MICROSOFT EXCEL What is Excel? A software application which is part of the Microsoft Office Suite which performs mathematical calculations The user must know how to enter formulas or functions to perform the necessary calculations. While Microsoft Word creates documents-- Microsoft Excel creates Spreadsheets A spreadsheet uses a grid –like worksheet made up of columns and rows to enter data.

Columns and Rows Columns go Down—there are 9,261 – Rows go across—1,048,576 A cell is where a column and row intersect and where you would type information—words or numbers. A spreadsheet can automatically compute figures much faster than one can do with a pencil and paper.-- Unionville

HISTORY Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankson invented the first practical spreadsheet for microcomputers. They called it VisiCalc. It was released for the Apple II computer in Prior to this, paper-like spreadsheets called journals had to be manually re-calculated each time one cell was changed.

HISTORY CONTINUED With Visicalc, work that might take a week could be done in minutes. Several years after VisiCalc's release, the inventors sold the program to Lotus Development Corporation, who renamed it Lotus and upgraded the software to run on an IBM-PC or compatible computer.(Word Star, Lotus dBase) (Persuasion, Pagemaker, Hyperstudio) MICROSOFT LATER DEVELOPED EXCEL SO LET’S BEGIN AND OPEN FROM THE START ICON MICROSOFT EXCEL –>File New Workbook