document_title: Left 4 Dead 2

question_text: where does left for dead 2 take place

question_tokens: where does left for dead 2 take place

root

text: Left 4 Dead 2

text: Gameplay[edit]

text: Like its predecessor, Left 4 Dead 2 is a first-person shooter with a heavy emphasis on cooperative gameplay. The game presents five new campaigns, each composed of three to five smaller levels. As in the first game, each campaign is presented in menus and loading screens as a film starring the four Survivors; and features, upon completing a campaign, a faux credits screen which acts as the final scoreboard for the players and recaps certain performance statistics for the group. In every campaign, most levels involve the Survivors attempting to reach a safe zone and close the door once they are all safely inside. However, the final level in each campaign requires the Survivors to call for rescue and either survive a prolonged onslaught until rescue arrives, pass through an especially challenging gauntlet of Infected to reach an escape vehicle, or (in Dead Center and The Passing) collect and utilize fuel cans to enable their escape.[7][8]

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text: Each Survivor can carry one each of five categories of equipment: primary weapons, secondary weapons, throwable weapons, major medical supplies (which also includes ammunition upgrades) and minor medical supplies. Primary weapons are broken down into four tiers based on their availability and attributes.[9] Tier one weapons (such as the SMG and Chrome Shotgun) deal damage relatively slowly and serve as basic offensive weapons. Tier two weapons (such as the Assault Rifle and Combat Shotgun) deal damage faster and often appear in later maps of each chapter. The two tier three weapons (Grenade Launcher and M60) differ from tier one and two weapons both because of their rarity and because players cannot refill their ammunition from ammunition dumps. They deal damage quickly at the cost of limited ammo. Tier four weapons are all mounted weapon systems and carry unlimited ammunition. The mounted weapons deal damage the fastest, but at the cost of overheating after a period of non-stop use. The mounted weapons are in set positions in maps and have a fixed arc of fire. They cannot be given ammunition upgrades like other weapons and players cannot utilize the laser sights attachment with them. There are three types of secondary weapons available: melee weapons, small caliber pistols (that can be dual wielded) and large caliber pistols. Although melee weapons cause extra damage to Infected when struck, the Survivors can use any other weapon or item for weaker melee attacks that can push the Infected back. Players also carry a flashlight with infinite battery life, the use of which enables players to see in the dark (with the downside of the player gaining the attention of the Infected much faster). They may also carry a single first aid kit, special ammo pack, or a defibrillator in their major medical supply slot; in addition to either pain pills or an adrenaline shot in their minor medical supply slot. They may also carry a single throwable weapon—Molotov cocktails to set an area on fire; pipe bombs to attract any nearby Infected to the flashing light and sound it makes until it explodes;[10] and jars of Boomer bile, which attracts Common Infected to whatever it hits (e.g. fires, Special Infected, each other).[11]

text: To enable situational awareness of other Survivors, players are shown the health and status of their fellow survivors. If a player does not have direct sight of another Survivor (e.g. a wall is blocking their view of the others), they will be shown the Survivor's highlighted silhouette. The Survivors are also susceptible to friendly fire, forcing players to exercise caution when shooting or swinging their weapons.[12] As Survivors take damage, they move more slowly; if a Survivor's health drops to zero, they are incapacitated and left to fight off the Infected using a handgun until rescued by another Survivor. If a Survivor dies, they remain dead until the next level, unless revived by a defibrillator, or, in Campaign or Singleplayer mode, reappear in a "Rescue Closet" to be freed by other Survivors.[13] Should all Survivors die or be incapacitated, the game will end, at which point the players may restart that chapter or quit the game.

text: Game modes[edit]

text: Left 4 Dead 2 includes 5 regular game modes:

text:
Campaign: up to four human players fight against the Infected to make their way through Campaign stages; any Survivor not controlled by a human player is controlled by the computer.
A Singleplayer mode allows players to play without intrusion from human players, working through the Campaign stages with three computer-controlled Survivor allies.
Versus: up to four other human players take control of various Special Infected to try and prevent the Survivors from completing a stage. Special Infected are randomly assigned to Infected players; they cannot control the Witch or any Common Infected. Occasionally, as determined by the AI Director, certain players will become the Tank. The two teams swap sides once per stage, and are scored based on their stage progress as Survivors. If both teams make it to the saferoom with all four Survivors, a 25-point tiebreaker is awarded to the team that dealt the most combined damage as Special Infected.
Survival: a timed challenge where the Survivors are trapped in a section of the campaign maps, and try to survive as long as possible against an unending onslaught of Infected.
Scavenge: a new 4-on-4 mode that requires the Survivor players to collect and use as many fuel cans scattered about a level to fill up a power generator, while the Infected players attempt to stop them.[14]

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text: Left 4 Dead 2 also features a Realism mode, which can be enabled at any difficulty for either Campaign or Versus. This mode removes some of the video-game aspects from the gameplay: Survivors cannot see each other's silhouettes, and dead teammates can only be revived with defibrillators and will not respawn later in the level.[15] Weapons and other items will only glow when the player is within a few feet, forcing the players to search the levels more thoroughly. Headshots to enemies deal more damage, whereas limb or body shots require more shots.[citation needed] In addition, the Witch enemy can kill any Survivor she would have normally incapacitated (on difficulties other than Easy). Designed to force players to work closely together and rely on voice communication, Valve created Realism mode to give players a way "to be challenged as a team" without having to increase the difficulty level of the game.[15]

text: Finally, in later versions of the game, there is a Mutation option, in which players can select from a menu of 30 variations, some singleplayer, some multiplayer (and some of the latter cooperative, some versus, or both). Each variation changes one or more major game dynamics, such as: constantly draining health, solo mode with no Survivor allies, death upon incapacitation, only one kind of weapon available, coop that later switches to versus, shooting or targeting constraints, an enemy type with increased power, increased numbers of Special Infected, etc. One of these modes, named GunBrain, is a weapons stats analyzer.

text: The Infected[edit]

text: While also referred to as zombies, the Infected are humans who have contracted a mutated strain of an infection, though neither the source nor nature of this "Green Flu" are made clear in the games. The most numerous Infected encountered by the survivors are the common Infected. Though individually weak, they can swarm and overwhelm the Survivors, especially when separated from their teammates. Damage to the infected in Left 4 Dead 2 is portrayed more realistically, with bullets and melee weapons ripping off bits of flesh and, in some cases, limbs.[16] A new addition to Left 4 Dead 2 is the Uncommon Infected unique to each campaign. By virtue of location and equipment worn pre-infection, they possess abilities that separate them from the Common Infected. For example, the Dead Center campaign introduces infected CEDA agents in hazmat suits, making them fireproof;[17] Dark Carnival includes clowns, whose squeaking shoes attract small hordes of Common Infected;[18] and The Parish includes infected private security contractors in riot gear, making them bulletproof from the front.[19][20]

text: As in the first game, there are special Infected whose mutations grant them special abilities that make them highly dangerous, which act as bosses. The presence of such Infected nearby is hinted at by sound effects or musical cues unique to each type. The five Special Infected from the first game return in Left 4 Dead 2, some with modified behavior and skin models:

text:
The Boomer: an extremely bloated Infected who vomits bile. The bile attracts a horde of Common Infected on contact with Survivors and also momentarily blinds them.[21] Upon death, it explodes and can also spray bile onto nearby Survivors.
The Hunter: an agile male Infected that can pounce on and incapacitate Survivors from great distances, tearing at them until the Survivor dies or another Survivor shoves it off/kills it.[22]
The Smoker: a male Infected with a long tongue that it uses to ensnare Survivors from a distance, continually choking them. Upon death, it releases a cloud of smoke that can obscure the Survivors' vision and cause them to cough, should they come in direct contact with the smoke.[23]
The Tank: a gigantic, extremely muscular Infected male with the strength to punch Survivors off their feet some distance, as well as toss cars and concrete slabs.[24] Unless the Survivors work as a team, they will be quickly incapacitated or even killed by the Tank's inhuman strength.[25]
The Witch: a crying Infected woman who, when provoked by either damage, loud sounds, light, or proximity of survivors, will attack the provoker and any other Survivors after her provoker is dead. She can incapacitate or even kill a Survivor in one hit.[26] Left 4 Dead 2 introduces a variant of the Witch that wanders aimlessly in the open.[3][26]

text: Left 4 Dead 2 also introduces three new Special Infected:

text:
The Charger: a male Infected with an enormous right arm,[27] and can charge into the Survivors, capturing and carrying one Survivor away from the others, sending any others in his path flying to the side after a capture and stunning survivors upon hitting an obstacle in a charge. He may then pummel his captured Survivor into the ground, rendering that Survivor helpless until one of their teammates helps them by killing the charger or stunning it with frag rounds.[28][29]
The Spitter: a female Infected that spits out balls of stomach acid that splatter across an area, quickly eroding the Survivors' health as long as they remain within it. She also leaves a puddle of goo upon death. The longer a player loiters in the goo, the faster their health drops.[30][31]
The Jockey: a male Infected that jumps onto a Survivor's back and steers them into other Infected or environmental hazards (e.g. Spitter goo), whilst clawing at the player's head until the player is incapacitated, killed, or shoved off.[32][33][34][35][36]

