Suggest me some features to compare online spreadsheets

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.

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16 Comments so far

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  • Ramesh says:

    1. Fill Series… I Cant work without that.
    2. Responsiveness … Man zoho and GSS (Google Spred Sheet) takes atleast a second to update the cell values
    3. UI and customization

  • Sudar says:

    Hi Ramesh,

    Thanks for the feature list

  • Here are a few ideas for comparison: http://www.irows.com/View?id=20124
    In addition, add speed, style, integration with other sites (aka mashups) etc

  • And another note, the irows link on the page does not point to iRows. Can you fix this?

  • Sudar says:

    Hi Yoah,

    Thatâ??s indeed a huge list and will be definitely useful in my comparison.
    I have also fixed the link to iRows in the article and should work fine now.
    BTW are you associated with iRows? (Just out of curiosity I am asking this)

  • Tony says:

    Hi! Will you include EditGrid also?

    I’ve already made a comparison between it and google spreadsheet here:
    http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/pkchan/EditGrid_v._Google, which may give you some info.

  • Sudar says:

    Hi Tony,

    I will try to include EditGrid also in my comparison.

  • Yuvi says:

    Well,
    1. Save-As
    2. Charts
    3. Integration with Word Processors
    4. Save to Disk
    5. Context Menus
    6. Printing Support

    Well, it maybe just me, but I think/guess that Online Spreadsheets fill the niche market for shared spreadsheets : Rather than create an Excel Sheet and put it over the web and have hell lotsa trouble collaborating on it, we can use online Spreadsheets. But, for hardcore stuff, like for example you know na our School class Wise Marksheets are done using Excel. And, they won’t even think of using Online Spreadsheets for that…

  • Sudar says:

    Yuvi.

    Nice list, will add those features to my list.

    As you said, there are situations where online spreadsheets are not appropriate / very difficult to use and people will continue to use traditional spreadsheets for that.

    But on the other hand there are situations where in which using an online spreadsheet is really an advantage, especially when it requires collaboration.

    Even though online spreadsheets may not replace traditional spreadsheets completely (may for next couple of years) they will have major inroads into the market share of traditional spreadsheets and itâ??s very sure that they are going to loose their monopoly.

  • Yuvi says:

    Yep. As of now, Online Spreadsheets blow away Excel for Collaboration. Collaborating in Excel outside of a LAN is messy at best. But, guess what? Microsoft thrives with loadso heavy Competietion. Look at what Firefox did to IE7. So, the new flurry of online Spreadsheets/Word Processors would mean new/better features to Excel/Word. I guess maybe in the next release, or just even with an addon, somebody’ll get Collaboration great with Excel. Collaboration over the Web over HTTP. Omnidrive[omnidrive.com] looks to do that, but it’s still in Private Beta…….

    Anyway, I’m just a Microsoft Fanboy;)

  • Sudar says:

    Yuvi,

    You know every time there is a competition it is the user who is going to get benefited because in order to over their competitor every company will throw away lot of new features or will enhance the existing ones and will try to bring out their very best.

    So letâ??s hope that the competition gives us some more new features.

  • Tony says:

    Sudar,

    Thanks so much!

  • Sudar says:

    Not a problem Tony.

    Cheers,
    Sudar

  • Joyce says:

    Very informative site. Successful structure.2

  • eben says:

    Thanks for the tip, this would surely make searching quicker and more convenient for me.

  • I’m looking for outlook calendar setup? Although i have the complete toolkit for outlook with everything but still my outlook calendar doesn’t seem to be working can you tell me if there is a solution for this?

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