula cells as they appear in Reveal Codes mode:

r=[A1]+[A2] - sum of cells A1 and A2, aligned right
=([B1]*100)/[B2] - B1 multiplied by 100, divided by B2
=SUM[A1:A20] - sum of cells A1 through A20
=MAX[C1:C100] - largest value in column C, rows 1 to 100
=COUNT[A1:D10] - count of non-empty cells in the range A1 to D10
=-[A1] - the value of A1, negated using unary minus
=[$A$1]+[B1] - A1 locked, B1 shifts when copied or when rows/columns are inserted or deleted

WORKSHEET MODE: FIND/REPLACE

Worksheet Find/Replace works the same way as Editor Mode Find/Replace, but searches cell contents.

CTRL+F - Enter Find/Replace Mode. A cursor will appear in the Status Bar. If cells have been selected, S will be shown in the Status Bar to indicate that the search is limited to the selected cells. Otherwise, A will be shown, indicating that all cells will be searched.

TAB - Toggle Find Text Mode and Replace Text Mode. The letter F or R will be shown in the Status Bar.

PGUP/PGDN/HOME/END - Jump between matches. The Status Bar will show the match index and counter, for example 3/5.

When searching, hold SHIFT to activate case sensitive Exact Match Mode, ↑ will be shown in the Status Bar. Hold CTRL to activate Whole Word Match mode, # will appear in the Status Bar.

CTRL+R - Replace the current match with the Replace text.

CTRL+A - Replace All matches with the Replace text.

WORKSHEET MODE: CLIPBOARD

The Worksheet Clipboard copies and pastes whole cells on the worksheet.

CTRL+C - Copy cell or selection to Worksheet Clipboard.

CTRL+X - Cut cell or selection to Worksheet Clipboard.

CTRL+V - Paste contents of Worksheet Clipboard.

While editing a cell, the Scratch Clipboard will be familiar to Windows users.

CTRL+C - Copy to Scratch Clipboard.

CTRL+X - Cut to Scratch Clipboard.

CTRL+V - Paste contents of Scratch Clipboard, with formatting codes.

CTRL+SHIFT+V - Paste contents of Scratch Clipboard, without formatting codes.

While editing a cell, both EBM S/800 editions include multiple Mnemonic Clipboards. These clipboards are tied to letters of the alphabet, and triggered by the respective keys. You might store a frequently used value in the X key, for example.

The free edition features 8 Mnemonic Clipboards, tied to keys A-H. The Executive Edition features A-Z.

CTRL+ALT with letter - Copy cell text to chosen Mnemonic Clipboard.

CTRL+SHIFT+ALT with letter - Cut to chosen Mnemonic Clipboard. Text will be stored to the clipboard and deleted from the cell.

ALT with letter - Mnemonic clipboard paste.