OA User Group Meeting 12 Sep 95 The meeting was again held at Chatswood RSL. Terry explained that the main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the future of the group but we started with the usual question & answer session. Spreadsheet Calculation Errors Q.What to do when a spreadsheet cell comes up with the entry ?n?. he uses OA2 and he cannot edit the cell to remove the error. The only way is to delete an entire row or column! A. It does not seem to be a problem with OA3/4 and, in fact, it could indicate a hard disk error and might need to run DOS CHKDSK or a disk repair utility such as Norton's Disk Doctor. During experimentation we did come across a trap with the SUBSITUTION function under OA3/4 Spreadsheet. The substitution function is an expression of the form =B88+! and, in this example, it works by adding the entered value to the existing value in a cell. Therefore if the cell displayed 6 and you typed 3 in the input area then pressed the cell would show 9 (6+3). The problem is that once you set a cell to the substitution expression (starting with an = sign) there doesn't seem to be a way to remove it. Terry struck this with a conversion from Lotus 123 because the conversion came across with = signs rather than + signs for normal expressions. doesn't seem to work. Also watch date conversions with Lotus 123. OA Slow to load on 486 & Pentiums Still no explanation for this odd situation. Also there have be some reports of people experiencing problems when they transfer OA to a 486 or pentium PC - maybe there are some memory management conflicts that SPI needs to look at. Printing on networks Some users have had difficulty printing from OA on networks. It seems that with some network setups the job does not print until you quit OA. - if this is the case check the parameters set in the CAPTURE command which is probably invoked when the network is started as these can inadvertently cause jobs to go "on hold". Some users disable the CAPTURE command when they want to print from OA to a printer attached to their PC but this does carry the risk of jobs being mixed up with network print jobs. Backup Command & recent versions of DOS The latest (last?) version of MS DOS does not have a BACKUP command. Instead a menu-driven backup utility is available. This can be a nuisance for those who wish to automate backup procedures. One remedy is to copy BACKUP.COM and RESTORE.COM from an earlier version of DOS. External fields in screen masks not working under Programmer A user reported that a screen mask worked okay under Database but the external fields seemed to play up under programmer (Keith knows all about this one!). It appears that some type of corruption can sometimes get into screen masks to cause this problem - maybe only with some early versions of OA3. The only way seems to be to delete the old SMK and start again. Copying printer configurations Michael Paine has downloaded several printer files from SPI in the USA. There was not much in the way a popular new printers - they seem to be mainly obscure European makes. Terry demonstrated how to copy a configuration to your CONFIG.PRT file: From OA Main Options select UTILITIES / CONFIGURE / PRINTER_PARAMETERS Press to copy from another file. Press for a directory listing of *.PRT files. Choose a file. A list of printers in the file is displayed. Select a printer and press . The new printer will be at the bottom of the list in CONFIG.PRT. Note that this also works for copying from OA2's INFOE.PRT to OA3's CONFIG.PRT. To check the number of printers in CONFIG.PRT press . The maximum is 50. New technology Michael Paine reported on two interesting technological developments: Iomega Zip drive: External "floppy" drive unit which plugs into the parallel port. Special floppy disks have a 100Mb capacity. Drive costs about $350. Floppies cost about $35 each. Looks great for hard disk backups and for transferring data between PCs (e.g. home and office). Will put new life into my ageing laptops. Reviewed in September 1995 PC User magazine - not released until October. Hewlett Packard Officejet: Combined inkjet printer (for PC), fax machine, copier and scanner. At last plain paper faxes in my office! The copier is useful but the quality is poor and you need to scan each sheet (can't do books). In contrast, the quality of PC printouts is excellent - as good as some lasers. Cost about $1600. $60 for replacement ink cartridges. If any other users would like to write brief reviews of new products please send them in! Future of the User Group SPI SPI in America still seem to be "hanging in there". They appear to be concentrating on the European market. The bulletin board is still in operation (see OA Reference Books for details although the login Katie Norman no longer works - you will need to register as a new user). Watch the ISD costs! Communique Communications Things have been quiet. There were apparently some supply problems with OA4 due to the inclusion Word Processor conversion functions which are no longer licensed to SPI. In any case it is expected that there is very little demand for any DOS software these days. Bill Byng reported that there has been a slight interest in OA4 from some government departments - apparently after problems with glitzy windows database packages. The group is concerned about the lack of marketing of OA4 or WindowsBase. Communique report that they are not getting marketing support from SPI. User Group There was discussion about various options for continuation of the Group. Judy indicated that, financially it was still viable despite declining membership. It is proposed that the user Group will continue with its current format: covering Open Access, Windowsbase and general PC information. Perhaps with more emphasis on non-OA areas such as memory management, hard disk problems, accessing the internet etc. Also members could provide reviews of other software - John Wheeler was asked to give a talk on Boland's Delphi. It is likely that the group will change to bi-monthly meetings and newletters to ease the workload of committe members. Secretarial work To relieve Judy of some tasks consideration will be given to a suggestion by Keith O'Donnell that the photocopying and posting of newletters be contracted out (Keith has a person who does this for his business). Preparation of newsletters will be shared between Keith O'Donnell and Michael Paine. A request was made for issue of the newsletter on floppy disk but this would increase labour and mailing costs. Bulletin Board The user group bulletin baord has not been functioning for some time and it is not proposed to revive it (unless someone reading this is prepared to do it). The Group's PC which was used for the bulletin board needs repairs (monitor & video card). FOR SALE! 386-33 PC with 8Mb RAM, 200Mb hard disk. Needs monitor repair & video card. Make the Group an offer. After the coffee break Terry described an application to track an investment portfolio (Terry's notes pending).