Excel at 40 Week 1: Days 1–3

Celebrating 40 years of Excel in finance, analytics, and beyond

On September 30, 1985, Excel launched on the Apple Macintosh.
It replaced paper ledgers, VisiCalc, and Lotus 1-2-3 — and changed finance forever.

From macros to Power Query, from PivotTables to Python, Excel has evolved into a powerhouse for financial modeling, auditing, and analytics.

This 40-day series shares:

• ✅ 40 lessons from 40 years of Excel in finance
• ✅ Real-world use cases with Power BI and Microsoft Fabric
• ✅ Tips for mastering Excel’s most powerful formulas
• ✅ My journey as a finance analyst using Excel daily

Day 1 — A Finance Legacy Begins

📅 From 1985 to 2025: A visual timeline of Excel’s evolution.
Revisit the journey from the first release on the Macintosh to today’s AI-powered, cloud-connected version.

Day 2 — Highlight Past Event Dates Automatically

🏅 Excel Tip: Highlight rows automatically when the date is 3 or 6 months old — no VBA required.

Formulas used:

• 3 months → =AND(ISNUMBER($A2), $A2 < TODAY() - 90)
• 6 months → =AND(ISNUMBER($A2), $A2 < EDATE(TODAY(), -6))

✅ Apply through Conditional Formatting to keep outdated entries visible without manual updates.

🔗 https://lnkd.in/dVS_DfdB

Day 3 — The Evolution of Scale

From 4 million cells in 1985 to over 17 billion today, Excel has grown into a data titan.
This carousel highlights major milestones and its transformation into a programmable, AI-powered canvas.

💡 From finance models to fantasy football, Excel powers it all.

📌 Satya Nadella on Excel:

• “Excel formulas, the world’s most popular programming language, is now Turing-complete.” https://lnkd.in/dyex2ymK
• “Excel with Python is like GitHub with Copilot.” https://lnkd.in/dti5WfsQ

🔗 https://lnkd.in/dp58hDnP

Follow the Series

📅 New lessons every week — follow along as we count down to all 40 lessons.

#ExcelAt40 #MicrosoftExcel #ExcelTips #MicrosoftFabric #PowerBI #ExcelForFinance #FinancialModeling #AuditAutomation