Spreadsheets
A
spreadsheet is a layout of rows and columns containing numbers and labels.
Usually of a financial nature as in double entry bookkeeping. With a manual
spreadsheet, if one figure is changed, all the dependants have to be recalculated
manually.
A Bit of History
The first digital spreadsheet was VisiCalc, invented by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston in 1979. More than any other application, the program was responsible for the adoption of PCs by business. It was the first "killer app". It was a concept with far reaching effects.
Labels, numbers and formulae could be entered into the cells of a table. If one or more number was changed, the software carried out all the subsequent recalculations automatically and almost instantaneously.
"VisiCalc took 20 hours of work per week for some people and turned it out in 15 minutes and let them become much more creative."
Dan Bricklin
After VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3 developed the concept and took the lead,
but with the development of the graphical wysiwyg interface (what you see
is what you get) which you're looking at, Microsoft's Excel took the lead
and still has it.
Spreadsheet Usage
When you first use a spreadsheet successfully, it seems like magic. Over the years spreadsheets have become extremely powerful, and they're easy to use once you grasp the basic concepts. If it can be calculated, it can be put in a spreadsheet, from simple budgets to the national debt, inventories and complex scientific matrices.
It can also be used as a flat file database, but for large quantities of data, it's not as flexible or safe for data storage as a relational database.
Spreadsheet Sample
Below is a very small and simple spreadsheet. Don't be fooled, they can
be huge and complex with millions of entries.
A Simple Spreadsheet
Below again is the same spreadsheet showing the underlying formulae
in place of numerical results.
Spreadsheet Tutorials
There's an excellent Excel tutorial here: http://www.baycongroup.com/el0.htm and another here: http://einstein.cs.uri.edu/tutorials/csc101/pc/excel97/check.html They will get you going while I'm working on mine.
Academic Prices
If you're a student or teacher, or if you're learning and are not intending to use the software for commercial pursuits, you can purchase Academic Versions of Microsoft Office and many other programs. These are the same software, but much cheaper than the full versions and usually without the paper manuals. Often no great loss!
