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Documenting Mathcad Files

MikeArmstrong
5-Regular Member

Documenting Mathcad Files

As my list of stored Mathcad files grows by the day I thought I would create a thread for collabs to suggest the method used for filing their worksheets. I have that many sheets saved I am finding it increasing difficult to locate the functions/worksheets that I am lookinf for.

I have modified the 'Normal' template so the Vector, String, Nested Array and Cubic Splines routines appear when Mathcad is opened and they are deleted if not used when I save as, but their must be a better way of documenting all saved function, sheets etc.

Excel has been chosen software to handle my filing but it's time consuming and a little tedious.

Mike

13 REPLIES 13

>As my list of stored Mathcad files grows by the day I thought I would create a thread for collabs to suggest the method used for filing their worksheets. I have that many sheets saved I am finding it increasing difficult to locate the functions/worksheets that I am lookinf for.

I have modified the 'Normal' template so the Vector, String, Nested Array and Cubic Splines routines appear when Mathcad is opened and they are deleted if not used when I save as, but their must be a better way of documenting all saved function, sheets etc.

Excel has been chosen software to handle my filing but it's time consuming and a little tedious.

Mike

>>>>______________________________

Is it possible that there is nothing to understand to what you are trying to say ?

What is Excel doing in there, in a filing system, in filing Mathcad ws ?

The matter is to organise your sheet names and Windows does the rest for you.

_Spline Bézier

_Spline Catmull Clark

_Spline Esplina

_Spline Polyline

_Spline Lagrange

_Spline Complex

_Spline Cubic_0

_Spline Cubic_1

_Spline B

_Spline Interpolate Fit

............................ etc.

Sorry Mike, what is your problem or suggestion ?

Jean

MikeArmstrong
5-Regular Member
(To:jeanGiraud)

Is it possible that there is nothing to understand to what you are trying to say ?

What is Excel doing in there, in a filing system, in filing Mathcad ws ?

The matter is to organise your sheet names and Windows does the rest for you.

_Spline Bézier

_Spline Catmull Clark

_Spline Esplina

_Spline Polyline

_Spline Lagrange

_Spline Complex

_Spline Cubic_0

_Spline Cubic_1

_Spline B

_Spline Interpolate Fit

............................ etc.

Sorry Mike, what is your problem or suggestion ?

Jean

Jean,

Your right you can organize as above but you can't really see what's in each worksheet, just have to rely on memory. I have created an Excel worksheet which gives a description of each function and a hyperlink to open that sheet.

Just enquiring how other collabs choose to file their worksheets.

Oh ! I see why Excel ... Excel as a TOC for Mathcad.

Make a Mathcad TOC directly [TOC = Table Of Content].

About the content of a specific work sheet, better have it

in the head [associative memory].

You will surely manage your own stuff.

Jean

I use a lot of folders to store sheets by category. I also tend to use long, descriptive names for the worksheets that include as many keywords as possible (i.e. words I think I might search for). For individual functions, I keep a few separate sheets and put any functions I might reuse frequently in those. They can be put in areas to group them together. Searching one or two worksheets for a desired function is much easier than searching dozens of worksheets!

MikeArmstrong
5-Regular Member
(To:RichardJ)

Richard Jackson wrote:

I use a lot of folders to store sheets by category. I also tend to use long, descriptive names for the worksheets that include as many keywords as possible (i.e. words I think I might search for). For individual functions, I keep a few separate sheets and put any functions I might reuse frequently in those. They can be put in areas to group them together. Searching one or two worksheets for a desired function is much easier than searching dozens of worksheets!

Richard,

I'm just trying to get a few ideas to help with the organizing of worksheets. Some good ideas cheers.

Mike

While reading Richard filing system, I was sure reading mine !

Like a 1/1 filing system. I care less for keyword in the file name

because Windows finds in the work sheet itself, takes longer.

How often do I have to search ? Less than ½ dozen/year.

They are not all grouped by type of applications, because

some deserve their own work sheet. I have very few Given/Find

but a master collection "Given/Find" [> 80 pages] because

Given/Find is Given/Find.

Jean

MikeArmstrong
5-Regular Member
(To:jeanGiraud)

Jean,

Everyone will have a different method of filing and I suppose it's what works for each individual.

Cheers for the explanation.

Mike

MIke Armstrong wrote:

Jean,

Everyone will have a different method of filing and I suppose it's what works for each individual.

Cheers for the explanation.

Mike

Sure Mike,

An old suggestion in Mathcad collab ,

the TOC from Xavier was well adopted.

Jean

MikeArmstrong
5-Regular Member
(To:jeanGiraud)

jean Giraud wrote:

MIke Armstrong wrote:

Jean,

Everyone will have a different method of filing and I suppose it's what works for each individual.

Cheers for the explanation.

Mike

Sure Mike,

An old suggestion in Mathcad collab ,

the TOC from Xavier was well adopted.

Jean

Cheers Jean,

Found the TOC worksheet from the old collab. Works a treat.

Mike

Before I Save As..., I think very carefully about the filename of the worksheet. I put the most important concept of the work sheet at the first part of the filename so that files listed alphanumerically sort the files accordingly.

Then, at the top of the worksheet is the extended name of the worksheet (I try to keep it to one line). The very next line is a one sentence description of the worksheet. The filename is usually a contraction of the extended name of the worksheet. For example, in a worksheet that calculates Johnson noise in a resistor, the first two line of the worksheet are:

Noise- Johnson thermal noise of a resistor

Calculate the noise power, voltage, current and charge in a resistor.

The filename I chose for this worksheet is “NoiseJohnson-vs-R.mcd”. I use automatic filename in the Header so that printouts show the filename of the worksheet. For revisions, I append 2 digit numbers (e.g., 01, 02, 03, …, 10, 11, …) so that revisions also sort alphanumerically. I’ve never had more than 100 revisions in a worksheet.

This works very well for me. Occasionally, I use Windows Search text inside file to find calculation that I’ve already done.

MikeArmstrong
5-Regular Member
(To:ovanni)

Cheers for the input. Thought this post was dead.

Cheers

Mike

Let me to revive this point.

In mathcad 14 you have the File/Properties dialog to insert the title, author, description, keywords, etc inside the file, like all the microsoft office files. For the file name I prefer the old 8.3 DOS rule.

In the attached, this is the metadata stored as user data

<userData>
<title>True long title (not the filename)</title>
<description>Logn description.</description>
<author>lastname, name</author>
<company>Something</company>
<keywords>keyword1, keyword2</keywords>
<revisedBy/>
</userData>

I think that you can edit your normal.mct to include some permanent topics, like author, etc, or (with notepad) to insert your own fields.

Regards. Alvaro.

MikeArmstrong
5-Regular Member
(To:AlvaroDíaz)

Cheers Alvaro,

Very helpful.

Mike

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