Happy Birthday Excel
By Richard Rost
5 months ago
13 Weird Stories, Bugs, and Trivia You Never Knew In this Microsoft Excel tutorial I will show you 13 weird stories, bugs, and trivia from Excel's 40-year history, including the infamous leap year bug, secret games, Excel's Turing completeness, the camera tool, gene-to-date conversion issues, the mouse wheel inspiration, and real-world spreadsheet mistakes that made headlines. Recommended CoursesLearn More!
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Keywords TechHelp Excel, Excel leap year bug, Lotus 123 compatibility, secret games, Hall of Tortured Souls, flight simulator, Dev Hunter, toolbar with icons, Lambda function, camera tool, gene names to dates, mouse scroll wheel inspiration, spreadsheet disasters, COVID data loss, VBA programming, macros
Intro In this video, we celebrate Microsoft Excel's 40th birthday by talking about 13 unusual facts, bugs, and trivia from the history of the world's most popular spreadsheet software. I'll cover interesting topics like the infamous leap year bug, secret games in older Excel versions, how Excel debuted on the Mac, early codenames, the camera tool, the program's massive row and column limits, Excel as a Turing complete application, gene names turning into dates, real disasters linked to spreadsheet errors, and more.Transcript Yesterday was Microsoft Excel's 40th birthday, and I would have completely missed it if one of my moderators, Kevin, had not posted about it on my website in the captain's log. So thank you, Kevin.
I figured today let's do a video about 13 weird stories, bugs, and trivia from the undisputed spreadsheet king, Microsoft Excel.
Number one: Excel's got a leap year bug. Excel thinks February 29, 1900, existed, but it did not. Microsoft left the bug in to stay compatible with Lotus 123, and that means that all dates after that point are shifted by one day from actual history.
Number two: Older versions of Excel had secret games like Hall of Tortured Souls, a flight simulator, and Dev Hunter. They were later removed for security and size reasons and because I wasted too much time playing them.
Number three: Excel first appeared on the Mac in 1985, so I was not using it then. I have not touched a Mac since then. The Windows version came two years later in 1987. I think I personally started using Excel around 1994 because it was Access 2.0. That would have lined up with Excel version 5 and Word version 6, which was right before Windows 95 came out, and then they had Office 95. That's when it really started getting popular. I think Excel 5.0 was my first version. Before that, I was a Lotus 123 and WordPerfect fan myself.
Number four: Excel almost had some other names. Mr. Spreadsheet, Master Plan, and codenamed Odyssey. Mr. Spreadsheet might have been fun. I wonder what Mr. Excel has to say about that.
Number five: Excel 3.0 in 1990 was one of the first programs to feature a toolbar with clickable icons, which later became standard in most software. I did not know that.
Number six: Modern Excel supports over a million rows and over 16,000 columns. Over 16 billion (with a B) cells per sheet. Older versions had only 65,000 rows and 256 columns, which will cause a major problem that we will talk about later.
Number seven: Excel is Turing complete. With the Lambda function, Excel can define recursive formulas, making it powerful and able to compute anything in theory. I have a video coming out on the Lambda function pretty soon.
Here is a cool one: Number eight, the camera tool. Excel has a hidden camera feature that takes a live picture of a range of cells, and the picture updates automatically if the source cells change. For example, I have another video coming out on this one soon. You can take this range of cells right here and then create a camera image of it, and if this stuff changes, this stuff changes, including anything that lays over it. This is great if you have a really complicated workbook with lots of sheets because you can make snapshots that just show you what is in different spots, including your charts and graphs and all that neat stuff. Again, a video on this one is coming up.
Number nine: A single cell in Excel can be referenced by up to 4 billion dependent formulas. That shows how huge spreadsheets can scale, and if your spreadsheet is that big you have issues. I am sorry.
Number ten: Backward compatibility. Excel can still open very old files, often keeping formulas and macros working decades later. I have some old spreadsheets that I know I have upgraded from the early 90s days. They are still kicking.
