Supercalc

Supercalc: Early Spreadsheet Program for Personal Computers

Discover Supercalc, a pioneering spreadsheet program released in 1980, popular in the early 1980s for CP/M operating systems, offering visual on-screen formatting and cursor key navigation.

What is Supercalc?

Supercalc was an early spreadsheet program first released by Sorcim in 1980 for the CP/M operating system used on many early personal computers. It competed with other early spreadsheets like VisiCalc.

Supercalc introduced a number of innovative features for its time. It allowed visual formatting like bold, italics, and varying font sizes to be displayed directly on the screen, unlike text-based competitors. It also allowed using the cursor keys to navigate the spreadsheet, which later became standard.

In its time, Supercalc was very popular and seen as a top competitor to VisiCalc. It was later ported to other platforms like Apple DOS. However, as GUI operating systems became standard in the late 1980s, text-based programs like Supercalc declined in popularity compared to newer WYSIWYG spreadsheet programs.

Still, Supercalc pioneered many spreadsheet features we now take for granted. It showed the potential for screen-based visual formatting and cursor-key navigation years before GUI spreadsheets. For its innovations and popularity in the early personal computer market, Supercalc holds an important place in early spreadsheet software history.

Supercalc Features

Official Links