Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a computer software program that allows users to create spreadsheets, or displays of rows and columns in which data is recorded. After early innovations in computerized spreadsheets in the 1960s and 1970s, technology company Microsoft first released Excel in 1985. Unlike prior spreadsheet programs, Excel offered a convenient interface and easy data entry. By the early 1990s, Excel had established itself as the foremost spreadsheet application, and a long series of updated versions continually modified and improved its offerings for users.

The History of Spreadsheets

Traditionally, a spreadsheet is a large, wide paper divided into rows and columns. People use these rows and columns to record information, generally numbers pertaining to transactions. Placing all the data on one sheet makes the information easier to view, sort, and analyze. For centuries, mathematicians, record keepers, accountants, and businesspeople have used spreadsheets to document important numbers and other facts.

In the middle of the twentieth century, computers started to become increasingly important to society. Many designers began finding ways to translate tasks formerly done with paper and ink into the digital realm. One of these pioneers was Richard Mattessich, who in 1961 developed a computerized spreadsheet. This program was useful in its ability to organize and store information, but later designers would add calculating functions that would pave the way for Microsoft Excel.

In 1978, a student named Dan Bricklin was preparing a report that involved a large amount of numeric data. To help speed the process, Bricklin designed a computer program that allowed users to type in and manipulate information in twenty rows and five columns. Another student, Bob Frankston, perfected the program, which was soon marketed at VisiCalc (a shortened form of "Visible Calculator"). Although an early success, VisiCalc soon began to struggle in the marketplace. It was overtaken by a competing program called Lotus 1-2-3, which offered many new features, including the ability to turn spreadsheet data into charts.

Creation of Microsoft Excel

Around 1982, engineers at Microsoft developed their own spreadsheet program, called Multiplan. This program was successful among some users but was, like VisiCalc, ultimately overwhelmed by the popularity of Lotus 1-2-3. In the coming years, Microsoft examined the strong points of Lotus and began designing a new competing product that would perfect the idea of an effective and easy-to-use computerized spreadsheet. The result was Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet program that featured capabilities similar to Lotus but with the addition of a much more user-friendly platform.

Previous spreadsheet programs required users to input information through command-line text prompts, not directly into the cells of the spreadsheet rows and columns. This process was unwieldy and sometimes confusing. Excel, on the other hand, was based on a new interface, or a system by which users "communicate" with computers, that used graphics and direct user interaction. An Excel user could use a mouse to point and click on particular fields, rows, columns, or cells and input information directly into them. Further, mouse clicking could access drop-down menus that displayed Excel's various tools and features.

Excel's ease of use and many capabilities made it a favorite among computer users in the early 1980s. The first version, released in 1985, was for the Apple Macintosh. Excel proved so popular that many people purchased the Macintosh primarily to access the program. In 1987, when Microsoft revealed its own operating system, Windows, engineers provided a compatible version of Excel. By the time Windows became the standard operating system in the early 1990s, Excel had outdone Lotus 1-2-3 and cemented its place as the world's premiere spreadsheet program.

Evolution of Microsoft Excel

Microsoft and Windows became some of the most successful and recognizable brands of the modern era. Excel, too, prospered greatly, particularly after Microsoft began bundling it with a program suite called Microsoft Office. The Office programs were all related by their usefulness to businesses, large and small, as well as to students and other individuals looking to perform documentation and communication tasks. Some other integral Office programs included Microsoft Word (a word-processing program) and Microsoft PowerPoint (a presentation-making program).

Every few years, Microsoft released updated versions of Excel, both for Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Each new version boasted some improvements over the last. Excel 2.0 (1987) was the first version to operate on Windows. Excel 3.0 (1990) included improved menus and toolbars and increased drawing and chart-making capabilities. Excel 4.0 (1992) streamlined previous versions, and Excel 5.0 (1993) instituted two important improvements. One was a multi-sheet design, which allowed users to "flip" between multiple spreadsheets within a single file. The other improvement was the ability to create macros, or user-defined shortcuts that could reduce repetitive tasks. For example, a user might create a macro to automatically format all new entries as dollar figures, rather than doing so manually.

Subsequent updates to Excel, such as Excel 95 (1995) and Excel 2000 (1999) added new features, such as an animated "office assistant" character that could provide help to users as well as the means by which users could restore or repair lost information. Excel 2007 (2007) updated menu systems and added new available file types. Excel 2010 (2010) added increased graphical capabilities and formatting options. Excel 2013 (2013) offered an array of new functions. These included Power View, a display of multiple charts based on the same data, and Flash Fill, a feature that detects and replicates patterns in data. The year 2013 also marked the introduction of Office 365 (later renamed Microsoft 365), which retooled Microsoft Office as a cloud-based service that issued more continuous updates to its apps, as well as Office Mobile, which gave iPhone owners access to Excel and other Microsoft apps from their smartphones.

New features continued to be added into the 2010s. For example, Excel 2016 (2016) added histograms, Pareto charts to indicate trends, and PowerPivot, which permits users to create calculations and data models. Excel 2019 (2019) offered new features such as map charts and funnel charts. Excel updates in the 2020s included improvements to the ability to create automations, allowing users to build new workflows more easily, and enhancements to the web connector for Excel, a tool that allows users to import data from websites directly into Excel workbooks. Improvements also included the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into Excel, specifically through Microsoft's AI assistant, Copilot, which was launched in 2023.

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