Electronic Spreadsheet

Intoduction
What is spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet is a computer application for
computation, organization, analysis and storage of
data in tabular form.

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Introduction
Short History
How the spreadsheet got its name?
The word “spreadsheet” comes from “spread” and
“sheet”, a reference to the format of accounting
ledgers, a tool that largely gave spreadsheets their
familiar row-and-column system.

A ledger book from 1828

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Introduction
Short History
The Birth of Accounting
The history of spreadsheets is really the history of
accounting. The first accounting records – mostly
related to crop growth and livestock management –
date back approximately 7,000 years to Ancient
Mesopotamia. In addition to tracking crops and
livestock, Mesopotamians also kept records of goods
traded and received, as well as other expenditures.

An early Mesopotamian ledger inscribed on a stone tablet

(Image: British Museum)

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Introduction
Short History
The Evolution of Accounting
Accounting methods remained relatively unchanged
until the emergence of double-entry bookkeeping in
Florence around the beginning of the 14th century.
Double-entry bookkeeping is a two-sided accounting
method in which each transaction involves both a
debit and a credit, in an effort to “balance” the
accounting equation and more easily detect errors and
fraud.

Jan Provoost’s Death and the Miser (16th century), one of

the era’s many artistic depictions of accountants and
bookkeepers

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Introduction
Short History
The Birth of Spreadsheets
In 1961, Richard Mattessich outlined the concept of
an electronic spreadsheet in his 1961 paper
“Budgeting Models and System Stimulation”. The
concept that Mattessich outlined wasn’t exactly a
primitive version of Excel, but rather a “batch
spreadsheet report generator”, or BSRG. It’s also the
first spreadsheet.

An IBM 1130, the first computer on which BSRG was

implemented (Image: Martin Skøtt, via Wikimedia)

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Introduction
Short History
The Birth of Spreadsheets
In 1969, almost a decade after the invention of the
BSRG, spreadsheets’ calculation abilities took a major
leap forward with the invention of the “LANguage for
Programming Arrays at Random” software, or
LANPAR. With LANPAR, spreadsheets could
perform omnidirectional calculations and were no
longer limited to left-to-right or top-to-bottom
calculations. LANPAR is consider a first Spreadsheet
Calculations Mature.

An IBM 1130, the first computer on which BSRG was

implemented (Image: Martin Skøtt, via Wikimedia)

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introduction
Short History
The Birth of Spreadsheets
Around the time that LANPAR was introduced, a trio
of former GE employees developed a piece of
software called AutoTab (or AutoPlan). AutoTab
wasn’t an interactive spreadsheet program like
LANPAR, but a scripting language that allowed users
to define names for rows and columns, and then apply
formulas to them. AutoTab is conseder the first
spreadsheet that use formulas.

An IBM 1130, the first computer on which BSRG was

implemented (Image: Martin Skøtt, via Wikimedia)

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Introduction
Short History
The Birth of Spreadsheets
In the late 1970s, two new spreadsheet programs – the
IBM Financial Planning and Control System and
APLDOT, developed by the United States Railway
Association – enabled industrial-weight financial
modeling with spreadsheets. With more serious
corporate applications of spreadsheets now enabled,
the technology spread further in both the public and
private sector, as well as internationally.

An IBM 360/91, the computer on which APLDOT was

developed (Image: NASA)

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Introduction
Short History
The Evolution of Spreadsheets
VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3 | The First “Killer Apps”
The first of these consumer-oriented spreadsheet
softwares was VisiCalc, available on the Apple II
(1979) and IBM PC (1981). VisiCalc combined all of
the features of modern spreadsheet applications, like
automatic recalculation, formula lines, range copying,
and formula building – features that are still hallmarks
of spreadsheet software used today.

VisiCalc running on an Apple II

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Introduction
Short History
The Evolution of Spreadsheets
VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3 | The First “Killer Apps”
In 1982, a year after VisiCalc was introduced to the
IBM PC, it was joined by Lotus 1-2-3, which quickly
became the computer’s own “killer app”. Just as
VisiCalc did for the Apple II, Lotus 1-2-3 drove sales
of the IBM PC. It was later ported to MS-DOS and
became the leading spreadsheet software for that
platform as well.

VisiCalc running on an Apple II

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Introduction
Short History
The Evolution of Spreadsheets
Microsoft Excel | A Spreadsheet King Emerges
In 1985, Microsoft released its now-ubiquitous Excel
software for the Macintosh (Mac for short is a
personal computer designed and marketed by Apple
Inc.), followed by a Windows release two years later.
As Windows gained market share in the early 1990s,
so did Microsoft Excel, and by 1995 the program was
the leader in the spreadsheet software market.

Microsoft Excel 1.5 for Macintosh

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Introduction
Short History
Spreadsheets Today
As computers and technology have evolved since
Excel’s entry into the software market in 1995, so
have spreadsheet softwares. The market has grown
significantly to include cloud-based products, new
desktop-based products, software that’s mobile-
compatible, and programs that are geared more
towards project management than traditional financial
applications

Microsoft Excel running on an iPad with collaboration

features enabled

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That’s all for today

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Assigment:
Search for how to open a
spreadsheet, spreasheet
features and spreadsheet
interface.

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Resources of this
topic
• ICT Empowerment with MS Office Application By Marmelo V.
Abante Ph.D page 5-7
• https://www.spreadsheet.com/spreadsheets#:~:text=The%20word%20
%E2%80%9Cspreadsheet%E2%80%9D%20comes%20from,row%2
Dand%2Dcolumn%20system
.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheetpr