Microsoft Excel – The Premium Spreadsheet Software
The first Windows version for Excel – Excel 2.0 was released in 1987 and since that time, its popularity has only increased. The spreadsheet and data tabulating software category was previously dominated by software like Lotus 1-2-3 which were DOS based. Microsoft Excel was probably the first GUI based spreadsheet application that revolutionized the way people look at such software. Excel had many advantages over other similar products. Some of the important ones are listed below:
1) For the first time, it became easy to calculate, tabulate and organize data in a graphically pleasing way. The impact that these new advancements had on report generation and presentation is well known and needs no introduction.
2) At the same time, highly complex algorithms could also be applied to the same data for data mining and statistical analysis means. These algorithms could range from simple aggregate functions like Average, Min, Max, etc to complex statistical functions like normal distribution plotting, Chi-square values etc.
3) Tight and seamless integration with the office suite: Starting from Excel 5.0, programs like Microsoft Word and Microsoft Access could basically share data with each other. In layman's terms, what this means is that an Excel table could directly by inserted in a Word document and similarly, an Access database file could be used to provide data to an Excel table.
4) Programmability: Visual Basic for Excel – a programming language based on Visual Basic that was widely used in developing custom functions for Excel. This language was powerful enough to make system level calls and develop self sufficient applications that ran on top of the Excel runtime environment.
5) Support for old formats: Excel supported importing of old format files like Lotus 1-2-3 worksheets, Dbase files etc, which made user migration very easy.
The main reason for the rise of popularity for Microsoft Excel was the fact that older spreadsheet-based programs like Lotus 1-2-3 were not Windows based and by the time a GUI version of the same was launched, Excel had already dominated the market. Another reason was that it was shipped with the Microsoft Office Suite and was tightly integrated with it.
Microsoft Excel today is an indispensable product and can be found in just about every computer that runs Windows. Alternatives for Microsoft Office Suite like OpenOffice.org (a free an open source product) exist, but they have yet to make a dent in the Microsoft Office Suite's market share.
New iterations and updates of the Office Suite are continuously released by Microsoft to address security, stability and performance issues as discovered. To sum up, Microsoft Excel will continue to dominate the spreadsheet application category for a long time to come.
1) For the first time, it became easy to calculate, tabulate and organize data in a graphically pleasing way. The impact that these new advancements had on report generation and presentation is well known and needs no introduction.
2) At the same time, highly complex algorithms could also be applied to the same data for data mining and statistical analysis means. These algorithms could range from simple aggregate functions like Average, Min, Max, etc to complex statistical functions like normal distribution plotting, Chi-square values etc.
3) Tight and seamless integration with the office suite: Starting from Excel 5.0, programs like Microsoft Word and Microsoft Access could basically share data with each other. In layman's terms, what this means is that an Excel table could directly by inserted in a Word document and similarly, an Access database file could be used to provide data to an Excel table.
4) Programmability: Visual Basic for Excel – a programming language based on Visual Basic that was widely used in developing custom functions for Excel. This language was powerful enough to make system level calls and develop self sufficient applications that ran on top of the Excel runtime environment.
5) Support for old formats: Excel supported importing of old format files like Lotus 1-2-3 worksheets, Dbase files etc, which made user migration very easy.
The main reason for the rise of popularity for Microsoft Excel was the fact that older spreadsheet-based programs like Lotus 1-2-3 were not Windows based and by the time a GUI version of the same was launched, Excel had already dominated the market. Another reason was that it was shipped with the Microsoft Office Suite and was tightly integrated with it.
Microsoft Excel today is an indispensable product and can be found in just about every computer that runs Windows. Alternatives for Microsoft Office Suite like OpenOffice.org (a free an open source product) exist, but they have yet to make a dent in the Microsoft Office Suite's market share.
New iterations and updates of the Office Suite are continuously released by Microsoft to address security, stability and performance issues as discovered. To sum up, Microsoft Excel will continue to dominate the spreadsheet application category for a long time to come.
