Microsoft Excel - Wikipedia Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel Developer ( s ) Microsoft Initial release 1987 ; 31 years ago ( 1987 ) Stable release 2016 ( 16.0. 6769.2017 ) / April 12, 2016 ; 22 months ago ( 2016 - 04 - 12 ) Operating system Microsoft Windows Type Spreadsheet License Trialware Website office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel Microsoft Excel for Mac Excel for Mac 2016 Developer ( s ) Microsoft Initial release September 30, 1985 ; 32 years ago ( 1985 - 09 - 30 ) Stable release 2016 ( 15.41. 0 ) / December 12, 2017 ; 2 months ago ( 2017 - 12 - 12 ) Operating system macOS Type Spreadsheet License Proprietary commercial software Website microsoft.com/mac/excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. 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 Microsoft Office. Contents 1 Features 1.1 Basic operation 1.2 Macro programming 1.2. 1 VBA programming 1.2. 2 History 1.3 Charts 2 Data storage and communication 2.1 Number of rows and columns 2.2 File formats 2.2. 1 Binary 2.2. 2 XML Spreadsheet 2.2. 3 Current file extensions 2.2. 4 Old file extensions 2.3 Using other Windows applications 2.4 Using external data 2.5 Export and migration of spreadsheets 2.6 Password protection 3 Microsoft Excel Viewer 4 Quirks 4.1 Statistical functions 4.2 Excel MOD function error 4.3 Fictional leap day in the year 1900 4.4 Date range 4.5 Conversion problems 4.6 Filenames 4.7 Numeric precision 4.8 Content type auto - detection 5 Versions 5.1 Early history 5.2 Microsoft Windows 5.2. 1 Excel 2.0 ( 1987 ) 5.2. 2 Excel 3.0 ( 1990 ) 5.2. 3 Excel 4.0 ( 1992 ) 5.2. 4 Excel 5.0 ( 1993 ) 5.2. 5 Excel 95 ( v7. 0 ) 5.2. 6 Excel 97 ( v8. 0 ) 5.2. 7 Excel 2000 ( v9. 0 ) 5.2. 8 Excel 2002 ( v10. 0 ) 5.2. 9 Excel 2003 ( v11. 0 ) 5.2. 10 Excel 2007 ( v12. 0 ) 5.2. 11 Excel 2010 ( v14. 0 ) 5.2. 12 Excel 2013 ( v15. 0 ) 5.2. 13 Excel 2016 ( v16. 0 ) 5.3 Apple Macintosh 5.4 OS / 2 5.5 Summary 6 Impact 7 Security 8 See also 9 References 10 General references 11 External links Features Basic operation Main article : Spreadsheet Microsoft Excel has the basic features of all spreadsheets, using a grid of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter - named columns to organize data manipulations like arithmetic operations. It has a battery of supplied functions to answer statistical, engineering and financial needs. In addition, it can display data as line graphs, histograms and charts, and with a very limited three - dimensional graphical display. It allows sectioning of data to view its dependencies on various factors for different perspectives ( using pivot tables and the scenario manager ). It has a programming aspect, Visual Basic for Applications, allowing the user to employ a wide variety of numerical methods, for example, for solving differential equations of mathematical physics, 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, or in general, as a design tool that asks the user questions and provides answers and reports. In a more elaborate realization, an Excel application can automatically poll external databases and measuring instruments using an update schedule, 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. Use of a user - defined function sq ( x ) in Microsoft Excel. The named variables x & y are identified in the Name Manager. The function sq is introduced using the Visual Basic editor supplied with Excel. Subroutine in Excel calculates the square of named column variable x read from the spreadsheet, and writes it into the named column variable y. Graph made using Microsoft Excel Microsoft allows for a number of optional command - line switches to control the manner in which Excel starts. Macro programming VBA programming Main article : Visual Basic for Applications 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 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, although the build lacks support for ActiveX objects, impacting some high level developer tools. A common and easy way to generate VBA code is by using the Macro Recorder. 