Spreadsheet at 25 (eBook)

25 Amazing Excel Examples that Evolved from the Invention that Changed the World

Bill Jelen (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2008 | 1. Auflage
Holy Macro! Books (Verlag)
978-1-932802-52-8 (ISBN)

Infos

From the 1979 invention by two MIT students of the visible calculator to the war between Lotus and Microsoft for dominance in the spreadsheet market, this book is a fascinating look at the software application that helped spur the entire computer industry. This loving look back at the early computer and technology evolution will teach anyone interested in computer history about the MIT students, Bricklin and Frankston, and their unique vision, how Mitch Kapor and Lotus 1-2-3 trumped VisiCalc, how the spreadsheet gave businesses a reason to buy PCs, and how Microsoft came to dominate the market. The book also contains descriptions of 25 amazing spreadsheets that users can download from the book's web site.

Textauszug

The New Millenium The New MilleniumIn 2000, I was convinced that Microsoft Excel would control the spreadsheet market forever and always. There was nothing that anyone could do to upset that dominance. Frankly, once Excel had no real competitors, the amazing new features slowed down. Excel 2000 offered modeless user forms, a nice feature for VBA programmers. It also made the color of selected cells transparent so that you could see what was being selected easier. Excel 2002 offered disaster recovery that can often repair a corrupt workbook. Excel 2003 offers XML support. Lately, Open Office or StarOffice are starting to make inroads in Microsoft's territory. Star Office may be only 80% as good as Excel, but since most Excel users don't make use of all its features, it is 'good enough' for many people. Excel still has a competitive advantage of having the VBA language available in every copy. Microsoft is trying to get away from VBA, but they have not made it clear how Visual Studio Tools for Office would become accessible to every average Joe who doesn't own Visual Basic.Net. Rows and Columns After 25 years, the basic guts of the spreadsheet remain unchanged. We still use the A1 notation chosen by Bricklin and Frankston. Many of the functions and calculation operators are identical to those in VisiCalc. Granted, Mitch Kapor added amazing graphing, and Excel added even better graphing, but the core of the spreadsheet is still the same. On the pages that follow, you can read about the 25 Wonders of the Spreadsheet World-some of the basic fundamentals, plus newer bells and whistles that make spreadsheets a powerful tool. 5 Functions SUM, MIN, MAX, AVERAGE There are hundreds of built-in Excel functions, each designed to make life easier for somebody. While we all have a reason to use =SUM to total a column of numbers, there are functions that are of particular interest to certain specialties. Bankers have =ACRINT() to calculate accrued interest on a loan. Statisticians have th =CORREL() to test the correlation between two datasets. Mathemeticians (and students in 7 grade math) have =LCM() to compute the Least Common Multiple of two numbers. Engineers have =BESSELI() to calculate the Bessel function for purely imaginary arguments (no wonder I washed out of engineering school)

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.7.2008
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik ► Office Programme
• ISBN-10: 1-932802-52-5 / 1932802525
• ISBN-13: 978-1-932802-52-8 / 9781932802528