text: The AI Director 2.0[edit]

text: As in the first game, an artificial intelligence system called the AI Director drives gameplay by procedurally spawning enemies, weapons and items based on players' performance during any given campaign. In Left 4 Dead 2, the Director has been improved to encourage more participation by players, forcing players through difficult gauntlets to reach safety. It also has the ability to alter elements of the level, such as placement of walls, level layout, lighting, and weather conditions, making each play session unique.[3] The Director now rewards players for taking longer or more difficult paths through each episode by providing useful equipment, such as special ammo packs or higher tier weapons, along these riskier paths.[4]

text: Plot[edit]

text: Like its predecessor, Left 4 Dead 2 is set in the aftermath of a worldwide pandemic of an infectious disease known as the "Green Flu", which rapidly transforms humans into zombie-like creatures and mutated forms that demonstrate extreme aggression towards non-infected (much like the infected in 28 Days Later). Few humans are immune to the disease, still carrying the infection but showing no symptoms. The Civil Emergency and Defense Agency (CEDA) and the U.S. military create safe zones to attempt to evacuate as many American survivors as possible. Left 4 Dead 2 introduces four new Survivors—Coach, Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle, who are immune to the disease and have individual back stories that are provided through character dialogue.[37][38][39][40][41] While the game is intended as a continuation of the original, occurring one week after the first game begins, Valve decided to create a new group of Survivors due to the change in location.[42] Like the first game, the five campaigns in Left 4 Dead 2 are set across a story arc,[43] set in the Southern United States, which starts in Savannah, Georgia, and ends in New Orleans, Louisiana.[3][4] The four Survivors have to fight their way through hordes of Infected, using safehouses along the way to rest and recuperate in order to reach extraction points.

text: Characters[edit]

text: Left 4 Dead 2 features a new cast of human Survivors, which include: Coach (voiced by Chad Coleman), a portly high-school football coach with a bad knee[38][44] (although it does not affect gameplay); Nick (voiced by Hugh Dillon), a cold and sarcastic gambler and con artist;[39][45] Rochelle (voiced by Rochelle Aytes), a low-level production assistant reporting on the evacuation for a local television station;[37][46] and Ellis (voiced by Eric Ladin), a friendly (and rather talkative) mechanic[47] who often talks about his friend Keith and their many misadventures.[3][41] In addition to the four playable characters, Left 4 Dead 2 also features a supporting character in the form of Virgil (voiced by Randall Newsome), a Cajun boat captain, who appears (voice only) in the game's final three campaigns.

text: Story[edit]

text: The Sacrifice DLC campaign takes place before the main events of Left 4 Dead 2; and after the events of The Sacrifice comic. The original survivors of Left 4 Dead—Bill, Francis, Louis, and Zoey—arrive at the portside town of Rayford, in order to search for a boat that can take them to the Florida Keys.[48] After finding an adequate sailboat, the Survivors have to manually start up generators in order to lift a bridge for their boat to pass through.[49] One Survivor (canonically Bill) sacrifices himself in order to kick-start a generator once it gives out, so that the others may reach safety. This is the end of Bill's story in the Left 4 Dead video game series.[50]

text: Left 4 Dead 2 opens in Dead Center (set in Savannah, Georgia), where the four Survivors find themselves abandoned on a hotel roof by rescue helicopters. They decide to head for the local mall, where a second CEDA evacuation point is located.[51] After a brief encounter with a gun store owner, Whitaker (voiced by Dayton Callie),[52] the Survivors discover that the mall is overrun, with all CEDA agents having become either dead or infected as well. Ellis helps the group use a stock car to bust out of the mall[7] and travel towards New Orleans, rumored to be the last standing city in America.[53]

text: The Passing DLC campaign takes place between Dead Center and Dark Carnival, and after the events of The Sacrifice campaign. The Survivors of L4D2 arrive at the bridge in Rayford, where they meet Francis, Louis, and Zoey.[54] As they need to cross the bridge to proceed, the Survivors need to find another way across to refill the generator with gas. After fighting their way through a wedding reception (complete with a Witch bride),[55] the streets, and a historic under-the-river tour,[56] they meet up again with the original Survivors, who help by covering for the group while they fill the generator and lowering the bridge once it's full.[8]

text: At the start of the Dark Carnival campaign, the four Survivors find the highway ahead completely blocked by ditched vehicles, and are forced to travel on foot through an abandoned (but still-operating) amusement park.[40] After navigating their way to the park stadium, Coach devises a plan to use a large-scale light show used by a rock band, The Midnight Riders, in order to signal a helicopter pilot for rescue.[57]

text: After being rescued, they later discover that their pilot has been Infected. When the pilot starts attacking them, Nick is forced to kill him (echoing a similar situation in Left 4 Dead[58]), causing the chopper to crash into a bayou, the setting for Swamp Fever.[59] Working their way through the swamps, the group comes across a crashed airplane, dead military paratroopers, and isolated swamp villages which had held out against the Infected but were eventually overrun. After spending the morning fighting through the swamp, the group arrives at a plantation mansion and make radio contact with Virgil, a Cajun boat captain who can assist them; however, his boat begins to run low on diesel fuel on the way to New Orleans.[60][61] As a tumultuous rainstorm approaches (the titular Hard Rain of the subsequent campaign), the Survivors go ashore at Ducatel, Mississippi; make their way through an abandoned (and Witch-infested[62]) sugarcane mill to a gas station to get diesel fuel, and return to signal Virgil with an improvised "flare".[63]

text: In the final campaign, The Parish, Virgil drops the group off at New Orleans, where the military appears to be evacuating civilians across a bridge.[64] On the way there, the four discover the city overrun with Infected, and that the military is actually leaving the city before it is destroyed by an air strike.[65][66][67] The group manages to reach the bridge, where they make contact with the military. Judging from their dialogue, the military pilots suspect the Survivors to be "carriers",[68] similar to the original Survivors of Left 4 Dead. After securing their rescue helicopter, the Survivors lower and cross the bridge, escaping on the helicopter just as the bridge is destroyed.[68] While the Survivors' fate is left unclear after this point, Chet Faliszek, the game's writer, back in 2009 said that the military is taking survivors to cruise ships in the Caribbean in an attempt to escape the infection.[69][70]

text: Development[edit]

text: Development for Left 4 Dead 2 started shortly after the release of the first game—following a short break—building on ideas from the development team to make the next game "bigger and better".[3][71] The game was given the codename "Carnation" to prevent revealing its details before its official announcement;[72] Valve also considered a new title for the game, Back 4 More, though they eventually dropped it for Left 4 Dead 2.[citation needed]

text: Chet Faliszek stated that Left 4 Dead 2's story would explore more of the world of the game, and that Valve had created a full story for the cause and effects of the infection pandemic, including terms that they have used for the AI Director.[72] Each campaign was purposely designed with a different feel; however, all five campaigns were mapped out at the same time by the entire team to provide the narrative flow and ensure the uniqueness of each campaign.[73] The team used a Left 4 Dead dictionary developed to describe level design and flow within the game to provide a common language for developing the levels.[73]

text: Left 4 Dead 2 contains about 7,800 unique lines of dialogue, a 40% increase over Left 4 Dead.[74] The writers designed the characters and selected appropriate voice actors who had natural accents for their lines and allowed the actors freedom to help authenticate the roles. They would attend recording sessions for the voice actors and allow them to ad-lib their lines for their characters, often getting new ideas for character dialogue to be recorded later, particularly in the case of Ellis (voiced by Eric Ladin) and Nick (Hugh Dillon).[75] Randall Newsome, the voice of the boat captain Virgil, was a local actor from Louisiana who naturally spoke Cajun and helped to embellish the role better than the writers could.[75] Faliszek wanted to include a "no-nonsense" woman from a Department of Motor Vehicles, but this character did not make the cut.[72] The developers solicited several bands to include them in the game: Depeche Mode responded eagerly, and allowed Valve to use its music and other imagery in the game, such as on Rochelle's T-shirt.[76]

text: In introducing the new Infected, the development team had to consider how the new abilities would mesh with the existing Infected and any changes they had made to them.[73] One discarded idea for a new Infected included the "Leaker"; the creature, when having taken damage, would shoot out spouts of goo at the survivors, and then would be able to self-detonate like the Boomer. However, this sacrificial act would have given survivors time to escape, and the idea was dropped, though features of the Leaker were built into the Spitter.[73]

