Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by

Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It Microsoft Excel
features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a
macro programming language called Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA). It has been a very widely applied
spreadsheet for these platforms, especially since
version 5 in 1993, and it has replaced Lotus 1-2-3 as the
industry standard for spreadsheets. Excel forms part of
the Microsoft Office suite of software.

Contents
Features
Basic operation
Functions A simple line chart being created in Excel,
Macro programming running on Windows 10
VBA programming Developer(s) Microsoft
History
Initial release 1987
Charts
Stable release 2103 (16.0.13901.20400)
/
Add-ins
April 13, 2021[1]
Excel for the web
Operating system Microsoft Windows
Data storage and communication
Type Spreadsheet
Number of rows and columns
File formats License Trialware[2]
Binary Website products.office.com/en-us
XML Spreadsheet /excel (http://products.offic
Current file extensions e.com/en-us/excel)
Old file extensions
Using other Windows applications Microsoft Excel for Mac
Using external data
Export and migration of spreadsheets
Password protection
Microsoft Excel Viewer
Quirks
Numeric precision
Statistical functions
Excel MOD function error
Fictional leap day in the year 1900
 Date range Excel for Mac (version 16.44), running on
Conversion problems macOS Mojave 10.14.6
Errors with large strings Developer(s) Microsoft
Filenames Initial release September 30, 1985
Versions Stable release 16.50 (Build 21061301)
/
Early history June 15, 2021[3]
Microsoft Windows
Operating system macOS
Excel 2.0 (1987)
Excel 3.0 (1990) Type Spreadsheet

Excel 4.0 (1992) License Proprietary commercial

Excel 5.0 (1993) software
Excel 95 (v7.0) Website products.office.com/mac (h
Excel 97 (v8.0) ttp://products.office.com/m
Excel 2000 (v9.0) ac)
Excel 2002 (v10.0)
Excel 2003 (v11.0) Microsoft Excel for Android
Excel 2007 (v12.0) Developer(s) Microsoft
Excel 2010 (v14.0) Corporation
Excel 2013 (v15.0) Stable release 16.0.14026.20172
Excel 2016 (v16.0) / May 16, 2021[4]
Excel 2019, Office 365 and subsequent Operating system Android Oreo and
(v16.0)
later
Apple Macintosh
Type Spreadsheet
OS/2
Mobile License Proprietary
Summary commercial
software
Impact
Website products.office
Security .com/en-us/excel
See also (https://products.o
References ffice.com/en-us/ex
cel)
General sources
External links
Microsoft Excel for iOS
Developer(s) Microsoft
Features Corporation
Stable release 2.50
/ June 14,
2021[5]
Basic operation
Operating system iOS 13 or later

IPadOS 13 or
Microsoft Excel has the basic features of all spreadsheets,[6] using
a grid of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter-named later
columns to organize data manipulations like arithmetic Type Spreadsheet
operations. It has a battery of supplied functions to answer License Proprietary
statistical, engineering, and financial needs. In addition, it can
commercial
display data as line graphs, histograms and charts, and with a software
very limited three-dimensional graphical display. It allows Website products.office
sectioning of data to view its dependencies on various factors for
.com/en-us
different perspectives (using pivot tables and the scenario
/excel (https://p
manager).[7][8] A PivotTable is a powerful tool that can save time
roducts.office.c
in data analysis.[9] It does this by simplifying large data sets via
PivotTable fields[10] It has a programming aspect, Visual Basic om/en-us/exce
for Applications, allowing the user to employ a wide variety of l)
numerical methods, for example, for solving differential
equations of mathematical physics,[11][12] and then reporting the results back to the spreadsheet. It
also has a variety of interactive features allowing user interfaces that can completely hide the
spreadsheet from the user, so the spreadsheet presents itself as a so-called application, or decision
support system (DSS), via a custom-designed user interface, for example, a stock analyzer,[13] or in
general, as a design tool that asks the user questions and provides answers and reports.[14][15] In a
more elaborate realization, an Excel application can automatically poll external databases and
measuring instruments using an update schedule,[16] analyze the results, make a Word report or
PowerPoint slide show, and e-mail these presentations on a regular basis to a list of participants.
Excel was not designed to be used as a database.

Microsoft allows for a number of optional command-line switches to control the manner in which
Excel starts.[17]

Functions

Excel 2016 has 484 functions.[18] Of these, 360 existed prior to Excel 2010. Microsoft classifies these
functions in 14 categories. Of the 484 current functions, 386 may be called from VBA as methods of
the object "WorksheetFunction"[19] and 44 have the same names as VBA functions.[20]

With the introduction of LAMBDA, Excel will become Turing complete.[21]

Macro programming

VBA programming

The Windows version of Excel supports programming through Microsoft's Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA), which is a dialect of Visual Basic. Programming with VBA allows spreadsheet
manipulation that is awkward or impossible with standard spreadsheet techniques. Programmers
may write code directly using the Visual Basic Editor (VBE), which includes a window for writing
code, debugging code, and code module organization environment. The user can implement
numerical methods as well as automating tasks such as formatting or data organization in VBA[22]
and guide the calculation using any desired intermediate results reported back to the spreadsheet.

VBA was removed from Mac Excel 2008, as the developers did not believe that a timely release would
allow porting the VBA engine natively to Mac OS X. VBA was restored in the next version, Mac Excel
2011,[23] although the build lacks support for ActiveX objects, impacting some high level developer
tools.[24]
A common and easy way to generate VBA code is by
using the Macro Recorder.[25] The Macro Recorder
records actions of the user and generates VBA code in
the form of a macro. These actions can then be
repeated automatically by running the macro. The
macros can also be linked to different trigger types
like keyboard shortcuts, a command button or a
graphic. The actions in the macro can be executed
from these trigger types or from the generic toolbar
options. The VBA code of the macro can also be edited
in the VBE. Certain features such as loop functions
and screen prompt by their own properties, and some
Use of a user-defined function sq(x) in Microsoft
graphical display items, cannot be recorded but must
Excel. The named variables x & y are identified in
be entered into the VBA module directly by the
the Name Manager. The function sq is introduced
programmer. Advanced users can employ user
using the Visual Basic editor supplied with Excel.
prompts to create an interactive program, or react to
events such as sheets being loaded or changed.

Macro Recorded code may not be compatible with

Excel versions. Some code that is used in Excel 2010
cannot be used in Excel 2003. Making a Macro that
changes the cell colors and making changes to other
aspects of cells may not be backward compatible.

VBA code interacts with the spreadsheet through the

Excel Object Model,[26] a vocabulary identifying
spreadsheet objects, and a set of supplied functions or
methods that enable reading and writing to the
spreadsheet and interaction with its users (for
example, through custom toolbars or command bars Subroutine in Excel calculates the square of
and message boxes). User-created VBA subroutines named column variable x read from the
execute these actions and operate like macros spreadsheet, and writes it into the named column
generated using the macro recorder, but are more variable y.
flexible and efficient.

History

From its first version Excel supported end-user programming of macros (automation of repetitive
tasks) and user-defined functions (extension of Excel's built-in function library). In early versions of
Excel, these programs were written in a macro language whose statements had formula syntax and
resided in the cells of special-purpose macro sheets (stored with file extension .XLM in Windows.)
XLM was the default macro language for Excel through Excel 4.0.[27] Beginning with version 5.0
Excel recorded macros in VBA by default but with version 5.0 XLM recording was still allowed as an
option. After version 5.0 that option was discontinued. All versions of Excel, including Excel 2010 are
capable of running an XLM macro, though Microsoft discourages their use.[28]

Charts
Excel supports charts, graphs, or histograms
generated from specified groups of cells. It also
supports Pivot Charts that allow for a chart to be
linked directly to a Pivot table. This allows the chart to
be refreshed with the Pivot Table.[29] The generated
graphic component can either be embedded within the
current sheet or added as a separate object.

These displays are dynamically updated if the content

of cells changes. For example, suppose that the
important design requirements are displayed visually;
then, in response to a user's change in trial values for Graph made using Microsoft Excel
parameters, the curves describing the design change
shape, and their points of intersection shift, assisting
the selection of the best design.