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 graphical display items, can not be recorded but must be entered into the VBA module directly by the programmer. Advanced users can employ user 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 can not be used in Excel 2003. Making a Macro that changes the cell colours and making changes to other aspects of cells may not be backward compatible. VBA code interacts with the spreadsheet through the Excel Object Model, 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 and message boxes ). User - created VBA subroutines execute these actions and operate like macros generated using the macro recorder, but are more 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. 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. Charts Excel supports charts, graphs, or histograms generated from specified groups of cells. 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 change. For example, suppose that the important design requirements are displayed visually ; then, in response to a user 's change in trial values for parameters, the curves describing the design change shape, and their points of intersection shift, assisting the selection of the best design. 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 ( 2 = 7004163840000000000 ♠ 16 384 ) rows. Versions 8.0 through 11.0 could handle 64K ( 2 = 7004655360000000000 ♠ 65 536 ) rows and 256 columns ( 2 as label ' IV ' ). Version 12.0 can handle 1M ( 2 = 7006104857600000000 ♠ 1048576 ) rows, and 7004163840000000000 ♠ 16 384 ( 2 as label ' XFD ' ) columns. File formats Excel Spreadsheet Filename extension. xls, (. xlsx,. xlsm,. xlsb - Excel 2007 ) Internet media type application / vnd. ms - excel Uniform Type Identifier ( UTI ) com. microsoft. excel. xls Developed by Microsoft Type of format Spreadsheet Microsoft Excel up until 2007 version used a proprietary binary file format called Excel Binary File Format (. XLS ) as its primary format. Excel 2007 uses Office Open XML as its primary file format, an XML - based format that followed after a previous XML - based format called `` XML Spreadsheet '' ( `` XMLSS '' ), first introduced in Excel 2002. Although supporting and encouraging the use of new XML - based formats as replacements, Excel 2007 remained backwards - compatible with the traditional, binary formats. In addition, most versions of Microsoft Excel can read CSV, DBF, SYLK, DIF, and other legacy formats. Support for some older file formats was removed in Excel 2007. The file formats were mainly from DOS - based programs. Binary OpenOffice.org has created documentation of the Excel format. Since then Microsoft made the Excel binary format specification available to freely download. XML Spreadsheet Main article : Microsoft Office XML formats The XML Spreadsheet format introduced in Excel 2002 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 Main article : Office Open XML 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. New Excel 2007 formats Format Extension Description Excel Workbook. xlsx The default Excel 2007 and later workbook format. In reality a ZIP compressed archive with a directory structure of XML text documents. Functions as the primary replacement for the former binary. xls format, although it does not support Excel macros for security reasons. Excel Macro-enabled Workbook. xlsm As Excel Workbook, but with macro support. Excel Binary Workbook. xlsb As Excel Macro-enabled Workbook, but storing information in binary form rather than XML documents for opening and saving documents more quickly and efficiently. Intended especially for very large documents with tens of thousands of rows, and / or several hundreds of columns. Excel Macro-enabled Template. xltm A template document that forms a basis for actual workbooks, with macro support. The replacement for the old. xlt format. Excel Add - in. xlam Excel add - in to add extra functionality and tools. Inherent macro support because of the file purpose. Old file extensions Format Extension Description Spreadsheet. xls Main spreadsheet format which holds data in worksheets, charts, and macros Add - in ( VBA ). xla Adds custom functionality ; written in VBA Toolbar. xlb The file extension where Microsoft Excel custom toolbar settings are stored. Chart. xlc A chart created with data from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that only saves the chart. 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 Add - in ( DLL ). xll Adds custom functionality ; written in C++ / C, Visual Basic, Fortran, etc. and compiled in to 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 Library. DLL Code written in VBA may access functions in a DLL, typically this is used to access the 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 ''. 