Number eleven: Here is an interesting one. Genes turned into dates. Excel converts names like SCPT2 or March 1 into dates. This caused mistakes in thousands of scientific papers. Microsoft added an option recently to turn that off. I had to ask SCPT to give me some more details on this one, but certain genes like SCPT2 or membrane associated, or whatever this is, get abbreviated this way in scientific papers. Excel is trying to be helpful, and it just changes them into dates for you. There are thousands of papers that Excel converted over. That is not good.
Number twelve: Excel inspired the mouse wheel. This guy, Eric, was credited with inventing the mouse scroll wheel and said the idea came from watching Excel users struggle with big sheets. I can see that, and big documents.
Number thirteen: Real world spreadsheet disasters. Excel mistakes have caused huge problems in government and finance, from lost data to false reports that spread worldwide. For example, some epidemiologists estimate that Excel errors may have contributed to more than 1,500 excess COVID deaths. Here is a page with a lot more information. On this COVID one, Public Health England was still using an older Excel format with a hard limit of 65,000 rows, like I mentioned earlier. They were storing test results in spreadsheets, and when the file filled up, about 16,000 positive cases were cut off, which meant that thousands of people who should have been traced were not. Some estimates say that it could have contributed to more than 1,500 deaths.
This is the perfect example of why you should never use Excel for very large data sets. That is the job for Microsoft Access or a proper database system. Do not use Excel for storing large bits of data. If your spreadsheet gets over more than a couple hundred rows, it is time for a database.
So there you go. There are 13 weird stories, bugs, and trivia from Microsoft Excel. Happy birthday, Excel. And thanks again to Kevin for bringing this to my attention. That is going to be your TechHelp video for today. Hope you learned something.
Live long and prosper, my friends. See you next time.
I am excited to announce that I am creating a brand new series of lessons focused on programming in Microsoft Excel VBA. If you have been looking to take your Excel skills to the next level and learn how to automate tasks, write custom macros, and unleash the full power of Excel VBA, these lessons are for you.
Sign up now on my website at the link shown. You will find a copy in the description down below the video window, and I will send you more information on this exciting new series.
If you would like to see me make more Excel TechHelp videos, post a comment down below and say you want more Excel. The vast majority of my videos are for Microsoft Access, the database program, because that has been my forte for the past three decades or so. However, I love Excel, and I am more than happy to make more videos for Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and all the other topics that I teach.
As you know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so make your voice heard and let me know you want more Excel videos.
TOPICS:
Excel leap year bug and February 29 1900
Secret games in early Excel versions
Excel's initial release on Mac in 1985
Excel's original codenames and unused names
Excel 3.0 introducing toolbar with clickable icons
Modern Excel row and column limits
Excel as a Turing complete program with Lambda
Excel's hidden camera tool for live cell images
Scalability with billions of dependent formulas per cell
Backward compatibility with legacy Excel files
Gene names automatically converted to dates
Excel inspiring the invention of the mouse scroll wheel
Real world disasters caused by Excel spreadsheet errors
COMMERCIAL:
In today's video, we're talking about 13 strange facts, bugs, and bits of trivia from Microsoft Excel in honor of its 40th birthday. You'll learn about the infamous leap year bug, hidden games that used to be in the program, the origins of Excel on the Mac, other names it almost had, how Excel helped inspire the mouse wheel, and why some gene names were accidentally turned into dates causing problems in scientific research. We will also discuss real-world disasters caused by Excel mistakes, and cover the camera tool, huge spreadsheet limits, and more. You'll find the complete video on my YouTube channel and on my website at the link shown. Live long and prosper my friends.Quiz Q1. Why does Microsoft Excel think that February 29, 1900, existed, even though it did not?
A. Microsoft made a mistake with the leap year calculation
B. Microsoft wanted to simplify date calculations for users
C. To remain compatible with Lotus 123's date system
D. Excel developers thought it was a useful feature
Q2. What did older versions of Excel include that were later removed from the software?
A. Encryption tools
B. Secret games like Hall of Tortured Souls and Dev Hunter
C. Advanced database features
D. Real-time chat functionality
Q3. When did Microsoft Excel first launch on the Windows platform?
A. 1985
B. 1986
C. 1987
D. 1995
Q4. Which of the following was NOT considered as a potential name for Excel during its development?
A. Mr. Spreadsheet
B. Odyssey
C. Master Plan
D. Number Cruncher
Q5. What major interface innovation did Excel 3.0 introduce in 1990?
