Microsoft Ltd has released the Excel spreadsheet for OS/2, and has incorporated a new consolidation feature in the coding which enables the consolidation of dissimilar data. The new feature creates a master spreadsheet and consolidates worksheets from up to 256 fonts either in memory, on disk, or over a network. It will also have the Q+E database query and edit tool as from the first quarter of 1990, and the new version of OS/2 will link Excel with SQL Server, Extended Edition, and DB2 via Remote Data Services. The Dynamic Data Exchange protocol enables multiple applications to work together, and is used by Excel for OS/2, Excel for Windows, and the Q+E tool. The development tool Applications Manager, also uses the Dynamic Data Exchange protocol as a bridge to Excel, and will allow the application to directly control Excel. A Common User Interface means that the three versions of Excel – OS/2, Windows, amd Macintosh – share the same user interface, file structure, and macro language, which enables the sharing of files across different environments. Excel runs on 80286 and 80386 machines with 2.5Mb memory, and runs under OS/2 version 1.1 or higher. Microsoft and IBM’s French and German subsidiaries have announced joint marketing agreements. In France, IBM will offer EhcNl with a mouse, and in West Germany with DisplayWrite 4.2. The product was launched in the US by Bill Gates: he shared the platform with 20 software companies, and Microsoft anticipates that this will speed up the transition from MS-DOS to OS/2, saying that Excel is key to the success of the operating system. Excel for OS/2 will be available in the UK in November and costs UKP400, and existing users of Excel for Windows can purchase it for UKP35.