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. 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 ''. 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. 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. Alternatively, Microsoft Query provides ODBC - based browsing within Microsoft Excel. 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 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 and openpyxl. js - xlsx and js - xls can open Excel spreadsheets from JS. Password protection Main article : Microsoft Office password protection Microsoft Excel protection offers several types of passwords : Password to open a document Password to modify a document Password to unprotect worksheet Password to protect workbook Password to protect the sharing workbook All passwords except password to open a document can be removed instantly regardless of 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 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, 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 which 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 ca n't be decrypted, and thus the password to open ca n'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 did not changed 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 is a freeware program for viewing and printing spreadsheet documents created by Excel. Excel Viewer is similar to Microsoft Word Viewer in functionality. ( There is not a current version for the Mac. ) Excel Viewer is available for Microsoft Windows and Windows CE handheld PCs, such as the NEC MobilePro. It is also possible to open Excel files using certain online tools and services. Online excel viewers do not require users to have Microsoft Excel installed. Quirks Further information : Spreadsheet § Shortcomings Other errors specific to Excel include misleading statistics functions, mod function errors, date limitations and the Excel 2007 error. Statistical functions The accuracy and convenience of statistical tools in Excel has been criticized, 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. 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. 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 regular year. 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. This legacy has later been carried over into Office Open XML file format. Thus a ( not necessarily whole ) number greater than or equal to 61 interpreted as a date and time is 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. 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 can not be recovered from the result. In the case of entering gene names this is a well known problem in the analysis of DNA, for example in bioinformatics. The problem was first described in 2004. 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 can not 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. 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. Numeric precision Main article : Numeric precision in Microsoft Excel Excel maintains 15 figures in its numbers, but they are not always accurate : the bottom line should be the same as the top line. 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 for very large or very small numbers. Serious errors can occur if decisions are 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. 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. 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. Content type auto - detection In 2004 scientists reported automatic ( and inadvertent ) conversion of gene nomenclature 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 %. 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. While some secondary news sources reported this as a fault with Excel, the original authors of the 2016 paper placed the blame with the researchers mis - using Excel. 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. 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. 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 30 ( 1990 ) Included toolbars, drawing capabilities, outlining, add - in support, 3D charts, and many more new features. Excel 4.0 ( 1992 ) Introduced auto - fill. 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 was then crushed by an Excel logo. 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 '', although since version 10 Microsoft has taken measures to eliminate such undocumented features from their products. 