Where does this come from, and can I check it?

VisiCalc, released in 1979, let a manager recalculate an entire budget by changing a single cell. The figure is taken from Computer History Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a technology fact?

Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

A spreadsheet program sold the first business microcomputers

VisiCalc, released in 1979, let a manager recalculate an entire budget by changing a single cell Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston wrote VisiCalc for the Apple II, and it is widely credited with pushing personal computers into offices that had dismissed them as toys. Users typed figures and formulas into a grid, and the sheet recalculated at once, replacing hours of hand arithmetic on paper. The cell reference model survives in every spreadsheet since. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Computer History Museum

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: software, spreadsheets, apple

A spreadsheet program sold the first business microcomputers: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: VisiCalc, released in 1979, let a manager recalculate an entire budget by changing a single cell. The figure is taken from Computer History Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?: Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.