To access the course material related to spreadsheets, you need to get
an account on ACADLABS. You do this using MAYA in York's normal way.
Note that this account is different from your email account.

From the Computing Commons, use your ACADLABS username and password to
log into your account.  The pathname for the folder containing the
course files is

/Drive H/fac/dhp/XLupdated2003/
if you are on a PC
and is
/ACADLABS2.USR/fac/dhp/XLupdated2003/ 
if you are on a Mac.

On a PC, you will have to navigate to this folder; on a Mac, your
desktop will already have an icon for ACADLABS2.USR The files in this
folder are READ ONLY. To get copies that you can then modify, you should
copy the files to a new folder on your local machine and either work
with the duplicates there in the lab (using the lab's copy of EXCEL) or
copy them to a diskette to take home or email them to yourself as
attachments.

Once you have them, it is advisable to make a backup copy of the files
so that if you mess one up, you don't have to go back to ACADLABS to
retrieve a fresh copy.

For some, but not all, of our course files,
simply double-clicking on the filename will automatically launch EXCEL.
For the others, you will need to first launch EXCEL yourself and then
ask EXCEL to 'open' the relevant file.

The pathname for the lab copy of EXCEL is
/w95apps/Office97/
if you are on a PC 
and is
/ACADLABS2.APPS/MacAPPS/MicrosoftOffice98/
if you are on a Mac.

On a PC, you will have to navigate to this folder; on a Mac, your
desktop will already have an icon for ACADLABS2.APPS

From off campus or from some of the on-campus labs that are not directly
connected to these CNS servers, the course files themselves (but not
EXCEL) are accessible using either an FTP client or any standard
web-browser; point it at the following URL:
labfiles.yorku.ca
You will then need to use your ACADLABS username and password to log in.
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Concerning the files themselves:

There are three aspects of EXCEL that we will focus on.

(1) Formulas in EXCEL (their syntax and basic features, such as the
difference between absolute and relative cell references). The file
named Page27.XLW addresses this issue.

(2) The use of EXCEL's built-in financial functions (we only cover the
basic ones, such as PV, FV, RATE, etc. See the file named
FinancialFunctions.XLW for details.) The file named FinFcnsCribsheet.doc
is a Microsoft Word file that I made for convenience; it assembles into
a single file descriptions of the syntax used by the various financial
functions.

(3) Goal-Seek (See the files named Page79Example3.XLW and
Page98ExerciseB7.XLW)

The files that I have not mentioned specifically above should be treated
as recommended reading. In particular, if you are still uncertain about
various aspects of mortgage and/or bond schedules, the best way to
develop a thorough understanding is to create for yourself spreadsheets
that implement them. (See the files named AmortisedLoan.XLW and
BondSchedule.XLW)

More files will be added to our course folder at a later date when we
get to Chapter 9.