Microsoft Excel facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Microsoft Excel

A simple bar graph being created in Excel, running on Windows 11
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	November 19, 1987; 37 years ago (1987-11-19)
Stable release	2312 (Build 17126.20132) / January 9, 2024; 17 months ago (2024-01-09)
Written in	C++ (back-end)
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Type	Spreadsheet
License	Trialware

Microsoft Excel for Mac

Excel for Mac (version 16.67), running on macOS Big Sur 11.5.2
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	September 30, 1985; 39 years ago (1985-09-30)
Stable release	16.70 (Build 23021201) / February 14, 2023; 2 years ago (2023-02-14)
Written in	C++ (back-end), Objective-C (API/UI)
Operating system	macOS
Type	Spreadsheet
License	Proprietary commercial software

Microsoft Excel for Android

Excel for Android running on Android 13
Developer(s)	Microsoft Corporation
Stable release	16.0.16501.20160 / May 26, 2023; 2 years ago (2023-05-26)
Operating system	Android Pie or later
Type	Spreadsheet
License	Proprietary commercial software

Microsoft Excel is a computer program that helps you organize, calculate, and present data. It's a type of software called a spreadsheet editor. Microsoft created Excel for many different devices, including computers running Windows and macOS, and mobile devices like Android phones and iOS or iPadOS tablets.

Excel is super useful for many things! You can use it to do math, create cool graphs and charts, sort information using pivot tables, and even write small computer programs called macros. It's part of the Microsoft 365 collection of software.

What Excel Can Do

Basic Spreadsheet Use

Excel works like a big grid. This grid has cells arranged in numbered rows and columns named with letters. You put your data into these cells. Excel can then do math operations, like adding or subtracting, with your data.

It also has many built-in tools for things like statistics, engineering, and finance. You can turn your data into visual displays like line graphs, bar charts, or pie charts. Excel can even show some data in a limited 3D view.

A PivotTable is a special tool that helps you look at large amounts of data in different ways. It makes big data sets simpler to understand.

Functions: Pre-made Calculations

Excel has hundreds of built-in functions. These are like pre-made formulas that do specific calculations for you. For example, there are functions to find the average of numbers, count items, or perform complex math.

In Excel 2016, there were 484 different functions! Many of these have been around for a long time.

Macro Programming

VBA: Automating Tasks

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.

The Windows version of Excel lets you program using something called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). This is a special computer language that helps you automate tasks in Excel. For example, you can write a VBA program to automatically format your spreadsheet or organize data.

A simple way to create VBA code is by using the Macro Recorder. This tool records what you do in Excel, like clicking buttons or typing, and then turns those actions into VBA code. You can then run this "macro" to repeat those actions automatically. You can even link macros to keyboard shortcuts or buttons!

VBA was removed from Excel for Mac in 2008 but was brought back in 2011.

Python Programming

In 2023, Microsoft announced that Excel would also support the Python programming language directly. This means you can use Python code right inside your Excel spreadsheets! This feature is currently being tested.

Charts and Graphs

Graph made using Microsoft Excel

Excel is great for making charts, graphs, and histograms from your data. You just select the cells you want to use, and Excel can create a visual display. These charts can be placed right on your spreadsheet or as a separate object.

The cool thing is that these charts update automatically if you change the numbers in your cells. This helps you see how changes in your data affect the visual results.

Add-ins: Extra Tools

You can add more features to Excel using add-ins. These are like small programs that give Excel extra abilities. Some add-ins come with Excel, such as:

• Analysis ToolPak: Helps with statistical and engineering calculations.
• Solver Add-In: Helps solve problems that involve finding the best solution.

How Excel Stores and Shares Data

Rows and Columns: How Much Data?

Older versions of Excel had limits on how much data you could put in them.

• Versions up to Excel 7.0 could handle about 16,000 rows.
• Versions 8.0 to 11.0 could handle about 65,000 rows and 256 columns.
• From version 12.0 onwards (including today's versions), Excel can handle over 1 million rows and 16,384 columns! That's a lot of data!

File Formats

Before 2007, Excel used a special file format called .XLS. Since Excel 2007, the main file format is .XLSX. This new format is based on XML, which is a way to organize information using tags.

Even with the new formats, Excel can still open older .XLS files. It can also open other types of files like CSV files.

Current File Types

Old File Types

Password Protection

Excel lets you protect your files with passwords. There are different types:

• A password to open the file.
• A password to change the file.
• A password to unprotect a specific sheet.

Most passwords, except the one to open the document, are mainly for sharing work. They don't really encrypt the data. The password to open a document is the only one that truly helps keep others from seeing your file.

The strength of this protection depends on the Excel version used:

• Older versions (like Excel 95) had very weak passwords that could be easily guessed.
• Excel 97/2000 passwords were a bit stronger but could still be cracked quickly.
• Excel 2003/XP allowed stronger encryption, but the default was still weak.
• From Excel 2007 onwards, the protection became much stronger, using modern encryption methods.

Excel on Other Devices

Excel for Mobile

Excel Mobile is a version of Excel for phones and tablets. It lets you edit and format text, use formulas, search, sort data, and create charts. It's great for quick edits on the go.

However, it has some limits compared to the full computer version. For example, you can't easily add or delete rows and columns in the middle of a document. Some advanced features might not work or look the same.

In 2015, Excel Mobile became available for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.

Excel for the Web

Excel for the web is a free, simpler version of Excel that you can use in your web browser. It's part of Office on the web, which also includes web versions of Word and PowerPoint.

It can show most of the features from the desktop Excel, but you might not be able to create or edit all of them. Some older features or complex data connections might not work in the web version.