text: In development, the programmers wanted to find a way to provide more variation and visual effects for the players, although they were already strained by memory limitations on the Xbox 360 for Left 4 Dead. One key development factor was recognizing a way to create greater variation in the appearance of the common infected through a number of modeling and rendering tasks. Simple changes of the underlying geometry of the model, either the head or the body, with the resulting effects on the texture mapping was one means to create apparent variation. Another means was created by using different head textures along with various blood and dirt maps, and similarly different wounds applied to the body texture. A final means to alter the tone of both the skin and the clothing worn by the infected. As a result, a single infected model could have up to 24,000 variations within the game. This allowed Valve to effectively only keep two to six common infected core models in memory for each level, leaving only the unique infected for each campaign and the special infected as their own unique models. As a result, the memory use for the infected dropped by 50%.[74] Valve's programmers also sought how to better represent damage the players did to the infected by showing inflicted wounds in the appropriate location and in a manner based on the weapon used, allowing for the inclusion of more resilient infected creatures in advanced game modes. They had simulated this in Left 4 Dead by having five possible character models that would result from a fatal attack but felt this could be advanced further. Already limited by memory concerns on the Xbox 360 that prevented further variations on the core infected models, the team devised a system of using textures with transparencies combined with ellipsoid culling from any infected character model to simulate the wounds, with several graphical process simplifications to avoid taxing the rendering system. This allowed the team to simulate up to two such wounds on each infected using only 13% of the memory resources of the based system in Left 4 Dead.[77]

text: Another visual aspect that the Valve team explored was the rendering of water, particularly in the "Swamp Fever" campaign, which takes place mostly in a large swamp area. Valve found early play-testers would become confused with the large, tree-covered map, but by adding hints of water movement in the direction they were to go, there was a significant reduction in players becoming lost on the map. The water maps were created by using the 3D animation tool Houdini against its landscape maps to create realistic water flow patterns as surface maps. These surface maps were then applied in a "flowing" manner instead of the scrolling manner used in previous games. These water effects were further expanded upon for Valve's next game, Portal 2.[78]

text: Doug Lombardi, vice-president of marketing for Valve, noted that the SDK released for Left 4 Dead would also be compatible with Left 4 Dead 2.[79]

text: Promotion[edit]

text: PC and Xbox 360 players who pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2 through participating retailers gained early access to the game's demo, which was released on October 27, 2009 for Xbox Live and October 28, 2009 for PC players, and an exclusive baseball bat melee weapon to be used in game.[80][81] Pre-ordering the PC version of the game through the Steam network also unlocks Bill's beret from Left 4 Dead for use in the PC version of Team Fortress 2.[82] Also, when a person buys the game and starts up Team Fortress 2, they will get a frying pan as a melee weapon and Ellis' hat as an in-game hat. The demo became available for all PC and Xbox Live Gold users on November 4, 2009 with Xbox Live Silver users gaining access on November 11, 2009.[83] The demo features the first two maps in "The Parish" campaign.

text: On October 5, 2009, Valve announced that Left 4 Dead 2 would be promoted by a $25 million advertising campaign, exceeding the $10 million that supported Left 4 Dead. The campaign includes television advertisements during sporting events, on billboards and magazines; and more aggressive advertising for Europe.[84]

text: Release and updates[edit]

text: Left 4 Dead 2 was released on Steam on November 17, 2009.[85] Retail copies were made available some days after, depending on the country.[86]

text: In March 2010, Valve announced that it would be bringing the Steam content platform to Mac OS X computers; along with it, Steam will be providing native versions of existing Valve games including Left 4 Dead 2 and its predecessor. The games will support cross-platform play, allowing Mac players to play alongside PC players on the same servers, and will also be part of its Steam Play cross-compatible and Steam Cloud titles, allowing a player who has purchased the game on one platform to download and play it on the other platform for free.[87] The Mac OS X client was released on October 5, 2010.

text: With the introduction of a Linux client for Steam, Valve has affirmed that Left 4 Dead 2 will be developed for Linux.[88][89]

text: The Linux version of Left 4 Dead 2 was released on May 3, 2013.[90]

text: On December 25, 2013, Valve released the game for free for new players. The Christmas update also included a special achievement called "Ghost of Christmas Present," awarded to veteran players who helped the free holiday players survive in the game's campaign mode.[91]

text: Downloadable content[edit]

text: On December 14, 2009, Valve announced the first DLC installment for Left 4 Dead 2, "The Passing".[92][93] Though initially planned to be released sometime in March 2010, "The Passing" was released on April 22, 2010.[94] The content costs 560 Microsoft Points for the Xbox 360[93] and is free for PC and Mac users.[95] The campaign, taking place between the "Dead Center" and "Dark Carnival" campaigns, features the cast of Left 4 Dead 2 meeting with three of the survivors from the original Left 4 Dead. The new group learns that the fourth original survivor, Bill, sacrificed himself to allow his comrades to continue on safely. The title "The Passing" can be interpreted in several ways; to Bill's passing, the brief passing encounter between the two groups, and of the first group of survivors "passing the torch" to the next.[96] "The Passing" contains references to other zombie-themed works, including the games Dead Rising[97] and Plants vs. Zombies,[98] and the movies 28 Days Later,[99] Shaun of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead and its remake.[citation needed]The add-on also features two new weapons, an M60 machine gun which becomes unusable once depleted of ammo, and a golf club for melee.[93]

text: A prequel to "The Passing", titled "The Sacrifice", was released on October 5, 2010, as an add-on for both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. This prequel ties up the story of the original game, showing the events leading to the meeting of the two groups of survivors in "The Passing" from the point of the Left 4 Dead characters. However, players can choose which character will sacrifice themselves for the others to safely continue on and not just the canonical choice of Bill.[100] Valve also provided the full "No Mercy" campaign from Left 4 Dead as a Left 4 Dead 2 campaign, which is playable with the original Survivors from Left 4 Dead. Though the maps are nearly identical to their appearance in Left 4 Dead, No Mercy in Left 4 Dead 2 contains all of the enhancements of the sequel, including the new Special Infected, Uncommon Infected, melee weapons, additional guns, and the ability to use the new game modes, including Mutations and Scavenge mode.[100]

text: An additional community-created downloadable content package, called "Cold Stream", was released July 24, 2012 for Xbox 360 and PC.[101][102] Valve has announced testing had begun on the Xbox 360, as well as for all the original Left 4 Dead 1 maps via L4D Blog. The content is in public beta, available to players for testing and data collection on any issues, with a complete release date on 24 July.[103] On July 24 it was announced that Valve did not send the downloadable content package to Microsoft. On August 1, 2012, it was announced that Cold Stream would be made available for Xbox 360 on August 3, at the price point of 560 MSP ($7).[104]

text: A proposed content package and tie-in for the 2012 horror film The Cabin in the Woods was in the works, but the project dissolved after the film's original production company, MGM, filed for bankruptcy. The film's director, Drew Goddard, commented on what the downloadable content would have included, stating: "The game was gonna be amazing. You were gonna be able to play in both the upstairs Cabin in the Woods world and the downstairs 'facility' world with all the monsters. Believe me, I HATE all video games based on movies, they always suck, but porting Cabin into Left For Dead felt like the right fit. It pains me that it didn't happen."[105]

text: On April 4, 2013 a Resident Evil 6 crossover DLC was released for the PC version. It adds the main characters and two monsters from Left 4 Dead 2 to the PC-exclusive The Mercenaries: No Mercy mode in Resident Evil 6. Also three monsters from Resident Evil 6 are added as replacement skins to existing monsters on the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2.[106][107]

text: On August 20, 2015, an update for the game Zombie Army Trilogy was released, which imported the eight survivors from both Left 4 Dead games into ZAT.

text: Mutations[edit]

text: Mutations are modifications on Left 4 Dead 2's game modes, which have been offered every week after "The Passing"'s release; these game modes alter the conditions of play.[95][108] All Mutations are now available through an update, making them selectable in the PC version. At this time Valve added the "Realism Versus" mutation to the game as a permanent game mode. All Mutations became available for Xbox 360 users with the release of Cold Stream.

text: Community modification support[edit]

text: Similar to Left 4 Dead and other Source Engine-based games, a number of players have constructed new maps, campaigns, and other variations for Left 4 Dead 2, supported by Valve through their software development kit for the game.[109] With the kit, players have found ways to include the original Left 4 Dead campaigns into Left 4 Dead 2.[110] Players have also found ways to increase the number of survivors up to 16, duplicating the graphics for the existing survivor characters as needed.[111] In August 2010, Valve announced that it will promote selected community generated maps, one every two weeks, both by blog posts on their official site, and by offering the map on a number of their dedicated servers.[112] Valve updated the game in January 2013 to include support for Steam Workshop, allowing users to create and share new scenarios, maps, clothing and weapons. and to create Mutation-like changes that can be applied to existing maps.[113][114] A further patch in February 2013 introduced a new scripting system, Expanded Mutation System, that gives programmers more control and options to create new Mutations that can be played across any map or to customize behavior in specific campaigns; one such user-created Mutation creates an experience similar to the Zombie mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, allowing players to buy weapons and barricades to fight off waves of zombies.[115]

text: Competitive community and tournaments[edit]

text: On the PC, the original competitive modification named "Confogl", was created by community member ProdigySim.[116] It is now a playable mutation included in the game.[117][118][119] Confogl is a set of rules for competitive Left 4 Dead 2 versus which standardizes certain elements and changes the distribution of items and weapons. It tips the scales toward the infected.[120] Tournaments have been held utilizing the Confogl modification, such as the CEVO tournament.[121]

text: Reception[edit]

text:
Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator
Score

Metacritic
89/100 (X360)[122]
89/100 (PC)[123]

