Microsoft Excel

With the advent of Windows, Microsoft’s Excel became one of the most used electronic spreadsheets in the world. Excel is a big sheet that is spread out and handled electronically.  How big it is?  If the excel gets laid out on one contiounus piece of paper, it would be approximately 19 feet wide and 912 feet long.  That is really a big sheet!    Most of the people might have a have question in their mind “Why do we need such a big sheet? Today  your imagination may not  run  beyond  small exercises  or case studies , but tomorrow  you may be working  on huge, complex projects , and at  that time  such  large spreadsheets  will be  required.

What is the spreadsheet is used for?  Putting it simply, a spreadsheet is a super calculator. Even the most complex scientific calculations can be done in practically no time. You only require the right data and the right formula in order to perform calculations in a spreadsheet. Excel even has ready made formulae for most of the calculations as you can think of.  In addition to its spreadsheet capability, Excel offers extensive graphics, database and word processing capabilities.  Over a period of time spread sheet came to be known as worksheet. In fact, the spreadsheets and worksheet are the names of the same entity. In yesteryears, in the DOS era, the word “spreadsheet” was more prevalent. With the switch over to windows, it is more frequently referred to as worksheet.

The top portion of the Excel sheet has a Menu bar and below that is the Toolbar. Menu bar has all the commands necessary to work in Excel.  The toolbar also known as Standard toolbar has icons for only the most used commands. One can either pick the desired command from the Menu bar or click the icons in the Standard toolbar.