40 Years of Microsoft Excel – 40 Years of Excellence

The legendary Microsoft Office product Excel, which today serves almost 1.5 billion people worldwide, was created in 1985 for… Apple.

 

A Rainy Beginning in Bellevue

On an autumn day in late 1983, four men gathered in an apartment of the Red Lion Hotel in Bellevue, near Seattle. Their mission: to lay the foundation for a secret project codenamed „Odyssey.“ For three intensive days, they planned, sketched, wrote code, and debated passionately to crystallize their vision for creating and developing a new software product – „the ideal spreadsheet“ – that would transform the business world years later and earn them and their company millions.
The group consisted of a young, passionate programmer with a hippie appearance and an MIT background – Doug Klunder, his friend, and a brilliant Yale-educated mathematician with the charm of a playboy – Jabe Blumenthal, a neatly dressed, clean-shaven young man with Xerox experience and a Hungarian accent, named Charles Simonyi. And the fourth member of the group – at first glance a typical nerd with thick glasses, disheveled hair, an unremarkable teenage look, and nothing in his appearance to suggest that he had recently earned over $50 million, while his modest software company headquartered in the nearby town of Redmond had recently signed a landmark deal with the giant IBM.

You’ve probably guessed that this company was called Microsoft, and the name of the last member of the foursome who launched Project Odyssey was Bill Gates.
The product that would emerge two years later from their efforts and the intensive work of a small team of about ten people would become a legend. Forty years later, it continues to „live“ on approximately 1.5 billion computers worldwide – Microsoft Excel.

 

In the Beginning… It Wasn’t Excel

Of course, Excel wasn’t the beginning, but rather the culmination of years of effort by various scientists, programmers, and companies dedicated to creating a tool that would ease numerical work and analysis for businesses and ordinary people with personal computers. We’re talking about so-called „electronic spreadsheets,“ „visual calculators,“ or „spreadsheets,“ which reached their complete and perfect form with Excel’s arrival.

Researchers unanimously agree that the man who theoretically developed the foundations and principles for such a product – even creating something like proto-spreadsheets, was Professor Richard Mattessich, an accounting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. All this was described in his book „Simulation of the Firm Through a Budget Computer Program,“ published in 1964. He himself programmed a spreadsheet prototype using the Fortran language.
However, more than ten years had to pass for technologies to develop to the point where the electronic spreadsheet idea could gain new momentum.
But technology needed another decade to catch up. By the late 1970’s, the golden “pioneer” years of computer geeks – new programming languages, operating systems, and user-friendly computers were emerging. Suddenly, you didn’t need a Harvard PhD to operate a machine. Apple, Microsoft, and dozens of scrappy IT startups founded by bearded hackers and hippie programmers all fought for a place under the digital sun, each claiming they would “change the world” with computers.

 

VisiCalc: The First Breakthrough

One of those dreamers was Dan Bricklin, an MBA student at Harvard whose real passion was programming. In 1978, he built the first true electronic spreadsheet, which he called Visible Calculator. It could handle basic calculations within 5 columns and 20 rows.
Soon, Bricklin teamed up with his friend Bob Frankston, another programming enthusiast obsessed with the spreadsheet idea. Frankston enhanced the software, and in 1979, they launched VisiCalc – capable of handling 254 rows and 63 columns.
A key figure in their success was Peter Jennings, known at the time for his chess software MicroChess. Recognizing the potential of VisiCalc, Jennings backed the project through his company, Personal Software, investing heavily in its development. Their very first client? Apple.

 

Many historians believe that VisiCalc was the real driver behind the sales boom of the Apple II, becoming the world’s first true killer app. Within just two years, Jennings even rebranded the company to VisiCorp.

 

SuperCalc: The Forgotten Competitor

In 1980, another now almost-forgotten software product appeared: SuperCalc, created by programmer Gary Balleisen at Sorcim. For a brief time, it competed successfully with VisiCalc and later with Lotus 1-2-3. But Apple’s contract with VisiCorp, IBM’s deal with Lotus, and eventually the rise of Excel left SuperCalc without a future.

 

By the late 80s, despite its strengths, it faded into obscurity – as did VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3 in the early 1990s.