Add-ins

Additional features are available using add-ins. Several are provided with Excel, including:

Analysis ToolPak: Provides data analysis tools for statistical and engineering analysis (includes
analysis of variance and regression analysis)
Analysis ToolPak VBA: VBA functions for Analysis ToolPak
Euro Currency Tools: Conversion and formatting for euro currency
Solver Add-In: Tools for optimization and equation solving[30]

Excel for the web

Excel for the web is a free lightweight version of Microsoft Excel available as part of Office on the web,
which also includes web versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Excel for the web can display most of the features available in the desktop versions of Excel, although
it may not be able to insert or edit them. Certain data connections are not accessible on Excel for the
web, including with charts that may use these external connections. Excel for the web also cannot
display legacy features, such as Excel 4.0 macros or Excel 5.0 dialog sheets. There are also small
differences between how some of the Excel functions work.[31]

Data storage and communication

Number of rows and columns

Versions of Excel up to 7.0 had a limitation in the size of their data sets of 16K (214 = 16 384) rows.
Versions 8.0 through 11.0 could handle 64K (216 = 65 536) rows and 256 columns (28 as label 'IV').
Version 12.0 onwards, including the current Version 16.x, can handle over 1M (220 = 1 048 576) rows,
and 16 384 (214 as label 'XFD') columns.[32]

File formats
Microsoft Excel up until 2007 version used a proprietary
binary file format called Excel Binary File Format (.XLS) as Excel Spreadsheet
its primary format.[33] Excel 2007 uses Office Open XML as Filename .xls, (.xlsx,
its primary file format, an XML-based format that followed extension .xlsm, .xlsb -
after a previous XML-based format called "XML Excel 2007)
Spreadsheet" ("XMLSS"), first introduced in Excel 2002.[34] Internet application/vnd.ms-
media type excel
Although supporting and encouraging the use of new XML- Uniform Type com.microsoft.excel.xls
based formats as replacements, Excel 2007 remained Identifier (UTI)
backwards-compatible with the traditional, binary formats. Developed by Microsoft
In addition, most versions of Microsoft Excel can read CSV,
DBF, SYLK, DIF, and other legacy formats. Support for some Type of Spreadsheet
format
older file formats was removed in Excel 2007.[35] The file
formats were mainly from DOS-based programs.

Binary

OpenOffice.org has created documentation of the Excel format. Two epochs of the format exist: the
97-2003 OLE format, and the older stream format.[36] Microsoft has made the Excel binary format
specification available to freely download.[37]

XML Spreadsheet

The XML Spreadsheet format introduced in Excel 2002[34] is a simple, XML based format missing
some more advanced features like storage of VBA macros. Though the intended file extension for this
format is .xml, the program also correctly handles XML files with .xls extension. This feature is widely
used by third-party applications (e.g. MySQL Query Browser) to offer "export to Excel" capabilities
without implementing binary file format. The following example will be correctly opened by Excel if
saved either as Book1.xml or Book1.xls:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<Workbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"

xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"

xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel"

xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"

xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">

<Worksheet ss:Name="Sheet1">

<Table ss:ExpandedColumnCount="2" ss:ExpandedRowCount="2" x:FullColumns="1" x:FullRows="1">

<Row>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Name</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Example</Data></Cell>

</Row>

<Row>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Value</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">123</Data></Cell>

</Row>

</Table>

</Worksheet>

</Workbook>

Current file extensions

Microsoft Excel 2007, along with the other products in the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, introduced
new file formats. The first of these (.xlsx) is defined in the Office Open XML (OOXML) specification.
 Excel 2007 formats
Format Extension Description
The default Excel 2007 and later workbook format. In reality, a Zip compressed archive with
Excel a directory structure of XML text documents. Functions as the primary replacement for the
.xlsx
Workbook former binary .xls format, although it does not support Excel macros for security reasons.
Saving as .xlsx offers file size reduction over .xls[38]
Excel
Macro-
.xlsm As Excel Workbook, but with macro support.
enabled
Workbook
As Excel Macro-enabled Workbook, but storing information in binary form rather than XML
Excel documents for opening and saving documents more quickly and efficiently. Intended
Binary .xlsb especially for very large documents with tens of thousands of rows, and/or several hundreds
Workbook of columns. This format is very useful for shrinking large Excel files as is often the case
when doing data analysis.
Excel
Macro- A template document that forms a basis for actual workbooks, with macro support. The
.xltm
enabled replacement for the old .xlt format.
Template
Excel Excel add-in to add extra functionality and tools. Inherent macro support because of the file
.xlam
Add-in purpose.

Old file extensions

Format Extension Description

Spreadsheet .xls Main spreadsheet format which holds data in worksheets, charts, and macros
Add-in
.xla Adds custom functionality; written in VBA
(VBA)
Toolbar .xlb The file extension where Microsoft Excel custom toolbar settings are stored.
A chart created with data from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that only saves the chart.
Chart .xlc To save the chart and spreadsheet save as .XLS. XLC is not supported in Excel 2007 or
in any newer versions of Excel.
Dialog .xld Used in older versions of Excel.
Archive .xlk A backup of an Excel Spreadsheet
Adds custom functionality; written in C++/C, Visual Basic, Fortran, etc. and compiled in to
Add-in (DLL) .xll
a special dynamic-link library
Macro .xlm A macro is created by the user or pre-installed with Excel.
Template .xlt A pre-formatted spreadsheet created by the user or by Microsoft Excel.
Module .xlv A module is written in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) for Microsoft Excel
Code written in VBA may access functions in a DLL, typically this is used to access the
Library .DLL
Windows API
Workspace .xlw Arrangement of the windows of multiple Workbooks

Using other Windows applications

Windows applications such as Microsoft Access and Microsoft Word, as well as Excel can
communicate with each other and use each other's capabilities. The most common are Dynamic Data
Exchange: although strongly deprecated by Microsoft, this is a common method to send data between
applications running on Windows, with official MS publications referring to it as "the protocol from
hell".[39] As the name suggests, it allows applications to supply data to others for calculation and
display. It is very common in financial markets, being used to connect to important financial data
services such as Bloomberg and Reuters.

OLE Object Linking and Embedding allows a Windows application to control another to enable it to
format or calculate data. This may take on the form of "embedding" where an application uses
another to handle a task that it is more suited to, for example a PowerPoint presentation may be
embedded in an Excel spreadsheet or vice versa.[40][41][42][43]

Using external data

Excel users can access external data sources via Microsoft Office features such as (for example) .odc
connections built with the Office Data Connection file format. Excel files themselves may be updated
using a Microsoft supplied ODBC driver.

Excel can accept data in real-time through several programming interfaces, which allow it to
communicate with many data sources such as Bloomberg and Reuters (through addins such as Power
Plus Pro).

DDE: "Dynamic Data Exchange" uses the message passing mechanism in Windows to allow data
to flow between Excel and other applications. Although it is easy for users to create such links,
programming such links reliably is so difficult that Microsoft, the creators of the system, officially
refer to it as "the protocol from hell".[39] In spite of its many issues DDE remains the most common
way for data to reach traders in financial markets.
Network DDE Extended the protocol to allow spreadsheets on different computers to exchange
data. Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft no longer supports the facility.[44]
Real Time Data: RTD although in many ways technically superior to DDE, has been slow to gain
acceptance, since it requires non-trivial programming skills, and when first released was neither
adequately documented nor supported by the major data vendors.[45][46]

Alternatively, Microsoft Query provides ODBC-based browsing within Microsoft Excel.[47][48][49]

Export and migration of spreadsheets

Programmers have produced APIs to open Excel spreadsheets in a variety of applications and
environments other than Microsoft Excel. These include opening Excel documents on the web using
either ActiveX controls, or plugins like the Adobe Flash Player. The Apache POI opensource project
provides Java libraries for reading and writing Excel spreadsheet files. ExcelPackage is another open-
source project that provides server-side generation of Microsoft Excel 2007 spreadsheets. PHPExcel
(https://phpexcel.codeplex.com/) is a PHP library that converts Excel5, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007
formats into objects for reading and writing within a web application. Excel Services is a current .NET
developer tool that can enhance Excel's capabilities. Excel spreadsheets can be accessed from Python
with xlrd (https://github.com/python-excel/xlrd) and openpyxl (https://bitbucket.org/openpyxl/ope
npyxl). js-xlsx (http://git.io/xlsx) and js-xls (http://git.io/xls) can open Excel spreadsheets from
JavaScript.
Password protection

Microsoft Excel protection offers several types of passwords:

Password to open a document[50]

Password to modify a document[51]
Password to unprotect the worksheet
Password to protect workbook
Password to protect the sharing workbook[52]

All passwords except password to open a document can be removed instantly regardless of the
Microsoft Excel version used to create the document. These types of passwords are used primarily for
shared work on a document. Such password-protected documents are not encrypted, and a data
sources from a set password is saved in a document's header. Password to protect workbook is an
exception – when it is set, a document is encrypted with the standard password “VelvetSweatshop”,
but since it is known to the public, it actually does not add any extra protection to the document. The
only type of password that can prevent a trespasser from gaining access to a document is password to
open a document. The cryptographic strength of this kind of protection depends strongly on the
Microsoft Excel version that was used to create the document.