Review scores

Publication
Score

Destructoid
9.5/10[124]

Edge
9/10[125]

Eurogamer
9/10[126]

Game Informer
9.5/10[127]

Game Revolution
B[128]

GameSpot
9.0/10[129]

GameSpy
[130]

GamesRadar
[131]

IGN
9.0/10[132]

VideoGamer.com
9/10[133]

tag: table

text: Left 4 Dead 2 received critical acclaim from game journalists, praising the changes made with the new melee weapons and firearms, the new strategies introduced through the new special infected, and the details of the southern locale and individual campaigns compared with the campaigns of the first game. Ars Technica praised the game's replayability and the attention put in every detail.[134] Libération also praised the game, commenting that Valve was one of the last game studios making games geared toward hardcore PC gamers.[135] IGN considered that the game improved on the first in every way, and that anyone who liked the concepts introduced by the first game should buy the second.[132] Eurogamer also praised the game, and considered that it was "overflowing with personality".[126] Left 4 Dead 2 received the Best Xbox 360 Game award at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. The game has been nominated for the "Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering", "Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play", and "Action Game of the Year" Interactive Achievement Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.[136]

text: Technical issues[edit]

text: The Xbox 360 version of the game was noted at launch for having serious issues with lag and slowdown in online game modes, the majority coming from using the game's dedicated servers. According to Valve, these problems were due to an unexpectedly huge number of players online on Xbox LIVE.[137] It was shortly fixed after release by a server infrastructure change and adding new dedicated servers.[137]

text: Valve acknowledged problems with the PC version of the game upon launch, including inability to install the game, or users finding it crashed within minutes.[citation needed] Most users reported successful bug fixes from the patches that followed.

text: Sales[edit]

text: Pre-release sales estimates for Left 4 Dead 2 were positive. As of July 2009, Left 4 Dead 2 ranked first in purchase intent out of all upcoming games, with 9 out of 10 polled stating that they would buy the game.[138] According to Lombardi, pre-orders for the sequel within the month following the announcement were double those for Left 4 Dead at the same time relative to release date.[139] In a press release on October 5, 2009 Valve announced that, based on the strength of pre-orders, they expect Left 4 Dead 2 to be the fastest selling product in the company's history, with the game's pre-release sales averaging 300% greater than Left 4 Dead.[84] In an interview in November 2009, Chet Faliszek claimed the number of pre-sales of Left 4 Dead 2 were four times that of the original game.[140]

text: On December 1, 2009, Valve reported that more than two million retailed copies of Left 4 Dead 2 were sold in two weeks, which represents "more than double" the sales of the original game's two week debut.[141] According to the NPD Group, the Xbox 360 version was the fifth best-selling retail title for consoles in November 2009, with over 744,000 copies sold.[142]

text: In February 2010, Electronic Arts, Left 4 Dead 2 retail distributor, revealed that the game had sold 2.9 million on retail so far[143] while Forbes wrote that more than 4 million copies were sold at stores in 2009.[144]

text: Over two weeks in July 2010, approximately 12,000 owners of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 were mistakenly banned by Valve's-Anti-Cheat system. Those affected received a free copy of the game or an extra copy to send as a gift.[145][146][147]

text: On May 10, 2011, Doug Lombardi mentioned that each of the Left 4 Dead games has sold 3 million copies on the Xbox 360.[148] On August 11, 2011, in a phone interview with Giant Bomb, Chet Faliszek said that the series had sold over 11 million units in total.[149]

text: For 24 hours on 25–26 December 2013, Valve offered Left 4 Dead 2 for free on PC using its Steam platform.[150]

text: Controversies[edit]

text: Left 4 Dead 2 has been a central issue in a number of critical discussions regarding its timing and its graphic and mature content. John Walker of UK-based gaming website Rock, Paper, Shotgun has theorized that this is due to higher expectations for Valve, given the perception of its status as an industry leader.[151]

text: Boycott[edit]

text: The weekend following the game's announcement at the 2009 E3 Convention, some Left 4 Dead players called for a boycott of Left 4 Dead 2 and formed the Steam community group called "L4D2 Boycott (NO-L4D2)" which grew to over 10,000 members by the end of that weekend,[152] and reached more than 37,000 about a month later.[153][154] In addition to a lack of further Left 4 Dead content, they were concerned with the characters, visuals, and music shown in the E3 demonstration video, feeling these were inappropriate to the first game's aesthetics, and that the release of the sequel so soon after the first game would fracture the community.[152][155][156]

text: In response to these complaints, Valve marketer Doug Lombardi stated that the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 at E3 should not be taken to indicate that Valve would no longer support the first game.[153][157] He asked the community to "trust [them] a little bit," and told them that while their team was eager to get new material to players of Left 4 Dead, they determined that a sequel would be the best option for several reasons:[79] the demand for new campaigns, enemies and weapons could not be met as a simple DLC;[79] both Faliszek and project lead Tom Leonard found that too much of the content relied on each other, making it very difficult to release incremental patches in the same style as Team Fortress 2;[71][72] the development team liked the idea of rolling up the content into a sequel to be released a year after Left 4 Dead's release.[71] Faliszek stated that Newell was skeptical of the idea when the team brought the sequel forward, but still allowed the project to go through.[72]

text: In September 2009, Valve flew two of the boycott group's most prominent members to Valve, in order to playtest Left 4 Dead 2; the two felt that the sequel was well done.[158] This event, through a series of correspondences made in jest, shortly led to Valve's Gabe Newell and designer Erik Johnson flying to Australia to visit "Joe W-A", a Left 4 Dead modder. Newell jokingly reported that Valve was "boycotting" Joe's new mod for the game when Joe asked when he would be flown to Valve in the same manner as the Left 4 Dead 2 boycotters, but whimsically offered that if Joe was to pay to fly him to the country, he would take a look at it. Joe was able to raise the required funds, US$3000, through donations through his website, though ultimately Newell paid for the trip himself, with Joe's collected donations going to the Child's Play charity.[159][160]

text: On October 14, 2009, the initiators of the boycott group announced that they had ended their boycott and were shutting down the 40,000-plus group because Valve was retaining their promise of additional content and fixes for Left 4 Dead, such as the recent release of the "Crash Course" campaign. These gamers also believed that the group itself, losing its purpose, was now being used just to bad-mouth Valve and other players.[161] In a video interview posted on October 29, 2009, Gabe Newell said, "for people who joined the Boycott Group on Steam ... they're actually pre-ordering the product at a higher rate than Left 4 Dead 1 owners who weren't in the boycott".[162]

text: Cover art[edit]

text: Valve was forced to alter its original cover art for the game by the ESRB; the original image depicted the series' hand with its little finger, ring finger and the thumb torn off, which would thus have the index finger and middle finger remaining. It was deemed too explicit, but to appease the ESRB, Valve changed the image so that the fingers were merely bent back instead, but the company was still able to include the torn-off thumb in all regions except for Japan and Germany, where it had to be censored.[5]

text: The cover was further changed for release in the United Kingdom, as the two-finger sign with the back of the hand faced toward the viewer is considered an insult; the UK cover features the hand facing the opposite direction to avoid this, making it instead the more optimistic gesture for "Victory",[163] even though it may not have been intended to be made insulting.

text: Racism accusations[edit]

text: Willie Jefferson of the Houston Chronicle, after seeing initial promotional material for the game, considered that several of the infected "appear to be African-Americans" implying a racist approach to the game, and also noted that "setting the game in a city that was a scene of dead, bloated bodies floating by" some years after the impact of Hurricane Katrina was "a bad call".[164] Faliszek, commenting on Jefferson's claims, considered the supposition to be "utter insanity", and commented that the infected are a mix of all races, and that the game's version of New Orleans is "not a brick-for-brick representation" of the city and were not trying to make any statement about it with the game.[165][166] A writer for Kotaku considered that Jefferson "seems to me to be picking a fight where none exists."[167] Others noted that the appearance of African-American infected simply reflected the racial diversity of New Orleans.[168]

text: Australian ban and unbanning[edit]

text: Left 4 Dead 2 was refused classification in Australia by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). It failed to gain a MA15+ rating, the highest possible rating for video games in Australia at the time of release. This prevented the sale of the original game within the country.[6] In its report, the OFLC cited the reason for refusing classification as "realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence".[169] However, a small number of members of the OFLC board believed the game could merit the MA15+ rating which was used to publish the first Left 4 Dead. It was expected that changes could be made to the game to allow the game to be classified as MA15+ and thus sold in Australia.[170] Both Lombardi and Newell were "surprised" by the classification refusal.[171][172] Valve appealed the OFLC's decision about a week after being notified of the ruling, comparing the sequel to its predecessor, which had been classified as MA15+, and the mature ratings the sequel had received from similar rating organizations around the world.[173] However, as the appeal process, expected to end on October 22, was close to the planned release date, Valve submitted a modified version of the game for classification addressing the concerns the OFLC has stated.[172] This version, which no longer contained images of "decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies", was classified as MA15+ by the OFLC, thus allowing for the game's release in Australia, though Valve and Electronic Arts still hoped to have their preferred, unmodified version classified by the OFLC for release.[174] The appeal of the decision to deny classification to the unedited version of the game was conducted by the independent Classification Review Board, and resulted in the previous ruling to deny classification being sustained. The Classification Review Board cited "insufficient delineation between the depiction of zombie characters and the human figures" as one of the key factors in its classification refusal.[175]

