HP 20b Consultant Financial, 30b Professional manual Messages

Messages

The MSG function is used to display messages on screen; it is especially useful when used

before halting the program with (HOLD), as it allows you to display messages on the screen for the user.

To enter a message while creating a program:

Press :(HOLD) . Release both keys. You can now enter messages.

In this mode, you may press >or <to select a character and :(HOLD) > or <to jump 10 characters at a time. Once you have found the desired character, press tto validate and move to the next character. Press {to remove the last character. There are also shortcuts for commonly used characters:

•0-9selects the corresponding numeric character

•.selects ?

•=selects =

•/*+-are shortcuts for the corresponding mathematical operator signs

•}selects space

Once the character appears, press tto validate. Press Oto exit message entry. If you want to modify a message that has been entered in a program, select the message and

press :(HOLD) message mode.

As an example using the message mode, let’s return to our sphere calculation program:

1.:EIopens the Program menu, and you are now at step 1 of Program 0. To insert a message at step 1 and push everything else down, simply begin editing at

step 1. If you want to delete the current step, press {.

2. Press :(HOLD) .

84 Programming