In Microsoft Excel 95 and earlier versions, the password to open is converted to a 16-bit key that can
be instantly cracked. In Excel 97/2000 the password is converted to a 40-bit key, which can also be
cracked very quickly using modern equipment. As regards services that use rainbow tables (e.g.
Password-Find), it takes up to several seconds to remove protection. In addition, password-cracking
programs can brute-force attack passwords at a rate of hundreds of thousands of passwords a second,
which not only lets them decrypt a document but also find the original password.

In Excel 2003/XP the encryption is slightly better – a user can choose any encryption algorithm that
is available in the system (see Cryptographic Service Provider). Due to the CSP, an Excel file can't be
decrypted, and thus the password to open can't be removed, though the brute-force attack speed
remains quite high. Nevertheless, the older Excel 97/2000 algorithm is set by the default. Therefore,
users who do not change the default settings lack reliable protection of their documents.

The situation changed fundamentally in Excel 2007, where the modern AES algorithm with a key of
128 bits started being used for decryption, and a 50,000-fold use of the hash function SHA1 reduced
the speed of brute-force attacks down to hundreds of passwords per second. In Excel 2010, the
strength of the protection by the default was increased two times due to the use of a 100,000-fold
SHA1 to convert a password to a key.

Microsoft Excel Viewer

Microsoft Excel Viewer was a freeware program for Microsoft Windows for viewing and printing
spreadsheet documents created by Excel.[53] Microsoft retired the viewer in April 2018 with the last
security update released in February 2019 for Excel Viewer 2007 (SP3).[54][55]

The first version released by Microsoft was Excel 97 Viewer.[56][57] Excel 97 Viewer was supported in
Windows CE for Handheld PCs.[58] In October 2004, Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2003.[59] In
September 2007, Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3).[60] In January 2008,
Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2007.[61] In April 2009, Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2007
Service Pack 2 (SP2).[62] In October 2011, Microsoft released Excel Viewer 2007 Service Pack 3
(SP3).[63]

Microsoft advises to view and print Excel files for free to use the Excel Mobile application for
Windows 10 and for Windows 7 and Windows 8 to upload the file to OneDrive and use Excel for the
web with a Microsoft account to open them in a browser.[54][64]

Quirks
In addition to issues with spreadsheets in general, other problems specific to Excel include numeric
precision, misleading statistics functions, mod function errors, date limitations and more.

Numeric precision

Despite the use of 15-figure precision,

Excel can display many more figures (up
to thirty) upon user request. But the
displayed figures are not those actually
used in its computations, and so, for
example, the difference of two numbers
may differ from the difference of their
displayed values. Although such
departures are usually beyond the 15th
decimal, exceptions do occur, especially Excel maintains 15 figures in its numbers, but they are not
for very large or very small numbers. always accurate: the bottom line should be the same as the top
Serious errors can occur if decisions are line.
made based upon automated
comparisons of numbers (for example,
using the Excel If function), as equality of two numbers can be unpredictable.

In the figure, the fraction 1/9000 is displayed in Excel. Although this number has a decimal
representation that is an infinite string of ones, Excel displays only the leading 15 figures. In the
second line, the number one is added to the fraction, and again Excel displays only 15 figures. In the
third line, one is subtracted from the sum using Excel. Because the sum in the second line has only
eleven 1's after the decimal, the difference when 1 is subtracted from this displayed value is three 0's
followed by a string of eleven 1's. However, the difference reported by Excel in the third line is three
0's followed by a string of thirteen 1's and two extra erroneous digits. This is because Excel calculates
with about half a digit more than it displays.

Excel works with a modified 1985 version of the IEEE 754 specification.[65] Excel's implementation
involves conversions between binary and decimal representations, leading to accuracy that is on
average better than one would expect from simple fifteen digit precision, but that can be worse. See
the main article for details.

Besides accuracy in user computations, the question of accuracy in Excel-provided functions may be
raised. Particularly in the arena of statistical functions, Excel has been criticized for sacrificing
accuracy for speed of calculation.[66][67]
As many calculations in Excel are executed using VBA, an additional issue is the accuracy of VBA,
which varies with variable type and user-requested precision.[68]

Statistical functions

The accuracy and convenience of statistical tools in Excel has been criticized,[69][70][71][72][73] as
mishandling missing data, as returning incorrect values due to inept handling of round-off and large
numbers, as only selectively updating calculations on a spreadsheet when some cell values are
changed, and as having a limited set of statistical tools. Microsoft has announced some of these issues
are addressed in Excel 2010.[74]

Excel MOD function error

Excel has issues with modulo operations. In the case of excessively large results, Excel will return the
error warning #NUM! instead of an answer.[75]

Fictional leap day in the year 1900

Excel includes February 29, 1900, incorrectly treating 1900 as a leap year, even though e.g. 2100 is
correctly treated as a non-leap year.[76][77] The bug originated from Lotus 1-2-3 (deliberately
implemented to save computer memory), and was also purposely implemented in Excel, for the
purpose of bug compatibility.[78] This legacy has later been carried over into Office Open XML file
format.[79]

Thus a (not necessarily whole) number greater than or equal to 61 interpreted as a date and time are
the (real) number of days after December 30, 1899, 0:00, a non-negative number less than 60 is the
number of days after December 31, 1899, 0:00, and numbers with whole part 60 represent the
fictional day.

Date range

Excel supports dates with years in the range 1900–9999, except that December 31, 1899, can be
entered as 0 and is displayed as 0-jan-1900.

Converting a fraction of a day into hours, minutes and days by treating it as a moment on the day
January 1, 1900, does not work for a negative fraction.[80]

Conversion problems

Entering text that happens to be in a form that is interpreted as a date, the text can be unintentionally
changed to a standard date format. A similar problem occurs when a text happens to be in the form of
a floating-point notation of a number. In these cases the original exact text cannot be recovered from
the result. Formatting the cell as TEXT before entering ambiguous text prevents Excel from
converting to a date.
This issue has caused a well known problem in the analysis of DNA, for example in bioinformatics. As
first reported in 2004,[81] genetic scientists found that Excel automatically and incorrectly converts
certain gene names into dates. A follow-up study in 2016 found many peer reviewed scientific journal
papers had been affected and that "Of the selected journals, the proportion of published articles with
Excel files containing gene lists that are affected by gene name errors is 19.6 %."[82] Excel parses the
copied and pasted data and sometimes changes them depending on what it thinks they are. For
example, MARCH1 (Membrane Associated Ring-CH-type finger 1) gets converted to the date March 1
(1-Mar) and SEPT2 (Septin 2) is converted into September 2 (2-Sep) etc.[83] While some secondary
news sources[84] reported this as a fault with Excel, the original authors of the 2016 paper placed the
blame with the researchers misusing Excel.[82][85]

In August 2020 the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) published new guidelines (http
s://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-020-0669-3) in the journal Nature regarding gene naming in
order to avoid issues with "symbols that affect data handling and retrieval." So far 27 genes have been
renamed, including changing MARCH1 to MARCHF1 and SEPT1 to SEPTIN1 in order to avoid
accidental conversion of the gene names into dates.[86]

Errors with large strings

The following functions return incorrect results when passed a string longer than 255 characters:[87]

type() incorrectly returns 16, meaning "Error value"

IsText(), when called as a method of the VBA object WorksheetFunction (i.e.,
WorksheetFunction.IsText() in VBA), incorrectly returns "false".

Filenames

Microsoft Excel will not open two documents with the same name and instead will display the
following error:

A document with the name '%s' is already open. You cannot open two documents with the same
name, even if the documents are in different folders. To open the second document, either close
the document that is currently open, or rename one of the documents.[88]

The reason is for calculation ambiguity with linked cells. If there is a cell
='[Book1.xlsx]Sheet1'!$G$33, and there are two books named "Book1" open, there is no way to
tell which one the user means.[89]

Versions

Early history

Microsoft originally marketed a spreadsheet program called Multiplan in 1982. Multiplan became
very popular on CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS systems it lost popularity to Lotus 1-2-3. Microsoft
released the first version of Excel for the Macintosh on September 30, 1985, and the first Windows
version was 2.05 (to synchronize with the Macintosh version 2.2) in November 1987.[90] Lotus was
slow to bring 1-2-3 to Windows and by the early 1990s, Excel had started to outsell 1-2-3 and helped
Microsoft achieve its position as a leading PC software developer. This accomplishment solidified
Microsoft as a valid competitor and showed its future of developing GUI software. Microsoft
maintained its advantage with regular new releases, every two years or so.