 

Javelin: Ahead of Its Time

Another powerful spreadsheet product appeared in 1984 and the following year received exceptional reviews from PC Week and PC Magazine, dubbed „Most Significant Product of the Year.“ Javelin introduced a wide range of innovations: advanced charting, extensive formulas, annotation features, and sophisticated error handling. Unlike other spreadsheets, it linked variables through formulas instead of simple cell references, and it excelled at handling time-series and calendar data.

Javelin was developed by a team at Javelin Software, including Rob Firmin, Stan Kugell, John Levine, Christopher Herold, and Charles Frankston (brother of VisiCalc co-creator Bob Frankston). It ran under MS-DOS.

 

Despite its undisputed qualities and functionalities that in some respects exceeded its competitors in the spreadsheet market, Javelin failed to establish itself and ceased to exist as a product in 1988. Later, Lotus used it as the foundation for their new spreadsheet software, Improv, released for NeXT computers in 1991.

 

Lotus 1-2-3: The VisiCalc Killer

In 1982, 32-year-old Mitch Kapor, the man responsible for marketing and sales at VisiCorp, left the company, driven by the idea that he could create something even better than VisiCalc. He founded Lotus Development and a year later launched Lotus 1-2-3- the „VisiCalc killer“ – an even better electronic spreadsheet with new functionalities and improved UI.
Lotus 1-2-3 could run under MS-DOS, and IBM didn’t hesitate to immediately sign a contract with Kapor, integrating his product into their PCs. Subsequently, in late 1984, Lotus developed a similar spreadsheet product specifically for Macintosh that impressed Steve Jobs, who spoke quite flatteringly about it. Actually, the product was part of an integrated Office package that included not only electronic spreadsheets but also word processing, database programs, graphics, and communication software. Its name was Jazz.

 

According to experts, this was the best spreadsheet product on the market to date.… Before Excel.

 

Before Excel was Multiplan

But let’s return to Microsoft. Of course, Bill Gates’s company didn’t create its „killer“- spreadsheet from nothing. The foundation upon which Excel’s developers built was their product, Multiplan, released in 1982 to compete with VisiCalc.
Unlike VisiCalc, instead of A1 addressing, Multiplan used R1C1 addressing (later Excel would integrate both reference methods, with A1 being today’s default). Competition intensified with Lotus 1-2-3’s appearance and their contract with IBM, and subsequently with Jazz’s successful launch and its integration with Apple computers.

 

Microsoft faced a choice: either drastically improve Multiplan or create an entirely new product that could surpass everything else. That very dilemma was the focus of the Red Lion Hotel meeting.
Then came a game-changing moment that determined Bill Gates’s choice toward the second option. In January 1984, Apple’s Macintosh appeared with its revolutionary new GUI (graphical user interface), which would soon send MS-DOS and all other existing operating systems into history.

 

The Birth of Excel

After months of hard work by the “Odyssey” team led by Doug Klunder, originally focused on MS-DOS, Gates insisted on a dramatic change. Following heated debates (some of them at full volume), a pivotal decision was made in March 1984: scrap everything and start from scratch. The new goal was clear — to create a spreadsheet program designed specifically for Apple’s graphical interface and OS. It was also decided to use the C programming language for developing the new product.

This is the perfect moment to honor the individuals who contributed to Project Odyssey more than 40 years ago.

The Original Excel Dream Team

At the top were Bill Gates, Charles Simonyi, and Jeff Raikes (then Microsoft’s Business Development Manager, with prior Multiplan experience), who supervised the project.
At the heart of the development team were:

• Doug Klunder, lead developer, with experience with Multiplan, who likely wrote half of the code for Excel 1.0.
• Jabe Blumenthal, Program Manager, and former Multiplan contributor
• Jon DeVaan, copy protection (later head of the Office division at Microsoft)
• Jeffrey Harbers, (who would later become chief software architect for Microsoft Office)
• Mike Koss, team leader (subsequently part of the teams that developed Outlook, SharePoint, and MSN Messenger)
• And a talented group of programmers whose names deserve to be remembered: Bob Matthews, Steve Hazelrig, Ed Ringness, John Hopper, John Partridge, Laila (Shulmeisters) Partridge, Bill Bader, Barbara Bell, Mark O’Brien, Rick Powell, Brad Verheiden, Graig Wittenberg, Robin Budd, Carole Grabinski, Rob Howe, Russ Porter, Bill Schuetz, Peter Shirley and more… (some of them later are part of Word, Outlook, Windows development teams).

