Believe it or not, the concept of spreadsheeting is an ancient system that has been around for hundreds of years. This valuable method of data manipulation and calculation is a vital tool for a myriad of professionals in many walks of life. Over the years we’ve come to associate spreadsheeting with the many manifestations of Microsoft Excel that have been released. Learn more about the history, what is included and some ways you can use spreadsheeting.

PA The concept of spreadsheeting has been around for hundreds of years. The process can be described as the ability to arrange numbers, characters and other objects into rows and columns. In their most common form, spreadsheets only contain numbers and text.

The software version of spreadsheeting basically takes the manual processes described above and puts them into an electronic format. Whilst the accounting industry most commonly uses spreadsheets, they can be used in any situation.

The types of industries that use spreadsheets include the science industry, financial services industry, aviation industry, civil and mechanical engineering industry, education, research, science, bio-sciences, and marine biology ; the list is endless. Essentially any industry that requires the ability to plan, analyze and model data can use spreadsheets.

Data is defined in terms of spreadsheets as text, numbers or mathematical formulas. The data is what is used to create the electronic model and the model is then shown on the screen. A model in essence is an electronic version of a real life situation. For example you could model your businesses profitability and then run scenarios based on what money you spent, what money came in and when. You could even investigate whether a cash flow crisis was likely with a particular scenario.

The key advantage of electronic spreadsheets is their ability to have their data modified quickly and the result be provided almost instantaneously. Calculations undertaken using the manual method could have taken hours, months or even years. Once the data is entered into a spreadsheet it can be used to produce Graphs for documents, reports or even presentations. For example you could enter your data in Microsoft Excel and then create a graph. You could then copy and paste the graph into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

Key Advantages of Excel Spreasheeting

Spreadsheet software has a range of key advantages over traditional manual methods. Listed below is a small list of those advantages:

1. The ability to reuse the data as many times as required
2. The ability to automatically recalculate the spreadsheet
3. The ability to share the data from one application to another
4. The ability to be able to apply different types of font and cell formatting to your spreadsheet
5. The ability to be able to include drawing objects such as photos, lines, Excel art, cartoons, moving text and even video
6. The ability to spell check the whole spreadsheet in one go
7. The ability to add up and apply different formulas to your spreadsheet
8. The ability to carry out What If scenarios in real time

What is Microsoft Excel?

Microsoft Excel is an advanced spreadsheeting software application developed by the Microsoft Corporation in the United States of America.

The first version of the application was originally written for the Apple Macintosh in 1985 but the first PC version wasn't released until 1987. There are many versions of Microsoft Excel available for the Windows Operating system such as Excel 4.0, 5.0, 95, 2000, XP and 2003. There are also versions available for other operating systems such as the Macintosh operating system and OS2.

Late in 1999 Microsoft released its next version of Microsoft Excel as part of the Office 2000 Suite. In 2002, a new generation version was released called Microsoft Excel XP (also known as Microsoft Excel 2002). Microsoft Excel XP was the first truly Internet enabled application and was specifically designed to work on the Microsoft Windows XP platform and included voice recording functionality.

Finally Microsoft has released its next generation Office Software application called Microsoft Excel 2003 and in 2007, Microsoft built the new generation of interface with Microsoft Excel 2007.