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 ) Microsoft Excel 95 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 ) 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 ) Microsoft Excel 2000 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. Excel 2002 ( v10. 0 ) Included in Office XP. Very minor enhancements. Excel 2003 ( v11. 0 ) Included in Office 2003. Minor enhancements, most significant being the new Tables. Excel 2007 ( v12. 0 ) Microsoft Excel 2007 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 organisation. 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. Specifically, many of the size limitations of previous versions were greatly increased. To illustrate, the number of rows was now 1,048,576 ( 2 ) and columns was 16,384 ( 2 ; 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 ) Microsoft Excel 2010 running on Windows 7 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, including the following : Multi-threading recalculation ( MTR ) for commonly used functions 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 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 Power View Power Pivot Timeline Slicer Windows App Inquire 50 new functions 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 Apple Macintosh Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 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 version 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 ) 2011 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. ) OS / 2 1989 Excel 2.2 1990 Excel 2.3 1991 Excel 3.0 Summary Legend : Old version Older version, still supported Current stable version Latest preview version Future release Microsoft Excel for Windows release history Year Name Version Comments Excel 2 Old version, no longer supported : 2.0 Renumbered to 2 to correspond with contemporary Macintosh version 1990 Excel 3 Old version, no longer supported : 3.0 Added 3D graphing capabilities 1992 Excel 4 Old version, no longer supported : 4.0 Introduced auto - fill feature 1993 Excel 5 Old version, no longer supported : 5.0 Included Visual Basic for Applications ( VBA ) and various object - oriented options 1995 Excel 95 Old version, no longer supported : 7.0 Renumbered for contemporary Word version. Both programs were packaged in Microsoft Office by this time. Excel 97 Old version, no longer supported : 8.0 2000 Excel 2000 Old version, no longer supported : 9.0 Part of Microsoft Office 2000, which was itself part of Windows Millennium ( also known as `` Windows ME '' ). 2002 Excel 2002 Old version, no longer supported : 10.0 2003 Excel 2003 Old version, no longer supported : 11.0 Released only 1 year later to correspond better with the rest of Microsoft Office ( Word, PowerPoint, etc. ). 2007 Excel 2007 Old version, no longer supported : 12.0 Excel 2010 Older version, yet still supported : 14.0 Due to superstitions surrounding the number 13, Excel 13 was skipped in version counting. 2013 Excel 2013 Older version, yet still supported : 15.0 Introduced 50 more mathematical functions ( available as pre-packaged commands, rather than typing the formula manually ). 2016 Excel 2016 Current stable version : 16.0 Part of Microsoft Office 2016 Microsoft Excel for Macintosh release history Year Name Version Comments 1985 Excel 1 Old version, no longer supported : 1.0 Initial version of Excel Excel 1.5 Old version, no longer supported : 1.5 1989 Excel 2 Old version, no longer supported : 2.2 1990 Excel 3 Old version, no longer supported : 3.0 1992 Excel 4 Old version, no longer supported : 4.0 1993 Excel 5 Old version, no longer supported : 5.0 Only available on PowerPC - based Macs. First PowerPC version. 1998 Excel 98 Old version, no longer supported : 8.0 Excel 6 and Excel 7 were skipped to correspond with the rest of Microsoft Office at the time. 2000 Excel 2000 Old version, no longer supported : 9.0 2001 Excel 2001 Old version, no longer supported : 10.0 Excel 2004 Old version, no longer supported : 11.0 2008 Excel 2008 Old version, no longer supported : 12.0 2011 Excel 2011 Older version, yet still supported : 14.0 As with the Windows version, version 13 was skipped for superstitious reasons. 