In the past the
developers of Excel (and most of the other Microsoft Office
applications) built in little hidden programs that would run inside the
application if you knew the secret sequence of keys. These secret
routines were generally humorous and entertaining. Apparently
management decided that these respites of comic relief were
inappropriate for something as serious as spreadsheet software and they
were all but discontinued in Excel 2000. The only Easter egg in Excel
2000 displays a scrolling credits box that is black text on a white
background with a black border. To get to this last remaining Easter egg
in Excel 2000 go through the following steps.
- Open a new,
completely blank workbook
- Press the F5 key to
bring up the Go To dialog box
- Enter X2000:L2000 in
the Reverence text box and click OK
- Press the Tab once
so that the cell in column M is selected
- Hold down [Ctrl][Shift]
and click on the Chart Wizard icon on the Standard Toolbar
- The result will be
the very dull looking listing of development credits that will scroll
up the screen.
In Excel 97
there is a much jazzier version of this Easter egg that has the user
flying a space ship around the list of credits. The user controls the
space ship with the mouse and is not allowed to crash and burn no matter
how poorly he drives. To find this Easter egg in Excel 97 simply follow
the same steps outlined above but substitute X97:L97 for X2000:L2000.
In Excel 2002
(Excel 10), there is no Easter egg per se’. Apparently, Microsoft has
received complaints about the waste of resources and file bloat.
However, if you still have Internet Explorer 5.0 loaded, this Easter Egg
requires Excel 2002:
- Open a new Excel
workbook.
- Select File * Save
as Web Page
- In the Save As
dialog, select 'Publish Sheet' and 'Add Interactivity'
- Save to an htm file
on your hard drive (any file name).
- Open the htm file
with Internet Explorer 5.
- Select cell WC2000
and scroll the sheet such that cell WC2000 is the first cell on the
left. Highlight the entire row.
- Press Shift+Crtl+Alt
and click the Office logo in the upper-left.
- Your screen will be
transformed into an auto racing game, with developer credits (and
other things) visible on the roadway. Use the following keys:
- Arrow keys: to steer
and accelerate
- Space bar: To fire
at other cars
- O: To drop an oil
slicks
H: To turn on your
headlights
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