Published
Jun 13, 2006
|
In Google/Yahoo
As I promised earlier, here is the result of my comparison of various online spreadsheet services. I compared the services based on the following criteria.
- Basic Requirements
- Interpretability
- Usability
- Functionality
- Sharing and collaboration
Do let me know if I have overlooked something and also your comments and suggestions and I will try to keep this list updated. Also let me know if want me to add some more services to the list.
| Features |
Google |
Zoho |
iRows |
NumSum |
EditGrid |
| Basic |
|
|
|
|
|
| Browser Support |
IE 6, FireFox 1.07 |
IE 6, FireFox 1.0, Mozilla 1.4 |
IE 6, Firefox 1.5, Opera 9 |
IE 6, Firefox 1.5 |
IE 6.0, Firefox 1.0, Epiphany, 1.8.5, Galeon 2.0 |
| Stable or beta |
Private beta |
public beta |
Out of beta |
Public beta |
Public beta |
| Regsitration |
Needed |
Not needed |
Needed |
Needed |
Needed |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Interoperability |
|
|
|
|
|
| Import Excel (*.xls) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Import CSV (*.csv) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Import OpenDocument spreadsheet (.ods) |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Experimental |
| Import OpenOffice.org Calc (.sxc) |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Import Lotus 1-2-3 (.123) |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Import TeX (.tex) |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Export Excel (*.xls) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Export CSV (*.csv) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Export OpenDocument spreadsheet (.ods) |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Export OpenOffice.org Calc (.sxc) |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Export Lotus 1-2-3 (.123) |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| Export TeX (.tex) |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Export HTML |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Export to PDF |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Print Preview |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Max size of imported file |
400 KB |
No particular limit |
500 KB |
500 KB |
Not available on site |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Usability |
|
|
|
|
|
| Key board navigation |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Right Click menu |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| No of sheets open (by default) |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Undo/Redo |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Cut, copy and paste |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Line Wrap |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Resize Row |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Resize Column |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Bold, italic, underline, colors etc., |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Align Horizontal and vertical |
Yes |
Only Horizontal |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Insert rows and cols |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Delete rows and cols |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Delete Selection |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Functionality |
|
|
|
|
|
| Search |
No |
Search Files based on tag |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Add Images |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Fill Series |
No |
To be impemented soon |
Yes (but Only copy) |
No |
No |
| Functions |
around 200 |
Yes |
around 50 |
Yes |
around 500 |
| Format Numbers |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Format Currencies |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Header rows and cols |
Only Rows |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Hide rows and cols |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Merge Sells |
Only horizontal |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Sort |
Only entire sheet, by one column |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Charts |
Not yet |
Bar, Column, Pie, Line |
Pie, Bar, Line |
Line, Area, Bar |
No |
| Automatic Save |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Build-it Templates |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Publish on other sites |
No |
Yes |
|
No |
No |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Sharing and Collaboration |
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagging |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Chat |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Share read access with another user |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Share write access with another user |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Share read access with public |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Share write access with public |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Password-protected read access |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Password-protected write access |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Real time collaboration |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Conflict resolution |
Last save wins |
Last save wins |
Not applicable |
Last save Wins |
Last save wins |
Links to the above sevices
PS: I composed this list in Excel and then imported it to ZohoSheet and then generated the HTML page and then hand coded and cleaned it.
Posted in Google/Yahoo
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Tagged comparison, EditGrid, Google, iRows, NumSum, Online, Spreadsheet, Zohosheet
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Published
Jun 7, 2006
|
In Google/Yahoo
Google’s release of Google Spreadsheet yesterday has generated lot of sudden attention on online web applications especially those which are proving to be direct competitor to Microsoft Office applications.
In addition to Google’s Spreadsheet I came to know about a couple of other great products like Zohosheet, iRows, NumSum from Techcrunch’s article yesterday which are also targeting similar user base. So I thought of comparing all these online spreadsheets to get an idea about their pros and cons. (Nice weekend project right?)
So guys let me know your favorite features which you would expect from a spreadsheet program so that I can base my comparison on them. Also let me know if I have missed any other online spreadsheets.
Here are the links to the programs which I am going to compare
I will publish my results as soon as I finish them so stay tuned and don’t forget to leave your favorite features in the comments.
Posted in Google/Yahoo
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Tagged Google, iRows, Microsoft, NumSum, Office, Online, Spreadsheet, Spreadsheets, Zoho, Zohosheet
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Published
Mar 12, 2006
|
In Google/Yahoo
Well, the news is out. Google has acquired Writely – The web word processor. I expected this to happen, but when I read about it for the first time at TechCrunch, I was little bit skeptical due to my experience with the Technorati acquisition rumor. I wrote about Technorati acquisition in this blog and then only realized that it was just a bit of Google Juice.
Now that both Google and Writely have confirmed the acquisition I can put down my thoughts on this acquisition.
When the rumor was out at Techcrunch, lot of people were of the view that Google doesn’t need to acquire Writely, but can build an in-house web word processor by just using the Gmail and blogger code as the base. But I think that Google did this not because of its inability to code but just to keep its competitors away.
I have been using Writely for nearly 4 months now and I should say that I am a satisfied user. The main reason for me to choose Writely was the ability to share my documents between my home and office computers. I was also using Writely to jolt down notes as and when I found something interesting when I am hooked on to the net. Previously I used to compose a mail in Gmail and then save it in the draft or send an email to myself to share my documents and notes between my home and office computers.
With Google Calendar under beta testing I think Google is going to roll out lot of features with this merge. Some of them could include the integration of Writely with Gmail for composing and the ability to open & store attached word documents in Gmail with Writely and the possibilities could be endless. So as a user of both Writely and Gmail I am very much happy about the merge and I am looking for some cool features in the future. It’s just a matter of time before they buy or develop the online Spreadsheet like NumSum and integrate it with Google Calendar and Writely to provide a full fledged online Office suite, the dreadful Microsoft Office killer.
But this doesn’t stop me from being skeptical about the possible privacy issues. I some how get a feeling that people have started to believe Google too much. But whether Google is keeping the belief is a different story. For instance right now Google know who are my friends (Orkut), my email correspondence (Gmail), my conversations with others (Google Talk), the web pages I search for (Search History), the feeds that I read (Google Reader) and now all my documents (Writely). Will Google keep up their motto “Don’t do evil”? I don’t know, but let’s hope they keep it up.
Links
Posted in Google/Yahoo
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Tagged Calendar, Google, NumSum, Office, Orkut, Writely
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