2016 Excel 2016 Current stable version : 16.0 As with the rest of Microsoft Office, so it is for Excel : Future release dates for the Macintosh version are intended to correspond better to those for the Windows version, from 2016 onward. Microsoft Excel for OS / 2 release history Year Name Version Comments 1989 Excel 2.2 Old version, no longer supported : 2.2 Numbered in between Windows versions at the time 1990 Excel 2.3 Old version, no longer supported : 2.3 1991 Excel 3 Old version, no longer supported : 3.0 Last OS / 2 version. Discontinued subseries of Microsoft Excel, which is otherwise 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. 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 recomputation, 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 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 get control of the victim 's computer. UK 's GCHQ has a tool named TORNADO ALLEY with this purpose. See also Comparison of spreadsheet software Comparison of risk analysis Microsoft Excel add - ins Spreadmart Numbers ( spreadsheet ) - the iWork equivalent References Jump up ^ `` Office 365 client update branch releases ''. TechNet. Microsoft. Retrieved January 12, 2016. Jump up ^ `` Microsoft Office Excel 2010 ''. Download.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 7, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Release notes for Office 2016 for Mac ''. Microsoft. December 12, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2017. Jump up ^ Harvey, Greg ( 2006 ). Excel 2007 For Dummies. Wiley. ISBN 0 - 470 - 03737 - 7. Jump up ^ Harvey, Greg ( 2007 ). Excel 2007 Workbook for Dummies ( 2nd ed. ). Wiley. p. 296 ff. ISBN 0 - 470 - 16937 - 0. Jump up ^ de Levie, Robert ( 2004 ). Advanced Excel for scientific data analysis. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0 - 19 - 515275 - 1. Jump up ^ Bourg, David M. ( 2006 ). Excel scientific and engineering cookbook. O'Reilly. ISBN 0 - 596 - 00879 - 1. Jump up ^ Şeref, Michelle M.H. & Ahuja, Ravindra K. ( 2008 ). `` § 4.2 A portfolio management and optimization spreadsheet DSS ''. In Burstein, Frad & Holsapple, Clyde W. Handbook on Decision Support Systems 1 : Basic Themes. Springer. ISBN 3 - 540 - 48712 - 3. Jump up ^ Wells, Eric & Harshbarger, Steve ( 1997 ). Microsoft Excel 97 Developer 's Handbook. Microsoft Press. ISBN 1 - 57231 - 359 - 5. Excellent examples are developed that show just how applications can be designed. Jump up ^ Harnett, Donald L. & Horrell, James F. ( 1998 ). Data, statistics, and decision models with Excel. Wiley. ISBN 0 - 471 - 13398 - 1. Jump up ^ Şeref, Michelle M.H. ; Ahuja, Ravindra K. & Winston, Wayne L. ( 2007 ). Developing spreadsheet - based decision support systems : using Excel and VBA. Dynamic Ideas. ISBN 0 - 9759146 - 5 - 0. Jump up ^ Some form of data acquisition hardware is required. See, for example, Austerlitz, Howard ( 2003 ). Data acquisition techniques using PCs ( 2nd ed. ). Academic Press. p. 281 ff. ISBN 0 - 12 - 068377 - 6. Jump up ^ Good data is a good start Jump up ^ `` Description of the startup switches for Excel ''. 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. Jump up ^ 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 ( 3rd ed. ). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 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. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 - 521 - 40689 - 7. Jump up ^ `` Excel ''. Office for Mac. OfficeforMacHelp.com. Retrieved July 8, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Using Excel - PC or Mac ? Excel Lemon ''. www.excellemon.com. Retrieved July 29, 2015. Jump up ^ 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 colours and formatting of cells. Walkenbach, John ( 2007 ). `` Chapter 6 : Using the Excel macro recorder ''. Excel 2007 VBA Programming for Dummies ( Revised by Jan Karel Pieterse ed. ). Wiley. p. 79 ff. ISBN 0 - 470 - 04674 - 0. Jump up ^ `` More than 100 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts ''. AllTop9.com. Jump up ^ Walkenbach, John ( February 2, 2007 ). `` Chapter 4 : Introducing the Excel object model ''. cited work. p. 53 ff. ISBN 0 - 470 - 04674 - 0. Jump up ^ `` The Spreadsheet Page for Excel Users and Developers ''. J - Walk & Associates, Inc. Retrieved December 19, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Working with Excel 4.0 macros ''. Microsoft Office Support. Retrieved December 19, 2012. Jump up ^ `` The `` Big Grid '' and Increased Limits in Excel 2007 ``. microsoft.com. Retrieved April 10, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Mac Developer Library ''. Jump up ^ `` How to extract information from