Editing Lotus 1-2-3 (section)

== User features ==
[[Image:Lotus 1-2-3 on PC-98 DOS chart.jpg|thumb|Charting on Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.2 for DOS]]
[[Image:Lotus123 Macro.JPG|thumb|right|Examples of Lotus 1-2-3 macros]]
The name "1-2-3" stemmed from the product's integration of three main capabilities: along with its core spreadsheet functionality, 1-2-3 also offered integral charting/graphing and rudimentary database operations.

Data features included sorting data in any defined rectangle, by order of information in one or two columns in the rectangular area. Justifying text in a range into paragraphs allowed it to be used as a primitive word processor.

It had keyboard-driven pop-up menus as well as one-key commands, making it fast to operate. It was also user-friendly, introducing an early instance of [[context-sensitive help]] accessed by the F1 key.

[[Macro (computer science)|Macros]] in version one and add-ins (introduced in version 2.0) contributed much to 1-2-3's popularity, allowing dozens of outside vendors to sell macro packages and add-ins ranging from dedicated financial worksheets like [[F9 Financial Reporting|F9]] to full-fledged [[word processor]]s. In the single-tasking [[MS-DOS]], 1-2-3 was sometimes used as a complete office suite.{{r|stinson19910416}} All major graphics standards were supported; initially CGA and Hercules, and later EGA, AT&T, and VGA. Early versions used the [[filename extension]] "WKS".<ref>{{Citation |title=File info |url=http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wks |contribution=WKS File Extension – Open .WKS files}}.</ref> In version 2.0, the extension changed first to "WK1",<ref>{{Citation |title=File info |url=http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wk1 |contribution=WK1 File Extension – Open .WK1 files}}.</ref> then "WK2".<ref>{{Citation |title = File info |url=http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wk2 |contribution=WK2 File Extension – Open .WK2 files}}.</ref> This later became "WK3" for version 3.0<ref>{{Citation |title=File info |url = http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wk3 |contribution=WK3 File Extension – Open .WK3 files}}.</ref> and "WK4" for version 4.0.<ref>{{Citation |title=File info |url=http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wk4 |contribution=WK4 File Extension – Open .WK4 files}}.</ref>

Version 2 introduced macros with syntax and commands similar in complexity to an advanced [[BASIC]] interpreter, as well as string variable expressions. Later versions supported multiple worksheets and were written in [[C (programming language)|C]]. The charting/graphing routines were written in [[Forth (programming language)|Forth]] by Jeremy Sagan (son of [[Carl Sagan]]) and the printing routines by Paul Funk (founder of [[Funk Software]]).{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}