A. Keyboard shortcuts for formulas
B. Built-in spell check
C. Toolbar with clickable icons
D. PivotTables
Q6. How many rows and columns does modern Excel support per worksheet?
A. 65,000 rows and 256 columns
B. 100,000 rows and 1,024 columns
C. Over 1 million rows and over 16,000 columns
D. 500,000 rows and 8,000 columns
Q7. What does Turing completeness, as supported by Excel's Lambda function, allow you to do?
A. Sort data more efficiently
B. Send emails directly from Excel
C. Define recursive formulas and compute anything in theory
D. Lock cells from editing
Q8. What is unique about the Camera Tool in Excel?
A. It encrypts your data
B. It creates a live, updating image of a selected cell range
C. It takes a screenshot of your entire worksheet
D. It scans barcodes into cells
Q9. How many dependent formulas can reference a single cell in Excel?
A. 4 million
B. 16 million
C. 4 billion
D. 1 million
Q10. Why is backward compatibility a notable feature of Excel?
A. It allows you to run Excel on any operating system
B. It makes all Excel files smaller in size
C. It allows old files with formulas and macros to work decades later
D. It automatically updates all files to the latest format
Q11. What serious issue did Excel cause in scientific research related to gene names?
A. Gene names were deleted by Excel
B. Gene names such as SCPT2 were automatically converted to dates
C. Gene sequences were scrambled in large files
D. Excel sorted gene names in reverse order
Q12. According to the video, how did Excel contribute to the invention of the mouse scroll wheel?
A. Excel required two mice to operate efficiently
B. Watching users struggle with large sheets inspired the invention
C. Excel introduced the mouse scroll wheel first
D. The scroll wheel was created for video games, not Excel
Q13. What major problem did using an old Excel format cause for the UK government during COVID-19 tracking?
A. Test results were sorted incorrectly
B. Graphs did not update automatically
C. The hard row limit caused thousands of cases to be missed
D. Data was deleted after 24 hours automatically
Q14. When should you consider using a database instead of Excel, according to the video?
A. When your spreadsheet has more than a couple hundred rows
B. When your spreadsheet uses fewer than 10 columns
C. When your spreadsheet contains only numbers
D. When your spreadsheet is smaller than 1 MB
Answers: 1-C; 2-B; 3-C; 4-D; 5-C; 6-C; 7-C; 8-B; 9-C; 10-C; 11-B; 12-B; 13-C; 14-A
DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks.Summary Today's TechHelp tutorial from Excel Learning Zone is a celebration of Microsoft Excel's 40th anniversary, and I have to give credit to one of my moderators, Kevin, for pointing it out on my website. In recognition of this milestone, I decided to share 13 unusual stories, quirks, and bits of trivia about Excel, the reigning champion of spreadsheets.
Let's begin with the infamous leap year bug. Excel mistakenly recognizes February 29, 1900, as a valid date, even though it never existed. Microsoft intentionally left this error in the program to ensure compatibility with Lotus 123, leading to all subsequent dates being off by one day when compared to actual history after that point.
Older versions of Excel included a few hidden gems that many people do not know about, such as games like Hall of Tortured Souls, a flight simulator, and Dev Hunter. These were eventually removed to improve security and reduce the program's size. Personally, I spent far too much time enjoying them.
Excel originally launched on the Macintosh in 1985. As for me, I did not use it back then and have not really worked with Macs since. The Windows release followed in 1987, and I began my own Excel journey around 1994 with Excel 5 and Word 6, just before the release of Windows 95 and Office 95. Before that, I was more of a Lotus 123 and WordPerfect user.
As for its name, Excel's developers considered several alternatives before settling on the one we all know today. Options included Mr. Spreadsheet, Master Plan, and the codename Odyssey. While "Mr. Spreadsheet" would have been amusing, one can only imagine Mr. Excel's opinion on that.
Excel 3.0, released in 1990, introduced the concept of a toolbar with clickable icons. This was one of the earliest appearances of this user interface feature, which would quickly become standard in most modern software. Even I did not realize that until researching it.
