1. Computing With Spreadsheets
CPSC-130
Computing With Spreadsheets
Week 1
Take attendance as you find out:
who they are and where they are from
what their majors are
level of Excel experience (none, minimum, extensive, expert)
Ask the students to define what a spreadsheet is
Relate it to a checkbook register along with a pocket calculator.
The checkbook register has columns for date, check #, etc.
The checkbook has rows for each entry.
Ask the students what practical applications they would use Excel for
Typical responses might include:
Balance a checkbook
A teacher’s grade book
Family budget
Track stocks and investments
© Brenda Vander Linden
4/23/20194/23/2019

2. Introduction This course; (http://cs.calvin.edu/cs/130)
Where do spreadsheets fit?
The history of spreadsheets
Intro to Excel
Lab 1 (see schedule page)
Show how to navigate from Calvin home page.
Cover administrivia, then schedule
Username: bjarne (no password needed)
© Brenda Vander Linden
4/23/20194/23/2019

3. Where Do Spreadsheets Fit?
Bit
Character, string and number
Field
Record
File
Database
Between file and database
© Brenda Vander Linden
4/23/20194/23/2019

4. A Brief History of Spreadsheets
The accountant’s ledger
Dan Bricklin and Visicalc (1979)
Mitch Kapor and Lotus 1-2-3
The accountant’s ledger is pure paper and hard labor.
When Microsoft launched the Windows operating system in 1987, Excel was one of the first products to be released for it. It was the only windows spreadsheet for 3 years (89-92)
© Brenda Vander Linden
4/23/20194/23/2019

5. A Brief History of Spreadsheets
The accountant’s paper ledger  big sheets of paper ("spread out the sheets"???)  permits storing figures
Fig. 1.1, p. 2 of book
The accountant’s ledger is pure paper and hard work!
A spreadsheet is a computerized ledger.
© Brenda Vander Linden
4/23/20194/23/2019

6. Dan Bricklin (1951- ) “Visicalc”
1979
Visible calculator
Apple II
Pushed sales of personal computers
In 1978 Daniel Bricklin, while a student at the Harvard Business School, came up with the idea. Actually went to market in May 1979.
Bob Frankston whom Bricklin recruited to improve on his idea came up with the term “visible calculator”.
They programmed it to fit into 20K of machine memory allowing it to run on the Apple II and it was very successful.
In fact, it can be argued that VisiCalc on the Apple led to the surge of personal computer purchases.
During its lifetime, about 1 million copies of VisiCalc were sold.
VisiCalc was slow in responding to the introduction of the IBM PC (Intel). Then came Lotus...
Can still get VisiCalc executable (for DOS) at
© Brenda Vander Linden
4/23/20194/23/2019

7. Mitch Kapor (1950- ) “Lotus 1-2-3”
1982
Spreadsheets for presentation too
Wildly successful
Kapor was product manager for VisiCalc for about 6 months in 1980.
In 1982 he started Lotus Development corporation with Jonathan Sachs. Before he did this, he offered Personal Software Corporation (VisiCalc’s owner company) his Lotus program. He was declined on the grounds that its functionality was “too limited”
Lotus made it easier to use spreadsheets and it included charting, plotting and database capabilities. It introduced the idea of naming cells, cell ranges, and allowing macros.
With the addition of VisiPlot,
Lotus went on to be one of the all-time best selling application software packages in the world.
In 1985 Lotus bought out VisiCalc and discontinued it.
© Brenda Vander Linden
4/23/20194/23/2019

8. Bill Gates & Microsoft “Excel”
1985
Originally written for apple II
1987 shipped with introduction of windows
Graphical interface
September 30, Microsoft announces the shipment to retail stores of Microsoft Excel for the Apple Macintosh, a powerful, full-featured microcomputer spreadsheet that combines business graphics with an on-sheet database.
The Apple version was graphical (even before windows).
It had no Windows competitors until 1992
In 1995 IBM acquired Lotus Development. Excel is the spreadsheet market leader at present.
© Brenda Vander Linden
4/23/20194/23/2019

9. Intro. To Excel
Spreadsheet (Excel calls it a "worksheet" "workbook" is a collection of worksheets):
Grid of rows (labeled alphabetically) and columns (labeled numerically)
Each "box" is called a cell
Each cell is referred to by its cell reference (aka cell address) which is the row letter followed by the column number (e.g. B3)
Play Battleship as a kid? Perhaps now yet???
© Brenda Vander Linden
© Jeff Nyhoff 2002
4/23/20194/23/2019

10. Intro to Excel, Cont.
Cells can contain constants (“literals”) e.g or hello
BUT cells can also contain formulas e.g. =(B3+C3)
Thus, the electronic spreadsheet does the paper version one better: it performs the calculations!
© Brenda Vander Linden
© Jeff Nyhoff 2002
4/23/20194/23/2019

11. Intro to Excel, Cont. Advantages: 1. Labor-saving
Change all salaries for an company.
Do this for 1000 or more employees!
2. Allows "what-if" analysis; can “play” with the numbers…
3. Allows graphing and charting
See the example .xls file for lecture 1. 1introExamples.xls
© Brenda Vander Linden
© Jeff Nyhoff 2002
4/23/20194/23/2019

12. TM & © 2002 Grimmy, Inc. Mike Peters
from (9/5/02)
This is the third version of Excel I’ve taught with in three years, and the first time I’ve taught it using Excel 2002, so there may be some bugs to work out.
© Brenda Vander Linden
4/23/20194/23/2019