text: Left 4 Dead 2's classification refusal, as well as for other recent games such as Fallout 3 (has since been rerated MA15+ having the same version as other countries) and Aliens vs. Predator (has since appealed and rerated MA15+ uncut), has reignited debate over the current prohibition of sale and exhibition of video games for mature audiences.[176] In mid-December 2009, the Australian government sought public opinion on the adult classification rating for video games, despite statements by South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson believing the issue to only affect a minority of the country's citizens.[177] Following Atkinson's decision to leave the Attorneys General to be replaced by John Rau, who is reportedly in favour of an R18+ rating,[178] Valve have revealed that, should the bill be passed, they plan to release an uncensored version of Left 4 Dead 2 for PC in Australia.[179] Australian Federal Parliament has passed R18+ classification for video games which came into effect on January 1, 2013,[180] and Valve is exploring legal options of resubmitting an R18+ version of Left 4 Dead 2 following this change.[181]

text: On August 29, 2014, the uncensored version was reclassified R18+, effectively unbanning the game, five years after the original release, with Valve adding in the availability to switch to the uncensored version as DLC for all users running who purchased L4D2 in Australia before it was reclassified.[182]

text: German ban[edit]

text: In order to achieve the highest possible rating given by Germany's Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (Freigegeben ab 18 Jahren gemäß § 14 JuSchG, meaning "Restricted for those below the age of 18"), Valve had to heavily censor the game's violent content similar to the Australian version. However, the international (and thus uncensored) version was indexed by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons on December 1, 2009 in order to prevent sellers from advertising or selling it to minors. On February 15, 2010, the Amtsgericht Tiergarten confiscated all European PC versions for violation of § 131 StGB (representation of violence), meaning they may not be sold; however, it is still legal to import (with the risk that the game is confiscated by customs) and own the game. The court said that the game trivializes violence due to its high killing rate and explicit graphical representation of mutilation. They also sensed a strong cynical attitude behind the game's concept.[183] To make up for the censorship, German players receive exclusive weapons ported from Counter-Strike: Source, which include the Heckler & Koch MP5, Accuracy International AWM, SIG 552, Steyr Scout and a combat knife.[citation needed]


document_title: Microsoft Excel

question_text: when was excel first introduced and for what computer

question_tokens: when was excel first introduced and for what computer

text: Microsoft Excel

text: Features

text: Basic operation

text: Microsoft Excel has the basic features of all spreadsheets,[4] using a grid of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter-named columns to organize data manipulations like arithmetic operations. It has a battery of supplied functions to answer statistical, engineering and financial needs. In addition, it can display data as line graphs, histograms and charts, and with a very limited three-dimensional graphical display. It allows sectioning of data to view its dependencies on various factors for different perspectives (using pivot tables and the scenario manager).[5] It has a programming aspect, Visual Basic for Applications, allowing the user to employ a wide variety of numerical methods, for example, for solving differential equations of mathematical physics,[6][7] and then reporting the results back to the spreadsheet. It also has a variety of interactive features allowing user interfaces that can completely hide the spreadsheet from the user, so the spreadsheet presents itself as a so-called application, or decision support system (DSS), via a custom-designed user interface, for example, a stock analyzer,[8] or in general, as a design tool that asks the user questions and provides answers and reports.[9][10][11] In a more elaborate realization, an Excel application can automatically poll external databases and measuring instruments using an update schedule,[12] analyze the results, make a Word report or PowerPoint slide show, and e-mail these presentations on a regular basis to a list of participants. Excel was not designed to be used as a database.[13]

text: Microsoft allows for a number of optional command-line switches to control the manner in which Excel starts.[14]

text: Macro programming

text: VBA programming

text: The Windows version of Excel supports programming through Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is a dialect of Visual Basic. Programming with VBA allows spreadsheet manipulation that is awkward or impossible with standard spreadsheet techniques. Programmers may write code directly using the Visual Basic Editor (VBE), which includes a window for writing code, debugging code, and code module organization environment. The user can implement numerical methods as well as automating tasks such as formatting or data organization in VBA[15] and guide the calculation using any desired intermediate results reported back to the spreadsheet.

text: VBA was removed from Mac Excel 2008, as the developers did not believe that a timely release would allow porting the VBA engine natively to Mac OS X. VBA was restored in the next version, Mac Excel 2011,[16] although the build lacks support for ActiveX objects, impacting some high level developer tools.[17]

text: A common and easy way to generate VBA code is by using the Macro Recorder.[18] The Macro Recorder records actions of the user and generates VBA code in the form of a macro. These actions can then be repeated automatically by running the macro. The macros can also be linked to different trigger types like keyboard shortcuts,[19] a command button or a graphic. The actions in the macro can be executed from these trigger types or from the generic toolbar options. The VBA code of the macro can also be edited in the VBE. Certain features such as loop functions and screen prompt by their own properties, and some graphical display items, cannot be recorded but must be entered into the VBA module directly by the programmer. Advanced users can employ user prompts to create an interactive program, or react to events such as sheets being loaded or changed.

text: Macro Recorded code may not be compatible with Excel versions. Some code that is used in Excel 2010 cannot be used in Excel 2003. Making a Macro that changes the cell colours and making changes to other aspects of cells may not be backward compatible.

text: VBA code interacts with the spreadsheet through the Excel Object Model,[20] a vocabulary identifying spreadsheet objects, and a set of supplied functions or methods that enable reading and writing to the spreadsheet and interaction with its users (for example, through custom toolbars or command bars and message boxes). User-created VBA subroutines execute these actions and operate like macros generated using the macro recorder, but are more flexible and efficient.

text: History

text: From its first version Excel supported end user programming of macros (automation of repetitive tasks) and user defined functions (extension of Excel's built-in function library). In early versions of Excel these programs were written in a macro language whose statements had formula syntax and resided in the cells of special purpose macro sheets (stored with file extension .XLM in Windows.) XLM was the default macro language for Excel through Excel 4.0.[21] Beginning with version 5.0 Excel recorded macros in VBA by default but with version 5.0 XLM recording was still allowed as an option. After version 5.0 that option was discontinued. All versions of Excel, including Excel 2010 are capable of running an XLM macro, though Microsoft discourages their use.[22]

text: Charts

text: Excel supports charts, graphs, or histograms generated from specified groups of cells. The generated graphic component can either be embedded within the current sheet, or added as a separate object.

text: These displays are dynamically updated if the content of cells change. For example, suppose that the important design requirements are displayed visually; then, in response to a user's change in trial values for parameters, the curves describing the design change shape, and their points of intersection shift, assisting the selection of the best design.

text: Data storage and communication

text: Number of rows and columns

text: Versions of Excel up to 7.0 had a limitation in the size of their data sets of 16K (214 = 7004163840000000000♠16384) rows. Versions 8.0 through 11.0 could handle 64K (216 = 7004655360000000000♠65536) rows and 256 columns (28 as label 'IV'). Version 12.0 can handle 1M (220 = 7006104857600000000♠1048576) rows, and 7004163840000000000♠16384 (214 as label 'XFD') columns.[23]

text: File formats

text:
Excel Spreadsheet

Filename extension
.xls, (.xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb - Excel 2007)

Internet media type
application/vnd.ms-excel

Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)
com.microsoft.excel.xls[24]

Developed by
Microsoft

Type of format
Spreadsheet

text: Microsoft Excel up until 2007 version used a proprietary binary file format called Excel Binary File Format (.XLS) as its primary format.[25] Excel 2007 uses Office Open XML as its primary file format, an XML-based format that followed after a previous XML-based format called "XML Spreadsheet" ("XMLSS"), first introduced in Excel 2002.[26]

text: Although supporting and encouraging the use of new XML-based formats as replacements, Excel 2007 remained backwards-compatible with the traditional, binary formats. In addition, most versions of Microsoft Excel can read CSV, DBF, SYLK, DIF, and other legacy formats. Support for some older file formats was removed in Excel 2007.[27] The file formats were mainly from DOS-based programs.

text: Binary

text: OpenOffice.org has created documentation of the Excel format.[28] Since then Microsoft made the Excel binary format specification available to freely download.[29]

text: XML Spreadsheet

text: The XML Spreadsheet format introduced in Excel 2002[26] is a simple, XML based format missing some more advanced features like storage of VBA macros. Though the intended file extension for this format is .xml, the program also correctly handles XML files with .xls extension. This feature is widely used by third-party applications (e.g. MySQL Query Browser) to offer "export to Excel" capabilities without implementing binary file format. The following example will be correctly opened by Excel if saved either as Book1.xml or Book1.xls:

text: Current file extensions

text: Microsoft Excel 2007, along with the other products in the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, introduced new file formats. The first of these (.xlsx) is defined in the Office Open XML (OOXML) specification.

text:
New Excel 2007 formats

Format
Extension
Description

Excel Workbook
.xlsx
The default Excel 2007 and later workbook format. In reality a ZIP compressed archive with a directory structure of XML text documents. Functions as the primary replacement for the former binary .xls format, although it does not support Excel macros for security reasons.

