west@gargoyle.UUCP (Steve Westfall) (03/21/86)
I hope that net.micro is the appropriate place for a question about a problem using the Multiplan spreadsheet. Here goes . . . I have Multiplan available to me on several different machines and operating systems. At the office I use it on an Altos running Xenix. At home it's running on a Burroughs B25 workstation under BTOS. Here is my problem. I would like to be able to take copies of my spreadsheet files from the office and load them into my computer at home so that I can continue my work at home on occasion [no wisecracks about being a workaholic, please! :-)]. I have tried doing this. I have no problem physically transferring the file to the B25, but when I try to load the data file into Multiplan at home, I get an error message telling me that it is not a Multiplan file. Apparently Multiplan saves its files in different formats on the two different operating systems. Is there any way in Multiplan to make it save the file in a format that will be portable to the other machine? Thanks in advance for any help. Steve Westfall uucp: ihnp4!gargoyle!west Univ. of Chicago Graduate School of Business
ac4@pucc-j (Tom Putnam) (03/24/86)
In article <381@gargoyle.UUCP> west@gargoyle.UUCP (Steve Westfall) writes: >Here is my problem. I would like to be able to take copies of >my spreadsheet files from the office and load them into my computer >at home so that I can continue my work at home on occasion >... Apparently Multiplan saves its files in different >formats on the two different operating systems. Is there any >way in Multiplan to make it save the file in a format that will >be portable to the other machine? Check in your Transfer Options menu. You will find the "mode" options: Normal Symbolic. Symbolic mode causes the Transfer operations to be done in a character symbolic form instead of a machine dependent binary form. You must set the Symbolic mode before writing the spreadsheet on one machine, and you must also set it before reading the symbolic worksheet on the other machine. I have done this successfully between a 4.2 BSD UNIX system running the version of Multiplan from the Santa Cruz Operation, and an IBM PC version. -- Tom Putnam Manager of User Services ARPANET: ac4@asc.Purdue.EDU Purdue University Computing Center or ac4@purdue-asc.ARPA Mathematical Sciences Bldg. BITNET: PUTNAMT@PURCCVM West Lafayette, IN 47907 USENET: ac4@pucc-j.UUCP 317/494-1787
billw@felix.UUCP (Bill Weinberger) (03/25/86)
In article <381@gargoyle.UUCP> west@gargoyle.UUCP (Steve Westfall) writes: > I have Multiplan available to me on ... an Altos running > Xenix. At home ...on a Burroughs B25 workstation under BTOS. > > ... Apparently Multiplan saves its files in different > formats on the two different operating systems. Is there any > way in Multiplan to make it save the file in a format that will > be portable to the other machine? > The first thing I would try is to save the file in SYmbolic LinK (SYLK) format. This is an ASCII version of the spreadsheet that preserves pretty much all of the information, including format. To do this, set T)ransfer O)ptions S)ymbolic before you save (and then load) the file. I have no doubt that you might have problems in format compatibility between the Burroughs machine and anything else (they "Burroughs'd" all of the software they released on this not-compatible-with-anything computer, don't blame Microsoft). I don't exactly think of the B25 as a home computer. -- ========================================================================= Regards, Bill Weinberger FileNet Corporation ...! {decvax, ihnp4, ucbvax} !trwrb!felix!billw
jay@ethos.UUCP (Jay Denebeim) (03/25/86)
In article <381@gargoyle.UUCP> west@gargoyle.UUCP (Steve Westfall) writes: >Is there any >way in Multiplan to make it save the file in a format that will >be portable to the other machine? Yes there is, although I've never used either of the multi-plans in question, there should be a way. In the transfer options menu there is a way to change the way the file is saved to SYLK format. This is Microsoft's program/device independent file format. You can load stuff into chart or another machine with this option. All the information in the spreadsheet is stored, so you won't loose anything. It does however cause the save/load to take about 5 times longer. -- Jay Denebeim "One world, one egg, one basket." {seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!mcnc!rti-sel!ethos!jay Deep Thought, ZNode #42 300/1200/2400 919-471-6436
STEVEH@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (Stephen C. Hill) (04/02/86)
Don't just blame Burroughs. I have two vanilla Multiplans (one CP/M and the other one for MS/DOS) and they don't have the same internal format. I had to use the SYLK trick myself. I find this difficult to understand, since I can see no user interface changes, so I can't see why they would want to change the internal format.