Interesting Quirks and Issues

Like any complex software, Excel has some interesting quirks or small problems that people have found over time.

Numbers Aren't Always Perfect

Excel shows 15 figures in its numbers, but they are not always perfectly accurate. The bottom line should be the same as the top line.

Excel usually shows numbers with 15 digits of precision. However, the numbers it uses for calculations inside the program might be slightly different from what you see. This can sometimes lead to tiny, unexpected differences in calculations, especially with very large or very small numbers.

For example, if you add 1 to a very small fraction and then subtract 1, the result might not be exactly the original fraction due to how computers handle decimals.

The Year 1900 Leap Day Bug

Excel has a famous bug where it incorrectly treats the year 1900 as a leap year (meaning it thinks February 29, 1900, existed). This bug came from an older spreadsheet program called Lotus 1-2-3, and Microsoft kept it in Excel on purpose to make sure files from that old program would still work correctly. This means that dates in Excel can sometimes be off by one day if they are very early dates.

Text Changing to Dates

Sometimes, if you type text into Excel that looks like a date, Excel might automatically change it into a date format. For example, if you type "MARCH1", Excel might change it to "1-Mar". This has caused problems for scientists, especially those working with gene names. Some gene names, like "MARCH1" or "SEPT2", look like dates, and Excel would automatically convert them. This meant that when scientists shared their data, the gene names could get changed without them knowing!

To fix this, the group that names genes (the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee) even changed the names of some genes, like MARCH1 to MARCHF1, to avoid this problem. Microsoft also fixed this issue in October 2023.

Filename Rule

Excel won't let you open two documents that have the exact same name at the same time, even if they are in different folders. This is because if you link cells between files, Excel wouldn't know which file you mean if two had the same name.

Excel's History and Versions

Early Days

Microsoft first had a spreadsheet program called Multiplan in 1982. But on Windows computers, another program called Lotus 1-2-3 was more popular.

Microsoft released the first version of Excel for Apple Macintosh computers on September 30, 1985. The first Windows version, Excel 2.05, came out on November 19, 1987. Lotus was slow to make a Windows version of 1-2-3. By the early 1990s, Excel started selling much better than 1-2-3. This helped Microsoft become a top software company for computers with graphical interfaces.

Microsoft Windows Versions

Excel 2.0 was the first version for Windows.

• Excel 3.0 (1990): Added toolbars, drawing tools, and 3D charts.
• Excel 4.0 (1992): Introduced "auto-fill," which helps you quickly copy and extend data patterns. It also had a fun hidden "Easter egg" animation!
• Excel 5.0 (1993): This was a big update! It included Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which lets you write programs to automate tasks. This also meant that "macro viruses" became a problem, so Microsoft added ways to disable macros for safety.
• Excel 95 (v7.0): This version was rewritten to work better on newer 32-bit Windows systems.
• Excel 97 (v8.0): A major update that introduced the paper clip "Office Assistant" (which some people found annoying!). It also had a hidden flight simulator game!
• Excel 2007 (v12.0): This was a huge change! It introduced the "Ribbon" menu system, which looked very different from older versions. It also greatly increased the number of rows and columns you could use (to over 1 million rows!).
• Excel 2010 (v14.0): Microsoft skipped version 13 due to superstitions about the number 13. This version added "sparklines" (tiny charts in cells) and improved pivot tables.
• Excel 2013 (v15.0): Added new tools like FlashFill and Power View.
• Excel 2016 (v16.0): Included new chart types and improved forecasting tools.
• Excel 2019, Excel 2021, Office 365 and later (v16.0): Microsoft now updates Excel automatically through Windows Update, so new features appear over time. One big change was "Dynamic Arrays," which make formulas even smarter.

Apple Macintosh Versions

• 1985: Excel 1.0 (first version for Mac)
• 1993: Excel 5.0 (first version for PowerPC Macs)
• 2008: Excel 12.0 (part of Office 2008)
• 2010: Excel 14.0 (version 13 was skipped, just like on Windows)
• 2015: Excel 15.0 (part of Office 2016 for Mac, making it much more similar to the Windows version)

Summary of Windows Versions

Summary of Macintosh Versions

Excel's Impact

Excel changed how people used spreadsheets. It was one of the first to let users change the look of their spreadsheets, like fonts and cell colors. It also introduced "intelligent cell re-computation," meaning it only updated the parts of the spreadsheet that needed to change when you edited something.

Excel also brought "auto-fill," which lets you drag a corner of a cell to automatically copy its contents or extend a pattern to other cells. Its strong graphing tools also made it very popular.

Security

Because so many people use Excel, it can sometimes be a target for hackers. If someone tricks you into opening a harmful Excel file, and there's a security flaw in Excel, a hacker could potentially gain control of your computer. It's always important to be careful about opening files from unknown sources.

Games in Excel

Beyond its main purpose, people have created many games inside Excel! You can find versions of Tetris, 2048, Scrabble, Angry Birds, Pac-Man, and many more, all built using Excel's features.

In 2020, Excel even became an esport with the start of the Financial Modeling World Cup, where people compete using their Excel skills!

Images for kids

• 

  Excel for Android running on Android 13

• 

  Excel for Mac (version 16.67), running on macOS Big Sur 11.5.2

• 

  A simple bar graph being created in Excel, running on Windows 11

• 

  Microsoft Office Excel (2019–present)

• 

  Microsoft Excel 2007

• 

  Microsoft Excel 2010 running on Windows 7

• 

  Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011

• 

  Microsoft Excel 95

• 

  Microsoft Excel 2000

See also

In Spanish: Microsoft Excel para niños

• Comparison of spreadsheet software
• Financial Modeling World Cup, an online competition using Excel