Microsoft Windows

Excel 2.0 is the first version of Excel for the Intel platform. Versions prior to 2.0 were only available
on the Apple Macintosh.

Excel 2.0 (1987)

The first Windows version was labeled "2" to correspond to the Mac version. This included a run-time
version of Windows.[91]

BYTE in 1989 listed Excel for Windows as among the "Distinction" winners of the BYTE Awards. The
magazine stated that the port of the "extraordinary" Macintosh version "shines", with a user interface
as good as or better than the original.

Excel 3.0 (1990)

Included toolbars, drawing capabilities, outlining, add-in support, 3D charts, and many more new
features.[91]

Excel 4.0 (1992)

Introduced auto-fill.[92]

Also, an easter egg in Excel 4.0 reveals a hidden animation of a dancing set of numbers 1 through 3,
representing Lotus 1-2-3, which is then crushed by an Excel logo.[93]

Excel 5.0 (1993)

With version 5.0, Excel has included Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a programming language
based on Visual Basic which adds the ability to automate tasks in Excel and to provide user-defined
functions (UDF) for use in worksheets. VBA is a powerful addition to the application and includes a
fully featured integrated development environment (IDE). Macro recording can produce VBA code
replicating user actions, thus allowing simple automation of regular tasks. VBA allows the creation of
forms and in‑worksheet controls to communicate with the user. The language supports use (but not
creation) of ActiveX (COM) DLL's; later versions add support for class modules allowing the use of
basic object-oriented programming techniques.

The automation functionality provided by VBA made Excel a target for macro viruses. This caused
serious problems until antivirus products began to detect these viruses. Microsoft belatedly took steps
to prevent the misuse by adding the ability to disable macros completely, to enable macros when
opening a workbook or to trust all macros signed using a trusted certificate.

Versions 5.0 to 9.0 of Excel contain various Easter eggs, including a "Hall of Tortured Souls", a Doom-
like minigame, although since version  10 Microsoft has taken measures to eliminate such
undocumented features from their products.[94]
5.0 was released in a 16-bit x86 version for Windows 3.1 and later in a 32-bit version for NT 3.51
(x86/Alpha/PowerPC)

Excel 95 (v7.0)

Released in 1995 with Microsoft Office for Windows 95, this is the
first major version after Excel 5.0, as there is no Excel 6.0 with all
of the Office applications standardizing on the same major
version number.

Internal rewrite to 32-bits. Almost no external changes, but faster

and more stable.

Excel 97 (v8.0) Microsoft Excel 95

Included in Office 97 (for x86 and Alpha). This was a major

upgrade that introduced the paper clip office assistant and featured standard VBA used instead of
internal Excel Basic. It introduced the now-removed Natural Language labels.

This version of Excel includes a flight simulator as an Easter Egg.

Excel 2000 (v9.0)

Included in Office 2000. This was a minor upgrade but

introduced an upgrade to the clipboard where it can hold multiple
objects at once. The Office Assistant, whose frequent unsolicited
appearance in Excel 97 had annoyed many users, became less
intrusive.

Microsoft Excel 2000

Excel 2002 (v10.0)

Included in Office XP. Very minor enhancements.

Excel 2003 (v11.0)

Included in Office 2003. Minor enhancements, the most significant being the new Tables.

Excel 2007 (v12.0)

Included in Office 2007. This release was a major upgrade from the previous version. Similar to other
updated Office products, Excel in 2007 used the new Ribbon menu system. This was different from
what users were used to, and was met with mixed reactions. One study reported fairly good
acceptance by users except highly experienced users and users of word processing applications with a
classical WIMP interface, but was less convinced in terms of efficiency and organization.[95] However,
an online survey reported that a majority of respondents had a negative opinion of the change, with
advanced users being "somewhat more negative" than intermediate users, and users reporting a self-
estimated reduction in productivity.
Added functionality included the SmartArt set of editable
business diagrams. Also added was an improved management of
named variables through the Name Manager, and much-
improved flexibility in formatting graphs, which allow (x, y)
coordinate labeling and lines of arbitrary weight. Several
improvements to pivot tables were introduced.

Also like other office products, the Office Open XML file formats
were introduced, including .xlsm for a workbook with macros and
.xlsx for a workbook without macros.[96] Microsoft Excel 2007

Specifically, many of the size limitations of previous versions were

greatly increased. To illustrate, the number of rows was now 1,048,576 (220) and columns was 16,384
(214; the far-right column is XFD). This changes what is a valid A1 reference versus a named range.
This version made more extensive use of multiple cores for the calculation of spreadsheets; however,
VBA macros are not handled in parallel and XLL add‑ins were only executed in parallel if they were
thread-safe and this was indicated at registration.

Excel 2010 (v14.0)

Included in Office 2010, this is the next major version after v12.0,
as version number 13 was skipped.

Minor enhancements and 64-bit support,[97] including the

following:

Multi-threading recalculation (MTR) for commonly used

functions Microsoft Excel 2010 running on
Windows 7
Improved pivot tables
More conditional formatting options
Additional image editing capabilities
In-cell charts called sparklines
Ability to preview before pasting
Office 2010 backstage feature for document-related tasks
Ability to customize the Ribbon
Many new formulas, most highly specialized to improve accuracy[98]

Excel 2013 (v15.0)

Included in Office 2013, along with a lot of new tools included in this release:

Improved Multi-threading and Memory Contention

FlashFill[99]
Power View[100]
Power Pivot[101]
Timeline Slicer
Windows App
Inquire[102]
 50 new functions[103]

Excel 2016 (v16.0)

Included in Office 2016, along with a lot of new tools included in this release:

Power Query integration

Read-only mode for Excel
Keyboard access for Pivot Tables and Slicers in Excel
New Chart Types
Quick data linking in Visio
Excel forecasting functions
Support for multi-selection of Slicer items using touch
Time grouping and Pivot Chart Drill Down
Excel data cards[104]

Excel 2019, Office 365 and subsequent (v16.0)

Microsoft no longer releases Office or Excel in discrete versions. Instead, features are introduced
automatically over time using Windows Update. The version number remains 16.0. Thereafter only
the approximate dates when features appear can now be given.

Dynamic Arrays. These are essentially Array Formulas but they "Spill" automatically into
neighboring cells and does not need the ctrl-shift-enter to create them. Further, dynamic arrays
are the default format, with new "@" and "#" operators to provide compatibility with previous
versions. This is perhaps the biggest structural change since 2007, and is in response to a similar
feature in Google Sheets. Dynamic arrays started appearing in pre-releases about 2018, and as
of March 2020 are available in published versions of Office 365 provided a user selected "Office
Insiders".

Apple Macintosh
1985 Excel 1.0
1988 Excel 1.5
1989 Excel 2.2
1990 Excel 3.0
1992 Excel 4.0
1993 Excel 5.0 (part of Office 4.x—Final Motorola 680x0 Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011
version[105] and first PowerPC version)
1998 Excel 8.0 (part of Office 98)
2000 Excel 9.0 (part of Office 2001)
2001 Excel 10.0 (part of Office v. X)
2004 Excel 11.0 (part of Office 2004)
2008 Excel 12.0 (part of Office 2008)
2010 Excel 14.0 (part of Office 2011)
 2015 Excel 15.0 (part of Office 2016—Office 2016 for Mac brings the Mac version much closer to
parity with its Windows cousin, harmonizing many of the reporting and high-level developer
functions, while bringing the ribbon and styling into line with its PC counterpart.)[106]

OS/2
1989 Excel 2.2
1990 Excel 2.3
1991 Excel 3.0

Mobile

Excel Mobile is a spreadsheet program that can edit XLSX files. It can edit and format text in cells,
calculate formulas, search within the spreadsheet, sort rows and columns, freeze panes, filter the
columns, add comments, and create charts. It can't add columns or rows except at the edge of the
document, rearrange columns or rows, delete rows or columns, or add spreadsheet
tabs.[107][108][109][110][111][112] The 2007 version has the ability to use a full-screen mode to deal with
limited screen resolution, as well as split panes to view different parts of a worksheet at one time.[110]
Protection settings, zoom settings, autofilter settings, certain chart formatting, hidden sheets, and
other features are not supported on Excel Mobile, and will be modified upon opening and saving a
workbook.[111] In 2015, Excel Mobile became available for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile on
Windows Store.[113][114]