Office files by using Office file formats and schemas ''. Microsoft. February 26, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2008. ^ Jump up to : `` XML Spreadsheet Reference ''. Microsoft Excel 2002 Technical Articles. MSDN. August 2001. Retrieved November 10, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Deprecated features for Excel 2007 ''. Microsoft -- David Gainer. August 24, 2006. Retrieved January 2, 2009. Jump up ^ `` OpenOffice. org 's documentation of the Microsoft Excel File Format '' ( PDF ). August 2, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Microsoft Office Excel 97 - 2007 Binary File Format Specification ( *. xls 97 - 2007 format ) ''. Microsoft Corporation. 2007. ^ Jump up to : `` Faking DDE with Private Servers ''. Jump up ^ Schmalz, Michael ( 2006 ). `` Chapter 5 : Using Access VBA to automate Excel ''. Integrating Excel and Access. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 0 - 596 - 00973 - 9. Schmalz, Michael ( 2006 ). `` Chapter 5 : Using Access VBA to automate Excel ''. Integrating Excel and Access. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 0 - 596 - 00973 - 9. Jump up ^ Cornell, Paul ( 2007 ). `` Chapter 5 : Connect to other databases ''. Excel as Your Database. Apress. p. 117 ff. ISBN 1 - 59059 - 751 - 6. Jump up ^ DeMarco, Jim ( 2008 ). `` Excel 's data import tools ''. Pro Excel 2007 VBA. Apress. p. 43 ff. ISBN 1 - 59059 - 957 - 8. Jump up ^ Harts, Doug ( 2007 ). `` Importing Access data into Excel 2007 ''. Microsoft Office 2007 Business Intelligence : Reporting, Analysis, and Measurement from the Desktop. McGraw - Hill Professional. ISBN 0 - 07 - 149424 - 3. Jump up ^ `` About Network DDE ( Windows ) ''. Jump up ^ How to set up RTD in Excel Jump up ^ DeMarco, Jim ( 2008 ). Pro Excel 2007 VBA. 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 ) Jump up ^ Bullen, Stephen ; Bovey, Rob & Green, John ( 2009 ). Professional Excel Development ( 2nd ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ : Addison - Wesley. p. 665. ISBN 0 - 321 - 50879 - 3. To create a robust solution, we always have to include some VBA code... Jump up ^ William, Wehrs ( 2000 ). `` An Applied DSS Course Using Excel and VBA : IS and / or MS ? '' ( PDF ). The Proceedings of ISECON ( Information System Educator Conference ). p. 4. 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. Jump up ^ Use Microsoft Query to retrieve external data Archived March 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ `` Password protect documents, workbooks, and presentations - Word - Office.com ''. Office.microsoft.com. Retrieved April 24, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Password protect documents, workbooks, and presentations - Word - Office.com ''. Office.microsoft.com. Retrieved April 24, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Password protect worksheet or workbook elements - Excel - Office.com ''. Office.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013. Jump up ^ `` How safe is Word encryption. Is it really secure ? ''. Oraxcel.com. Retrieved April 24, 2013. ^ Jump up to : Description of the Excel Viewer ; Microsoft Support ; accessed April 2014. Jump up ^ New Features in Windows CE. NET 4.1 ; Microsoft DN ; ; accessed April 2014. Jump up ^ Fix of display error for a number from 65535.99999999995 to 65536 Jump up ^ 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. Jump up ^ 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. doi : 10.1016 / j. csda. 2008.03. 004. Jump up ^ 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. Jump up ^ Goldwater, Eva. `` Using Excel for Statistical Data Analysis -- Caveats ''. University of Massachusetts School of Public Health. Retrieved November 10, 2008. Jump up ^ Heiser, David A. ( 2008 ). `` Microsoft Excel 2000, 2003 and 2007 faults, problems, workarounds and fixes ''. Archived from the original on April 18, 2010. Retrieved April 8, 2010. Jump up ^ Function improvements in Excel 2010 Archived April 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Comments are provided from readers that may illuminate some remaining problems. Jump up ^ `` XL : MOD ( ) Function Returns # NUM ! Error Value ''. Microsoft. January 19, 2007. Retrieved November 10, 2008. Jump up ^ `` The MOD bug ''. Byg Software. Retrieved November 10, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Days of the week before March 1, 1900 are incorrect in Excel ''. Microsoft. Retrieved November 10, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Excel 2000 incorrectly assumes that the year 1900 is a leap year ''. Microsoft. Retrieved November 10, 2008. Jump up ^ Spolsky, Joel ( June 16, 2006 ). `` My First BillG Review ''. Joel on Software. Retrieved November 10, 2008. Jump up ^ `` The Contradictory Nature of OOXML ''. ConsortiumInfo.org. Jump up ^ `` Negative date and time value are displayed as pound signs ( # # # ) in Excel ''. Microsoft. Retrieved March 26, 2012. ^ Jump up to : 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 ''. BMC Bioinformatics. 