Modern Excel is incredibly powerful, supporting over a million rows and more than 16,000 columns per worksheet. That means there are over 16 billion cells available for your data on a single sheet. In comparison, older versions limited you to just 65,000 rows and 256 columns. That legacy limit has caused some issues, which I will discuss later.
One of Excel's underappreciated features is that it is Turing complete. With the introduction of the Lambda function, you can define recursive formulas, giving Excel the theoretical ability to compute anything that is computationally possible. I plan to explain the Lambda function in an upcoming lesson.
There is also an interesting hidden tool known as the camera. Excel allows you to take a live image of a range of cells. The image will update automatically as the source cells change. This is useful for complex workbooks with many sheets, as you can create dynamic snapshots of your data, including charts and overlays. I have a dedicated video on this feature coming soon.
It is remarkable how large you can build your spreadsheets. A single cell can be referenced by up to four billion dependent formulas. If you find yourself approaching this scale, it is a sign you might need to rethink your design.
Excel's backward compatibility is impressive. The program can still open decades-old files, and in most cases, formulas and macros continue to function as expected. I still have some old spreadsheets going all the way back to the 1990s.
Here is a mistake that affected the scientific community: Excel automatically converts certain gene names, such as SCPT2 or March 1, into dates. This has resulted in thousands of errors in scientific papers as gene names became misidentified as dates. Microsoft has since added an option to turn off this behavior, but it caused plenty of headaches in scientific research.
Interestingly, the invention of the mouse scroll wheel was inspired by Excel. Eric Michelman, who is credited with this idea, said it came from observing how difficult it was for users to scroll through large Excel worksheets. This feature certainly helps when working with massive sheets and documents.
Sadly, Excel is also responsible for real-world data mishaps. Errors in spreadsheets have led to substantial problems in government and finance, including lost data and flawed reports. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Public Health England was still using an older Excel format limited to 65,000 rows to store test data. When the file exceeded that limit, nearly 16,000 positive cases were left out, which disrupted contact tracing and may have contributed to over 1,500 additional deaths.
This demonstrates why you should not use Excel for large data storage tasks. When your spreadsheet starts to grow beyond a few hundred rows, it is time to consider a real database program like Microsoft Access. Excel works best for calculations and small to moderate amounts of data, not as a repository for vast datasets.
These are just 13 of the many fascinating facts and stories that make up Excel's long history. Happy birthday to Excel, and once again, thanks to Kevin for bringing this milestone to my attention. I hope you have learned something new today.
I am excited to let you know that I am developing a brand new series of lessons focused on programming in Microsoft Excel VBA. If you want to elevate your skills, automate tasks, create custom macros, and harness the full programming power of Excel, these lessons will be a great resource. You can sign up on my website for more details. The link is provided below.
If you would like to see more Excel TechHelp videos, please leave a comment and let me know. Most of my tutorials focus on Microsoft Access, but I am happy to cover more topics, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and more, if you are interested. As always, the more you ask, the more likely you are to see new content on your favorite subjects.
You can find a complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here on my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends.Topic List Excel leap year bug and February 29 1900
Secret games in early Excel versions
Excel's initial release on Mac in 1985
Excel's original codenames and unused names
Excel 3.0 introducing toolbar with clickable icons
Modern Excel row and column limits
Excel as a Turing complete program with Lambda
Excel's hidden camera tool for live cell images
Scalability with billions of dependent formulas per cell
Backward compatibility with legacy Excel files
Gene names automatically converted to dates
Excel inspiring the invention of the mouse scroll wheel
Real world disasters caused by Excel spreadsheet errorsArticle Microsoft Excel recently celebrated its 40th birthday, marking four decades as the undisputed king of spreadsheets. In honor of this milestone, I want to share thirteen fascinating stories, bugs, and pieces of trivia from Excel's long history. These range from quirks that you may have experienced yourself to technical oddities and even real world consequences.
To start, Excel has a well-known leap year bug. The program incorrectly treats February 29, 1900 as a real Excel date, even though that day did not actually exist. The reason for this goes all the way back to compatibility considerations with Lotus 1-2-3, a popular spreadsheet program at the time. In order to remain compatible, Microsoft left the bug in place, so all dates after that point are shifted by one day from actual calendar history. This can cause issues with date calculations, especially if you are processing historical data that goes as far back as the early 1900s.