Summary
Legend: Old version, not maintained Older version, still maintained Current stable version
 Microsoft Excel for Windows release history
Year Name Version Comments
Renumbered to 2 to correspond with contemporary Macintosh version. Supported
1987 Excel 2 2.0
macros (later known as Excel 4 macros).
1990 Excel 3 3.0 Added 3D graphing capabilities
1992 Excel 4 4.0 Introduced auto-fill feature
1993 Excel 5 5.0 Included Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and various object-oriented options
Excel Renumbered for contemporary Word version. Both programs were packaged in
1995 7.0
95 Microsoft Office by this time.
Excel
1997 8.0
97
Excel Part of Microsoft Office 2000, which was itself part of Windows Millennium (also
2000 9.0
2000 known as "Windows ME").
Excel
2002 10.0
2002
Excel Released only 1 year later to correspond better with the rest of Microsoft Office
2003 11.0
2003 (Word, PowerPoint, etc.).
Excel
2007 12.0
2007
Excel Due to superstitions surrounding the number 13, Excel 13 was skipped in version
2010 14.0
2010 counting.
Excel Introduced 50 more mathematical functions (available as pre-packaged commands,
2013 15.0
2013 rather than typing the formula manually).
Excel
2016 16.0 Part of Microsoft Office 2016
2016
 Microsoft Excel for Macintosh release history
Year Name Version Comments
1985 Excel 1 1.0 Initial version of Excel. Supported macros (later known as Excel 4 macros).
Excel
1988 1.5
1.5
1989 Excel 2 2.2
1990 Excel 3 3.0
1992 Excel 4 4.0
1993 Excel 5 5.0 Only available on PowerPC-based Macs. First PowerPC version.
Excel Excel 6 and Excel 7 were skipped to correspond with the rest of Microsoft Office at
1998 8.0
98 the time.
Excel
2000 9.0
2000
Excel
2001 10.0
2001
Excel
2004 11.0
2004
Excel
2008 12.0
2008
Excel
2011 14.0 As with the Windows version, version 13 was skipped for superstitious reasons.
2011
As with the rest of Microsoft Office, so it is for Excel: Future release dates for the
Excel
2016 16.0 Macintosh version are intended to correspond better to those for the Windows
2016
version, from 2016 onward.

Microsoft Excel for OS/2 release history

Year Name Version Comments
Excel
1989 2.2 Numbered in between Windows versions at the time
2.2
Excel
1990 2.3
2.3
Last OS/2 version. Discontinued subseries of Microsoft Excel, which is otherwise
1991 Excel 3 3.0
still an actively developed program.

Impact
Excel offers many user interface tweaks over the earliest electronic spreadsheets; however, the
essence remains the same as in the original spreadsheet software, VisiCalc: the program displays cells
organized in rows and columns, and each cell may contain data or a formula, with relative or absolute
references to other cells.

Excel 2.0 for Windows, which was modeled after its Mac GUI-based counterpart, indirectly expanded
the installed base of the then-nascent Windows environment. Excel 2.0 was released a month before
Windows 2.0, and the installed base of Windows was so low at that point in 1987 that Microsoft had
to bundle a runtime version of Windows 1.0 with Excel 2.0.[115] Unlike Microsoft Word, there never
was a DOS version of Excel.
Excel became the first spreadsheet to allow the user to define the appearance of spreadsheets (fonts,
character attributes, and cell appearance). It also introduced intelligent cell re-computation, where
only cells dependent on the cell being modified are updated (previous spreadsheet programs
recomputed everything all the time or waited for a specific user command). Excel introduced auto-fill,
the ability to drag and expand the selection box to automatically copy a cell or row contents to
adjacent cells or rows, adjusting the copies intelligently by automatically incrementing cell references
or contents. Excel also introduced extensive graphing capabilities.

Security
Because Excel is widely used, it has been attacked by hackers. While Excel is not directly exposed to
the Internet, if an attacker can get a victim to open a file in Excel, and there is an appropriate security
bug in Excel, then the attacker can gain control of the victim's computer.[116] UK's GCHQ has a tool
named TORNADO ALLEY with this purpose.[117][118]

See also
Comparison of spreadsheet software
Comparison of risk analysis Microsoft Excel add-ins
Numbers (spreadsheet)—the iWork equivalent
Spreadmart