Excel Macro-enabled Workbook
.xlsm
As Excel Workbook, but with macro support.

Excel Binary Workbook
.xlsb
As Excel Macro-enabled Workbook, but storing information in binary form rather than XML documents for opening and saving documents more quickly and efficiently. Intended especially for very large documents with tens of thousands of rows, and/or several hundreds of columns.

Excel Macro-enabled Template
.xltm
A template document that forms a basis for actual workbooks, with macro support. The replacement for the old .xlt format.

Excel Add-in
.xlam
Excel add-in to add extra functionality and tools. Inherent macro support because of the file purpose.

text: Old file extensions

text:
Format
Extension
Description

Spreadsheet
.xls
Main spreadsheet format which holds data in worksheets, charts, and macros

Add-in (VBA)
.xla
Adds custom functionality; written in VBA

Toolbar
.xlb
The file extension where Microsoft Excel custom toolbar settings are stored.

Chart
.xlc
A chart created with data from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that only saves the chart. To save the chart and spreadsheet save as .XLS. XLC is not supported in Excel 2007 or in any newer versions of Excel.

Dialog
.xld
Used in older versions of Excel.

Archive
.xlk
A backup of an Excel Spreadsheet

Add-in (DLL)
.xll
Adds custom functionality; written in C++/C, Visual Basic, Fortran, etc. and compiled in to a special dynamic-link library

Macro
.xlm
A macro is created by the user or pre-installed with Excel.

Template
.xlt
A pre-formatted spreadsheet created by the user or by Microsoft Excel.

Module
.xlv
A module is written in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) for Microsoft Excel

Library
.DLL
Code written in VBA may access functions in a DLL, typically this is used to access the Windows API

Workspace
.xlw
Arrangement of the windows of multiple Workbooks

text: Using other Windows applications

text: Windows applications such as Microsoft Access and Microsoft Word, as well as Excel can communicate with each other and use each other's capabilities. The most common are Dynamic Data Exchange: although strongly deprecated by Microsoft, this is a common method to send data between applications running on Windows, with official MS publications referring to it as "the protocol from hell".[30] As the name suggests, it allows applications to supply data to others for calculation and display. It is very common in financial markets, being used to connect to important financial data services such as Bloomberg and Reuters.

text: OLE Object Linking and Embedding: allows a Windows application to control another to enable it to format or calculate data. This may take on the form of "embedding" where an application uses another to handle a task that it is more suited to, for example a PowerPoint presentation may be embedded in an Excel spreadsheet or vice versa.[31][32][33][34]

text: Using external data

text: Excel users can access external data sources via Microsoft Office features such as (for example) .odc connections built with the Office Data Connection file format. Excel files themselves may be updated using a Microsoft supplied ODBC driver.

text: Excel can accept data in real time through several programming interfaces, which allow it to communicate with many data sources such as Bloomberg and Reuters (through addins such as Power Plus Pro).

text:
DDE : "Dynamic Data Exchange" uses the message passing mechanism in Windows to allow data to flow between Excel and other applications. Although it is easy for users to create such links, programming such links reliably is so difficult that Microsoft, the creators of the system, officially refer to it as "the protocol from hell".[30] In spite of its many issues DDE remains the most common way for data to reach traders in financial markets.
Network DDE Extended the protocol to allow spreadsheets on different computers to exchange data. Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft no longer supports the facility.[35]
Real Time Data : RTD although in many ways technically superior to DDE, has been slow to gain acceptance, since it requires non-trivial programming skills, and when first released was neither adequately documented nor supported by the major data vendors.[36][37]

text: Alternatively, Microsoft Query provides ODBC-based browsing within Microsoft Excel.[38][39][40]

text: Export and migration of spreadsheets

text: Programmers have produced APIs to open Excel spreadsheets in a variety of applications and environments other than Microsoft Excel. These include opening Excel documents on the web using either ActiveX controls, or plugins like the Adobe Flash Player. The Apache POI opensource project provides Java libraries for reading and writing Excel spreadsheet files. ExcelPackage is another open-source project that provides server-side generation of Microsoft Excel 2007 spreadsheets. PHPExcel is a PHP library that converts Excel5, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007 formats into objects for reading and writing within a web application. Excel Services is a current .NET developer tool that can enhance Excel's capabilities. Excel spreadsheets can be accessed from Python with xlrd and openpyxl. js-xlsx and js-xls can open Excel spreadsheets from JS.

text: Password protection

text: Microsoft Excel protection offers several types of passwords:

text:
Password to open a document [41]
Password to modify a document [42]
Password to unprotect worksheet
Password to protect workbook
Password to protect the sharing workbook [43]

text: All passwords except password to open a document can be removed instantly regardless of Microsoft Excel version used to create the document. These types of passwords are used primarily for shared work on a document. Such password-protected documents are not encrypted, and a data sources from a set password is saved in a document’s header. Password to protect workbook is an exception – when it is set, a document is encrypted with the standard password “VelvetSweatshop”, but since it is known to public, it actually does not add any extra protection to the document. The only type of password that can prevent a trespasser from gaining access to a document is password to open a document. The cryptographic strength of this kind of protection depends strongly on the Microsoft Excel version that was used to create the document.

text: In Microsoft Excel 95 and earlier versions, password to open is converted to a 16-bit key that can be instantly cracked. In Excel 97/2000 the password is converted to a 40-bit key, which can also be cracked very quickly using modern equipment. As regards services which use rainbow tables (e.g. Password-Find), it takes up to several seconds to remove protection. In addition, password-cracking programs can brute-force attack passwords at a rate of hundreds of thousands of passwords a second, which not only lets them decrypt a document, but also find the original password.

text: In Excel 2003/XP the encryption is slightly better – a user can choose any encryption algorithm that is available in the system (see Cryptographic Service Provider). Due to the CSP, an Excel file can't be decrypted, and thus the password to open can't be removed, though the brute-force attack speed remains quite high. Nevertheless, the older Excel 97/2000 algorithm is set by the default.[44] Therefore, users who did not changed the default settings lack reliable protection of their documents.

text: The situation changed fundamentally in Excel 2007, where the modern AES algorithm with a key of 128 bits started being used for decryption, and a 50,000-fold use of the hash function SHA1 reduced the speed of brute-force attacks down to hundreds of passwords per second. In Excel 2010, the strength of the protection by the default was increased two times due to the use of a 100,000-fold SHA1 to convert a password to a key.

text: Microsoft Excel Viewer

text: Microsoft Excel Viewer is a freeware program for viewing and printing spreadsheet documents created by Excel.[45] Excel Viewer is similar to Microsoft Word Viewer in functionality. (There is not a current version for the Mac.) Excel Viewer is available for Microsoft Windows and Windows CE handheld PCs, such as the NEC MobilePro.[46] It is also possible to open Excel files using certain online tools and services.[citation needed]Online excel viewers do not require users to have Microsoft Excel installed.[45]

text: Quirks

text: Other errors specific to Excel include misleading statistics functions, mod function errors, date limitations and the Excel 2007 error.[47]

text: Statistical functions

text: The accuracy and convenience of statistical tools in Excel has been criticized,[48][49][50][51][52] as mishandling missing data, as returning incorrect values due to inept handling of round-off and large numbers, as only selectively updating calculations on a spreadsheet when some cell values are changed, and as having a limited set of statistical tools. Microsoft has announced some of these issues are addressed in Excel 2010.[53]

text: Excel MOD function error

text: Excel has issues with modulo operations. In the case of excessively large results, Excel will return the error warning #NUM! instead of an answer.[54][55]

text: Fictional leap day in the year 1900

text: Excel includes February 29, 1900, incorrectly treating 1900 as a leap year, even though e.g. 2100 is correctly treated as a regular year.[56][57] The bug originated from Lotus 1-2-3 (deliberately implemented to save computer memory), and was also purposely implemented in Excel, for the purpose of bug compatibility.[58] This legacy has later been carried over into Office Open XML file format.[59]

text: Thus a (not necessarily whole) number greater than or equal to 61 interpreted as a date and time is the (real) number of days after December 30, 1899, 0:00, a non-negative number less than 60 is the number of days after December 31, 1899, 0:00, and numbers with whole part 60 represent the fictional day.

text: Date range

text: Excel supports dates with years in the range 1900-9999, except that December 31, 1899 can be entered as 0 and is displayed as 0-jan-1900.

