Calculator

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on June 28, 2012

Calculator is -- wait for it! -- a calculator. A desktop calculator. But we'll tell you that Calculator by Willy's Freeware isn't just a free desktop calculator, it's quite a nice one. Like the built-in Windows Calculator and most of the rest of the competition, it's designed to look and function like an old-style desktop calculator, the kind that sat on top of your desk and had real buttons you could push. Calculator has a few interesting twists, such as a new History Pane that functions like a tally roll on an adding machine, except you can copy and paste the data into a word processor or similar app. You can also paste strings of numbers into Calculator and it will recognize them as if you'd entered them the usual way. Calculator has a separate, permanent memory display that records all changes. It handles both rounded and floating decimals automatically. You can set and change a Constant independently of Calculator's main memory, too, and use it to calculate currency exchanges and other calculations requiring a particular value.

Calculator's user interface looks like a handheld calculator, only with a slightly larger display for its memory window; otherwise it's the usual layout of number pad and function keys. The main entry field is highlighted in yellow to distinguish it from the much more prominent memory field, with the Clear All button in red. Calculator has keys for square roots and percentages, but it's not a scientific calculator. As an everyday calculator, we found no fault with the program, although some users of 64-bit versions of Windows might have trouble opening the Help file because of an unrelated (but correctable) issue. But we had little difficulty in figuring things out on our own; for instance, clicking SC let us set a constant, and clicking RC recalled it.

The PC basically drove the handheld calculator off the desktop and onto the hips of engineering students, but it wasn't long before the calculator was back, only in virtual form on the Windows desktop. If you want or need a better one than Windows packs, we definitely recommend Calculator.

Publisher's Description

From WV:

This calculator is a computer implementation of an electronic hand calculator. It offers the following additional features: A history pane offering the versatility of a control tape ("Tally roll"). You can copy the contents of this pane and paste it into your favorite word processor for printing. You can paste numbers into the main display and you can act upon them as if you typed them yourself. The value stored in memory is permanently visible in a separate memory display and immediately reflects any changes made to memory. The actual value of the main as well as memory display can be copied for use in another application such as a spreadsheet. Entries can be corrected: either entirely by clicking [CE] or pressing [Delete] on your keyboard or partially by using the backspace key. You can select whether results are rounded (zero or two decimals) or not (floating decimal separator). Calculator uses automatically the decimal separator selected in the regional settings of Windows. Independently from memory, you can set a number to use as a constant. You can then perform instant multiplications or divisions by this constant. This is particularly useful to quickly convert currencies.