References
1. "Update history for Microsoft Office 2019" (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-
history-office-2019). Microsoft Docs. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
2. "Microsoft Office Excel 365" (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/try/microsoft-365-fre
e). Microsoft.com. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
3. "Update history for Office for Mac" (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/officeupdates/update-history-
office-for-mac). Microsoft Docs.
4. "Microsoft Excel APKs" (https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/microsoft-corporation/excel/). APKMirror.
5. "Microsoft Excel" (https://apps.apple.com/app/id586683407). App Store.
6. Harvey, Greg (2006). Excel 2007 For Dummies (https://books.google.com/books?id=i5ffgL9KEg8
C). Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-03737-9.
7. Harvey, Greg (2007). Excel 2007 Workbook for Dummies (https://books.google.com/books?id=9P
Cz-uf-bjkC&pg=PA296) (2nd ed.). Wiley. p. 296 ff. ISBN 978-0-470-16937-7.
8. "Description About Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables" (https://best-excel-tutorial.com/55-advanced/81-p
ivot-table). Best Excel Tutorial. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
9. "Everything About Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables" (https://excelpivot.com/). Excel Pivot. Retrieved
January 19, 2021.
10. "Everything About Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables" (https://excelpivot.com/what-are-pivot-table-fields-
and-how-to-change-them/). Excel Pivot. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
11. de Levie, Robert (2004). Advanced Excel for scientific data analysis (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=IAnO-2qVazsC). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-515275-3.
12. Bourg, David M. (2006). Excel scientific and engineering cookbook (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=vQaGBMGaWI4C). O'Reilly. ISBN 978-0-596-00879-6.
13. Şeref, Michelle M. H. & Ahuja, Ravindra K. (2008). "§4.2 A portfolio management and optimization
spreadsheet DSS" (https://books.google.com/books?id=q_3sRkRKZQwC&pg=PA288). In
Burstein, Frad & Holsapple, Clyde W. (eds.). Handbook on Decision Support Systems 1: Basic
Themes. Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-48712-8.
14. Wells, Eric & Harshbarger, Steve (1997). Microsoft Excel 97 Developer's Handbook (https://books.
google.com/books?id=LRZnWl-LvwsC). Microsoft Press. ISBN 978-1-57231-359-0. Excellent
examples are developed that show just how applications can be designed.
15. Harnett, Donald L. & Horrell, James F. (1998). Data, statistics, and decision models with Excel (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=l0xiQgAACAAJ). Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-13398-8.
16. Some form of data acquisition hardware is required. See, for example, Austerlitz, Howard (2003).
Data acquisition techniques using PCs (https://books.google.com/books?id=iKKVOJYqi6YC&pg=
PA281) (2nd ed.). Academic Press. p. 281 ff. ISBN 978-0-12-068377-2.
17. "Description of the startup switches for Excel" (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291288). Microsoft
Help and Support. Microsoft Support. May 7, 2007. Retrieved December 14, 2010. "Microsoft
Excel accepts a number of optional switches that you can use to control how the program starts.
This article lists the switches and provides a description of each switch."
18. "Excel functions (alphabetical)" (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/excel-functions-alphabetic
al-b3944572-255d-4efb-bb96-c6d90033e188). Microsoft. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
19. "WorksheetFunction Object (Excel)" (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/excel.worksh
eetfunction). Office VBA Reference. Microsoft. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
20. "Functions (Visual Basic for Applications)" (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/language/r
eference/functions-visual-basic-for-applications). Office VBA Reference. Microsoft. Retrieved
November 4, 2018.
21. "LAMBDA: The ultimate Excel worksheet function" (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blo
g/lambda-the-ultimatae-excel-worksheet-function/). Microsoft. January 25, 2021. Retrieved
April 23, 2021.
22. For example, by converting to Visual Basic the recipes in Press, William H. Press; Teukolsky, Saul
A.; Vetterling, William T. & Flannery, Brian P. (2007). Numerical recipes: the art of scientific
computing (https://books.google.com/books?id=1aAOdzK3FegC) (3rd ed.). Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978-0-521-88068-8. Code conversion to Basic from Fortran probably is easier than
from C++, so the 2nd edition (ISBN 0521437210) may be easier to use, or the Basic code
implementation of the first edition: Sprott, Julien C. (1991). Numerical recipes: routines and
examples in BASIC (https://books.google.com/books?id=3-BfpBw7AqQC). Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978-0-521-40689-5.
23. "Excel" (http://www.officeformachelp.com/excel/). Office for Mac. OfficeforMacHelp.com.
Retrieved July 8, 2012.
24. "Using Excel - PC or Mac? | Excel Lemon" (http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20160921074527/https://
www.excellemon.com/view/100-using-excel-pc-or-mac). www.excellemon.com. Archived from the
original (https://www.excellemon.com/view/100-using-excel-pc-or-mac) on September 21, 2016.
Retrieved July 29, 2015.
25. However an increasing proportion of Excel functionality is not captured by the Macro Recorder
leading to largely useless macros. Compatibility among multiple versions of Excel is also a
downfall of this method. A macro recorder in Excel 2010 may not work in Excel 2003 or older. This
is most common when changing colors and formatting of cells.
Walkenbach, John (2007).
"Chapter 6: Using the Excel macro recorder" (https://books.google.com/books?id=2IBbPiP3wOIC
&pg=PA79). Excel 2007 VBA Programming for Dummies (Revised by Jan Karel Pieterse ed.).
Wiley. p. 79 ff. ISBN 978-0-470-04674-6.
26. Walkenbach, John (February 2, 2007). "Chapter 4: Introducing the Excel object model" (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=2IBbPiP3wOIC&pg=PA53). cited work. p. 53 ff. ISBN 978-0-470-
04674-6.
27. "The Spreadsheet Page for Excel Users and Developers" (http://spreadsheetpage.com/index.php/
site/tip/developer_faq_general_questions/). J-Walk & Associates, Inc. Retrieved December 19,
2012.
28. "Working with Excel 4.0 macros" (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/working-with-excel-4
-0-macros-HA010336614.aspx). Microsoft Office Support. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
29. "How To Make a Pivot Chart" (https://excelpivot.com/how-to-make-a-pivot-chart/). Excel Pivot.
Retrieved February 10, 2021.
30. "Solver" (https://best-excel-tutorial.com/55-advanced/249-solver).
31. "Differences between using a workbook in the browser and in Excel - Office Support" (https://supp
ort.office.com/en-us/article/Differences-between-using-a-workbook-in-the-browser-and-in-Excel-F
0DC28ED-B85D-4E1D-BE6D-5878005DB3B6). support.office.com. Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20170208034000/https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Differences-between-using-a-w
orkbook-in-the-browser-and-in-Excel-F0DC28ED-B85D-4E1D-BE6D-5878005DB3B6) from the
original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
32. "The "Big Grid" and Increased Limits in Excel 2007" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa73
0921.aspx). microsoft.com. Retrieved April 10, 2008.
33. "How to extract information from Office files by using Office file formats and schemas" (http://supp
ort.microsoft.com/kb/840817/). Microsoft. February 26, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
34. "XML Spreadsheet Reference" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/aa140066(office.10).aspx). Microsoft Excel 2002 Technical Articles. MSDN. August
2001. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
35. "Deprecated features for Excel 2007" (http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2006/08/2
4/deprecated-features-for-excel-2007.aspx). Microsoft—David Gainer. August 24, 2006. Retrieved
January 2, 2009.
36. "OpenOffice.org's documentation of the Microsoft Excel File Format" (http://sc.openoffice.org/exce
lfileformat.pdf) (PDF). August 2, 2008.
37. "Microsoft Office Excel 97 - 2007 Binary File Format Specification (*.xls 97-2007 format)" (http://do
wnload.microsoft.com/download/0/B/E/0BE8BDD7-E5E8-422A-ABFD-4342ED7AD886/Excel97-2
007BinaryFileFormat(xls)Specification.xps). Microsoft Corporation. 2007.
38. Fairhurst, Danielle Stein (March 17, 2015). Using Excel for Business Analysis: A Guide to
Financial Modelling Fundamentals (https://books.google.com/books?id=oSXWBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA
324). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-06245-5.
39. "Faking DDE with Private Servers" (http://www.drdobbs.com/184409151?pgno=3).
40. Schmalz, Michael (2006). "Chapter 5: Using Access VBA to automate Excel" (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=SGH10fniqmsC&pg=PT71). Integrating Excel and Access. O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN 978-0-596-00973-1.Schmalz, Michael (2006). "Chapter 5: Using Access VBA to automate
Excel" (https://books.google.com/books?id=SGH10fniqmsC&pg=PT71). Integrating Excel and
Access. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 978-0-596-00973-1.
41. Cornell, Paul (2007). "Chapter 5: Connect to other databases" (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=qjkglmBy_l4C&pg=PA117). Excel as Your Database (https://archive.org/details/excelasyourdata
b0000corn/page/117). Apress. p. 117 ff (https://archive.org/details/excelasyourdatab0000corn/pag
e/117). ISBN 978-1-59059-751-4.
42. DeMarco, Jim (2008). "Excel's data import tools" (https://books.google.com/books?id=gtPQMxO8
XuoC&pg=PA43). Pro Excel 2007 VBA. Apress. p. 43 ff. ISBN 978-1-59059-957-0.
43. Harts, Doug (2007). "Importing Access data into Excel 2007" (https://books.google.com/books?id=
MVFldXVKpj8C&pg=PA171). Microsoft Office 2007 Business Intelligence: Reporting, Analysis,
and Measurement from the Desktop. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 978-0-07-149424-3.
44. "About Network DDE (Windows)" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/aa365135(VS.85).aspx).
45. How to set up RTD in Excel (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289150)
46. DeMarco, Jim (2008). Pro Excel 2007 VBA (https://books.google.com/books?id=gtPQMxO8XuoC
&pg=PA225). Berkeley, CA: Apress. p. 225. ISBN 978-1-59059-957-0. "External data is accessed
through a connection file, such as an Office Data Connection (ODC) file (.odc)"
47. Bullen, Stephen; Bovey, Rob & Green, John (2009). Professional Excel Development (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=VnegO0pMYlIC&pg=PA665) (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-