For a time, the team also included Philip Florence, brought in by Gates as Doug Klunder’s replacement when Klunder, stressed by the intensive work, left Microsoft in a fit of anger in January 1985 to pursue peaceful farming in California – but returned after a few weeks.

An important member of the team is also Mike Slade, who is responsible for the marketing of the product (later he led the marketing for the Microsoft Office, leaving in 1990 as a director of corporate marketing in Microsoft’s software division). Pete Higgins also played a role in the marketing strategy development for Excel 1.0.

More than 60 people participate in the whole Team, including Customer Service, Accounting, Sales, and Marketing.

 

Naming „Excel“

The name „Excel“ probably emerged somewhere in mid-1984. Unfortunately, history doesn’t remember who exactly was the „godfather“ of Microsoft’s future legendary product. We know that many names were discussed, including Microsoft Plansheet, Master Plan, Mister Spreadsheet, Number Body, Plan 3, Lever, Sigma, and even Champagne.
According to some sources, Jerry Rutterbur, former marketing director at M&M’s (Gates’ favorite candy brand), played a key role in the naming process. He has just joined Microsoft as VP of Marketing and Sales.

 

The Challenging Development Process

Work on creating the future Excel was neither easy nor smooth. The team’s goal was to create „a product that does everything Lotus 1-2-3 and Jazz do, but better and faster.“
But that wasn’t all. They needed to develop a real competitive advantage over other spreadsheet products. This became the functionality called „intelligent recalc.“ Instead of recalculating the entire spreadsheet when one cell changed, Excel would selectively recalculate only the affected cells. This not only saved time but also made the software far more efficient on the limited hardware and RAM of 1980s PCs.
The Excel team became so obsessed with the „recalc“ functionality that they even made T-shirts with the slogan „Excel – Recalc or Die.“

 

Gates, Jobs, and the Big Reveal

While Microsoft’s Excel team programmers fought day and night to achieve their goal, Bill Gates managed to convince Steve Jobs that his product would be the best on the market and that Apple should offer it integrated into their computers. Gates even persuaded Jobs to join him at the official press conference on May 2, 1985, at Green Restaurant in New York, where Excel was unveiled.
Despite Gates and several team members continuing to debug the software until the morning of May 2, 1985, the press conference was successful – not without the important contribution of Steve Jobs, who declared that Excel was „the fastest, largest, and most full-function spreadsheet available in the world.“

However, privately, Jobs warned Gates that his product wasn’t ready and far from perfection, and wanted many details cleaned up and polished before it could be part of Apple’s offering.

 

The Final Sprint

The following months were the most demanding and exhausting for the Excel team. Bugs constantly emerged in the software that had to be fixed, and everyone knew that Steve Jobs wouldn’t accept compromised quality.
Microsoft announced the official release for September 30, 1985. Although everything initially went according to plan, at the last moment the team discovered one last bug, triggering a full code audit that ran until the late hours of September 29. Somewhere after midnight, the master disk was ready and sent for duplication.
On the morning of September 30, several copies of the first version of Excel for Macintosh (Excel 1.0) were delivered to the nearest software store.
From the beginning of October, Excel 1.0 was on the entire US market at a price of $395.00 (about $100 lower than Jazz’s price).

 

By the end of 1986, Excel had already held 90% of the Mac spreadsheet software market. The following year, the first Windows version of Excel was released.
Thus began the true story of this legendary product… Now at 40 years …40 Years of Excellence!

 

 

Microsoft Excel Timeline

What are the versions of Excel for Windows and for Mac?

(According to some sources, a stable version for MS-DOS was created in 1986, but it was never officially “launched.”)

