Lotus 1-2-3 is ideal for making simple list-type databases, where you might want to look at the list from different perspectives. As an example, let's create a list of your debts, including the creditor, amount of monthly payment, day of the month payment is due, and outstanding balance. Open LOTUS to a blank spreadsheet. In cell A1 put the label, Creditor. In B1 put Monthly. In C1 put Day. In D1 put Outstand. In cell A2 enter the first creditor, Citibank. In cell B2 put the monthly payment, say 54.30. In cell C2 put day of month it's due, say 23 (23rd of each month). In cell D2 put the outstanding balance, say 1756.25. In each of the subsequent rows follow the same pattern. Enter about five examples.
Let's sort the list of creditors from greatest outstanding balance to least outstanding balance. Press (MENU) Data Sort Data-Range (ENTER). Move the cursor to cell A2 and press the period key (.). Then move the cursor down to cell D6 and press (ENTER). This selects the range A2...D6 for the Data-Range, and brings you back to the screen that says "Sort Settings." Now select the field you want to sort by. Press Primary-Key, move the cursor to D1 and press (ENTER). Press D for descending, (ENTER) Go. The 95LX screen will look something like this:
Worksheet Sorted on Outstanding Balance: Graphic
We could look at the same data sorted alphabetically by creditor name, monthly payment, or day of the month due. To sort by a different column, select a different cell after you press Primary Key (i.e. A1, B1, or C1). (Caution: Make sure you set the Data Range for all columns. If you set it to one column (i.e. D1..D6) only that column will be sorted, destroying your database. In the example above, the outstanding balances would be associated with the wrong creditors. Use 1-2-3 and the sort feature to keep track of your music collection, recipes, stamp collection, or any other list that you might want to sort and view from different perspectives. (For more on LOTUS sort, see page 5-29 to 5-34 of the HP 95LX User's Guide.)