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IMPORTING BIFF WORKSHEET FILES In addition to importing DIF, SYLK, and LOTUS 1-2-3 versions 1A and 2.0, Wingz now imports BIFF (Binary Interchange File Format) worksheet files. Although other uses exist, the primary use of this new capability is to read PC Excel versions 2.0 and above or Macintosh Excel versions 2.0 and above worksheet files directly into Wingz. This feature translates worksheet files only; BIFF chart files and BIFF macro sheets are not imported. I. IMPORTING BIFF WORKSHEET FILES Importing your BIFF worksheets into Wingz is as simple as opening a Wingz worksheet. Follow these steps to import your worksheet files: 1) Launch Wingz. 2) Select the Open action from the File pull-down. 3) Select the directory where the BIFF worksheet file is located. 4) Click on the All Documents radio button in the pop-up window. 5) Double-click on the file to be imported; or, click on the desired file and click the Open pushbutton. 6) Wingz automatically imports your BIFF worksheet. As expected when importing foreign file formats, your BIFF files may vary slightly after being imported to Wingz. Before proceeding, review your worksheets carefully for elements which require further modification. II. WORKSHEET DIFFERENCES Because of the inherent differences between Excel and Wingz, some features, functions, and formulas need additional translation after importing. The remainder of this document describes the differences which may be encountered when importing BIFF worksheet files into Wingz. Review each of the following areas to ensure your Wingz worksheet produces the desired results: 1) Protection 2) Formatting 3) Calculation 4) Worksheet elements A. PROTECTED BIFF WORKSHEETS Due to the security imposed by password protection, Wingz cannot import any BIFF worksheet for which the following is true: 1) The worksheet itself is password-protected. 2) The worksheet contains password-protected cells. 3) The worksheet contains password-protected windows. To import these files into Wingz, the password protection must be removed by the original application (Excel). Any BIFF worksheet which is window-protected without a password is imported as a non-window-protected worksheet. B. FORMAT VARIATIONS Wingz and Excel handle standard print options, display options, and custom cell formats slightly differently. The following section defines these exceptions. PRINT OPTIONS In Wingz, headers and footers are defined as cells within the worksheet. In Excel, headers and footers are defined as string ranges in the Page Setup option. Therefore, imported headers and footers are appended to the new Wingz worksheet below its lower left corner. These cells are automatically defined by Wingz as the report header range and report footer range, respectively. As some Excel formatting options are not available in Wingz, the Excel headers and footers are imported literally. That is, macros which define strings in Excel are imported as the macros themselves. For example, suppose an Excel worksheet contains the header "&F." The imported worksheet then contains "&F" as the report header range, appearing below the lower left corner of your worksheet. You can then replace the Excel macro with the desired string. Similarly, suppose the Excel footer is defined as "&Lfooterstring&C&P&D." The imported worksheet contains "&Lfooterstring&C&P&R&D" as the report footer range. This cell appears directly below the header cell. Redefine the footer using the Wingz standards described in Chapter 7: Printing, in the Wingz User's Guide. The Excel print area is imported as the named range Print_Area. However, the report print range is not specifically defined. Define this area by performing the following: 1) Select the area to be printed (named Print_Area) using the Name action from the Go pull-down; 2) Select Report Print Range from the Report cascading pull-down of the Sheet pull-down. Other print options are ignored. These include print gridlines, print row and column headings, margins, paper size, and paper orientation. All printer specific options are also ignored. DISPLAY OPTIONS Wingz ignores the Excel Split Windows and Frozen Titles features. CUSTOM COLOR FORMATTING Wingz and Excel assign custom formatting colors differently. In Wingz, custom formats, positive numbers, zero values, and text entries are assigned a single color. Negative numbers may be assigned a different color, if desired. Excel allows a different color to be assigned to each type of numeric cell entry. For example, consider the Excel custom format: [RED]$#,##;[BLUE]($#,##);[CYAN]GENERAL;[GREEN]GENERAL. Wingz translates the entire custom format but assigns the color red to all positive values, zero values, and text entries. Negative