CONTENTS
Read Me Sheet
Farm Info Sheet
Crop Planner Sheets
Calculators Sheet
Neighbors Sheet
Data Sheet
Unlock Sheets
Common Questions
This text file goes into more detail of how the Farm Manager works and what can be done with the tables and tools it contains. I hope this will answer many of the questions users may have about the workbook.
READ ME SHEET
The Read Me sheet is a synopsis of what the workbook can do for managing your farms. A quick read of this sheet should be enough to get you started using the Farm Manager. Farm Manager can now manage two farms, your main farm and the new expansion farm now available. Both farms share the same coins, farm cash, and experience points which make it a simple matter to keep these current. The Farm Info and Inventory sheets are where this information is inputted. More detail on those sheets follows below.
FARM INFO SHEET
The Farm Info page is where you will input your farmer name and the name(s) of your farm(s). There are also cells for the server number of each farm, the farm id (Open Office 3, Excel 8.0 and above only), the size of each farm, coins or farm cash spent for each land upgrade, current coins, farm cash, experience points, amount of fields for each farm, and the amount of farms you have. The only items which need to be kept current is the amount of fields for each farm, the rest are optional however handy to have if you keep the data current. This other data is used to return information such as the next land size available, for each farm, the cost and the amount of coins or farm cash you will have left after the next purchase. The experience points will return the display of your current level, level name, the next level number, and how many points you need to achieve the next level. The farmer and farm names will display on the top of the other sheets, this helps ensure you are working with the correct planner for each farm. When the farm id is entered for each farm it will change the display and create a link to the farm (Facebook farms only). I do not have the second farm at this time so I am not sure how to find the id unless it is displayed in the browser address bar (see Common Questions below) I have included this for now; if it becomes apparent it cannot work I will remove it in future releases. If you are logged on Facebook it will load your farm, if not the Log On page will show and the farm will load. The server numbers serve no purpose to the workbook, they are there for reference if there is a problem with one or both of the farms and you need to post an issue on the Help & Support forum. The purchases and planting point cells are dependent on the information from the Inventory sheet to be correct. The planting points cell only displays the difference between the total points and the points for purchases, it does not account for points earned working for others. The land upgrades table is for totaling the amount you have spent on more land for each farm. There are cells for future releases of larger farm sizes, changing the values in the corresponding cells on the Data sheet will display the next sizes. The assets and investments tables display the totals for each type of item you have on your farms. The value amounts are based on the resale value of items; there is no resale value for land so this is set to zero. The differences between the totals in these two tables reflect the amounts for items deleted or sold. The Assets and Investments tables retrieve information from the data on the Farm Info and Inventory sheets. The more complete and current the data is will impact the accuracy of the calculations returned.
INVENTORY SHEET
The Inventory sheet is where you input the amounts of farm items, received, purchased, and how many of each are assigned to each farm. There is a separate table for each of the categories in the Market and include items sent as gifts for each. Seasonal Items table; you may need to edit the item list along with the amounts as they may change before the next update. This table includes the earlier game items for those who may have kept some of those on the farms or in storage. This is the most tedious sheet of all to begin with however once the initial inventory is done easy to keep updated as long as you keep good notes while playing the game. The totals and assignments columns are formatted to show the numbers in red if the total amounts assigned to the farms is greater than the total in inventory for each item. If you copy and paste data into the Assignments columns it will overwrite the formatting for those columns however the totals columns will retain the formatting and show the numbers in bold red for the items with amounts greater than what is available. You will notice a Farm Town flag listed, this item was announced but not released. It is there for future use when it becomes available.
