Update: I’ve discovered a way to invite people to Google Spreadsheets. You need to have a Google account and then have someone who has access to Google Spreadsheets invite you to edit a spreadsheet. Once in, you should be able to create your own spreadsheets. If you want an invite and don’t know anyone who has access, contact me.
I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to try out Google’s Limited Test of it’s new Google Spreadsheets web app. At first glance, I must say I was fairly impressed with what I saw. Here’s what I found.
UX
A lot of effort has gone into replicating the user experience we’ve all come to expect from Microsoft Excel who currently possesses a dominant market share
. Intuitive behaviour such as pressing shift and using the arrow keys or clicking and dragging to select cells and double clicking or pressing F2 to edit a cell have been faithfully recreated. Finding your way around is pretty straight forward too, you’ve got three main tabs: format, sort and formula which are pretty self explanatory. You also have buttons for cut, copy, paste, undo and redo which are always there on the right hand side of the the toolbar.
Functionality
A lot of the basic functionality you’d expect from a spreadsheet is included. For example, you can format cell content to be displayed as dates, dollars, etc… and you also have access to standard font styling features such as size, family, bold, italics, colour, etc… 
What’s missing is the famous “auto sum” button (represented by the Greek letter Sigma “Σ”) but you can just as easily click below your cells, click on “sum” in the toolbar and then click and drag your mouse over the cells you want to add up. Sure, it’s the same as doing it in Excel and it isn’t as fast as clicking the Sigma button, but hey, it’s still pretty quick.
The Rundown
I could put in more time and include a bunch more screen shots, but it’s a quarter to one in the morning and I’m going to have to wake up in four hours to get ready for work so here’s a quick summary of what Google Spreadsheets has to offer.
- Uses RPC (Ajax) to persist every change you make, presumably to ensure you don’t lose anything
- You can share your document by inviting others to either come view or edit your work
- You can chat with those who are viewing/editing your document (I discovered this by accident when I disabled and then re-enabled JavaScript and suddenly saw three of myself viewing the same document with an open chat pane to the right hand side of the page)
- You strangely don’t have search functionality (something I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t catch until I very quickly skimmed over Terminally Incoherent’s review)
- Allows you to import .xls and .csv files (Excel killer mayhaps?)
- There are no context menus
- You can’t draw borders around cells (though you can change their background colours)
- You can insert/delete rows and columns
- There isn’t a separate field (that I could find) where you can edit your formulas. Everything is done in the cell
- Cells automatically expand in height depending on the size of their contents
- You can click and drag column widths and row heights but you can’t double-click to get them to snap
- You can freeze up to 5 rows
- A document can have multiple sheets accessible via tabs at the bottom of the page (just like in Excel)
And there you have it, a first glance at Google Spreadsheets. I’d like to be able to invite someone to view/edit a document and see how that works out. Any takers?★
You can also find invites on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9738259333
I’ll take you up on your offer, that is if you’re still sharing invites.
For some strange reason, I had trouble logging on with Gmail open. I basically had to copy the link, sign out of Gmail, then paste the link into the browser and log-on & success!
I like what it has to offer, especially for being a web app. Another thing I noticed is that you can’t click-n-drag formulas to other cells – instead you have to copy and paste (it’s not that big of a deal when dealing with small sets of data).
Tomas: My guess is that they’ll roll out more functionality as time goes on. Especially if it’s stuff that users ask for in large numbers.
Wow, Google is close to offering a complete online office suite. If you have any invites left, i wouldnt mind trying it out.
For a first roll-out I was pretty much impressed as well. Also by the amount of formulas fe which is pretty impressive for such a slimline product.
But in the spirit of sharing your spreadsheets I miss the MS Smart Comments.
Thanks for the ‘auto-save’ clarification. I had twice a Wi-Fi problem and twice my spreadsheet couldn’t be reloaded. Then I gave up.
I am a big fan of Google Labs but actually think now the time has come to optimize the interaction between those tools. Gmail and Google IG both offer great possibilities for this but right at the moment the way how everything is implemented still is more of a nuisance than productive. Widgets or pop out (Gmail Chat) or balloon tips (Google Reader in Google IG) could do wonders here and improve the whole experience.
I am sure this is roadmapped but little by little they are offering too many different services. Or do we get access to too many beta roll-outs?
franky: I’m just impressed at what they do with JavaScript. As for nuisance vs. productivity, at least as far as gmail chat goes, I have to agree. Also, it would be nice to start seeing a little more cross application tie-ins. But hey, it’s all in beta right now, so who knows what the future will bring. (They may even pull the plug on all those apps… imagine that! ;)
I suppose you have read todays Businesslog post and my comment as well. So I would surely agree with every ‘anti-MS conspiracy theory. Timing is perfect, only some weeks after Vista/Office 2007 Beta 2 and still almost a year of time to stabilize the platform. Enough time to make people doubt about an eventual Windows upgrade. I worked almost a year as security specialist for a CC company the one with the black cards) and the interaction with MS for Vista was huge. I can tell you that for the first time MS was actually open to external input. MS is scared. And Google amazes with every new feature.
At the same time a platform like Google is building it, with modern technology and applications, keeps like Mike wrote adsense present all over, kills Yahoo Ads every day a little more aso aso.
Do you think they might pull the plug? Or is the prospect of geo-located and targetted ads based on personal preferences (read ads you’ve previously clicked) the way path they might follow? In your free online office suite, where MS will charge you a yearly subscription fee.
Somewhere we should not forget to implement Froogle as well in all this.
The technical side of the Google team has always been an amazing element and will not cease to in the next years I guess.
And sorry for the (always) long comments but I spent too many years in boards I guess [sic].
franky: You’ve got to remember one crucial thing in all of this, and it isn’t the tech. It’s the people. We, as users, really suck because we’re very temperamental. We always want something newer, glitzier, flashier, faster, smaller, sexier, shinier, etc… So if Google doesn’t keep up the pace it will eventually go the way of the dodo. The other problem Google has to deal with, and do it well is this whole idea of storing our data vis-a-vis privacy issues. Look, Microsoft got into a LOT of hot water over anti-trust issues and for being a monopoly. Who says Google is immune to being picked on over privacy issues? Then what happens to all the apps and data we’ve come to expect to be there?
Just saying…
I would love an invite for this, I have a perfect application for it at my organisation.
Hi,
I would really like to get an invite to discover the collaboration of spreadsheets. Also if someone has a writely account I would appreciate it.
Hey there, i’d really appreciate an invite
thanks heaps