Spreadsheet Roundup 20190121

by Debra · Published January 21, 2019 · Updated January 20, 2019

Here is a roundup of selected spreadsheet articles that I’ve read recently. You’ll find interesting tips, useful sample files, and new ideas for your own spreadsheets.

For Excel tips and tutorials, please visit my Contextures website.

Personal Finances

Get your year off to a good start, by making a personal budget spreadsheet. In the New York Times, J. D. Biersdorfer show how to get started, with examples for Excel, Google Sheets, and other spreadsheet software.
And if one of your goals is to tackle your debt, download one of the Debt Reduction Spreadsheets from the Squawkfox website. There are two versions to choose from, and information on how to get started.
But don’t get carried away, and try to track your whole life in a spreadsheet, like Joey Cosco did in 2018. He explains which parts of his tracking system worked, and what didn’t go so well.

Lotus 1-2-3 Vs Excel

In this old article from The Register, Dave Mandl describes the moment when he realized that Microsoft Excel would knock the market leader, Lotus 1-2-3, out of the spreadsheet market. What went wrong at Lotus, and why was Excel able to take over the spreadsheet software market?

Software Patents

I’m not a lawyer, and don’t have any idea what impact this decision will have, but apparently spreadsheet tabs are now patent-eligible. Read more about that decision in this article by Sunstein Law.

Spreadsheet Innovation

Microsoft Research is working with the Microsoft Excel team, to “apply programming language research ideas to make spreadsheets a better programming language”.

Read about their collaborations, including dynamic array formulas, which were recently introduced in the Insider Build Fast Track, for Excel subscribers. Have you seen those yet, or are you using one of the slower subscription models?

To learn more about Dynamic Array Formulas, read Joe McDaid’s article, on the Tech Community Blog.

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