CROP PLANNER SHEETS
The Farm 1 and Farm 2 Crops sheets contain the calculators for planning up to a four day planting and harvesting cycles for seeds and trees. There are crop planners for each of the short growth (less than 1 farm day) crops, when the amounts are added to these for each day they are totaled daily and added to the main crop planner sheet. There are cycles and yield calculators for the crops to determine how many fields or cycles (plantings) will be necessary to for the desired crop results. The planners actually span a five day period, crops planted on day one are counted harvested on the day one harvest which is the day two planting day, crops planted on day four are harvested the fifth day which is the new day one of the next planting cycle. Crops planned on day one are counted as day one costs on the Costs table. While they are actually harvested on day two of the cycle they are counted as day one on the Harvest Returns and Summary tables since this is the first harvest day. The main planner sheets are where you enter the amounts of each crop to be planted for each day, the seed cost and base sell price are listed to assist in making decisions on which crops to plant. There is a section on the planner with the totals for the crops planned. The fields used cells will show red if you have planned more crops than fields are available for a given day. These returns are not 100% accurate since the short growth crops planted on the last cycle of each day are the only ones deducted from the fields available for each day. My experiments showed that it is possible to plant many short growth crops and still be able to use the remaining fields for longer crops (i.e. 12 hour crops) to be harvested the next day with the one-day crops planted. These are still counted as day one crops and are deducted from the total of fields available for each day. The fields available calculations for each day are dependent upon the amount of fields entered in the cells on the Farm Info sheet for each farm. The daily coins fields will be calculated on the Harvest Returns and Summary tables. This will tell you if you have enough coins to plant what is planned and what your total returns should be after harvest. I generally enter the same amount for days two, three, and four as day one on the first day since there are so many variables that can change the coins for each day. I change the remaining amounts each day with the amount of coins I have After Selling the Day's Harvest and Before Plowing and Planting the next day to get the most accurate returns. The seeds and trees are listed by growth time and ordered by the level they are available. There are returns for how many short growth crops are planned for each day, the total amount of fields planted for each day, the total for the cycle planned, total fields planted for the cycle and the experience points for plowing and planting daily with the cycle total for points. The trees harvest section is optional and may be completed before or after the harvest or not at all. Some harvest trees, others do not, however they do have an impact on the coins received for the daily harvests if you are looking to achieve the most coins for the cycle. There is no cost with trees unless you purchase them; the harvests are strictly profit so the gross and net reported for trees will be the same. I have not formatted the data input to report the over harvesting of trees, this can be easily checked, noted, and modified after each day's harvest. Since harvesters often miss some trees this is a good practice to use. I have not added the ability to adjust for crops missed and self harvested at this time; if I can find a solution to this I will add it in a future release. The Costs table shows a breakdown of amounts of plowing and seed costs for each crop daily with totals for each day and the cycle total. It will display the differences for plowing by Self, Hired, (from the Market), or by neighbor for each crop. The Harvest Returns table shows a breakdown of the amounts using the costs for each crop with the plowing cost types with totals for each. There are also returns for trees for each day all with daily subtotals and totals. The Summary table is a synopsis of the Costs and Harvest Returns tables. There is a four day cycle section at the top and a section for each day following. The experience points are displayed to help evaluate your results for the planned cycle. Some may want to plant solely for the coin returns while others may be vying for the most experience points to achieve the next level. It is not unusual for the returns totals to display in red (negative) for days where longer growth crops were planted. If the coins display in the costs section is red you may not have enough coins to plant what has been planned for that particular day. The Summary table is helpful in quickly evaluating the planned harvest to achieve the goal you have at the time.
CALCULATORS SHEET
The Calculators sheet has two tables, the Harvest Calculator and the Earnings Calculator. The Harvest Calculator I designed for experimenting with different crop planting mixes, the Earnings Calculator was designed for making harvest trades in the Market. The Harvest Calculator is handy to use to determine which crops will give the return you are looking for. It will calculate for self-harvesting or hired harvesting showing the returns for each type of plowing costs. The Earnings Calculator I designed initially for making trades in the Market, I also now use it to plan plantings for new players I am currently mentoring to give them the most returns they may need at the time. If you only enter data in the column labeled 'Fields Mine' then the amount of coins the harvester will earn for harvesting will be noted as such. There is also a total for plowing experience points gained if you hire the harvester to plow after the fields have been harvested. This can be used to plant the crops to give either the most coin or points for the harvester. It can also be used for bargaining during a trade. If both field type columns are used the difference will be display with a notation of whose favor the trade is in. If it is in yours the amount will be green, if in their favor the amount will be red. I have used this at the Market when someone thought just because they had a higher amount of fields to harvest and plow that their deal was in my best interest when the calculator clearly showed differently. This has become a handy tool for making trades; there is an online version of both of these calculators on the web site.
NEIGHBORS SHEET
The Neighbors sheet is a result of a request from a user of the Farm Manager. She wanted a way to keep track of information on her neighbors. When you enter the data into the Status column as noted it counts how many current neighbors, pending requests, and the amount who have quit the game. It is not necessary, just a function I had fun playing with.
DATA SHEET
The Data sheet is the most important of all to the Farm Manager. It contains the global data, formulas, and functions, which allow the workbook to function. The cells, which may need to be updated, are unlocked for access to eliminate the need to un-protect the sheet to make most updates as the game data changes. Most of the data and formula corrections will be made here, that information will be posted on the farm manager web page. I will reference the exact cells on which sheet (usually the Data sheet) that need to be changed. This sheet is the only one with the column and row labels displayed to aid in finding the correct cell(s) to change. You can display the gridlines using the Options selection under the Tools Menu to aid in more easily locating the cells. Changes in data can be easily made while formulas may be more challenging. The formula changes usually can be copied from the web page and pasted into the formula bar to make those changes easier for those not well versed in these types of changes. Changes to formulas will require un-protecting the sheet first, please be sure to protect the sheet again after making the change to eliminate the possibility of overwriting formulas in the future.