text: Converting a fraction of a day into hours, minutes and days by treating it as a moment on the day January 1, 1900, does not work for a negative fraction.[60]

text: Conversion problems

text: Entering text that happens to be in a form that is interpreted as a date, the text can be unintentionally changed to a standard date format. A similar problem occurs when a text happens to be in the form of a floating point notation of a number. In these cases the original exact text cannot be recovered from the result. In the case of entering gene names this is a well known problem in the analysis of DNA, for example in bioinformatics. The problem was first described in 2004.[61][62]

text: Filenames

text: Microsoft Excel will not open two documents with the same name and instead will display the following error:

text: The reason is for calculation ambiguity with linked cells. If there is a cell ='[Book1.xlsx]Sheet1'!$G$33, and there are two books named "Book1" open, there is no way to tell which one the user means.[64]

text: Numeric precision

text: Despite the use of 15-figure precision, Excel can display many more figures (up to thirty) upon user request. But the displayed figures are not those actually used in its computations, and so, for example, the difference of two numbers may differ from the difference of their displayed values. Although such departures are usually beyond the 15th decimal, exceptions do occur, especially for very large or very small numbers. Serious errors can occur if decisions are made based upon automated comparisons of numbers (for example, using the Excel If function), as equality of two numbers can be unpredictable.[citation needed]

text: In the figure the fraction 1/9000 is displayed in Excel. Although this number has a decimal representation that is an infinite string of ones, Excel displays only the leading 15 figures. In the second line, the number one is added to the fraction, and again Excel displays only 15 figures. In the third line, one is subtracted from the sum using Excel. Because the sum in the second line has only eleven 1's after the decimal, the difference when 1 is subtracted from this displayed value is three 0's followed by a string of eleven 1's. However, the difference reported by Excel in the third line is three 0's followed by a string of thirteen 1's and two extra erroneous digits. This is because Excel calculates with about half a digit more than it displays.

text: Excel works with a modified 1985 version of the IEEE 754 specification.[65] Excel's implementation involves conversions between binary and decimal representations, leading to accuracy that is on average better than one would expect from simple fifteen digit precision, but that can be worse. See the main article for details.

text: Besides accuracy in user computations, the question of accuracy in Excel-provided functions may be raised. Particularly in the arena of statistical functions, Excel has been criticized for sacrificing accuracy for speed of calculation.[66][67]

text: As many calculations in Excel are executed using VBA, an additional issue is the accuracy of VBA, which varies with variable type and user-requested precision.[68]

text: Content type auto-detection

text: In 2004 scientists reported automatic (and inadvertent) conversion of gene nomenclature into dates.[61] A follow-up study in 2016 found many peer reviewed scientific journal papers had been affected and that "Of the selected journals, the proportion of published articles with Excel files containing gene lists that are affected by gene name errors is 19.6 %.[62] Excel parses the copied and pasted data and sometimes changes them depending on what it thinks they are. For example, MARCH1 (Membrane Associated Ring-CH-type finger 1) gets converted to the date March 1 (1-Mar) and SEPT2 (Septin 2) is converted into September 2 (2-Sep) etc.[69] While some secondary news sources[70] reported this as a fault with Excel, the original authors of the 2016 paper placed the blame with the researchers mis-using Excel.[62][71]

text: Versions

text: Early history

text: Microsoft originally marketed a spreadsheet program called Multiplan in 1982. Multiplan became very popular on CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS systems it lost popularity to Lotus 1-2-3. Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Macintosh on September 30, 1985, and the first Windows version was 2.05 (to synchronize with the Macintosh version 2.2) in November 1987.[72] Lotus was slow to bring 1-2-3 to Windows and by the early 1990s Excel had started to outsell 1-2-3 and helped Microsoft achieve its position as a leading PC software developer. This accomplishment solidified Microsoft as a valid competitor and showed its future of developing GUI software. Microsoft maintained its advantage with regular new releases, every two years or so.

text: Microsoft Windows

text: Excel 2.0 is the first version of Excel for the Intel platform. Versions prior to 2.0 were only available on the Apple Macintosh.

text: Excel 2.0 (1987)

text: The first Windows version was labeled "2" to correspond to the Mac version. This included a run-time version of Windows.[73]

text: BYTE in 1989 listed Excel for Windows as among the "Distinction" winners of the BYTE Awards. The magazine stated that the port of the "extraordinary" Macintosh version "shines", with a user interface as good as or better than the original.[74]

text: Excel 3.0 (1990)

text: Included toolbars, drawing capabilities, outlining, add-in support, 3D charts, and many more new features.[73]

text: Excel 4.0 (1992)

text: Introduced auto-fill.[75]

text: Also, an easter egg in Excel 4.0 reveals a hidden animation of a dancing set of numbers 1 through 3, representing Lotus 1-2-3, which was then crushed by an Excel logo.[76]

text: Excel 5.0 (1993)

text: With version 5.0, Excel has included Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a programming language based on Visual Basic which adds the ability to automate tasks in Excel and to provide user-defined functions (UDF) for use in worksheets. VBA is a powerful addition to the application and includes a fully featured integrated development environment (IDE). Macro recording can produce VBA code replicating user actions, thus allowing simple automation of regular tasks. VBA allows the creation of forms and in‑worksheet controls to communicate with the user. The language supports use (but not creation) of ActiveX (COM) DLL's; later versions add support for class modules allowing the use of basic object-oriented programming techniques.

text: The automation functionality provided by VBA made Excel a target for macro viruses. This caused serious problems until antivirus products began to detect these viruses. Microsoft belatedly took steps to prevent the misuse by adding the ability to disable macros completely, to enable macros when opening a workbook or to trust all macros signed using a trusted certificate.

text: Versions 5.0 to 9.0 of Excel contain various Easter eggs, including a "Hall of Tortured Souls", although since version 10 Microsoft has taken measures to eliminate such undocumented features from their products.[77]

text: 5.0 was released in a 16-bit x86 version for Windows 3.1 and later in a 32-bit version for NT 3.51 (x86/Alpha/PowerPC)

text: Excel 95 (v7.0)

text: Released in 1995 with Microsoft Office for Windows 95, this is the first major version after Excel 5.0, as there is no Excel 6.0 with all of the Office applications standardizing on the same major version number.

text: Internal rewrite to 32-bits. Almost no external changes, but faster and more stable.

text: Excel 97 (v8.0)

text: Included in Office 97 (for x86 and Alpha). This was a major upgrade that introduced the paper clip office assistant and featured standard VBA used instead of internal Excel Basic. It introduced the now-removed Natural Language labels.

text: This version of Excel includes a flight simulator as an Easter Egg.

text: Excel 2000 (v9.0)

text: Included in Office 2000. This was a minor upgrade, but introduced an upgrade to the clipboard where it can hold multiple objects at once. The Office Assistant, whose frequent unsolicited appearance in Excel 97 had annoyed many users, became less intrusive.

text: Excel 2002 (v10.0)

text: Included in Office XP. Very minor enhancements.

text: Excel 2003 (v11.0)

text: Included in Office 2003. Minor enhancements, most significant being the new Tables.

text: Excel 2007 (v12.0)

text: Included in Office 2007. This release was a major upgrade from the previous version. Similar to other updated Office products, Excel in 2007 used the new Ribbon menu system. This was different from what users were used to, and was met with mixed reactions. One study reported fairly good acceptance by users except highly experienced users and users of word processing applications with a classical WIMP interface, but was less convinced in terms of efficiency and organisation.[78] However, an online survey reported that a majority of respondents had a negative opinion of the change, with advanced users being "somewhat more negative" than intermediate users, and users reporting a self-estimated reduction in productivity.[79]

text: Added functionality included the SmartArt set of editable business diagrams. Also added was an improved management of named variables through the Name Manager, and much improved flexibility in formatting graphs, which allow (x, y) coordinate labeling and lines of arbitrary weight. Several improvements to pivot tables were introduced.

text: Also like other office products, the Office Open XML file formats were introduced, including .xlsm for a workbook with macros and .xlsx for a workbook without macros.[80]

text: Specifically, many of the size limitations of previous versions were greatly increased. To illustrate, the number of rows was now 1,048,576 (220) and columns was 16,384 (214; the far-right column is XFD). This changes what is a valid A1 reference versus a named range. This version made more extensive use of multiple cores for the calculation of spreadsheets; however, VBA macros are not handled in parallel and XLL add‑ins were only executed in parallel if they were thread-safe and this was indicated at registration.

text: Excel 2010 (v14.0)

text: Included in Office 2010, this is the next major version after v12.0, as version number 13 was skipped.

