Ghost Calc – Help

⭐ Insert

Insert — the reason Ghost Calc exists SIGNATURE

The Insert → button types the current display value into whichever window had focus before Ghost Calc opened. Open Notepad, click into it, open Ghost Calc from the tray, work out 250 * 0.15, click Insert — 37.5 appears at your cursor in Notepad. No copy, no paste, no alt-tab.

Typical flow: 1. Click into your notes / email / spreadsheet 2. Open Ghost Calc from the tray 3. Do the calculation 4. Click "Insert →" (or press the Ctrl+Enter shortcut if enabled) 5. The answer lands right where you were typing

⭐ Insert

Target Window Label

Just below the display, a small grey label reads "Target: Untitled — Notepad". It shows exactly which window Insert will send to. Check it before clicking — no more "oops, sent 36 to my boss's Slack." The target updates whenever you click away and back.

⭐ Insert

Copy (and Copy-on-Insert)

The Copy button sends the display value to the clipboard — useful when you want to paste it manually, or send it somewhere Insert can't reach. There's also a Settings toggle: "Also copy the answer to clipboard on Insert." On by default, so every Insert also leaves the value on the clipboard. Belt and braces.

⭐ Insert

Close After Insert (toggle)

By default Ghost Calc stays open after an Insert, so you can do more calculations in one sitting. A Settings toggle changes that: turn "Close Ghost Calc after Insert" on and the window hides itself the moment the answer lands. Perfect for one-shot calculations.

🧮 Calculator

Standard Calculator

Familiar Windows-Calculator layout: memory row (MC, MR, MS, M+, M−), clear functions (←, CE, C, ±, √), digits and operators in the middle, and a tall = button on the right. Every key you know, nothing you don't.

🧮 Calculator

Expression Line

Above the big display, a smaller grey line shows your whole calculation chain as you build it: 15 + 6 × 9. Just like Windows Calculator. When you press =, the chain clears and the big display shows the result.

🧮 Calculator

The Sister Panel FUN

If your expression gets so long that the top line overflows, Ghost Calc grows a second panel to the left — a sister window that continues the display. Type 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14+15 and watch her slide in. When you press C or =, she slides back home. Purely cosmetic, entirely delightful.

🧮 Calculator

Percent ( Shift+5 or the % button )

Matches Windows Calculator's behaviour: 100 + 10% gives 110 (add 10% of the left operand), and 100 - 25% gives 75 (subtract 25% of the left operand). 50 * 10% gives 5. If no operator is pending, 50% alone gives 0.5.

🧮 Calculator

Memory Buttons

MS stores the display value, MR recalls it, MC clears it, M+ and M− add or subtract the display from memory. The same memory model as any pocket calculator.

🧮 Calculator

√, 1/x, ±, CE, C, ←

√ square root, 1/x reciprocal, ± sign flip, CE clears just the current entry, C clears everything, ← backspaces one digit. Divide-by-zero shows Error and refuses to crash — you just press C and carry on.

🧮 Calculator

Digit Grouping

Optional — off by default. Turn on in Settings and the display shows 1,234,567 instead of 1234567. Purely visual; the underlying value is unaffected.

⌨️ Keyboard

Keyboard Support

Everything works from either the main keyboard or the numpad:

0–9 — digits (both rows)
+ - * / — operators (numpad or Shift-modified main row)
. — decimal point
Enter or = — equals
Backspace — backspace one digit
Esc — clear all
Shift+5 — percent

📐 Worksheets

The "Fill Any Four, Solve the Fifth" Pattern

Every worksheet in Ghost Calc follows one simple rule: fill in all but one field, click Calculate, and the missing field gets solved. No "solve for rate" dropdown, no mode switch — the shape of what you left blank tells the calculator what to do.

Example: Mortgage Principal = 250000 Rate = 5.25 Term = 30 ← Monthly payment blank → Calculate → Monthly payment solves to 1379.17 Or go the other way — leave Rate blank instead: → Calculate → Rate solves to 5.25%

Only one worksheet is open at a time — clicking another in the View menu swaps them. Ctrl+F4 (or View → Basic) folds everything back to just the calculator.

📐 Worksheets

Mortgage Repayment

Four fields: Principal, Rate (% per year), Term (years), Monthly payment. Any three known → the fourth is solved.

Reverse-check a loan offer: Principal = 250000 Term = 30 Payment = 1379.17 Rate = (blank) → Calculate → Rate = 5.25% per year

Rate-solving uses an iterative method under the hood, so it's exact to 4 decimal places.

📐 Worksheets

Fixed Deposit

Lump-sum savings that grows untouched. Five fields: Principal, Rate, Term (years), Compounding (Daily / Monthly / Quarterly / Semi-annually / Annually), and Maturity. Fill any four, solve the fifth.

Principal = 10000 Rate = 5 Term = 5 Compounding = Annually Maturity = (blank) → Calculate → Maturity = 12,762.82

Same inputs with Daily compounding instead of Annually → 12,840.03. That's the daily-compounding advantage, made visible.