UNLOCK SHEETS
To un-protect and protect sheets with Excel you will need to use the Tools Menu, choose Protection and either Protect Sheet or Unprotect sheet options. When prompted for passwords just click OK without entering a Password. To do this with Open Office you will need to use the Tools Menu, Protect Sheet, and click on the Unprotect or Protect Sheet option.
I always invite input from other users about improvements, additions, typos, bad formulas, or anything else to make this a better tool for everyone. Please feel free to contact me using the email link on the Farm Manager page or with
Email Uncle Joe
I hope you enjoy and benefit from my efforts.
Uncle Joe
COMMON QUESTIONS
How do I know which Excel version I can use?
In Excel click on the Help Menu and choose About Microsoft Excel, the version number should show there, if not the version of Microsoft Office may show instead. You can also locate the program on your system using My Computer or Windows Explorer. The default location will be Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office/Excel; the file extension if displayed will be exe. Right click on the file and choose Properties from the pop up menu, click on the version tab and it will be there.
How do I find my farm id?
If you have not changed your Facebook account to use your name in place of the account it will show up in the address bar when you are logged onto your profile. It will be the numbers in the string following the "profile.php?id=xxxxxxxx" where the x's are the id number. If you have replaced the number with your name you can go to Friends and hover your mouse over the link on the top left of the window under the label Friends which shows the amount of friends you have, the id number will show in a tool tip when the mouse pointer is hovered there. One other way is to ask a friend to visit your farm. Your farm id will be in the browser address bar following the string portion "?farmid= xxxxxxxx".
Why can't I use the farm id to link to my farm on Myspace?
Myspace uses a different programming language for their system and do not use an id number to load applications. If I find a way to create a link to a Myspace Farm Town farm it will be included in a future release.
Why are the sheets protected?
The user sheets are protected to keep from accidentally overwriting formulas in the cells. The cells which contain formulas are locked which prevents making changes while the sheet is protected. To unlock the sheet in Excel choose Protection/ Unprotect Sheet from the Tools menu. In Open Office choose Protect Document in the Tools menu and uncheck Protect Sheet. To change it back to protected mode (recommended after making changes), use the same choices. When prompted for a password just click OK and the sheet will be protected again.
Why is there a password on the Read Me sheet?
The Read Me sheet should not require any changes. The password helps keep my work being pirated by someone else and presented as his or her original work. The Farm Manager is copyrighted material of my original work. I am open to suggestions for making this a better tool for everyone and invite comments, critique, and any bugs or issues found with the workbook.
Why do I need to inventory my farm?
You really do not need to inventory your farm and input all the data on to the Inventory sheet to be able to use the Farm Manager. The inventory data does two things, firstly the data is read into the Data sheet and returned to the assets and investments tables on the Farm Info sheet, secondly it creates a record of your farm items in the event of a disaster occurring with the game and your farm(s) vanishing. You can send the information to the developers if it is needed to restore your game. Usually all that is required to restore your farm is linking your farm to the forum, posting the issue, and providing the server numbers. This is just another fail safe method I use for such an event.
Is there an easy way to inventory the farm?
It is a time consuming to do the first inventory however once done easy to maintain afterwards. The method I use is by making a list and using the old school of four lines and a slash as I count items and then total each when finished, disconnecting from the Main Frame (the plug icon top right of game) helps from receiving neighbor requests and people dropping by for a visit while counting. Freezing the animals helps when counting these if you have several of any type. I usually begin with the buildings and other decorations hiding each one as it is counted with the exception of some things like hay bales which is not worth the time to hide and unhide again. I have found animals and other forgotten items hidden by buildings. I have fencing around the perimeter of the farm so I count and hide the trees before counting them. The fields are usually easy to count and most players know how many they have. If you need to count the fields one easy way is to have all the fields harvested before counting. Make a note of your experience points before plowing then plow all your fields. Subtract the beginning points from the points after plowing and you should have an accurate count of the fields if the game is working properly at the time.
I have an earlier version of Farm Manager, is there an easy way to transfer the data?
Open your existing and the new Farm Managers. For large amounts of data you can copy and paste sections from the old to the new sheets. Use care with this, the order of many items has changed from the last version. Single cell data is usually quicker to enter manually. Save the new Farm Manager with a different name to avoid overwriting the older version. When you are sure all the data is accurate it should be safe to delete the older version.
Why is my copy of Farm Manager Read Only?
The best way to avoid this is to save the file when downloading, not open from location and then save the file. If this does occur you should be able to open the file properties by right clicking on the file and uncheck the Read Only option on the display then click Apply. If this does not work then delete the file and download it again making sure there is no option to save it as Read Only.