History of Excel

If you are interested in the history of Excel, there are a number of different resources you can use. We live in an information age, and there are quite a few reliable accounts available on the Internet. You could try the following Web sites:

http://www.j-walk.com/ss/history/
http://dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html

These two sites provide a general overview of the history of spreadsheet programs, but you can pull out the information that applies specifically to Excel. Speaking of Excel, specifically, you can find a good history and overview on Wikipedia, here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_excel

You can find additional sites by doing a Google search, looking for sites that contain the words history, Microsoft, and Excel.

Another approach is to contact Microsoft's public relations department. They may have brochures and/or documents that contain historical information about Microsoft products. (Asking about the history of a product is common for many journalists, so public relations departments often keep the requested information close by.) You can find the proper contact information here:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/PR_Contacts.mspx

Probably another good contact to make is with one of Microsoft's "product evangelists," Robert Scoble. You can either e-mail him your questions about Excel's history at robertscoble@hotmail.com, or you can visit his weblog, here:

http://www.scobleizer.com/

Robert also hangs around on the Channel 9 forums, which is an area where Microsoft developers post all kinds of information concerning Microsoft's products. You can find the forums here:

http://channel9.msdn.com/

If you prefer the "old fashioned" way of doing things, you might consider a visit to a library with a good periodicals section. You can find indexes to periodicals, and then look up articles from the period during which Excel was being first introduced. This approach takes a bit more time, but it can yield great results that you cannot get in any other way.