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Some PC-based calculator programs have screens that are so crammed full of buttons that it is difficult for the occasional user to figure out what is happening.  ActiCalc has lots of functions, but we recognize that most users don't use many of them under normal circumstances.  With that in mind, the advanced functions are grouped into logical sets.  Each set has its own pane in this section.  

You see only one pane at a time.  You can see a set of functions by clicking the corresponding tab at the top of the section.  By following this model, future ActiCalc versions can add many more functions without cluttering  the screen.

Memory Registers.  ActiCalc provides 3 memory registers.  These are simply places to save the contents of the data entry window.  To save the current data entry window contents into a

, press the "S" button next to the corresponding memory. You can clear the memory (set it to zero) by pressing the "C" button.


To retrieve the contents of the memory, simply touch the number with the mouse cursor.  This will copy the memory register contents into the data entry window, just as if you had typed that number manually.  From that point, you can enter any other function to operate on that number.

Scientific Functions.  When you select the Sci pane, you see an assortment of functions that are commonly used in

.  These should be familiar to anybody doing scientific work.  It is important to note that there are several different categories of functions here.  The logarithm and exponential functions are "binary", meaning that they operate on  two numbers.  The 4 basic functions (+, -, *,  and /) are also binary.

The Pi function is not really a function at all.  Rather, it is an easy way to enter the Pi constant into the data entry window so that you don't have to remember it.

The remaining functions are all "unary" functions, meaning that they require only one number.  As soon as you press a unary function key, the function is performed on the number in the data entry window, and that number is replaced by the result of the calculation.

Financial Functions.  While we are on the topic of the advanced function panes, let's take a brief look at the financial functions pane.  ActiCalc provides the five most commonly used financial functions.  The functions on this pane are part of the premium feature set, so we will not cover them in detail here.  If you often do financial calculations, see