There's no doubt, the development of electronic spreadsheets as well as the creation of word processing software and databases is one of the innovations that paved the way for the eventual success of personal computers in the world of technology. When Apple and IBM first introduced personal computers, they have to persuade people of the worth of microcomputers, and these applications are some of the major deciding factors. From that time on, spreadsheet software has been constantly developed and was made to what it is now. Its improving versatility and wider range of applications have changed it into a product that has become a necessity to business and personal computers. Spreadsheets have become a standard component of office suit packages. However, what is a spreadsheet exactly?

History

The very first useful spread sheet regarding microcomputers was launched with the Apple company 2 pc around 1979. Dan Bricklin as well as Bob Frankson had developed it and they called this VisiCalc. Just before this kind of spreadsheet had been developed, excel spreadsheets needed to be personally recalculated every time a single cell had been altered. VisiCalc may total the work that may take a full week in only a few minutes. Right after many years of their launch, the actual creators offered this program towards Lotus Development Corporation, who actually transformed its identity to Lotus 1-2-3 as well as improved the actual run upon the suitable pc.

Significance

VisiCalc was one of the first ingenious applications invented for microcomputers. It quickly became a hot item on the market. VisiCalc became the basis for more complicated and better spreadsheets and a compelling selling point for business companies. It is considered the first electronic spreadsheet because it rather resembled the feel and presentation of a paper spreadsheet, only it was electronic, far more advanced, and faster compared to financial calculators that were present before it.

Function

So, what is a spreadsheet? What does it perform? Spreadsheets can carry out more tasks than what a simple arithmetic calculator can do. It can translate complex data and reports into an outline of numbers and graphs. More advanced version of spreadsheets consists of a comprehensive list of different financial calculators. It can perform statistical functions as well. A contemporary spreadsheet has at least 100 of these formulas.

Features

This application software can also serve as basic database. Just by filling data and numbers in the columns, the results can be sorted, searched or filtered. It also features mathematical and trigonometric functions. A user can make a simplified mailing list using the software just by encoding names and addresses in the columns. In some spreadsheets, a word processing feature can even allow a user to customize the fonts, whether bold or italic typeface, its size, color and the page formatting. All these features really brought convenience to the business world that is what a spreadsheet is.

Warning

Most of the time, not adequate planning is spent on the development of spreadsheets, especially when created for other users. Because a user can instantly replace values in the spreadsheet, small mistakes can lead to unintended mistakes. Moreover, due to the spreadsheet's complicated functioning and the possible production of inter-related computations, the probability of an error to occur is directly related with the size of the spreadsheet. As the size of the spreadsheet increase, so does the possibility of errors.