values appear in blue. The Wingz custom format is as follows: $#,##\;($#,##\);GENERAL;GENERAL. FONT CONVERSION If all the fonts in your Excel worksheet are installed on your PC, Wingz directly imports the Excel fonts. If an Excel font is not installed when translating the worksheet, Wingz assigns the default font. You can "map" the Excel font to an existing PC font by executing the HyperScript command: MAP FONT string1 TO string2 String1 is the Excel font to be replaced by the PC font, string2. When the cell(s) containing the mapped font is repainted, the new font is displayed. C. CALCULATION DIFFERENCES PRECISION Wingz always calculates to the greatest possible precision. Therefore, the Excel Precision as Displayed option has no equivalence in Wingz. Wingz performs the calculation to the available precision and then displays the specified number of decimal places. ITERATION Wingz does not import the Excel delta value when using iteration. After importing your worksheet, define the delta value and delta range for iteration. Refer to Chapter 13: Wingz Dictionary, in the Wingz Reference Manual for more information. EXPONENTIATION Wingz performs exponentiation prior to negation in mathematical expressions. Excel calculates negation prior to exponentiation. For example, Wingz evaluates the expression -2^4 as -16; Excel evaluates this expression as 16. D. WORKSHEET ELEMENTS Wingz treats some worksheet elements differently than does Excel. As a result, some variations occur when importing the following: 1) Arrays 2) Cell notes 3) Names 4) Dates 5) Tables 6) Data Bases 7) Formulas ARRAYS Wingz does not use the array notation of Excel. Therefore, arrays and formulas referencing arrays can not be directly imported. Any formulas containing arrays yield an error message. For example, an Excel array formula such as {=A1:A3+B1:B3} translates as ERR{=A1..A3+B1..B3}. Similarly, any formulas containing array constants cannot be directly imported into Wingz. For example, the Excel formula =SUM({1,2,3}*4) imports as ERR=SUM({1,2,3}*4). This example could be corrected by distributing the array. For example, replace this error with the formula =SUM(1*4+2*4+3*4). CELL NOTES Cell notes are not imported into Wingz. NAMES In most cases, if a name in a BIFF worksheet represents a range, Wingz imports the name with its range. However, because of Wingz's potential worksheet size, a valid BIFF name may define a specific cell in Wingz. For example, the cell ABC12 exists in Wingz but does not exist in Excel. Therefore, Wingz imports ABC12 as a cell reference rather than as a name. Wingz does not import a name which represents a value or a formula. To prevent the loss of this information, Wingz appends these names as cells below the footer information. For example, suppose an Excel worksheet contains the following three names: AREA which represents the range A1 through C4 PRINCIPAL which represents the value 1000 INTEREST which represents the value 10% Wingz imports the name AREA with its associated range. PRINCIPAL and INTEREST are each imported as cells containing the names and values. These cells are appended below the page footer information. As Wingz does not recognize names of values and formulas, any imported formulas which refer to these names cannot be calculated. Rewrite these references as the values, cells, or formulas they represent. DATES Wingz successfully imports all BIFF worksheet dates with the following exceptions: 1) Dates formatted using the 1900 date system which occur prior to March 1, 1900 appear one day earlier in Wingz than in Excel. This is due to Excel's recognition of February 29, 1900 as a valid date; 2) When converting from the 1904 date system, date-formatted cells which contain formulas are not adjusted. Check these cells for accuracy. Wingz properly converts all other dates. TABLES Most Excel tables import directly into Wingz. However, some exceptions exist. In these cases, the table values and formulas are properly imported but they do not retain the table properties. The following define the circumstances when a table is not imported directly: 1) Wingz does not use row-input tables. Therefore, any Excel row-input tables are translated as values and formulas. 