Third session November 5th, 2003 Excel Business computing Third session November 5th, 2003 Excel

Today’s topic : Excel Excel is the spreadsheet of the Microsoft Office suite The first spreadsheet was invented 25 years ago by Daniel Bricklin It was such a useful program that it spurred the rocket growth of the micro-computer industry In the 70’s micro-computers were considered kids toys by « serious » computer engineers. (That’s why some kids became the richest men on Earth)

Origins of spreadsheets Bricklin was a Harvard student and had to do plenty of financial analyses of profitability of projects, with varying hypotheses He invented (with Frankston) the spreadsheet on the Apple II (way before the graphical user interface) It was a great success because it was very useful

Dan Bricklin at Harvard in 1978

The Apple II computer of Bob Frankston

Spreadsheet (in french « tableur ») A blank spreadsheet is just a grid of empty cells

Characteristics of cells A cell has An address (for instance C2) A name (the default name is the address) And a content It can be a number (for 75) It can be a word (for instance « Sales ») It can be a formula (for instance « =C2*A4 »)

Formulas In a formula we can call cells of the same sheet for instance « =C2+D3 » Or cells of another sheet for instance « =parameters!C2 + parameters!D5 »

Naming The default name of a cell is its address We can put the names we like (with no blank) Then we can use names in formulas

The secrets of copying within Excel Five types of copying Simple copying Increment copying Built in lists Custom lists (tools->options->custom lists…) $ sign copying