MPGCalc Help


MPGCalc 2.1

Leopard compatibility and some minor bug fixes.

MPGCalc 2.0 Beta Release


For those of you who have used previous versions of MPGCalc, you may have noticed how this application has evolved. It started life as a simple calculator much like the one Apple ships with OS X. You simply put in a starting and ending odometer and gallons purchased and it gave you your MPG (miles per gallon) and optionally CPM (cost per mile).

Then we added a drawer that contained a table, and let you add multiple legs of a trip, and calculate your averages across the entire trip. Saving to disk was introduced with that version.

But then it dawned on us that the focus should be on the trip analysis, and the calculator should be an asset to the application, but not the main focus.

So MPGCalc 2.0 was born. It uses the standard Cocoa document based architecture, and it puts the calculator off to the side on a handy drawer. The focus is now on trip analysis.

Beta Release Notes

This is an early beta release, and there is much work to be done. Following are some of the caveats:

  1. You cannot open files created with previous versions of MPGCalc. This is temporary and will be fixed in the final release.
  2. Printing is enabled but needs work. Notes can get truncated...
  3. Exporting is not available yet.
  4. There are some GUI anomolies that need to be cleaned up.
Using MPGCalc


If the Calculator drawer isn't visible, click the "Show Calculator" button in the toolbar.

Enter your starting and ending odometer readings as well as the gallons purchased.

Hit the "Calculate" button, and your MPG will be displayed.

Optionally you could now enter the price per gallon you paid if you're interested in calulating cost per mile. If so, enter the price and hit the "Calculate CPM" button.

Another option: At this point you could enter a short descriptive note for this particular leg of your trip.

When the above has been completed hit the "Add Above to Trip Summary" button. This will add the leg to the table in the main window.

At this point it would be a good idea to save the file, select "Save As" from the File menu and give it a descriptive name like "Home to Chicago".

When you hit the "Add Above to Trip Summary" button as a convenience your ending odometer reading is entered into the starting odometer field in the calculator in preparation for your next leg entry.

Preferences

There's not a lot to Preferences in this release. For now you can put in a minimum and maximum MPG rating to aid in error checking, just in case you type something incorrect in and wonder why your Honda Civic is only getting 7.1 MPG!