Excel used to include some hidden games too. Older versions came with Easter eggs like the Hall of Tortured Souls, a simple flight simulator, and even a game called Dev Hunter. Eventually, all these hidden features were removed in later versions, partly for security reasons and to reduce the size of the software.
Excel actually made its debut on the Macintosh back in 1985. At that point, there was no version for Windows. That changed two years later, in 1987, when the Windows release arrived and started paving the way for widespread adoption. If you started using Excel during the Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 days, you may have been introduced to it with Excel 5 or later, which is when Office really became a household name and Excel began to dominate over older programs like Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect.
During its early development, Excel almost ended up with some different names. Some candidates were Mr. Spreadsheet, Master Plan, and the project itself was codenamed Odyssey. It is curious to imagine what Excel would be like today if Microsoft had stuck with names like Mr. Spreadsheet.
In 1990, Excel 3.0 became one of the first mainstream programs to feature a toolbar with clickable icons. This was a big innovation at the time, as it has now become a standard feature in nearly all modern software.
Modern versions of Excel support over a million rows and more than 16,000 columns per worksheet. This adds up to over 16 billion cells in a single sheet. By contrast, older versions such as Excel 2003 were limited to only 65,536 rows and 256 columns. This is a crucial difference to keep in mind, especially when working with large data sets or older Excel files.
One of the most powerful features introduced in recent years is the Lambda function. This feature makes Excel a Turing complete system. This means that, in theory, you can use recursive formulas and advanced logic to perform any computation that a computer can handle, all within Excel itself.
Excel has several lesser-known tools, one of which is the camera tool. This hidden feature lets you take a live snapshot of a range of cells and paste the image elsewhere in your workbook. Unlike a static screenshot, the camera image updates automatically when the source cells change. This can be extremely useful in complicated workbooks, especially if you need to monitor data scattered across multiple sheets or if you want to keep track of key metrics and charts at a glance.
If you are interested in the limits of Excel's referencing capability, a single cell can be referenced by up to 4 billion dependent formulas. While it is unlikely you would ever need to reach that number, it underscores the scale that Excel can theoretically support.
Backward compatibility is another hallmark of Excel. The program can open and work with files created decades ago, often preserving the original formulas and macros. This makes it a reliable choice for long-term data storage and gives peace of mind to anyone with historical spreadsheets.
A frequent trouble spot in Excel arises from the way it handles certain types of text. For example, some gene names like SCPT2 or abbreviations like March 1 are often auto-converted into dates. This has caused errors in thousands of scientific papers when gene names were unintentionally altered. Microsoft responded to these concerns by adding an option to disable automatic data conversion, which was a long-awaited fix in the scientific community.
Did you know that Excel inspired the invention of the mouse wheel? The inventor, Eric Michelman, credits Excel users with sparking the idea. He noticed how users were struggling to navigate large worksheets, which led to the creation of the scroll wheel found on most mice today.
It is important to note that spreadsheet mistakes have had significant real-world consequences. For example, during the COVID pandemic, a major data loss event occurred in England because officials were using an older Excel format with a 65,000 row limit to manage test results. When the file reached its maximum size, thousands of records were cut off, which may have contributed to contact tracing failures and, according to some estimates, more than 1,500 excess deaths. This disaster is a prime example of why Excel should not be used to store or analyze very large datasets. When your data exceeds a few hundred thousand records, you are better off using a database system like Microsoft Access or a more robust database platform.
Excel's journey is filled with fascinating stories, clever innovations, and a few cautionary tales. As it turns 40, the spreadsheet remains an indispensable tool for millions, whether you are crunching numbers, automating work with VBA, or just managing your personal finances.
If you are looking to dive deeper into Excel and especially into automating tasks with VBA programming, I am launching a new series of lessons dedicated to Excel VBA. These will teach you how to write custom macros, automate tasks, and unlock the full potential of Excel. More information and sign-up forms can be found on my website.
If you enjoy learning about Excel or want to see more practical tech tips and tutorials, you are welcome to reach out and let me know what topics interest you. Excel has come a long way, and with the right guidance, you can master it and take your productivity to the next level. |
