Introduction to spreadsheet

Introduction to spreadsheet

Spreadsheet is a very useful office automation tool to organise, analyse and store data in a tabular form. Spreadsheet was developed as computerized equivalent to paper-based accounting worksheets.

Spreadsheet users can adjust any of the stored values and can observe the effects on the calculated values. This is called "What if" analysis. Modern spreadsheet can have multiple interacting sheets and can display data either as text or numerals or in a graphical form.

Evolution of Spreadsheet

Daniel Bricklin and Bob Frankston developed the first spreadsheet called “VisiCalc” in 1979 for Apple II. In 1982, Lotus Corporation introduced “Lotus 1-2-3”; Lotus 1-2-3 was the first to introduce cell names and macros. In 1987, Microsoft Corporation introduced Excel. Excel implemented a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and the ability to point and click using a mouse. There are lots of other spreadsheet applications; Microsoft Excel continues to be the most popular spreadsheet software.

OpenOffice Calc is a popular open source spreadsheet application maintained by Apache Foundation. Star Office calc is the parent application of OpenOffice Calc which was developed by a German Company namely, Star Division in 1985.

Daniel Singer "Dan" Bricklin The Father of Spreadsheet

Daniel Singer "Dan" Bricklin (born 16 July 1951), often referred to as “The Father of the Spreadsheet”, is the American co-creator, with Bob Frankston, of VisiCalc spreadsheet. He also founded Software Garden, Inc., of which he is currently President of Trellix Corporation, which is currently owned by Web.com. He currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer of Alpha Software.