The File menu is the most important
menu in Gnumeric because it gives
the user the ability to interact with the computer operating
system. This menu allows the user to create files containing
all the work they have done. It also enables users to print
the results of their work. Finally, the
File menu is the best way to close
Gnumeric.
The menu choices are grouped into the following groups:
File operations.
These menu items perform operations on files. Each item is
presented below. File operations are critical and are therefore
discussed in their own section latter in this manual in Chapter 10.
New --- Create a new workbook. This
opens a new workbook in a new window. By default the workbook
will be named "Book1" or another number if there is already a
worksheet with that name open. Note that the opened file has
not yet been saved.
Open... --- The
Open menu item opens the file chooser
dialog to allow the user to pick an existing workbook for
Gnumeric to open. Only two file types can be opened with this
option. The Open menu item can open
Gnumeric's default XML
based file format which uses the extension ".gnumeric" and can
open Microsoft Excel's file format which uses the ".xls" extension.
The Open menu item creates a new window
containing the selected file. A more extensive dicsussion is
presented in Section 10.2.1.
Import... --- The
Import... menu item opens a file
chooser dialog similar to the one opened by the
Open menu item. The
Import... dialog has a file type
selector in which the user can pick supported file
formats. For more information on file import, including the
extensive druid to assist users importing text files, such
as tab delimited files or comma separated value files,
see Section 10.2.2.
Save --- The
Save menu item saves the current
worksheet. If the file has been named and saved before, this will
silently save the file to the current filename. If it has not been
saved before, this will act as if the
Save As... menu item had been called and
prompt the user for a filename.
Save As... --- The
Save As... menu item allows users to save
a file which has not yet been named to a named file. This is always
used when a user saves a file which Gnumeric has named by default.
This menu item can also be used to save a newly created file or to
save an existing file to a new and different name. For an
explanation of the file formats which gnumeric supports see
Section 10.1.
Printing operations.
These menu items enable Gnumeric to print. Each item is
presented below and printing issues are discussed fully in Chapter 11.
Print Setup... --- The
Print Setup... menu item call the
Print Setup dialog. This dialog allows the
user to set various printing options such as paper type, margin
sizes and running header and footer formats. This dialog is
explained in detail in Section 11.2.
Print... --- The
Print... menu item allows a user to print
one or all of the worksheets in a workbook. Gnumeric can send files
directly to a printer or can print to postscript or portable
document format files. The
Print dialog is
explained further in Section 11.1.
Print Preview... --- The
Print Preview... menu item calls a dialog
which presents the current workbook as it would be printed with the
current Print Setup settings. The dialog also
permits the user to print. This dialog is explained in
Section 11.3.
The document summary.
This menu item opens a dialog with fields to edit the
document summary information of
the file currently open in that window. Summary information
describes the sheet, for instance, with the author name and
a comment.
Recently used files.
These menu entries are shortcuts to re-open recently used
files. The list will change dynamically as new workbooks are
opened and created. Clicking on a file name listed here is the
same as using the Open menu entry and
finding the file in the Find File
dialog. Note that if the file has been moved since Gnumeric last
saved it, Gnumeric will not find the file.
The Close and Quit operations.
These menu items either close the current
worksheet, Close, or close all open
worksheets, Quit. Gnumeric will prompt
the user with a Save Workbook.. dialog for
any workbooks that have been changed since the last time they were
opened or saved.
Close --- The
Close menu item allows the user to
close the current workbook. If this is the only workbook
which this instance of Gnumeric has open, the close
operation will also quit Gnumeric. If other workbooks are
open, this workbook will close without affecting the others.
If the workbook has unsaved changes, Gnumeric will ask
the user if he wants to save the file.
Exit --- The
Exit menu item will close all the
workbooks currently being used by Gnumeric and quit the
program. Gnumeric will prompt the user asking if he wants to
save any workbooks which has changes which have not been
saved.