1. SPREADSHEETS
From the abacus
to Excel and
beyond
Fall 2012

2. 2
• What is a spreadsheet?
– A spreadsheet is a grid that organizes data
into columns and rows. Spreadsheets make
it easy to display information, and people
can insert formulas to work with the data.
For example, there is a particular icon that
has a formula to sum up numbers that are
given. This icon is called auto sum.
Information can also be sorted and filtered.
– People use spreadsheet programs to
learn about different kinds of things, and to
make decisions. Spreadsheets are based on
different varieties of subjects.

3. 3
Interesting comparison
• A spreadsheet is the computer
equivalent of a paper ledger sheet. It
consists of a grid made from columns
and rows.
http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/excel/1.html

4. 4
Precursors to spreadsheet
• Abacus
– The earliest counting device was the human
hand and its fingers. Then, as larger quantities
(larger than ten human-fingers could represent)
were counted, various natural items like pebbles
and twigs were used to help count. Merchants
who traded goods not only needed a way to
count goods they bought and sold, but also to
calculate the cost of those goods. Until numbers
were invented, counting devices were used to
make everyday calculations. The abacus is one
of many counting devices
invented to help count
large numbers.
• A Brief History of the Abacus

5. 5
A logarithmic digression
• Reducing
multiplication and
division to addition
and subtraction
– Logarithms (or logs, as
they are known in short) were invented by
the Scottish mathematician and theologian
John Napier and first published in 1614.
He was looking for a way of quickly
solving multiplication and division
problems . . . using the much faster
methods of addition and subtraction.
• Introduction to the Slide Rule

6. 6
From logs to slide rules
• Visualizing logs
– The next step in the evolution of the slide rule was really an
exercise in visualization. It is hard to get a feel for what the log
of any given number will be, exactly, without looking it up in the
standard reference tables. But what if instead you drew them
down to give you a rough idea of where things lay? This is
exactly what the English astronomer Edmund Gunter came up
with in 1620. He drew a 2 foot long line with the whole numbers
spaced at intervals proportionate to their respective log values
(see image below, taken from HP's slide rule site).
– We are now just a short jump away from the first real slide rule,
developed by the Reverend William Oughtred a short time later.
He placed two Gunter's scales directly opposite each other, and
demonstrated that you could do calculations by simply sliding
them back and forth (see the second image below). As such,
Oughtred is generally considered to be the inventor of the slide
rule
• Introduction to the Slide Rule

7. 7
Add Adding Machines!
• Slide Adding Machines (“Addiators”)
• Rotary Adding Machines
• Pin-Wheel Calculators
• Key-Driven Calculators (“Comptometers”)
• Printing Calculators (“Add-list machines”)
• Full-Keyboard Rotary Calculators
• Full-Function Calculators
– Full-Function Ten-key Calculators
– Miniature Full-Function Calculators
• This list is from John Wolff's Web Museum: Calculating
Machines
• Other sites:

8. 8
Disadvantages of non-electronic
• Disadvantage of using nonelectronic
spreadsheets
1. It’s very easy to smash your fingers on the
abacus.
2. It's virtually impossible to e-mail an abacus.
3. No customer support for the abacus since
MCIV. [That’s 1104 AD, in case you’re wondering!]
4. Abacus formatting is rudimentary at best.
5. Pivot tables are a real pain on an abacus,
and don’t get me started on
Visual Basic for Abacus. Buggy!
• PC Review Forums: Newsgroups: Microsoft Excel Microsoft
Excel Misc: Disadvantage of using nonelectronic
spreadsheets

9. 9
Real Spread Sheets!
• Where does the term come from ?
– In the realm of accounting jargon a “spread
sheet” or spreadsheet was and is a large
sheet of paper with columns and rows that
organizes data about transactions for a
business person to examine. It spreads or
shows all of the costs, income, taxes, and
other related data on a single sheet of paper
for a manager to examine when making a
decision.
• A Brief History of Spreadsheets by by D. J.
Power, Editor, DSSResources.COM

10. 10
Who applied it to computers?
• Robert Frankston, co-inventor of the
first electronic spreadsheet:
– The goal was to give the user a conceptual
model which was unsurprising -- it was called
the principle of least surprise. We were
illusionists synthesizing an experience. Our
model was the spreadsheet -- a simple paper
grid that would be laid out on a table. The
paper grid provided an organizing metaphor
for a working with series of numbers.
• Implementing VisiCalc
• See also Dan Bricklin’s Software Arts and VisiCalc
and Spreadsheet: Its First Computerization (1961-
1964) by Richard Mattessich

11. 11
How it worked
• Bob Frankston:
– While there are many complicated
aspects of implementing the VisiCalc
program, the basic idea is quite simple.
A spreadsheet program is a computerized version of the traditional
accountant’s ledger sheet, with added “intelligence” in the form of
mathematical or logical relationships between entries or “cells” so
that changes in one entry can cause other entries to change
accordingly. One of the fundamental mechanisms in any
spreadsheet program is the ability to remember the calculation rule
for each cell in the sheet. For example, once the user enters a
formula, the program is able to remember how to recalculate that
cell whenever a value changes.
• How a Spreadsheet Program Works from the Atari Archives

12. 12
The successor to Visicalc
• Jan. 26, 1983:
Spreadsheet as Easy as 1-2-3
– Lotus Development Corporation begins
selling its spreadsheet application for
Microsoft DOS, called 1-2-3.
– [Its] built-in charting and graphing
capabilities, plus its support for macros,
helped it in short order to begin outselling
VisiCalc. Lotus sold $53 million of the
software in the company's first year of
existence, and 1-2-3 quickly came to
dominate the business software market in
the mid and late 1980s.

