February 6th, 2007 at 6:52 am
Google has an online version of Microsoft’s Excel Spreadsheet software to compliment their online word processor. Called Google Spreadsheets, it is an addition to their already released Google Docs (a converted tool from the company Writely they acquired last year).
With Google Spreadsheets, you can now enjoy intuitive online navigation and editing, like any traditional document or spreadsheet from any computer having access to the internet. I am not sure when this was released to the public as it was on ‘limited beta’ in June last year.
Spreadsheet documents can be saved online to your Google account or to your hard drive. Each spreadsheet can be up to 10,000 rows, 256 columns, 50,000 cells or up to 20 sheets whichever limit comes first. A user account has a limit of 100 spreadsheets and you can import/ convert xls, csv and odf file formats up to 1 Mb.
Cell formulas and other Excel based functions work seamlessly and a frequent user of Microsoft Excel will find it an easy transition.
Additional features that I really like
- you can actually chat in real time with others who are editing your spreadsheet
- the collaborating feature i.e. you can share the spreadsheet with limitless other users for editing and reviewing.
- if you have accidentally erased something important or if you want to see how the spreadsheet has changed over time, you click on the revisions tab to browser older versions, view major changes or revert to an earlier saved version.
- when you are finished with your spreadsheet, you can automatically publish (or un-publish) it online with one click to your website or blog — and it’ll look like a normal looking web page. If you post to a blog, you can add tags as well.
Browsers that are currently supported
1. IE 6.0+ for Windows (except IE 6.0.26)
2. Firefox 1.07, 1.5.0.6+ (Mac & Windows — except for 1.0.8 on Windows and Mac, and 1.5b1 on Mac)
3. Mozilla 1.7.12+
4. Netscape 7.2, 8.0
(sorry Safari and Opera users!)
For a free online tool, it is powerful indeed for the light, medium user - Microsoft better watch out! I don’t anticipate it challenging businesses users due to the security factors involved but with Bill Gates predicting that his next generation office/ operating systems being virtually run, Google may have already jumped ahead of the game.
4 Responses to “Google Spreadsheet gives Excel a run for its money”
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Sunshine said: @ 8:46 pm
February 7th, 2007
I have used Google Documents and I agree, it is awesome to be able to collaborate so easily. Thanks for sharing the information about Google Spreadsheets!
kristarella said: @ 4:05 am
February 8th, 2007
I’ve used these web-apps a bit and they’re great! Nearly no need for a desktop application to do these things. I can even open documents with Google docs straight from Gmail when they’re attached. I’ll still be using a desktop application for these things while at uni because it’s inconvenient to have to log on to the net to do that stuff all the time (since it will cost me extra to use the uni WiFi). I won’t be using MS Office though, Open Office is for me, it’s compatible with MS files as well as having its own formats and is free! I don’t want to pay $250 when I don’t have to. :)
zee said: @ 3:42 pm
February 8th, 2007
So wats next?? Google Powerpoint?? Google Access?
The Foo said: @ 4:13 pm
February 8th, 2007
Sunshine: Glad you liked it. I believe the best is yet to come from Google.
Kris: yes, I am just amazed over how good the google version is. It’ll take a while to catch on because the drawback with it is that you would need to have a fast enough connection and be connected all the time… in addition to your case, there are other circumstances too i.e. you don’t have internet access or the connections are too slow (in areas where dialup is the only way to get on the web). However, saying that, the trend is faster internet and pretty soon, there will be wifi connections everywhere. New York and San Francisco already has “wireless everywhere” city zones.
Zee: Google already has a powerpoint version in the works (but it is under wraps). someone leaked out some information about a week ago about it - not sure whether that was done on purpose to create some buzz or it was really leaked out. I am not betting against a google access version.