COMPUTER I

DEFINE THE FOLLOWING WORDS:

Electronic Spreadsheet Program
An electronic spreadsheet is like a computerized ledger page, only much larger and much easier to
work with than ledger sheets. Like the ledger, it too is arranged in columns and rows. Whereas the
ledger usually has relatively few columns and rows, limited by the size of the paper it is printed on,
the electronic spreadsheet has the capacity for hundreds of columns and thousands of rows.
Because the spreadsheets rows and columns exist in the computers memory rather than on paper,
each column can be as wide or as narrow as you need it to be.

Workbook
A workbook is a spreadsheet file. By default, each workbook in Excel contains three pages or
worksheets.

Worksheet
A worksheet is a single page or sheet in an Excel spreadsheet. By default, there are three
worksheets per file. Switching between worksheets is done by clicking on the sheet tab at the
bottom of the screen.

Cell in a worksheet
In Excel, a cell reference identifies the location a cell or group of cells in the spreadsheet. Sometimes
referred to as a cell address, a cell reference consists of the column letter and row number that
intersect at the cell's location. Note that when listing a cell reference, the column letter is always
listed first.
Cell references are used in formulas, functions, charts , and other Excel commands.
While references often refer to individual cells such as A1, B38, or Z345, they can also refer to a
group or range of cells.

Ranges are identified by the cell references of the cells in the upper left and lower right corners of
the range.

The two cell references used for a range are separated by a colon (:) which tells Excel to include all
the cells between these start and end points.
An example of a range of adjacent cells would be B5:D10



BRIEF HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEET PROGRAM
In 1961, Professor Richard Mattessich pioneered the development of computerized speadsheets for
use in business accounting. Then in 1969, Rene Pardo and Remy Landau co-invented "LANPAR"
LANguage for Programming Arrays at Random.

In 1979, originators Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston, and Dan Fylstra introduce the VisiCalc, the first
electronic spreadsheet and the original "killer app." VisiCalc changed the world by bringing the Apple
II into offices worldwide. The market for electronic spreadsheet software was growing rapidly in the
early 1980s

In 1983, Mitch Kapor developed Lotus and his spreadsheet program quickly became the new
industry spreadsheet standard. Lotus 1-2-3 made it easier to use spreadsheets and it added
integrated charting, plotting and database capabilities. Lotus 1-2-3 established spreadsheet
software as a major data presentation package as well as a complex calculation tool. Lotus was also
the first spreadsheet vendor to introduce naming cells, cell ranges and spreadsheet macros.

For most people, the idea of VisiCalc or Lotus 1-2-3 was a big enough step. Those products also
were not ahead of the hardware, they were well matched to the hardware at that time.

In 1985, Lotus Development acquired Software Arts and discontinued the VisiCalc program.

The next milestone was the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Excel was originally written for the 512K
Apple Macintosh in 1984-1985. Excel was one of the first spreadsheets to use a graphical interface
with pull down menus and a point and click capability using a mouse pointing device. The Excel
spreadsheet with a graphical user interface was easier for most people to use than the command
line interface of PC-DOS spreadsheet products. Many people bought Apple Macintoshes so that they
could use Bill Gates' Excel spreadsheet program.

When Microsoft launched the Windows operating system in 1987, Excel was one of the first
application products released for it. When Windows finally gained wide acceptance with Version
3.0 in late 1989 Excel was Microsoft's flagship product.

By the late 1980s many companies had introduced spreadsheet products. Spreadsheet products
and the spreadsheet software industry were maturing.

In the late spring of 1995, IBM acquired Lotus Development and Microsoft Excel is the spreadsheet
market leader.







References:
NA . ND . What Is An Electronic Spreadsheet?
Retrieved on: January 21, 2008 . from: http://www.prenhall.com/lauckner/1e/book/pdfs/chapter16.pdf

French, T . ND . Workbook
Retrieved on: January 21, 2008 . from: http://spreadsheets.about.com/aod/uvw/g/workbook_def.htm

French, T . ND . Worksheet
Retrieved on: January 21, 2008 . from: http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/uvw/g/worksheet_def.htm

French, T . ND . Cell Reference
Retrieved on: January 21, 2008 . from: http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/c/g/cell_ref_def.htm

Bender, E . ND . Three Minutes: Godfathers of the Spreadsheet
Retrieved on: January 21, 2008 . from: http://pcworld.about.com/news/Jun032004id116166.htm

Power, D.J . ND . A Brief History of Spreadsheet
Retrieved on: January 21, 2008 . from: http://www.dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html