5 ( 1 ) : 80. doi : 10.1186 / 1471 - 2105 - 5 - 80. PMC 459209. PMID 15214961. ^ Jump up to : Ziemann, Mark ; Eren, Yotam ; El - Osta, Assam ( 2016 ). `` Gene name errors are widespread in the scientific literature ''. Genome Biology. 17 ( 1 ). doi : 10.1186 / s13059 - 016 - 1044 - 7. PMC 4994289. PMID 27552985. Jump up ^ `` The Hindu Business Line : Trouble with macros ''. Jump up ^ Microsoft Excel - Why Ca n't I Open Two Files With the Same Name ? Archived July 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Microsoft 's overview is found at : `` Floating - point arithmetic may give inaccurate results in Excel ''. Revision 8.2 ; article ID : 78113. Microsoft support. June 30, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2010. Jump up ^ Altman, Micah ; Gill, Jeff ; McDonald, Michael ( 2004 ). `` § 2.1. 1 Revealing example : Computing the coefficient standard deviation ''. Numerical issues in statistical computing for the social scientist. Wiley - IEEE. p. 12. ISBN 0 - 471 - 23633 - 0. Jump up ^ de Levie, Robert ( 2004 ). cited work. pp. 45 -- 46. ISBN 0 - 19 - 515275 - 1. Jump up ^ Walkenbach, John ( 2010 ). `` Defining data types ''. Excel 2010 Power Programming with VBA. Wiley. pp. 198 ff and Table 8 -- 1. ISBN 0 - 470 - 47535 - 8. Jump up ^ Anon ( 2016 ). `` Microsoft Excel blamed for gene study errors ''. bbc.co.uk. London : BBC News. Jump up ^ Cimpanu, Catalin ( August 24, 2016 ). `` One in Five Scientific Papers on Genes Contains Errors Because of Excel ''. Softpedia. SoftNews. Jump up ^ Ziemann, Mark ( 2016 ). `` Genome Spot : My personal thoughts on gene name errors ''. genomespot.blogspot.co.uk. Archived from the original on August 30, 2016. Jump up ^ Infoworld Media Group, Inc. ( July 7, 1986 ). InfoWorld First Look : Supercalc 4 challenging 1 - 2 - 3 with new tactic. ^ Jump up to : `` The Spreadsheet Page - John Walkenbach ''. Jump up ^ `` The BYTE Awards ''. BYTE. January 1989. p. 327. Jump up ^ Lewallen, Dale ( 1992 ). PC / Computing guide to Excel 4.0 for Windows. Ziff Davis. p. 13. ISBN 9781562760489. Retrieved July 27, 2013. Jump up ^ Lake, Matt ( April 6, 2009 ). `` Easter Eggs we have loved : Excel 4 ''. crashreboot.blogspot.com. Retrieved November 5, 2013. Jump up ^ Osterman, Larry ( October 21, 2005 ). `` Why no Easter Eggs ? ''. Larry Osterman 's WebLog. MSDN Blogs. Retrieved July 29, 2006. Jump up ^ Dostál, M ( December 9, 2010 ). User Acceptance of the Microsoft Ribbon User Interface ( PDF ). Palacký University of Olomouc. ISBN 978 - 960 - 474 - 245 - 5. ISSN 1792 - 6157. Retrieved May 28, 2013. Jump up ^ Kyd, Charley ( May 2009 ). `` Ribbon survey results ''. ExcelUser.com. ExcelUser. Jump up ^ 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 0 - 7356 - 2321 - X. Jump up ^ `` What 's New in Excel 2010 - Excel ''. Jump up ^ Walkenbach, John ( 2010 ). `` Some Essential Background ''. Excel 2010 Power Programming with VBA. Indianapolis, Indiana : Wiley Publishing, Inc. p. 20. ISBN 9780470475355. Jump up ^ Harris, Steven ( October 1, 2013 ). `` Excel 2013 - Flash Fill ''. Experts-Exchange.com. Experts Exchange. Retrieved November 23, 2013. Jump up ^ `` What 's new in Excel 2013 ''. Office.com. Microsoft. Retrieved January 25, 2014. Jump up ^ K., Gasper ( October 10, 2013 ). `` Does a PowerPivot Pivot Table beat a regular Pivot Table ''. Experts-Exchange.com. Experts Exchange. Retrieved November 23, 2013. Jump up ^ Barresse, Zack ( October 3, 2013 ). `` Excel 2013 : Tables, PivotTables, Slicers, and Timelines ''. Experts-Exchange.com. Experts Exchange. