Because of its unique design, PipeDream enables you to combine word processing, database and spreadsheet work and charts within the same window. No cutting and pasting between different applications is necessary and operations such as searching and sorting can apply to all types of work.
The best way to get an idea of what you can achieve by combining different sorts of work is to create a document consisting of different types of data yourself.
In this chapter, you are going to produce a report about a survey of penguins at four Antarctic research stations. The report will require word processing, spreadsheet work and the production of a chart to show the results of your survey. You will incorporate a picture into your document and into your chart and use different fonts to make the report as attractive as possible.
This chapter assumes that you have Trinity and Homerton fonts available. If you have just the System font you can still work through this chapter but the chart and the final report that you produce will not be as pretty.
For more information and tutorial about creating charts in PipeDream, look in the Charts directory in the PipeDream Examples.
The final report that we are going to create is shown below:
The document containing the start of the report may be found in the PipeDream Examples.
The first paragraph of the text has been written for you as follows:
PENGUIN PRESERVATION SOCIETY
MAY 1991 NEWSLETTER
During February 1991, the PPS sent a team of researchers to Antarctica, using the money raised from the highly successful Christmas appeal. Their task was to highlight the need to preserve this last great wilderness as a home for penguins.
In the final version, the heading is centred.
Position the pointer at the beginning of cell A3 and drag down to A5 until the heading is marked.
Give the Centre Align command:
Menu | Command | Tool | Key | Cmd-sequence |
---|---|---|---|---|
Layout | Centre align | ![]() |
LAC |
Click the mark block box to clear the marked block.
When you move off the heading, you will see that it is centred.
The final version of the document is displayed in different fonts from the one you have seen on the screen and on your print-outs so far. You can set a font for the whole document and also change the font for individual parts of it, such as headings. The document will be displayed on the screen and printed out in the font you have chosen.
To set a font for the whole document:
The document will be displayed in 15 point Trinity.Medium.
Because you have changed the font, you need to reformat the text:
Position the caret in cell A8.
Give the Format Paragraph command:
Menu | Command | Tool | Key | Cmd-sequence |
---|---|---|---|---|
Edit | Format paragraph | ![]() |
R |
To specify a change of font for the heading:
When you move to the line containing the heading, the text will jump to the left to make it easier to edit.
PipeDream will insert a text @-field in front of the word
PENGUIN which reads @F:Homerton.Bold,18@
.
This changes the font for the text in this cell only.
When you move off the cell, the text @-field is not displayed.
Instead, the heading text is displayed in 18 point Homerton.Bold:
PENGUIN PRESERVATION SOCIETY
The whole heading will be displayed in 18 point Homerton.Bold.
If you look at the final version, you will see that the second paragraph is indented. Change the width of column A so that it gives an indent for the second paragraph.
Move the pointer to the right hand border of column A. The shape of the pointer will change. Drag to the left until the number in the mark block box changes to 7. If you drag too far to the left, you can drag back to the right. When you drag column borders in this way, the mark block box displays the current width of the column.
Column A now has a width of 7.
Now you can start to type in the rest of the document.
Position the caret in cell A13 and then press Tab.
Type the second paragraph:
To confirm the extremely large number of penguins depending on Antarctica as a base, the team kept a record of the number of penguins sighted on our four research bases during February.
As you get to the end of the first line, the text will wrap onto the next line and start from column B.
The next thing to do is to create a spreadsheet for the data collected by the research team. This will form the basis for your chart.
With PipeDream, there is no need to switch into a different mode or load a different program just because you have been typing text and are now about to create a spreadsheet. Both types of work are carried out in the same window.
Position the caret in cell B18 and type Base.
Now press Tab to position the caret in cell C18 and type Total No.
Type Week 1 into cell D18, Week 2 into cell E18, Week 3 into cell F18 and Week 4 into cell G18.
Position the caret in cell B20 and type the name of the first research station, Palmer.
Continue down the column entering the names of the other research stations.
As you will be entering mainly number cell items from now on, it is a good idea to tell PipeDream to make all new cells number cells. Also, as you are going to show numbers of penguins in this spreadsheet rather than prices, it is best to display the numbers with no decimal places:
Now you can type in the numbers as shown in the table.
As you can see, you need to make column B wider to accommodate the names of the bases.
Move the pointer to the right hand border of column B. The shape of the pointer will change. Drag to the right until the column width displayed in the mark block box changes to 17. If you drag too far to the right, you can drag back to the left. When you drag column borders in this way, the mark block box displays the width of the column.
Now, position the caret in cell C20.
Click the SUM(D20G20)
.