Wesley. p. 665. ISBN 978-0-321-50879-9. "To create a robust solution, we always have to include
some VBA code ..."
48. William, Wehrs (2000). "An Applied DSS Course Using Excel and VBA: IS and/or MS?" (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20100821074925/http://proc.isecon.org/2000/602/ISECON.2000.Wehrs.pdf)
(PDF). The Proceedings of ISECON (Information System Educator Conference). p. 4. Archived
from the original (http://proc.isecon.org/2000/602/ISECON.2000.Wehrs.pdf) (PDF) on August 21,
2010. Retrieved February 5, 2010. "Microsoft Query is a data retrieval tool (i.e. ODBC browser)
that can be employed within Excel 97. It allows a user to create and save queries on external
relational databases for which an ODBC driver is available."
49. Use Microsoft Query to retrieve external data (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA10099664
1033.aspx) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100312111200/http://office.microsoft.com/en-
us/excel/ha100996641033.aspx) March 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
50. "Password protect documents, workbooks, and presentations - Word - Office.com" (http://office.mi
crosoft.com/en-us/word-help/password-protect-documents-workbooks-and-presentations-HA0101
48333.aspx#BM1). Office.microsoft.com. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
51. "Password protect documents, workbooks, and presentations - Word - Office.com" (http://office.mi
crosoft.com/en-us/word-help/password-protect-documents-workbooks-and-presentations-HA0101
48333.aspx#BM3a). Office.microsoft.com. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
52. "Password protect worksheet or workbook elements - Excel - Office.com" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20130326192849/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or
-workbook-elements-HP005201059.aspx). Office.microsoft.com. Archived from the original (http://
office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HP005
201059.aspx) on March 26, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
53. "Description of the Excel Viewer" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130906014511/http://support.mic
rosoft.com/kb/273711). Microsoft. February 17, 2012. Archived from the original (http://support.mic
rosoft.com/kb/273711) on April 6, 2013.
54. "How to obtain the latest Excel Viewer" (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/exce
l/get-latest-excel-viewer). Microsoft Docs. May 22, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
55. "Description of the security update for Excel Viewer 2007: February 12, 2019" (https://support.micr
osoft.com/en-au/help/4461608/description-of-the-security-update-for-excel-viewer-2007-february-
12). Microsoft. April 16, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
56. "Microsoft Excel Viewer" (https://web.archive.org/web/19980120142756/http://www.microsoft.com/
office/msexcel/internet/viewer/). Microsoft. 1997. Archived from the original (http://www.microsoft.c
om/office/msexcel/internet/viewer/) on January 20, 1998.
57. "Excel 97/2000 Viewer: Spreadsheet Files" (https://web.archive.org/web/20040113003810/http://w
ww.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4EB83149-91DA-4110-8595-4A960D3E1C7
C&displaylang=EN). Microsoft. Archived from the original (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/de
tails.aspx?FamilyID=4EB83149-91DA-4110-8595-4A960D3E1C7C&displaylang=EN) on January
13, 2004.
58. "New Features in Windows CE .NET 4.1" (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/ms
919256(v=msdn.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN). Microsoft Docs. June 30, 2006. Retrieved
January 3, 2021.
59. "Excel Viewer 2003" (https://web.archive.org/web/20050115054414/http://www.microsoft.com/dow
nloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C8378BF4-996C-4569-B547-75EDBD03AAF0&displaylang=en).
Microsoft. October 12, 2004. Archived from the original (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta
ils.aspx?FamilyId=C8378BF4-996C-4569-B547-75EDBD03AAF0&displaylang=en) on January
15, 2005.
60. "Excel Viewer 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3)" (https://web.archive.org/web/20071011003602/http://w
ww.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=50A22D11-7CC6-4C3A-B3EC-A9EA4E39E2
8E&displaylang=en). Microsoft. September 17, 2007. Archived from the original (http://www.micro
soft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=50A22D11-7CC6-4C3A-B3EC-A9EA4E39E28E&displ
aylang=en) on October 11, 2007.
61. "Excel Viewer" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100926003423/http://www.microsoft.com/download
s/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=1cd6acf9-ce06-4e1c-8dcf-f33f669dbc3a&displaylang=en). Microsoft.
January 14, 2008. Archived from the original (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.asp
x?FamilyID=1cd6acf9-ce06-4e1c-8dcf-f33f669dbc3a&displaylang=en) on September 26, 2010.
62. "Excel Viewer 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2)" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120428065656/http://w
ww.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17724). Microsoft. April 24, 2009. Archived
from the original (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17724) on April 28,
2012.
63. "Excel Viewer 2007 Service Pack 3 (SP3)" (https://web.archive.org/web/20111229015742/http://w
ww.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27833). Microsoft. October 25,
2011. Archived from the original (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang
=en&id=27833) on December 29, 2011.
64. "Supported versions of the Office viewers" (https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/979860/supp
orted-versions-of-the-office-viewers). Microsoft. April 16, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
65. Microsoft's overview is found at: "Floating-point arithmetic may give inaccurate results in Excel" (h
ttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/78113/en-us). Revision 8.2 ; article ID: 78113. Microsoft support.
June 30, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
66. Altman, Micah; Gill, Jeff; McDonald, Michael (2004). "§2.1.1 Revealing example: Computing the
coefficient standard deviation" (https://books.google.com/books?id=j_KevqVO3zAC&pg=PA12).
Numerical issues in statistical computing for the social scientist. Wiley-IEEE. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-
471-23633-7.
67. de Levie, Robert (2004). cited work. pp. 45–46. ISBN 978-0-19-515275-3.
68. Walkenbach, John (2010). "Defining data types" (https://books.google.com/books?id=dtSdrjjVXrw
C&pg=PA198). Excel 2010 Power Programming with VBA. Wiley. pp. 198 ff and Table 8–1.
ISBN 978-0-470-47535-5.
69. McCullough, Bruce D.; Wilson, Berry (2002). "On the accuracy of statistical procedures in
Microsoft Excel 2000 and Excel XP". Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. 40 (4): 713–721.
doi:10.1016/S0167-9473(02)00095-6 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2FS0167-9473%2802%2900095-
6).
70. McCullough, Bruce D.; Heiser, David A. (2008). "On the accuracy of statistical procedures in
Microsoft Excel 2007". Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. 52 (10): 4570–4578.
CiteSeerX 10.1.1.455.5508 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.455.5508).
doi:10.1016/j.csda.2008.03.004 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.csda.2008.03.004).
71. Yalta, A. Talha (2008). "The accuracy of statistical distributions in Microsoft Excel 2007".
Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. 52 (10): 4579–4586. doi:10.1016/j.csda.2008.03.005 (ht
tps://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.csda.2008.03.005).
72. Goldwater, Eva. "Using Excel for Statistical Data Analysis—Caveats" (http://www-unix.oit.umass.e
du/~evagold/excel.html). University of Massachusetts School of Public Health. Retrieved
November 10, 2008.
73. Heiser, David A. (2008). "Microsoft Excel 2000, 2003 and 2007 faults, problems, workarounds and
fixes" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100418172334/http://www.daheiser.info/excel/frontpage.htm
l). Archived from the original (http://www.daheiser.info/excel/frontpage.html) on April 18, 2010.
Retrieved April 8, 2010.
74. Function improvements in Excel 2010 (http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2009/09/10/function-i
mprovements-in-excel-2010.aspx) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100406191751/http://
blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2009/09/10/function-improvements-in-excel-2010.aspx) April 6,
2010, at the Wayback Machine Comments are provided from readers that may illuminate some
remaining problems.
75. "The MOD bug" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160111114148/http://www.bygsoftware.com/issue
s/modbug.html). Byg Software. Archived from the original (http://www.bygsoftware.com/issues/mo
dbug.html) on January 11, 2016. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
76. "Days of the week before March 1, 1900 are incorrect in Excel" (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2
14058/en-us). Microsoft. Archived (https://archive.today/20120714062344/http://support.microsoft.
com/kb/214058/en-us) from the original on July 14, 2012. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
77. "Excel incorrectly assumes that the year 1900 is a leap year" (https://docs.microsoft.com/office/tro
ubleshoot/excel/wrongly-assumes-1900-is-leap-year). Microsoft. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
78. Spolsky, Joel (June 16, 2006). "My First BillG Review" (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/200
6/06/16.html). Joel on Software. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
79. "The Contradictory Nature of OOXML" (http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?s
tory=20070117145745854). ConsortiumInfo.org. January 17, 2007.
80. "Negative date and time value are displayed as pound signs (###) in Excel" (http://support.micros
oft.com/kb/182247). Microsoft. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
81. Zeeberg, Barry R; Riss, Joseph; Kane, David W; Bussey, Kimberly J; Uchio, Edward; Linehan, W
Marston; Barrett, J Carl; Weinstein, John N (2004). "Mistaken Identifiers: Gene name errors can
be introduced inadvertently when using Excel in bioinformatics" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm
c/articles/PMC459209). BMC Bioinformatics. 5 (1): 80. doi:10.1186/1471-2105-5-80 (https://doi.or
g/10.1186%2F1471-2105-5-80). PMC 459209 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC459
209). PMID 15214961 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15214961).
82. Ziemann, Mark; Eren, Yotam; El-Osta, Assam (2016). "Gene name errors are widespread in the
scientific literature" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4994289). Genome Biology.
17 (1): 177. doi:10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7 (https://doi.org/10.1186%2Fs13059-016-1044-7).
