+@node Quick Tutorial
+@chapter Quick Tutorial
+@cindex introduction
+@cindex tutorial
+
+If you want to get started quickly and think that you know what to
+expect from a simple spreadsheet, this chapter may be all that you
+need.
+
+First, visit a new file with the @file{.ses} extension.
+Emacs presents you with an empty spreadsheet containing a single cell.
+
+Begin by inserting a headline: @kbd{"Income"@key{RET}}. The double
+quotes indicate that this is a text cell. (Notice that Emacs
+automatically inserts the closing quotation mark.)
+
+To insert your first income value, you must first resize the
+spreadsheet. Press @key{TAB} to add a new cell and navigate back up
+to it. Enter a number, such as @samp{2.23}. Then proceed to add a
+few more income entries, e.g.:
+
+@example
+@group
+A
+ Income
+ 2.23
+ 0.02
+ 15.76
+ -4.00
+@end group
+@end example
+
+To add up the values, enter a Lisp expression:
+
+@example
+(+ A2 A3 A4 A5)
+@end example
+
+Perhaps you want to add a cell to the right of cell A4 to explain
+why you have a negative entry. Pressing @kbd{TAB} in that cell
+adds an entire new column @samp{B}, where you can add such a note.
+
+The column is fairly narrow by default, but pressing @kbd{w} allows
+you to resize it as needed. Make it 20 characters wide. You can
+now add descriptive legends for all the entries, e.g.:
+
+@example
+@group
+A B
+ Income
+ 2.23 Consulting fee
+ 0.02 Informed opinion
+ 15.76 Lemonade stand
+ -4 Loan to Joe
+ 14.01 Total
+@end group
+@end example
+
+By default, the labels in column B are right-justified. To change
+that, you can enter a printer function for the whole column, using
+e.g., @kbd{M-p ("%s")}. You can override a column's printer function
+in any individual cell using @kbd{p}.
+
+If Joe pays back his loan, you might blank that entry; e.g., by
+positioning the cursor in cell A5 and pressing @kbd{C-d} twice.
+If you do that, the total cell will display @samp{######}. That is
+because the regular @code{+} operator does not handle a range that
+contains some empty cells. Instead of emptying the cell, you could
+enter a literal @samp{0}, or delete the entire row using @kbd{C-k}.
+An alternative is to use the special function @code{ses+} instead of
+the regular @code{+}:
+
+@example
+(ses+ A2 A3 A4 A5)
+@end example
+
+To make a formula robust against changes in the spreadsheet geometry,
+you can use the @code{ses-range} macro to refer to a range of cells by
+the end-points, e.g.:
+
+@example
+(apply 'ses+ (ses-range A2 A5))
+@end example
+
+(The @code{apply} is necessary because @code{ses-range} produces a
+@emph{list} of values. This allows for more complex possibilities.)
+
+@c ===================================================================
+
HCoop / bpt / emacs.git / blobdiff