I was originally going to post a lengthy review on Google Spreadsheets‘ debut but I got home today only to find a ton of bloggers had already done so. So rather than reinventing the wheel (no pun intended), I’ll instead give you a quick few bullet points as to what you should expect from Google Spreadsheets.
- A better Microsoft Excel. An online MS Excel. A decentralized Microsoft Excel.
- AJAX to its finest — some really fancy stuff this time from Google.
- Spreadsheet standards vastly followed.
- Fast and uninteruptive (think RAM) experience.
- No really fancy stuff — graphs, charts, zoom features, etc.
- A socially-adept tool, e.g. inviting others to view/edit a spreadsheet, sharing etc. — just like GCal.
- A file menu
— while Microsoft was busy diminishing the file menu from the next version of Office, I guess Google had plans of its own. - A selective availability of tools and options — good in one way, bad in another.
- A simple, at-your-face approach to features.
- No print function.
I have to agree, in part, with the views of Rafe Needleman, Philipp Lenssen, Harry McCracken and Joshua Schachter, who all believe that while Google Spreadsheet is a great, great piece of software coming from Google — you know, AJAX,0 mult-user, sharing, speed — it still lacks a few important and advanced features you would expect from a good Spreadsheet tool, i.e. the deeper stuff. But for a first version of something (heck, it’s not even launched yet!) and also if you’re looking to use spreadsheets simply for the means of it and not the advanced flab, it’s an excellent excellent piece of software.