2) Wingz maintains only one table per worksheet. If your Excel worksheet contains more than one table, the last table retains the table properties. All other tables are converted as values and formulas. DATABASES Wingz translates the Excel data range and criteria range as the named ranges, Database and Criteria, respectively. To use these ranges with database functions, define them as database elements in Wingz. To define the database range perform the following: 1) Choose the Go pull-down. 2) Select the Name action and drag to the Database name. 3) Choose Database from the Sheet pull-down. 4) Select the Data Range action. To define the criteria range perform the following: 1) Choose the Go menu; 2) Select the Name option and drag to the Criteria name; 3) Choose Database from the Sheet menu; 4) Select the Criteria Range option. All Wingz database restrictions apply to imported worksheets. Therefore, CRITERIA MUST BE REDEFINED to meet Wingz standards. Refer to Chapter 6: Managing Worksheets, in the Wingz User's Guide for more information. FORMULAS Most BIFF worksheet formulas are imported directly into Wingz. However, some exceptions exist. Recall that Wingz does not use arrays or names in the same fashion as Excel. Therefore, any formulas containing arrays or names which refer to values or formulas can not be imported directly. Review the above sections on these elements. Other Excel formulas do not translate into Wingz in the following circumstances: 1) The Excel formula contains an error message. Clearly only valid Excel formulas can be imported. 2) Wingz does not contain an equivalent function. These functions and function arguments are imported as text: - Database Functions: DCOUNT, DPRODUCT. - Date Functions: WEEKDAY. - Financial Functions: IPMT, MIRR, NPER, PPMT, RATE. - Information Functions: AREAS, CELL, INDIRECT, ISLOGICAL, T, TYPE. - Lookup Functions: INDEX, LOOKUP, MATCH. - Matrix Functions: MDETERM, MINVERSE, MMULT, TRANSPOSE. - Statistical Functions: COUNT, GROWTH, LINEST, LOGEST, TREND. - Text Functions: CLEAN, SUBSTITUTE, TEXT, VALUE. 3) Wingz does not recognize the same number of arguments or the same type of arguments as does Excel. These yield error messages in Wingz: - Any database function which has a second argument as a field name instead of a number. - DCOUNTA if the second argument is absent. - Date functions which contain combination date/time arguments. - FV, PMT, and PV if the number of arguments is greater than 3. - IRR if the number of arguments is not equal to 2. - DDB if the number of arguments is not equal to 4. 4) THE EXCEL FORMULA ATTEMPTS TO EVALUATE A STRING EXPRESSION IN A FUNCTION WHICH NORMALLY EXPECTS A NUMERIC EXPRESSION. In some circumstances Wingz returns an error message. In other functions, Wingz assigns the text a zero value. For example, Excel evaluates DAY("51166") as the number 1. This function obviously anticipates a date argument. However, Excel attempts to calculate the function anyway. In this example, Wingz requires a date argument, so it returns an error message. In other cases the string argument is evaluated as zero. To prevent confusion, ensure your formulas use the anticipated arguments in Excel before translating to Wingz. This may help eliminate unexpected results. 5) The Excel formula contains a range operator such as intersection or union or a range operand. All formulas which contain range operators yield an error message when imported. For example, the Excel formula =SUM((B1:D1) (D1:D3)) is translated as ERR=SUM((B1..D1) (D1..D3)). In some cases, the Excel formula translates directly into Wingz. However, because the spreadsheets interpret these functions differently, the imported formulas yield different results. These functions are described below: - INT(): In Excel, this function returns the greatest integer less than or equal to the argument. In Wingz, this function returns the integer portion of any numeric expression. In some cases these values are different. Excel Wingz =INT(-9.5) returns -10 -9 NOTE: The TRUNC() function in Excel produces the same results as the INT() function in Wingz. - Wingz statistical functions count the list of items differently than Excel statistical functions. In Excel, statistical functions ignore cells containing text. Wingz includes text cells in the count of items and assigns the text cell a value of 0. (Wingz does not include blank cells in a count of items.) In this example, the cells D1 through D5 contain the following data respectively: 3.4, 15, "Alabama", 19, 3.5. Excel Wingz =VAR(D1..D5) 170.706667 55.049600 This difference is consistent for all statistical functions. Review Chapter 11: Formulas and Functions, in the Wingz Reference Manual for more information. All Database Functions and Statistical Functions which count a list of items are affected by this different method of counting cells. - Boolean logic functions such as TRUE() and FALSE() yield the same results in Wingz as in Excel. However, these results are returned as numbers in Wingz and text in Excel. The Boolean logic functions TRUE() and FALSE() translate as follows: Function Excel Wingz Excel Wingz =TRUE() TRUE 1 TRUE 1 =FALSE() FALSE 0 FALSE 0 This format holds true for all other logic functions (IF(), ISBLANK(), ISERR(), ISNA(), ISNUMBER(), ISRANGE(), ISSTRING()).