text: Minor enhancements and 64-bit support,[81] including the following:

text:
Multi-threading recalculation (MTR) for commonly used functions
Improved pivot tables
More conditional formatting options
Additional image editing capabilities
In-cell charts called sparklines
Ability to preview before pasting
Office 2010 backstage feature for document-related tasks
Ability to customize the Ribbon
Many new formulas, most highly specialized to improve accuracy[82]

text: Excel 2013 (v15.0)

text: Included in Office 2013, along with a lot of new tools included in this release:

text:
Improved Multi-threading and Memory Contention
FlashFill[83]
Power View[84]
Power Pivot[85]
Timeline Slicer[86]
Windows App
Inquire[87]
50 new functions[88]

text: Excel 2016 (v16.0)

text: Included in Office 2016, along with a lot of new tools included in this release:

text:
Power Query integration
Read-only mode for Excel
Keyboard access for Pivot Tables and Slicers in Excel
New Chart Types
Quick data linking in Visio
Excel forecasting functions
Support for multi-selection of Slicer items using touch
Time grouping and Pivot Chart Drill Down
Excel data cards[89]

text: Apple Macintosh

text:
1985 Excel 1.0
1988 Excel 1.5
1989 Excel 2.2
1990 Excel 3.0
1992 Excel 4.0
1993 Excel 5.0 (part of Office 4.x—Final Motorola 680x0 version[90] and first PowerPC version)
1998 Excel 8.0 (part of Office 98)
2000 Excel 9.0 (part of Office 2001)
2001 Excel 10.0 (part of Office v. X)
2004 Excel 11.0 (part of Office 2004)
2008 Excel 12.0 (part of Office 2008)
2011 Excel 14.0 (part of Office 2011)
2015 Excel 15.0 (part of Office 2016— Office 2016 for Mac brings the Mac version much closer to parity with its Windows cousin, harmonizing many of the reporting and high-level developer functions, while bringing the ribbon and styling into line with its PC counterpart.)[91]

text:
1989 Excel 2.2
1990 Excel 2.3
1991 Excel 3.0

text: Summary

text:
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still supported
Current stable version
Latest preview version
Future release

text:
Microsoft Excel for Windows release history

Year
Name
Version
Comments

1987
Excel 2
Old version, no longer supported: 2.0
Renumbered to 2 to correspond with contemporary Macintosh version

1990
Excel 3
Old version, no longer supported: 3.0
Added 3D graphing capabilities

1992
Excel 4
Old version, no longer supported: 4.0
Introduced auto-fill feature

1993
Excel 5
Old version, no longer supported: 5.0
Included Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and various object-oriented options

1995
Excel 95
Old version, no longer supported: 7.0
Renumbered for contemporary Word version. Both programs were packaged in Microsoft Office by this time.

1997
Excel 97
Old version, no longer supported: 8.0

2000
Excel 2000
Old version, no longer supported: 9.0
Part of Microsoft Office 2000, which was itself part of Windows Millennium (also known as "Windows ME").

2002
Excel 2002
Old version, no longer supported: 10.0

2003
Excel 2003
Old version, no longer supported: 11.0
Released only 1 year later to correspond better with the rest of Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, etc.).

2007
Excel 2007
Old version, no longer supported: 12.0

2010
Excel 2010
Older version, yet still supported: 14.0
Due to superstitions surrounding the number 13, Excel 13 was skipped in version counting.

2013
Excel 2013
Older version, yet still supported: 15.0
Introduced 50 more mathematical functions (available as pre-packaged commands, rather than typing the formula manually).

2016
Excel 2016
Current stable version: 16.0
Part of Microsoft Office 2016

text:
Microsoft Excel for Macintosh release history

Year
Name
Version
Comments

1985
Excel 1
Old version, no longer supported: 1.0
Initial version of Excel

1988
Excel 1.5
Old version, no longer supported: 1.5

1989
Excel 2
Old version, no longer supported: 2.2

1990
Excel 3
Old version, no longer supported: 3.0

1992
Excel 4
Old version, no longer supported: 4.0

1993
Excel 5
Old version, no longer supported: 5.0
Only available on PowerPC-based Macs. First PowerPC version.

1998
Excel 98
Old version, no longer supported: 8.0
Excel 6 and Excel 7 were skipped to correspond with the rest of Microsoft Office at the time.

2000
Excel 2000
Old version, no longer supported: 9.0

2001
Excel 2001
Old version, no longer supported: 10.0

2004
Excel 2004
Old version, no longer supported: 11.0

2008
Excel 2008
Old version, no longer supported: 12.0

2011
Excel 2011
Older version, yet still supported: 14.0
As with the Windows version, version 13 was skipped for superstitious reasons.

2016
Excel 2016
Current stable version: 16.0
As with the rest of Microsoft Office, so it is for Excel: Future release dates for the Macintosh version are intended to correspond better to those for the Windows version, from 2016 onward.

text:
Microsoft Excel for OS/2 release history

Year
Name
Version
Comments

1989
Excel 2.2
Old version, no longer supported: 2.2
Numbered in between Windows versions at the time

1990
Excel 2.3
Old version, no longer supported: 2.3

1991
Excel 3
Old version, no longer supported: 3.0
Last OS/2 version. Discontinued subseries of Microsoft Excel, which is otherwise still an actively developed program.

text: Impact

text: Excel offers many user interface tweaks over the earliest electronic spreadsheets; however, the essence remains the same as in the original spreadsheet software, VisiCalc: the program displays cells organized in rows and columns, and each cell may contain data or a formula, with relative or absolute references to other cells.

text: Excel 2.0 for Windows, which was modeled after its Mac GUI-based counterpart, indirectly expanded the installed base of the then-nascent Windows environment. Excel 2.0 was released a month before Windows 2.0, and the installed base of Windows was so low at that point in 1987 that Microsoft had to bundle a runtime version of Windows 1.0 with Excel 2.0.[92] Unlike Microsoft Word, there never was a DOS version of Excel.

text: Excel became the first spreadsheet to allow the user to define the appearance of spreadsheets (fonts, character attributes and cell appearance). It also introduced intelligent cell recomputation, where only cells dependent on the cell being modified are updated (previous spreadsheet programs recomputed everything all the time or waited for a specific user command). Excel introduced auto-fill, the ability to drag and expand the selection box to automatically copy cell or row contents to adjacent cells or rows, adjusting the copies intelligently by automatically incrementing cell references or contents. Excel also introduced extensive graphing capabilities.

text: Security

text: Because Excel is widely used, it has been attacked by hackers. While Excel is not directly exposed to the Internet, if an attacker can get a victim to open a file in Excel, and there is an appropriate security bug in Excel, then the attacker can get control of the victim's computer.[93] UK's GCHQ has a tool named TORNADO ALLEY with this purpose.[94][95]


document_title: Cuckoo Trail

question_text: why were 11 miles of the cuckoo trail sold in 1986

text: Cuckoo Trail

text: History[edit]

text: The Trail largely follows the route of a disused railway line, the Cuckoo Line, which opened in 1880 and ran between Eridge and Polegate railway stations, creating a direct route between Eastbourne and London. It obtained its name from the tradition that the first cuckoo in Spring was heard at the Heathfield Fair.[1] The line closed in 1968 under the programme of closures put forward by Forest Row resident and British Transport Commission Chairman Richard Beeching.

text: In 1981 the route of the old railway line to the south of Heathfield was purchased by Wealden District Council and East Sussex County Council.[2] From 1990 Sustrans developed the route along with District Council and the County Council into a shared track for walkers and cyclists, with horses also allowed on some sections. An extension was constructed to the south into Eastbourne and the trail became part of National Cycle Network Route 21. The Trail is currently used by around 200,000 people per year and serves as a traffic-free route between several local schools. It is jointly managed by the latter in conjunction with East Sussex County Council.[3]

text: Along the route of the Trail are six original sculptures which act as mileposts. In May 1993 a dozen wooden benches were installed which had been handcarved by a local artist out of trees felled during the Great Storm of 1987.[2] In 2003 a five-year £65,000 package of grants for improvements to the Cuckoo Trail was awarded as part of the Woodland Grant Scheme. Part of these funds went towards the resurfacing of the Trail as far as Heathfield in October 2006.[4]

text: Extension north[edit]

text: As of 2008 the Cuckoo Trail remains incomplete insofar as the remaining section of the disused railway line north of Heathfield is largely inaccessible and in the ownership of 12 different individuals who have resisted attempts to establish a path/cycleway over their land.[5] Until 1986 East Sussex County Council had 11 miles of the Cuckoo Trail to the south of Mayfield within its ownership but, seeking to reduce expenditure, it abandoned the early ideas of reopening it as a public footpath, and parcels of land were sold off in a piecemeal fashion.[6]

text: The Trail is therefore re-routed from Heathfield over nearby roads, diverging from the railway alignment to join the A265 Mutton Hall Hill before heading north on Newick Lane through Mayfield town centre. This route has caused controversy amongst local residents.[5]

text: The inability to extend the Trail north means that it cannot reach Groombridge and link with the Forest Way, another footpath and bridleway following the route of a disused railway line. Numerous reports have been prepared which identified various routes which would connect with the Forest Way, from a Sustrans report in 1995 to three Owen Williams reports in 1998 and 1999, and finally an Atkins feasibility study in 2006 which confirmed that reusing the old railway line would be the best way forward, with the alternative on-road route as a short-term means of access to Groombridge.[7]

text: As part of the extension north, the 240 metre Heathfield Tunnel was repaired and restored in 1997, funded by a derelict land grant of £198,000 by English Partnerships and a contribution of £60,000 from Wealden District Council. Gates were fitted to the tunnel in 1999 at a cost of £22,000 which allowed access to be restricted to daylight hours; access became unrestricted from 2002 but ceased entirely following an alleged rape incident on 12 March 2005. A trial reopening period began on 26 March 2007.[8]