PMC 4994289 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4994289). PMID 27552985 (https://
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27552985).
83. Anon (2016). "Microsoft Excel blamed for gene study errors" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technol
ogy-37176926). bbc.co.uk. London: BBC News.
84. Cimpanu, Catalin (August 24, 2016). "One in Five Scientific Papers on Genes Contains Errors
Because of Excel" (http://news.softpedia.com/news/one-in-five-scientific-papers-on-genes-contain
s-errors-because-of-excel-507582.shtml). Softpedia. SoftNews.
85. Ziemann, Mark (2016). "Genome Spot: My personal thoughts on gene name errors" (https://web.a
rchive.org/web/20160830135847/http://genomespot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/my-personal-thought
s-on-gene-name-errors.html?m=1). genomespot.blogspot.co.uk. Archived from the original (http://
genomespot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/my-personal-thoughts-on-gene-name-errors.html?m=1) on
August 30, 2016.
86. Vincent, James (August 6, 2020). "Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from
misreading them as dates" (https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-
microsoft-excel-misreading-dates). The Verge. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
87. "Excel: type() and WorksheetFunction.IsText() fail for long strings" (https://stackoverflow.com/
questions/53128145/excel-type-and-worksheetfunction-istext-fail-for-long-strings). Stack
Overflow. November 3, 2018.
 88. Rajah, Gary (August 2, 2004). "Trouble with macros" (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/20
04/08/02/stories/2004080200260401.htm). The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
89. Chirilov, Joseph (January 8, 2009). "Microsoft Excel - Why Can't I Open Two Files With the Same
Name?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100729140409/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/excel/archive/200
9/01/07/why-can-t-i-open-two-files-with-the-same-name.aspx). MSDN Blogs. Microsoft
Corporation. Archived from the original (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/excel/archive/2009/01/07/why-ca
n-t-i-open-two-files-with-the-same-name.aspx) on July 29, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
90. Infoworld Media Group, Inc. (July 7, 1986). InfoWorld First Look: Supercalc 4 challenging 1-2-3
with new tactic (https://books.google.com/books?id=Vi8EAAAAMBAJ&q=macintosh%20spreadsh
eet%20arrow%20keys%20multiplan&pg=PA30).
91. Walkenbach, John (December 4, 2013). "Excel Version History" (https://spreadsheetpage.com/ex
cel-version-history/). The Spreadsheet Page. John Walkenbach. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
92. Lewallen, Dale (1992). PC/Computing guide to Excel 4.0 for Windows (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=imoPAQAAMAAJ&q=excel+4.0+autofill). Ziff Davis. p. 13. ISBN 9781562760489.
Retrieved July 27, 2013.
93. Lake, Matt (April 6, 2009). "Easter Eggs we have loved: Excel 4" (http://crashreboot.blogspot.com/
2009/04/easter-eggs-we-have-loved-excel-4.html). crashreboot.blogspot.com. Retrieved
November 5, 2013.
94. Osterman, Larry (October 21, 2005). "Why no Easter Eggs?" (http://blogs.msdn.com/larryosterma
n/archive/2005/10/21/483608.aspx). Larry Osterman's WebLog. MSDN Blogs. Retrieved July 29,
2006.
95. Dostál, M (December 9, 2010). User Acceptance of the Microsoft Ribbon User Interface (http://ww
w.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2010/Faro/DNCOCO/DNCOCO-25.pdf) (PDF). Palacký
University of Olomouc. ISBN 978-960-474-245-5. ISSN 1792-6157 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/
1792-6157). Retrieved May 28, 2013.
96. Dodge, Mark; Stinson, Craig (2007). "Chapter 1: What's new in Microsoft Office Excel 2007".
Microsoft Office Excel 2007 inside out. Microsoft Press. p. 1 ff. ISBN 978-0-7356-2321-7.
97. "What's New in Excel 2010 - Excel" (https://web.archive.org/web/20131202235535/http://office.mi
crosoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-s-new-in-excel-2010-HA010369709.aspx?CTT=1). Archived
from the original (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-s-new-in-excel-2010-HA01036
9709.aspx?CTT=1) on December 2, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
98. Walkenbach, John (2010). "Some Essential Background" (https://books.google.com/books?id=dtS
drjjVXrwC&pg=PA20). Excel 2010 Power Programming with VBA. Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley
Publishing, Inc. p. 20. ISBN 9780470475355.
99. Harris, Steven (October 1, 2013). "Excel 2013 - Flash Fill" (http://www.experts-exchange.com/Soft
ware/Office_Productivity/Office_Suites/MS_Office/Excel/A_12314-Excel-2013-Flash-Fill.html).
Experts-Exchange.com. Experts Exchange. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
100. "What's new in Excel 2013" (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-s-new-in-excel-201
3-HA102809308.aspx). Office.com. Microsoft. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
101. K., Gasper (October 10, 2013). "Does a PowerPivot Pivot Table beat a regular Pivot Table" (http://
www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Office_Productivity/Office_Suites/MS_Office/Excel/A_1233
4-Does-a-PowerPivot-Pivot-Table-beat-a-regular-Pivot-Table.html). Experts-Exchange.com.
Experts Exchange. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
102. K., Gasper (May 20, 2013). "Inquire Add-In for Excel 2013" (http://www.experts-exchange.com/Sof
tware/Office_Productivity/Office_Suites/MS_Office/Excel/A_11629-Inquire-Add-In-for-Excel-2013.
html). Experts-Exchange.com. Experts Exchange. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
103. "New functions in Excel 2013" (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/new-functions-in-excel
-2013-HA103980604.aspx). Office.com. Microsoft. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
104. "What's new in Office 2016" (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-s-new-in-Office-2016-Pr
eview-4841f061-d019-45cc-af74-3e89c8cff1c4). Office.com. Microsoft. Retrieved August 16,
2015.
105. "Microsoft Announces March Availability of Office 98 Macintosh Edition" (https://news.microsoft.co
m/1998/01/06/microsoft-announces-march-availability-of-office-98-macintosh-edition/). Microsoft.
January 6, 1998. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
106. "Office for Mac Is Finally a 'First-Class Citizen' " (http://recode.net/2015/07/16/office-for-mac-is-fin
ally-a-first-class-citizen/). Re/code. July 16, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
107. Ralph, Nate. "Office for Windows Phone 8: Your handy starter guide" (http://www.techhive.com/arti
cle/2025977/office-for-windows-phone-8-your-handy-starter-guide.html). TechHive. Retrieved
August 30, 2014.
108. Wollman, Dana. "Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone hands-on" (https://www.engadget.com/2013/0
6/14/microsoft-office-mobile-for-iphone-hands-on/). Engadget. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
109. Pogue, David. "Microsoft Adds Office for iPhone. Yawn" (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/tec
hnology/personaltech/microsoft-office-for-the-iphone-is-here-yawn.html?_r=1&). The New York
Times. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
110. Ogasawara, Todd. "What's New in Excel Mobile" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080208083816/ht
tp://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/articles/excelmobile.mspx). Microsoft. Archived from the
original (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/articles/excelmobile.mspx) on February 8,
2008. Retrieved September 13, 2007.
111. "Unsupported features in Excel Mobile" (https://web.archive.org/web/20071020043851/http://www.
microsoft.com/windowsmobile/help/pocketpc/excelmobile.mspx). Microsoft. Archived from the
original (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/help/pocketpc/excelmobile.mspx) on October
20, 2007. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
112. Use Excel Mobile (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/help/pocketpc/excelmobile.mspx)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20071020043851/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobil
e/help/pocketpc/excelmobile.mspx) October 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Microsoft.
Retrieved September 21, 2007.
113. "Excel Mobile" (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/excel-mobile/9wzdncrfjbh3). Windows
Store. Microsoft. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
114. "PowerPoint Mobile" (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/powerpoint-mobile/9wzdncrfjb5
q). Windows Store. Microsoft. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
115. Perton, Marc (November 20, 2005). "Windows at 20: 20 things you didn't know about Windows
1.0" (https://archive.is/20130411221828/http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2005/11/20/happy-bir
thday-windows). switched.com. Archived from the original (http://downloadsquad.switched.com/20
05/11/20/happy-birthday-windows) on April 11, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
116. Keizer, Gregg (February 24, 2009). "Attackers exploit unpatched Excel vulnerability" (http://www.c
omputerworld.com/s/article/9128538/Attackers_exploit_unpatched_Excel_vulnerability).
Computerworld. IDG Communications, Inc. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
117. "JTRIG Tools and Techniques" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140714224430/https://firstlook.org/t
heintercept/document/2014/07/14/jtrig-tools-techniques/). The Intercept. First Look Productions,
Inc. July 14, 2014. Archived from the original (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/07/
14/jtrig-tools-techniques/) on July 14, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
118. Cook, John. "JTRIG Tools and Techniques" (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1217406-
jtrigall.html#document/p4). The Intercept. p. 4. Retrieved March 19, 2019 – via DocumentCloud.

General sources
Bullen, Stephen; Bovey, Rob; Green, John (2009). Professional Excel Development: The
Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel and VBA (https://books.google.
 com/books?id=VnegO0pMYlIC) (2nd ed.). Boston: Addison Wesley. ISBN 978-0-321-50879-9.
Dodge, Mark; Stinson, Craig (2007). Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Inside Out. Redmond, Wash.:
Microsoft Press. ISBN 978-0-7356-2321-7.
Billo, E. Joseph (2011). Excel for Chemists: A Comprehensive Guide (3rd ed.). Hoboken, N.J.:
John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-38123-6.

External links
Microsoft Excel (http://office.microsoft.com/excel) – official site

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Microsoft_Excel&oldid=1045093180#File_formats"

This page was last edited on 18 September 2021, at 19:18 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;

additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.