Microsoft Excel: History and Tips for Using It

Microsoft Excel is a mainstay application from Microsoft to maximize your work and daily tasks.

Microsoft Excel has traveled the world in the world of computing and is now one of the mainstay applications for office workers, students and college students.

As an application that has been around for a long time, Microsoft Of course, it has its own history, starting from the twists and turns and struggles to become one of the best data processing applications that exist today. 

So, for those of you who want to know about the history of Microsoft Excel as well as useful tips and tricks in your daily activities, let's take a look at the following discussion!

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Microsoft Excel History Was Protested Because It Was Allegedly Similar to Rival Applications

Do you know what the initial name of Microsoft Excel was before it became as famous as it is now? Microsoft Excel was first created by Doug Klunder in 1985 with the initial name "Excel".

Unfortunately, Doug received a lot of protests from many other companies because he had a name that was identical to a competitor's brand. 

Doug did not remain silent, he then changed it by adding the name Microsoft in front of it so that it became "Microsoft Excel", which until now has still used the same name for almost 4 decades.

Long before Excel was created, Doug had to deal with its competitor, namely Lotus 123 which offered similar features, a data processing application compiled from a collection of cells which is usually called a spreadsheet.

Initially, Microsoft Excel was aimed at Macintosh computers which are now the forerunner of premium laptops Macbooks which is managed by Apple.

However, Doug expanded it by creating a version of Windows that is still known to the public, which was originally Microsoft Excel 2.0 in 1987, 2 years after the release of Windows Excel for the first time.

Then in 1993, Doug ventured to market a commercial version for the first time, which was then packaged in Bundle form. 

At the same time, Doug also changed the display layout in Microsoft Word and Powerpoint so that it was similar to Excel.

This application continues to develop with the existence of VBA or Visual Basic for Application which is the forerunner of the Excel formulas that we use today.

To make programming easier, Doug added the IDE or Integrated Development Environment feature to VBA.

Even so, he has to face threats again in the form of viruses that have the potential to disrupt the security of the VBA.

With regular updates, it has succeeded in dealing with the virus threat and has released many versions, and the newest is Excel 2024 which will be released soon.

Useful Tips for Maximizing Excel Functions

The following are tips about Excel summarized from How to Geek below

Maximizing Excel Performance So It Doesn't Lag

Lag is enemy number 1 when you are running applications on a laptop, PC, cellphone, and so on. To speed up your Excel, follow the tips below

Don't over format your worksheet

The first tip is to format your worksheet as necessary. Apart from being confusing, of course excessive formatting will increase your memory, causing lag. If you don't realize that using complicated font styles will actually add to the burden on your applications and laptop.

To prevent this, use formats for letters, pages and worksheets according to your needs.

To quickly delete formats, press ctrl + a while holding, right click then click delete format.

Compressing Images

The next thing that makes your application slow is using images that are too large. 

To work around this, do the steps below:

• Enter the image you want to compress via "insert picture"
• Click image then format image, compress image, apply only to this image
• Enter the desired resolution, then click ok
• The image has changed size

Another way is to compress images on the Internet. Follow the method below.

• Open your browser
• Type “Image Compressor”, select the desired site.
• Enter an image in the box provided
• Compress images to the desired resolution
• Wait for the process to complete, click download
• The image has changed size

Use Simple Formulas

Using complicated formulas apparently makes your application run slowly like a snail.

To get around this, you can type the formula by pressing down without having to retype it again. Apart from being tiring, it certainly makes application performance worse.

You can also use the VLOOKUP, CHOOSE, LET formula which is much simpler than IF which is more difficult.

Repair Corrupt Excel Files

When you want to open your worksheet, but it has problems causing it to become corrupt, follow the steps below

By changing the Excel Trust Center settings

• On the Excel menu, select settings
• Select Trust Center, then Trust Center settings on the right
• Select the Protected View menu, clear the options Enable Protected View for files originating from the internet, Enable Protected View for files located in potentially unsafe locations, and Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments
• Click OK

Replacing Extension Files

This method is considered simpler and easier, you can follow the procedure below

• Find damaged or corrupt Excel files
• Click "Rename" 
• Type the desired Excel format (the formats in Microsoft Excel are xlsx, xlsm, and xls)
• Click OK

Important Microsoft Excel Formulas

There are several important formulas in this application that can help your productivity in working. Here are some formulas and their uses that you must know:

SUM (Sum)

The SUM function is useful for summing a range of cells in a particular cell. For example, SUM(A1:A5) will sum the data in tables A1 and A5. This formula is useful for calculating the total value of sales, expenses, and so on.

AVERAGE (Average)

AVERAGE is useful for calculating the average value of a collection of numbers. For example, AVERAGE(B1:B10) will calculate the average of all the numbers in cell B1. You can also use this function to calculate the average of exams, sales, and many others.

IF (Difference)

The IF function is useful for performing logical tests and displaying different results based on the results of the test. You can use it in the following way =IF(A1>10, “Pass”, “Fail”) will display Pass if the value of cell A1 is greater than 10 and Fail otherwise.

COUNT (Count)

You can use this formula to count the number of cells containing numbers in a range. For example, =COUNT(C1:C5) will count the number of cells containing numbers in the range C1 to C5.

MAX MIN (Maximum and Minimum Values) 

This function is useful for finding the maximum and minimum values in a range of data. For example, =MAX(D1:D10) will display the largest value in the range D1 to D10, while =MIN(D1:D10) will display the smallest value. 

VLOOKUP (Find Value in Column)

The VLOOKUP function is used to search for a specific value in a column. For example, =VLOOKUP(A1,B1:C10,2,FALSE) will search for the value in cell A1 in the first column B1:B10. This is very useful for searching data in large reference tables.

HLOOKUP (Find Value in Row) 

This is useful for searching for a value in the first row of a table and returning the corresponding value from another row in the same column.

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That's our discussion this time regarding history and tips for maximizing Excel performance. Hope it is useful.

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