Endless possibilities

Microsoft Excel continues to add value

- The two most commonly used computer programs in the world are Microsoft (MS) Word and Microsoft Excel.

Indeed, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella believes Excel is the best consumer product the tech giant has ever made. Despite the availability of multiple, free word processing and spreadsheet programs, billions of users are still willing to pay for these MS flagships, and Excel in particular remains the dominant player across office and personal computing ecosystems.

Version 1.0 of Microsoft Excel was rolled out on September 30, 1985, about 40 years ago. Ironically, it was written for the Mac platform because Lotus 123 had a firm grip on the MS DOS systems loaded onto Microsoft computers. However, MS soon challenged Lotus 123 with Version 2.0 of Excel, which became the leader as Windows superseded DOS as an operating system and personal computers (PCs) started being offered with MS Office bundled in along with the Windows operating system.