13. 13
And it’s still around!

14. 14
But 1-2-3 is not the market leader?
• Why not?
– 1-2-3’s reign lasted nearly five years,
dwindling only when the company failed
to make the transition from DOS to the
increasingly Windows-centric world of the
late 1980s and early 1990s. By
comparison, Microsoft Excel was much
easier to learn than the forbiddingly
austere, black-and-green text screen of
Lotus’ product, and by 1989 Excel had
started to outsell 1-2-3.
• Jan. 26, 1983: Spreadsheet as Easy as 1-2-3

15. 15
Excel 2.0: first spreadsheet
for Windows
launched 1987
25th anniversary of
computer
spreadsheets
(October 2004)

16. 16
A review of Excel 2.0
• Excel Extraordinaire
– Microsoft’s Macintosh spreadsheet shines on the
IBM AT, but is it fast enough?
– The new Excel for IBM systems, officially called
Excel 2.0 ($495), follows the original Macintosh
version by about 2 years. On either the Macintosh or
the AT, Excel is the paragon of bells and whistles. It
does so many things, in so many different ways, that
it tempts you to spend countless hours merely
exploring.
– The only things I might fault in Excel are the less-
than-stunning recalculation speeds and the mouse
support. But in view of the power and flexibility
provided by the program, these criticisms seem
empty.
• Reprinted from Byte, issue 3/1988, pp. 155-157

17. 17
Highlights in Excel evolution
• Excel 3 – 1990
– This version offered a significant improvement in both
appearance and features. It included toolbars,
drawing capabilities, worksheet outlining, add-in
support, 3-D charts, workgroup editing, and lots more.
• Excel 5 – 1994
– This version introduced tons of new features,
including multisheet workbooks and the new Visual
Basic for Applications (VBA) macro language.
• Excel 97 – 1997
– Excel 97 is also known as Excel 8. It is probably
offered the most significant upgrade ever. The
toolbars and menus took on a great new look, online
help moved a dramatic step forward, and the number
of rows available in a worksheet quadrupled.
• Microsoft Skip version 13th in Excel | Excel Versions History

18. 18
Further highlights
• Excel 2002 – 2001
– Excel 2002 is also known as Excel 10 or Excel XP. It was
released in June of 2001 and is part of Microsoft Office
XP. This version offered several new features, most of
which are fairly minor and were designed to appeal to
novice users. Perhaps the most significant new feature was
the capability to save your work when Excel crashes and
also recover corrupt workbook files that you may have
abandoned long ago. Excel 2002 also added background
formula error checking and a new formula-debugging
tool.
• Excel 2007 – 2007
– Also known as Excel 12, Excel 2007 was released in early
2007. Its official name is Microsoft Office Excel 2007. This
release represented the most significant change since Excel
97, including a change to Excel’s default file format.
• Microsoft Skip version 13th in Excel | Excel Versions History

19. 19
Current version
• Excel 2010
– Excel 2010, was released in early 2010 and
is also known as Excel 14. If you think
you’ve spotted a typo in the previous
sentence, you’re wrong. Yes, even big
companies can be superstitious; Microsoft
skipped Version 13 of Office and went
from Version 12 to Version 14. Excel 2010
builds on the improvements introduced in
Excel 2007, and it offers several new
enhancements.
• Microsoft Skip version 13th in Excel | Excel
Versions History

20. 20
Excel 2007 vs. Excel 2010
QAT=
Quick
Access
Toolbar
Bye bye Office
button, welcome
back “File” menu
10 Supercool UI Improvements in Excel 2010

21. 21
Excel 2013?
• Logical next step in an ongoing
evolution
– As Excel has evolved away from being simply a
VisiCalc clone (or a clone of the Lotus 1-2-3
VisiCalc clone), it has increasingly focused on data
analysis of other sorts—processing data from
enterprise and Web sources ranging from raw log
files to data warehouses.
– The top new features [in Excel 2013]—a pattern-
recognition auto-fill, a new set of interactive chart
tools, and a much easier and accelerated way to
create Excel’s analytical Pivot Tables—are all
aimed at converting raw data into something easier
to analyze.
• First look: Excel 2013
by Sean Gallagher - July 16 2012

22. 22
A free online journal
•
– SIE is an electronic journal devoted to the
publication of quality refereed articles
concerned with studies of the role that
spreadsheets can play in education. Our aim is
to provide a focus for advances in our
understanding of the role that spreadsheets can
play in constructivist educational contexts.
– Spreadsheets in Education (eJSiE) is a free
facility for authors to publish suitable, peer
reviewed articles and for anyone to view and
download articles.
• http://epublications.bond.edu.au/ejsie/

23. 23
A Classroom Resource

24. 24
A Middle School Resource
http://sbaran.net/excel/index.html

25. 25
The Future of (or for?) Spreadsheets?
• Probably mobile, like Grid
http://vimeo.com/45760721
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670545/a-spreadsheet-app-for-ipads-that-makes-number-crunching-a-treat#1