For Windows:

• Excel 2.0 (1987) – first official version of Excel for Windows
• Excel 3.0 (1990)
• Excel 4.0 (1992)
• Excel 5.0 (1993)
• Excel 95 (v7.0)
• Excel 95 – part of Microsoft Office for Windows 95
• Excel 97 (v8.0) – part of Office 97
• Excel 2000 (v9.0) – part of Office 2000.
• Excel 2002 (v10.0) – part of Office XP.
• Excel 2003 (v11.0) – part of Office 2003.
• Excel 2007 (v12.0) – part of Office 2007.
• Excel 2013 (v15.0) – part of Office 2013,
• Excel 2016 (v16.0) – part of Office 2016,
• Excel 2019, Excel 2021, Office/M 365 (v16.0)
  (After 2019, Microsoft no longer releases Office or Excel in separate versions. Instead, features are automatically rolled out over time through Windows Update. The version number remains 16.0. There is no 17.0 version. This applies to both Windows and Mac versions.)
• Excel 2019 – part of Microsoft Office 2019
• Excel 2021- part of Microsoft Office 2021
• Excel 2024- part of Microsoft Office 2024

For Apple:

• Excel 1.0 (1985)
• Excel 1.5 (1988)
• Excel 2.2 (1989)
• Excel 3.0 (1990
• Excel 4.0 (1992)
• Excel 5.0 (1993) – part of Office 4. X-Motorola 68000)
• Excel 8.0 (1998 ) – part of Office 98
• Excel 9.0 (2000 ) – part of Office 2001
• Excel 10.0 (2001) – – part of Office v. X
• Excel 11.0 (2004) – part of Office 2004
• Excel 12.0 (2008 ) – part of Office 2008
• Excel 14.0 (2011) – part of Office 2011
• Excel 15.0 (2015) – part of Office 2016
• Excel 2019- part of Microsoft Office 2019
• Excel 2021- part of Microsoft Office 2021
• Excel 2024- part of Microsoft Office 2024

 

How Microsoft Excel Evolved Between 2015 and 2025

Over the past decade, Microsoft Excel has continued to evolve to meet the demands of modern business environments, data science, and the growing need for collaboration and automation. Below are the key improvements that have transformed Excel between 2015 and 2025:

1. Integration with Microsoft 365 and Cloud Services
With the rise of cloud technologies, Excel became an integral part of Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365). Cloud integration enabled real-time collaboration, allowing multiple users to edit spreadsheets simultaneously without the need to exchange files via email. Features like autosave in OneDrive and SharePoint have significantly reduced the risk of data loss.

2. Power BI and Artificial Intelligence
Microsoft has heavily invested in data analytics by integrating Excel with Power BI. This connection allows users to visualize and analyze large datasets through advanced charts and dashboards, either within Excel or by importing into Power BI. Built-in AI capabilities and automated pattern recognition provide intelligent suggestions and instant data insights.

3. Innovations in Formulas and Functions
Recent years have seen the introduction of powerful new formulas and functions that enhance calculations and data organization:

• Dynamic Arrays: Introduced in 2020, these allow functions like SORT, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, and FILTER to automatically spill results across multiple cells without manual copying.
• LET and LAMBDA: These functions offer advanced flexibility for creating custom formulas directly in Excel. LAMBDA, in particular, marks the first attempt to provide a programming-like experience without external macros or code.
• COPILOT function – a major step forward in how you work with data that brings the power of large language models directly into the grid and makes it easier than ever to analyze text, generate content, and work faster.

4. Enhanced Data Handling
Data creation and management have become significantly easier:

• Data Types – Excel now recognizes predefined data sets (e.g., stocks, geographic locations) and automatically provides related information such as stock prices, population, and coordinates.
• External Data Connections – Improved import options from platforms like SQL Server and Azure have made Excel a more powerful tool for managing enterprise-level data.

5. Collaboration and Automation
Excel is now more interactive and team-oriented:

• Sheet View – Allows users to filter and view data independently without affecting others’ views
• Integration with Power Automate – Enables automation of repetitive tasks through flows, reducing manual effort and improving efficiency.

6. Improved Visualization – Data visualization has seen major enhancements:

• New chart types, such as waterfall, sunburst, and maps, have made data presentation clearer and more intuitive.
• Support for 3D models and augmented reality visualizations has expanded Excel’s graphical capabilities.

7. Python in Excel (2023) – one of the most significant innovations, Python integration, allows users to perform advanced analytics and machine learning directly within Excel.

8. Excel and Artificial Intelligence (2023–2025)
As AI technologies advance, Excel has rapidly adapted:

• Copilot for Excel (2024–2025) simplifies data processing through natural language queries, automatically generating formulas and insights.
• GPT Integration: Excel now supports models similar to ChatGPT for automating text analysis, report generation, and business scenario planning.
• Predictive Analytics: New features help users make informed decisions by analyzing trends and forecasting based on historical data.

