Lotus 1-2-3


Lotus 1-2-3

(tool, product)A spreadsheet for MS-DOS from Lotus Development Corporation. It can be programmed using"macros" and comes with a separate program to produce graphsand charts but this cannot be run at the same time as thespreadsheet. It has keyboard-driven pop-up menus as well asone-key commands, making it fast to operate. Lotus 1-2-3supported EGA and later VGA graphics. Early versions usedthe filename extension "WK1".

Version: 4.

Lotus 1-2-3 has been the subject of several user interface copyright court cases in the US.

http://nyweb.com/lotus/123.html.

1-2-3's successor, Symphony, had simultaneous update ofspreadsheet, graph and word processor windows.

Lotus 1-2-3

A popular spreadsheet for PCs, originally introduced for DOS in 1983. Later ported to many other platforms, including Windows, OS/2 as well as minis and mainframes, Lotus 1-2-3 became part of the IBM Lotus SmartSuite package. In 2013, SmartSuite was discontinued.

Why 1, 2, 3?
The name was chosen because it integrated spreadsheet, database and graphics. Lotus 1-2-3 was the first innovative spreadsheet for the PC and was launched with a huge marketing campaign. Its ability to function like a simple database was unique, and turning data into a chart with a single keystroke was dazzling for its time. The Lotus macros were the first macro language widely used in a spreadsheet. The software was supplemented with LotusScript, a BASIC-like language that supported Notes manipulation. See Lotus menu and Lotus.