Spreadsheet

Updated 01/31/14

What is the Spreadsheet

A wide variety of  column headings are available. For more details on the many headings. Click here.

Sorting and Ranking

The spreadsheet can be sorted by any column. This effectively ranks the issues by that column's values. Just click in the column header at the top of a column to sort. Clicking a second time will reverse the order of the ranking, ascending/descending.

Right-click Menu

• The Spreadsheet is treated as a special case of the Issue List.

• Font - Allows you to change the font in which the spreadsheet is displayed

• Add to PopList - This menu item replaces the "Show PopList menu item when the PopList is Visible. The PopList is just a free floating Issue List used for scratch purposes. The PopList is an Issue List and has all the property of a regular Issue List as shown in this section. Clicking "Add to PopList" copies the highlighted issues on the current Issue List to the PopList. Hitting the <Insert> key while the mouse is in the Issue List also copies the highlighted issues to the PopList.
• Show PopList - The PopList remains invisible until this is clicked. The PopList must be visible before "Show PopList" changes to "Add to PopList". However, the <Insert> key works regardless of PopList visibility.
• Show in Browser - When this menu item is clicked, the last clicked ticker symbol in the spreadsheet will be sent to the Internet Tab and appended to the existing Issue List on the Internet Tab. Also, the current Internet page showing will be pulled up for the new symbol. This means that if the 15-minute Candlesticks real-time (delayed) chart is displayed on the Internet Tab that it will be redisplayed for the new symbol.
• Copy - Copies the selected issues to the Windows Clipboard. Highlighting one issue copies the whole list to the clipboard. Highlighting multiple issues copies only those issues to the clipboard.
• Paste - Pastes the issues stored in the Windows Clipboard. When multiple issues are on the clipboard, then an AVG of all the issues is pasted to a ColorBar cell. Pasting to a list adds issues to the list without deleting the current contents of the spreadsheet ,
• Select All - Selects all issues in the spreadsheet.
• Save Family - Saves the spreadsheet  to the family named at the top of the spreadsheet . Only the ticker symbols and issue names are saved in a family. Save as a TSV or CSV file to preserve the full spreadsheet.
• Save Family as - Saves the spreadsheet  to a  family name you choose in the Family Loader/Saver Dialog.
• Load Family -Loads a  Family into the spreadsheet . Pops up the Family Loader/Saver Dialog. All column value are recomputed.
• Print Issue List - Prints the entire spreadsheet. Note: That the font size of the printed list is the same as displayed on the screen. If you want larger print, then increase the font size on the screen. Even if it looks bad on the screen, it may giver you the desired result on the page. Too large font sizes may cause long printed lines to wrap around making the listing a mess.
• Save as- Allows you to save spreadsheet in CSV or TSV formats. See the Load/Save dialog.
• Load- Allows you to load CSV and TSV files into the spreadsheet. See the Load/Save dialog.
• Clear List - Clears the spreadsheet. Clicking Yes for the removal of nonessential columns causes the spreadsheet to be reloaded with the column headings saved in
  C:\FT\FT4WIN\SPREADSHEETS\DEFAULT.CSV You may save your preferred column header settings in this file to always have your preferred columns loaded.
• Undo Clear - Reverses the last Clear List reloading the list as it was before clearing. You might, alternately, reload the Undo_Clear Family.
• Del Issue - Deletes all highlighted issues. You may also hit <Del> to perform the same action.
• Renumber- Renumber the rows in a spreadsheet.
• Add Col - Pops up a list of column value choices. Click for details.
•  Del Col - Right-click the top of the column in the column header to display the menu, then selected the Del Col menu item to delete that column. This won't work if you don't right-click in the column header.
• Compute - Used on the Internet Tab and the SpreadSheet Tab. On the spreadsheet, clicking this menu item recomputes the columns values for all rows.
• Full Spreadsheet - This menu item will load the FastTrack spreadsheet into the default spreadsheet program (usually Excel).
  Clicking this option will also create a .CSV file which should be saved in the \FT4WIN\SPREADSHEETS\USERDEF folder. See notes on Excel below.
• Print screen - Prints the whole, current image of the FastTrack as a bit-mapped image including charts, lists, etc.

Saving a Spreadsheet

Save all columns the spreadsheet as a CSV file (use the savE as menu item. This differs from saVe family as menu item which saves ONLY the ticker symbols. CSV's store the column headers for the spreadsheet as well as the data.

Saving Column Headings

 To saved the headings,

1. Right-click and select "Clear List". 
2. Do Keep the column headings (YES). 
3. Right-click the spreadsheet. Select "savE as".
4. Save the spreadsheet header in:

    \FT4WIN\SPREADSHEETS\USERDEF\DEFAULT.CSV

Upon startup, FT4WEB will  load this file and display  its headers. 

Alternately, save or load any spreadsheet. On restart, the header, as shown when FT4WEB was shut down, will be loaded (but not its data).

Adding Columns to the Spreadsheet

Click here for details.

Renaming / Editing Column Headers

Why would I want to rename a column?

1. if you change a date listed in the column heading then the values in that column will use the edited date when you click recompute.
2. if you save the headers or a spreadsheet with a renamed column, AND the keyword in that column (like "Return") is changed, then that spreadsheet can be reloaded with that renamed column intact. FT4Web does not change columns when the header keyword not recognized.

Right click on the column to be renamed and select "rename".

Note: If you use the repeating columns (Weekly, Monthly, etc) the dates used will be the dates you edited. These dates can be any dates. In other words, editing a "Weekly" column header to contain 1/1/1990 - 1/07/2000 will cause a computation for a span of  10 years + one week .

Resizing Columns

To change the width look for the splitter when moving the mouse pointer across the header. Even if it doesn't appear, click and hold on a vertical column border and drag to change the column's width. The width will be remembered from session to session. The width may be different for each column type like Beta, MaxDraw, etc. If the fonts are changed, the width will have to be reset.

To Sort and Rank the Issues in Ascending or Descending Order According to any of the Columns.

Click any column header. The spreadsheet will alternate between ascending and descending sorting with each click.

Printing the Spreadsheet

Use the right-click Print menu item. See Issue List Printing.

To Chart an Issue

C1ick-and-hold its symbol and drag it the ColorBar.

To Move the Current Spreadsheet List to Other Tabs

Click and hold the Issue List name field until the appears, then drag and drop on the desired tab.

Using Excel with FT Data

When displaying week, month, quarter, or annual data on the Spreadsheet, the data is listed with the most recent period first. This  makes it convenient to view the most recent data which is, generally, the most important. However, viewing this spreadsheet in Excel and creating a chart will produce a disconcerting reversal of the X-axis and poor chart labels.

Instead, use the spreadsheet export. The order of the export and the chart labels is ideal for Excel charting..

Nonetheless, if you want to use the visible spreadsheet for whatever reason. In Excel, be sure the x axis is visible, then select it, the use the Format option. You can reverse the plotting order of categories or values for most charts, as well as of data series for 3-D charts with a third axis. You cannot reverse the plotting order of values in a radar chart.

• Click the axis for the categories, values, or series whose plotting order you want to change.
• On the Format menu, click Selected Axis, and then click the Scale tab.
• To reverse the plotting order of categories, select the Categories in reverse order check box.
• To reverse the plotting order of values, select the Values in reverse order check box.
• To reverse the plotting order of series for 3-D charts, select the Series in reverse order check box.