9. Cross-Platform Accessibility
Microsoft has made Excel fully functional across mobile devices and web browsers. The web-based version now offers nearly all desktop features, enabling users to work seamlessly from any location and device.

 

 

The Pioneers of Electronic Spreadsheets – Where Are They Now?

Prof. Richard Mattessich passed away in 2019 at the age of 97. Even after turning 90, he continued to be invited as a lecturer at the world’s most prestigious universities. A legend in the accounting world, he authored more than 25 scientific works and books, the last of which was published in 2013.

Dan Bricklin – now 74 years old and continues developing software products through his company, Software Garden.

Bob Frankston – now 76 years old, is a globally recognized computer specialist who, in recent years, has actively opposed the influence of large telecommunications companies on internet development.

Peter Jennings – now 75 years old, continues to engage in programming. After VisiCorp, he also pursues his passion for traveling. A talented inventor and innovator, angel investor in dozens of new companies and startups, he is currently Director of CamDo Solutions and a member of the management board of PROBUS Global.

Mitch Kapor – now 75 years old, he remains one of the most interesting personalities in the IT industry. He’s among the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Open Source Applications Foundation, served as the first chairman of the Mozilla Foundation board, and continues as an evangelist for open – source software and free exchange of information and knowledge on the internet.

Charles Simonyi – now 77 years old, is an extremely popular figure in the US. He left Microsoft in 2002 to found his own company, Intentional Software, and shortly after established the charitable Fund for Arts and Sciences (which has donated over $75 million to date). Simonyi is also known for his two space flights as a space tourist aboard Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA 9 (2007) and Soyuz TMA 14 (2009).

Jeff Raikes – now 67 years old, he held senior management positions at Microsoft until 2008, when he left the company to head the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation until 2014. He also has his own Raikes Foundation.

Jabe Blumenthal – now 71 years old, after leaving Microsoft in 2013, he devoted himself entirely to the cause he worked on for most of his life: fighting climate change and creating clean energy technologies. He serves on the boards of the Bullitt Foundation, Climate Solutions, Washington Environmental Council, and Progress Alliance.

Jon DeVaan – now 66 years old, he was responsible for Office product development for many years as head of the Windows Development division. After retiring from Microsoft in 2013, he is on the board of Represent Us – a bipartisan organization seeking to end corruption in politics.

Doug Klunder – now 66 years old; despite his programming talents, after parting ways with Microsoft in the late 1990s, he decided to dedicate himself to law. He works as a lawyer helping the American Civil Liberties Union and farms in his spare time. Lives in Seattle with his wife Camille.

Mike Koss – now 65 years old, after leaving Microsoft in 2002, he worked as a software engineer at Google. After retirement, he emerged as a passionate advocate for accessible technology education and mentorship through initiatives like Reskill Americans. He is a board member of the Museum of Flight.

Mike Slade – now 66 years old, after leaving Microsoft in the late 1990s, he briefly served as vice president at Steve Jobs’s company NeXT. In 1993, he was appointed CEO of Starwave, Paul Allen’s pioneering venture in the internet and multimedia. While building Starwave, Slade launched ESPN.com, NBA.com, NFL.com, NASCAR.com, ABCNews.com, and the Go.com network. From 1998 to 2004, he was a strategic advisor at Apple. He’s the founder of venture capital firm Second Avenue Partners.

Jeffrey Harbers – died in a plane crash in 2006 at age 54. In the late 1990s, he left Microsoft to pursue farming and venture capital companies.

John Hooper – passed away in 2015 at just 53 years old. After leaving Microsoft in the 1990s, he devoted himself to travel and new challenges, including completing a master’s degree in Physics in Hungary, where he met his Croatian wife. They lived together in Zagreb until his death.

Bill Gates – will turn 70 on October 28… hardly needs additional introduction.

 

Interesting Facts About Microsoft Excel

Easter Eggs in Excel – Excel 4.0 (1992) was the first version of Excel to contain so-called „Easter eggs“ – hidden animations or graphical surprises common in early Microsoft products. This version featured a playful jab at their competitor, Lotus 1-2-3. Other famous Excel Easter eggs included the Doom-like game The Hall of Tortured Souls, Dev Hunter, a flight simulator, and more. The last Excel version with an Easter egg was Excel 2003, which featured Tic-Tac-Toe and Space Invaders.

