{"id":1097,"date":"2023-06-24T11:39:12","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T15:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/?page_id=1097"},"modified":"2023-06-24T12:09:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T16:09:06","slug":"trapeze","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/spreadsheet-history\/trapeze\/","title":{"rendered":"Trapeze"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"d942c2121bfbd137a3b44056a000f09c\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Responsive Top -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9531091850463532\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"6574318169\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Launched in 1987, and discontinued in 1989, Trapeze was a different type of spreadsheet, as you can see in the video demo from May 1987 (link in section below).<\/p>\n<p>Trapeze was based on &#8220;blocks&#8221;, instead of a grid, and let you build reports that included calculations, charts, graphics and text blocks.<\/p>\n<p>You can read Andrew Wulf&#8217;s account of building Trapeze, and how things went wrong, in <a href=\"https:\/\/thecodist.com\/the-story-of-my-first-startup-30-years-ago\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this article on his Codist blog<\/a>. As Wulf says in that article, &#8220;The last version of Trapeze was compiled in 1989 and then was discontinued. It lived only 3 years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Spreadsheet Demo From May 1987<\/h3>\n<p>In an episode of Computer Chronicles from May 1987, the guests talked about spreadsheets.<br \/>\nThe episode starts with a discussion of look and feel and related lawsuits.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This link will take you to&nbsp; the video, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archive.org\/details\/Business1987_3?start=668\">a few seconds before the Trapeze demo<\/a> starts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the video, at the 8:00 mark, the Excel demo starts, with Mike Slade from Microsoft, using a Macintosh. He shows multiple worksheets open at the same time, links the sheets, creates a chart, and runs something called a macro.<\/p>\n<p>The Excel demo lasts about 3 minutes, then Andrew Wulf, from Data Tailor, shows his company&#8217;s Trapeze spreadsheet. He shows that it\u2019s a free-form spreadsheet, and can create charts in colour!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1106\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/trapezedemo198705a.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1106\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1106\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/trapezedemo198705a.png\" alt=\"Trapeze demo May 1987\" width=\"450\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/trapezedemo198705a.png 450w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/trapezedemo198705a-300x289.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1106\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trapeze demo May 1987<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Trapeze Review June 1987<\/h3>\n<p>Unfortunately, the June 1987 issue of MacUser had a harsh review of Trapeze, right before a glowing review of Microsoft Excel. On his The Codist website, creator Andrew Wulf <a title=\"Andrew Wulf talks about Trapeze\" href=\"https:\/\/thecodist.com\/article\/how_i_wound_up_as_an_early_mac_pioneer_and_built_something_crazy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">talks about developing Trapeze<\/a>, and how MacUser&#8217;s 2.5 mouse review caused their sales to dry up.<\/p>\n<p>In hindsight, Wulf says, they shouldn&#8217;t have marketed it as a spreadsheet. It couldn&#8217;t compete with Excel, and was too confusing for people who were familiar with Excel&#8217;s structure.<\/p>\n<h3>Trapeze Version 2.0<\/h3>\n<p>In the September 28, 1987 issue of Info World, <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.ca\/books?id=ljsEAAAAMBAJ&amp;pg=PT30&amp;lpg=PT30&amp;dq=%22trapeze+spreadsheet%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=_K0gVSrIUF&amp;sig=ACfU3U2QFxkkDn3Ncep5pJBNqEsYhjtCGw&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwin3brRktz_AhWzOFkFHZg5B6EQ6AF6BAgcEAM#v=onepage&amp;q=%22trapeze%20spreadsheet%22&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">there&#8217;s a review of Trapeze, Version 2.0<\/a>, and the reviewer gave it a score of 8.3 out of 10. Here&#8217;s the summary paragraph:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trapeze is an unusual spreadsheet program that integrates page layout features as well as text and graphing. For the Macintosh. Not copy-protected.<\/li>\n<li>Pros: Amazingly fast: many functions: can display graphs, graphics, spreadsheet data, and text all on-screen at once; compatible with other Macintosh products.<\/li>\n<li>Cons: Unconventional concept for veteran spreadsheet users; lacks macros; does not save window settings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_1098\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/trapezereviewinfoworld19870928.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1098\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1098\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/trapezereviewinfoworld19870928.png\" alt=\"Info World Trapeze Review June 1987\" width=\"450\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/trapezereviewinfoworld19870928.png 450w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/trapezereviewinfoworld19870928-300x224.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Info World Trapeze Review June 1987<\/p><\/div>\n<p>_________________________<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Launched in 1987, and discontinued in 1989, Trapeze was a different type of spreadsheet, as you can see in the video demo from May 1987 (link in section below). Trapeze was based on &#8220;blocks&#8221;,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1106,"parent":11,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1097","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1097"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1167,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1097\/revisions\/1167"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}