Cell mates. (file-linking formulas in Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony)(Help/2.2) (tutorial)

Cell Mates

What if all your financial data could fit in a singly worksheet file? Part of the worksheet could taly the revenues and costs for each product line. Other sections could detail tax liabilities, overhead, and so on. You could prepare a corporate profit-and-loss statement without retyping any data: Just set up the headings and summary formulas and refence the appropirate cells.

Despite its convenience, the single-file approach is impractical for most businesses. Depending on the system configuration and software release, RAM will rum out sooner or later. As you lump more data into the worksheet, recalculation slows down. And you might find it more manageable to keep different applications in separate worksheets.

In "Here's the Missing Link" (page 34 of the Febraury issue), we showed how 1-2-3 Release 3 helps manage multiple-worksheet applications. Releases 2.2 of 1-2-3 and Symphony lack some of the features--such as three-dimensional worksheets, nearly unlimited memory capacity, and the ability to keep several files active at once--that distinguish Release 3 for such projects. For many applications, however, the fil-linking features of 1-2-3 and Symphony Releases 2.2 provides all the multiple-worksheet capabilities you need.

Cells Copied While-U-Wait

Back when 1-2-3 Release 2.01 and Symphony Release 2.0 were Lotus's top-of-the-line products, you had two options for copying data from one existing worksheet to another: Reckey the data or use the File Combine Copy command.

Rekeying is often the fastest technique for small, occasional tasks, but it does increase the risk of typing mistakes. And if the data in the original worksheet changes, you have to transcribe the updated figures into the other worksheet.

The File Combine Copy command lets you copy a range of cells--or the entire worksheet--from a file on disk into the current worksheet file. This command helps eliminate retyping erros, and it's available in all …