         

Excel version 5.0 (1993) was the first to include Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a programming language based on Visual Basic that enabled automation and the use of user-defined functions (UDFs). However, this also made Excel a target for macro viruses. Initially, this caused major headaches for Microsoft, forcing the company to add an option to completely disable macros, or allow them only when backed by a trusted security certificate.

Microsoft Excel 95 was the first „major“ version after Excel 5.0 – officially, there was no Excel 6.0 version.

Excel 2010 (v14.0) was the major release following v12.0 (Excel 2007). Version 13 was skipped due to superstition around the “unlucky number.”

The concept of PivotTables, now an integral part of Excel, was developed by Massachusetts software engineer Pito Salas. It first appeared in Lotus Improv for Steve Jobs’ NeXT computers in 1991. PivotTables have been part of every Excel version since Excel 95 (5.0)

Excel 2007 (12.0) introduced the Ribbon interface for the first time.

In Excel, you can undo up to 100 actions.

Each worksheet contains 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.

You can use up to 512 fonts in a single Excel worksheet.

An Excel cell can hold up to 32,767 characters.

Each Excel function can take up to 255 arguments and up to 8,192 characters.

You can highlight up to 32,767 cells in a worksheet.

Zoom levels in Excel range from 10% to 400%.

The maximum length of a worksheet name is 31 characters.

You cannot name a worksheet “History,” and the following characters are prohibited in sheet names:

– Slash \ /
– Star *
– Big brackets [  ]
– Colon :
– Question mark ?

 

More Interesting Facts About Microsoft Excel (2015–2025)

Today, Microsoft Excel is used by almost 1.5 billion people worldwide, making it the most popular data processing software tool of its kind.

Excel as a platform for video games
In 2020, Japanese developer Kaoru Yokoyama created a full-fledged role-playing game (RPG) entirely in Excel, titled „All Quest“. He used formulas, macros, and conditional formatting to build a world map, monster battles, and an inventory system. Excel has become an unexpected medium for creativity and game development.

The Microsoft Excel World Championship
Microsoft now hosts an official Excel World Championship, where participants from around the globe compete in complex tasks, data analysis, and formula challenges. The event has attracted significant viewership and was even broadcast on ESPN2.

         

Financial Modeling World Cup
Since 2020, the Financial Modeling World Cup has been held annually in Las Vegas. It currently includes three major competitions:

A billion-dollar costly Excel error
In 2021, a financial company JP Morgan made a critical spreadsheet mistake that led to a miscalculated budget worth 6 billion dollars. The incident served as a reminder of the importance of precision and formula validation in financial modeling.

Excel in Space
In 2023, astronauts aboard the International Space Station used Excel to manage and analyze experimental data related to plant growth in microgravity. This demonstrated the program’s versatility—even beyond Earth.

The world’s largest spreadsheets
In 2021, one of the largest Excel-based databases was shared online – a file containing over 1 billion rows of data. Although Excel has a limit of approximately 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns per worksheet, linked processing and add-ins like Power Query enabled successful analysis of massive datasets.

Excel as a Creative Platform
Digital paintings – Japanese engineer Tatsuo Horiuchi continues to create stunning landscapes using only Excel’s graphic functions.

         

Music in Excel – In 2021, musician Steven Butler composed an entire song using Excel. He used formulas and macros to generate sound waves and rhythms, which he then arranged into a musical composition.

Video (Runaway Train на AC/DC), created with Excel 

Some other interesting art projects created with Excel – here, and here

Bob Umlas holds the record as the longest-running Microsoft MVP for Excel – nearly 30 years (since the program was established in 1995).

The International Conference Bulgaria Excel Days was held for the first time in 2017. This year, 22 October 2025, is the  sixth edition of the event. It will honor 40 Years from the creation of Microsoft Excel.

Fully functional old versions of Excel!
From here, you can download and install all old versions of Excel and test how they work, including Excel 1.0

         

 

Much of what was written above can be seen and heard in this interesting video, which uses footage from a Microsoft documentary dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Excel:

 

And finally, do not forget – Happy 40th Birthday, Excel!

40 години Microsoft Excel – 40 Years Excellence

Bulgaria Excel Days 2025 – 40 Years Excellence