Grrr...

OpenOffice does not appear to have any rudimentary macro recording capability, nor any capability in the Basic language to do things to cells, such as clear their contents.

Strange.

Fixing the calculation problem with the spreadsheet took about 5 minutes, once I tracked down the problem to one specific cell that was propagating its heartburn to a bunch of other cells.

Then having to work around not having a button or a checkbox on the page took maybe another hour. I now have the sheet set up so that improper input will trigger the display of an INVALID string next to the offending cell.

However, try as I might, I cannot think of any artifice that will allow a certain range of cells to be cleared upon, say, pressing the F3 key.

I may have to reeducate the store staff (Galina, Drew, and Lee, not to mention myself).

Way past bed time.

Cheers...

Tired...

Despite whatever time I posted my earlier message, I slogged onward, searching the Web for any semblance of a clue as to how to write a successful macro for OpenOffice's Calc spreadsheet.

No dice.

Just about all of the stuff on the OpenOffice Web site that purports to address the API falls way short, in my opinion, of giving the reader enough information to actually do any programming. An older StarBASIC programming tutorial throws a bunch of code snippets at you that are missing some essential lines to make the code actually work.

Maybe what I'm doing is wasting time with this spreadsheet, but as I see it, it's the closest thing I have to something that'll do the job. I'm not at all confident of being able to whip up and debug a MySQL-based CGI script (using, say, PHP) in less than a day.

After all, there are other things to do. In some kind of priority order, need to:

• catch up on customer charge statements. (Ugh!)
  
• copy essential files from 'alice' and reinstall Linux on the machine. (The UPS file is the only really essential file; it's worth a couple of hundred dollars. A few other files would be nice to preserve, though.)
  
• install OpenOffice and the rate spreadsheet on 'alice'.
  
• finish putting up a wall pegboard to display items for customers. I cut the thing 2 inches too wide yesterday.
  
• install Galina's old laptop in Drew's area and run a network cable to it.
  
• figure out what to do with the second Dell computer. Lee and Drew think it should go on the "other" end of the customer service counter so we can have two stations serving customers. Personally, I think it's overkill. Putting this computer up will invove making sure that electrical power and a network cable are run to the machine, installing OpenOffice, and copying the rate spreadsheet to the hard drive. (I dropped this off my list for today as I wrote it... :^)
  

I must have gotten around 5 hours of sleep. Drew wants to go with me around 4 or 5 pm to the local driving range to hit a few balls (who am I to object?). Time is a-wastin', as they say in some parts of the country.

Cheers...

Who'd name their parrot "Moses"?

There appears to be smoke or something coming in from over the Divide. Galina swears there's an odor of burnt something in the air... I can sort of sense it, but I'm not sure it's not autosuggestion. There's nothing on any of the local radio channels about it.

Mid-afternoon status:

• catch up on customer charge statements. (Now to review the summary... there are still too many errors being made!)
  
• copy essential files from 'alice' and reinstall Linux on the machine. (RedHat 7.3)
  
• install OpenOffice and the rate spreadsheet on 'alice'. (In work.)
  
• finish putting up a wall pegboard to display items for customers. (It needs a little touchup with white paint.)
  
• install Galina's old laptop in Drew's area and run a network cable to it. (I need to fasten the desk more securely to the wall.)

Cheers...