Click the toolbar button (or press Return↵).
Drag until cells C20 to C23 are marked.
Give the Replicate Down command from the menu.
Click the mark block box to clear the marked block.
The data in your spreadsheet is now complete.
Mark the whole document by clicking the mark block box.
Then give the Auto Width command. This ensures that each column is the best width for the data it contains.
Clear the marked block by clicking the mark block box.
The headings Total No., Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4 need to be right aligned so that they line up with the figures beneath them.
Mark the headings and give the Right Align command.
After entering so much data, it is wise to save your document.
Also, you are about to produce a chart from a spreadsheet; you can only do this if the document containing the spreadsheet has been saved.
Give the Save command (F3 or Cmd-FS).
When the Save dialogue box appears, click the button (or press Return↵).
Very often, numeric information is more easily understood when presented in chart form. Now is the time to make a Penguin Graph!
The first thing to do is to mark the block of information you want to be included in the chart.
Be careful not to include headings which you do not want to have in the final chart.
Give the New Chart command:
Menu | Command | Tool | Key | Cmd-sequence |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chart | New chart | ![]() |
CHN |
You will see the Chart Editing Window containing your chart. It will appear as a three-dimensional bar chart.
Use the adjust size icon of the Chart Editing Window to resize the chart until its appearance is pleasing. Notice that as you resize the chart editing window, the chart is redrawn and reformatted appropriately.
You can alter the chart’s appearance by selecting any of its parts and applying settings to them.
First, select the y-axis by clicking on it. This is the vertical line at the left-hand side of the chart on which the numbers are displayed. When you have selected the axis, it will be outlined by a red dotted line and Axis 2 will appear in the top left hand corner of the Chart Editing Window.
With the pointer in the Chart Editing Window, click
.You will see the
menu. Slide off the option and choose the option.You will see the Axis dialogue box. If the numbers up the vertical axis do not increase in steps of 1000, change the Major tick interval setting to 1000. Click the button.
In the Chart Editing Window, click Bar Gallery. In the Bar Gallery click the 3-D on option to switch off 3-D. 3-D can be good for business charts but less so for penguins! Click the button showing a set of stacked penguins and then click the button.
. Slide off the option and choose the option to bring up theNow that your chart is ready, you need to save it into your document.
In the document’s window, position the caret in cell B25.
Slide off the
option in the menu.Slide off the
option.Drag the chart’s file icon into the document window. The chart’s file icon looks like a PipeDream icon.
The chart is positioned in your document at the caret position. You may need to press Return↵ a few times to scroll the chart into the window.
If the chart does not look right, move back into cell B25 where you will see something like @G:Pengui_C01,100@
.
100 is a percentage scale factor, which instructs PipeDream to draw the picture at 100% of its normal size. Changing the number rescales the chart.
You now have a document consisting of text, spreadsheet and chart. What is more, both the spreadsheet and the chart are dynamic. If you receive new information, you can make changes.
For example, you hear from one of your team of researchers that the figure given for penguins sighted at Dumont d'Urville in the fourth week of February is wrong. In fact only 720 penguins were seen.
Make this change to your spreadsheet by typing 720 into cell G22. You will see the total number change accordingly. Also, your chart will change to reflect the new figure.
The text on the chart can be displayed in different fonts in the same way as the document text.
Menu | Command | Tool | Key | Cmd-sequence |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chart | Edit chart | CHE |
You will see a list of charts, probably only containing the name of the chart you have just produced, Chart 1. Click Chart 1.
The chart will be displayed in the Chart Editing Window.
The chart is displayed in the font you have chosen.
When you are happy with the appearance of the chart, close the Chart Editing Window by clicking its close icon.
One final change is to add the Penguin Preservation Society’s logo as a document heading.
Pictures of penguins will appear on each side of the title.
At this stage, it is advisable to save your document again.
If your document contains fonts, charts, the grid or pictures, you need to use a RISC OS printer driver to print it. Your Penguins document contains fonts, a chart and a picture! Ensure that a RISC OS printer driver is loaded - the desired printer driver icon should be present on the icon bar. If you do not know how to load a RISC OS printer driver, consult your RISC OS User Guide.
Give the Print command.
Menu | Command | Tool | Key | Cmd-sequence |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
PO |
You will see the Print dialogue box.
At the top of the dialogue box, you will see the type of RISC OS printer driver currently available. Make sure that this is what you want.
At this stage, you should not need to change any of the other settings.
Click the
button.Assuming your printer is correctly connected to your computer and is on-line, your document will be printed.
You have produced your first Penguin Graphics!