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

2. 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)

3. 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

4. Dan Bricklin at Harvard in 1978

5. The Apple II computer of Bob Frankston

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

7. 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 »)

8. 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 »

9. 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

10. 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