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013. Jump up ^ K., Gasper ( May 20, 2013 ). `` Inquire Add - In for Excel 2013 ''. Experts-Exchange.com. Experts Exchange. Retrieved November 23, 2013. Jump up ^ `` New functions in Excel 2013 ''. Office.com. Microsoft. Retrieved November 23, 2013. Jump up ^ `` What 's new in Office 2016 ''. Office.com. Microsoft. Retrieved August 16, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Microsoft Announces March Availability of Office 98 Macintosh Edition ''. Microsoft. January 6, 1998. Retrieved December 29, 2017. Jump up ^ `` Office for Mac Is Finally a ' First - Class Citizen ' ''. Re / code. Retrieved July 29, 2015. Jump up ^ Perton, Marc ( November 20, 2005 ). `` Windows at 20 : 20 things you did n't know about Windows 1.0 ''. switched.com. Retrieved August 1, 2013. Jump up ^ Keizer, Gregg. `` Attackers exploit unpatched Excel vulnerability ''. Jump up ^ `` JTRIG Tools and Techniques ''. The Intercept. July 14, 2014. Jump up ^ `` JTRIG Tools and Techniques ''. General references Bullen, Stephen ; Bovey, Rob ; Green, John ( 2009 ). Professional Excel development : The definitive guide to developing applications using Microsoft Excel and VBA ( 2nd ed. ). Addison Wesley. ISBN 0 - 321 - 50879 - 3. Dodge, Mark ; Stinson, Craig ( 2007 ). Microsoft Office Excel 2007 inside out. Microsoft Press. ISBN 0 - 7356 - 2321 - X. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Microsoft Excel. Wikibooks has a book on the topic of : Excel Official website Spreadsheets Freeware Open source Calligra Sheets Gnumeric LibreOffice Calc NeoOffice Pyspread Siag Closed source Kingsoft Spreadsheets Retail Apple Numbers Microsoft Excel PlanMaker Quattro Pro Historical As - Easy - As Boeing Calc GNU Oleo Informix Wingz IBM Lotus Symphony KCells Lotus 1 - 2 - 3 Lotus Improv Microsoft Works Multiplan OpenOffice.org Calc StarOffice SuperCalc VisiCalc Category Comparison List Online spreadsheet Microsoft Office History Office suites Windows 3.0 95 97 2000 XP 2003 2007 2013 2016 2019 Mac 98 2001 X 2008 2011 2016 Others Office 365 Office Mobile Applications ( List ) Desktop Access Excel OneNote Outlook PowerPoint Project Publisher Skype for Business Teams Visio Word Server Skype for Business Server SharePoint Excel Services Project Server Search Server Mobile Outlook Groups Outlook Mobile Lens Remote Web Bookings Calendar Delve Forms People Office Online OneDrive Outlook.com Outlook on the web Planner Sway Tasks Teams Video Office tools Shared tools Ribbon Hero Ribbon Hero 2 Discontinued Discontinued shared tools Accounting Docs.com Entourage FrontPage InfoPath InterConnect Liquid Motion Live Meeting Mail Classroom Office Assistant Office Live OneDrive Groups PerformancePoint Server Picture Manager PhotoDraw Photo Editor Project Portfolio Server Schedule+ SharePoint Designer SharePoint Workspace Snapshot Viewer for Access Vizact Word Viewer Technologies Information Bridge Framework Object Linking and Embedding Office Open XML Office XML formats Smart tags Visual Basic for Applications Other topics Microsoft Product Activation Office Genuine Advantage Office filename extensions Microsoft Office password protection Category Commons Book Wikiversity Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Microsoft_Excel&oldid=827374506 '' Categories : Microsoft Office Classic Mac OS software Spreadsheet software for Windows Spreadsheet software for macOS 1985 software Computer - related introductions in 1985 Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages Use mdy dates from April 2017 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from September 2017 Articles with unsourced statements from August 2016 Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia Articles with example code Talk View source Contents About Wikipedia Wikiversity Alemannisch Azərbaycanca বাংলা Български Bosanski Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español فارسی Français Gaeilge Galego ગુજરાતી 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Ирон Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Кыргызча Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Magyar Македонски മലയാളം मराठी مصرى Nederlands नेपाली 日本 語 Norsk Occitan Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча ភាសា ខ្មែរ Polski Português Română Русский Scots Shqip සිංහල Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் తెలుగు ไทย Türkçe Українська Vepsän kel ' Tiếng Việt ייִדיש 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 24 February 2018, at 10 : 08. 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Question: when was excel first introduced and for what computer
Answer: September 30, 1985