The world of technology is one of constant change and nothing makes this more certain than the software industry. Since the personal computer appeared at the end of the 70’s, these have strongly depended on what applications and programs have been able to offer, which often unleashes fierce competition where whoever does not innovate loses. Few are the exceptions of applications that have managed to establish themselves in the taste of almost everyone, and that is the case of Excel.
Microsoft Excel It appeared for the first time in 1985 and by 1990 it was part of the first version of the office automation suite of microsoft-officewhich has been established, thanks to programs such as Word and PowerPoint in the preferred option of millions of users in the world.
YOU CAN SEE: Microsoft releases the first major update to Windows 11
But, what was used before Excel? While the Microsoft program is now synonymous with spreadsheetthere was a time when it was not, by far, the preferred option in the market.
Here we will tell you about two of the most popular programs that were used before and that laid many of the foundations that we now take for granted.
Contents
VisiCalc
VisiCalc deserves a special mention in this historical account, since, despite being a fairly limited program by today’s standards, in the late 70’s it established itself as one of the best-selling software in the world for compatible personal computers.
This was the first commercial spreadsheet application in history, and we owe a lot of what we use in Excel today to this simple program made by Dan Bricklin, when he saw his teacher create a financial model in tables on a blackboard in his classes from Harvard Business School.
VisiCal. Photo: Diffusion
VisiCalc was originally released for the Apple II, and quickly caused a revolution in the way many companies, large and small, work. This was one of the main reasons for IBM to decide to enter the personal computer market and launch the IBM PC in 1981.
It is worth mentioning that it was very limited, since it barely allowed five columns and 20 rows. However, for the time it was quite a revolution and allowed the Apple II to be adopted by the entire business world in the late 70s.
Lotus 1 2 3
If you used a computer in most of the 80s or 90s, you may remember this other well-known application created by Lotus, who, at the time, were the kings of office software for PCs.
Lotus 1 2 3like VisiCalc, represented a revolution for the personal computer and further entrenched the adoption of these machines in offices and companies.
Lotus 1 2 3. Photo: Diffusion
Its first version appeared in 1983 and one of its main attractions was that it allowed to create graphs from the tables that were typed. These were even designed by Jeremy Sagan, son of the well-known astronomer carl sagan.
Lotus 1 2 3 It was also the first to introduce the alphanumeric notations for cells (of type A1) and, thanks to the fact that it had practically no errors, it managed to consolidate itself against other options on the market, among them, the first spreadsheet created by Microsoft: multi-plan.
And Excel?
As we mentioned above, the first version of Excel appeared in 1985, but its success was not resounding until well into the version 5 in 1993, when it was released as part of version 4 of Microsoft Office for Windows 3.1. Shortly after, with the departure of Windows 95 and the almost general adoption of this system in the business and domestic sphere, Excel was consolidated as the preferred option for millions of users while Lotus 1 2 3 was falling into oblivion.
Box of the first version of Microsoft Office compatible with Windows 95, with Excel 5.0. Photo: Michael MJD/YouTube