📐 Worksheets

Recurring Saver

Savings where you deposit money every month and start with a lump sum. Five numeric fields: Initial principal, Monthly deposit, Rate, Term, Maturity — plus a Compounding dropdown that defaults to Daily, because that's what high-yield savings accounts use.

Initial principal = 10000 Monthly deposit = 500 Rate = 5 Term = 3 Compounding = Daily → Calculate → Maturity ≈ 30,998 Or leave Monthly deposit blank to find out how much you'd need to deposit each month to reach a target.

The math blends fixed-deposit growth on the initial principal with annuity accumulation on the deposits — matching how real savings accounts actually work.

📐 Worksheets

Unit Conversion

Eight categories, dozens of units, live conversion as you type. Pick a category, pick From, pick To, type a value — the result appears instantly. The Swap button flips From and To in one click.

Categories: • Length — m, km, cm, mm, mi, yd, ft, in • Weight — kg, g, mg, lb, oz, st, t • Temperature — °C, °F, K • Volume — L, mL, m³, US gal, qt, pt, cup, fl oz • Area — m², km², ft², yd², acres, hectares • Speed — m/s, km/h, mph, knots, ft/s • Time — s, min, h, days, weeks • Data — bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB, bits

Temperature gets proper offset handling (0°C = 32°F = 273.15K). Everything else is straightforward factor multiplication.

📐 Worksheets

Date Calculation

Two modes, chosen from a dropdown:

Difference — pick two dates, get the gap as "3 years, 2 months, 14 days" plus the total day count
Add / Subtract — pick a start date, an amount, and a unit (Days, Weeks, Months, Years), choose Add or Subtract, and get the resulting date

Add/Subtract correctly handles calendar arithmetic — "1 month from Jan 31" gives Feb 28/29, not March 3.

🗂️ Menus

View Menu

The only menu that matters. Basic (Ctrl+F4) folds every worksheet back to just the calculator. Below that: Mortgage, Fixed deposit, Recurring saver, Unit conversion, Date calculation. A radio dot shows which worksheet is currently open; clicking the same one again closes it.

🗂️ Menus

Basic — the fold-up escape hatch

One command, one purpose: close every open worksheet and return to the plain calculator. No hunting for X buttons. Ctrl+F4 or View → Basic, and you're home.

🗂️ Menus

Edit Menu

One item: Copy display (Ctrl+C). Same as the Copy button below the keypad.

🖥️ Tray

Tray Icon

Ghost Calc lives in the notification area. Double-click the tray icon to bring the window forward — this is how you capture the target window (whatever was focused before the click becomes the Insert destination). Right-click for the menu: Open Calculator, Settings, Help Contents, About, Exit.

⚙️ Settings

Settings

Four toggles, saved to ghostcalc.ini:

Close Ghost Calc after Insert — off by default; on = window hides after the answer lands
Also copy the answer to clipboard on Insert — on by default; belt-and-braces backup
Always on top — on by default; keeps Calc above your other windows
Digit grouping — off by default; on = 1,234,567 instead of 1234567

💾 Files

Settings File: ghostcalc.ini

Sits next to the exe. Stores the four toggles. Editable by hand if you prefer that to the Settings dialog — changes take effect next launch.

💾 Files

Fully Portable

No registry keys, no AppData clutter. Everything Ghost Calc needs sits in its own folder. Copy the folder to a USB stick and it works anywhere with .NET Framework 4.x installed.

💾 Files

Single Instance

Only one copy of Ghost Calc can run at a time. Launching again just brings the existing window forward.

👻 Bundle

Coexisting with Ghost Phrases

Ghost Phrases (the text expander) runs in the tray alongside Ghost Calc. Both watch the keyboard, but Phrases recognises when Ghost Calc has focus and steps aside so the two never fight over keystrokes. Type 100+10% in Calc while Phrases is running — it just works. The moment you click away to another app, Phrases resumes expanding normally.

⚙️ Advanced

Elevated Windows Caveat

Insert uses SetForegroundWindow + SendInput. If the target app is running as Administrator and Ghost Calc is not, Windows may block the foreground switch. Run Ghost Calc as Administrator too, or copy the value and paste it manually.

⚙️ Advanced

Offline & Private

Ghost Calc never touches the network. No analytics, no update check, no cloud. Everything runs locally on your machine.

👻 Bundle

The Ghost Bundle Family

Ghost Calc is one of six small utilities under the Ghost Bundle umbrella:

Ghost Reader — distraction-free reader
Ghost Stamp — file timestamping & signing
Ghost Cast — multi-voice script studio
Ghost Notes — hierarchical notebook
Ghost Phrases — text expander
Ghost Calc — calculator that types its answer into any window (you are here)

Six utilities. One family. Each does one thing well and stays out of your way. 💚

🧮 Ghost Calc

🧮 About Ghost Calc