Tag Archives: Spreadsheet

Online Spreadsheets comparison

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 | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

Suggest me some features to compare online spreadsheets

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 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Microsoft Office Killer in Making

Published Jun 6, 2006 | In Google/Yahoo

I first speculated that Google has been creating a Microsoft Office Killer when they acquired Writely around 3 months back. But the recent limited public beta testing of Google Spreadsheets really proves that fact that they are in fact building a Microsoft Office Killer.

Some might argue that this is just hype and Web applications cannot compete with native Windows desktop applications. But I somehow feel that Microsoft Office has become more complex these days and may be only 15-20 % of the people really need those complex features but for others the Web counterparts may be enough. Apart from the simplicity the other huge factor is cost. Most of the people would be comfortable in viewing a couple of ads on their web applications rather than spending a fortune in buying their Desktop counterparts. Added to all these is that the document could be stored in Google’s Server itself which prevents you from frequent backup pain.

So here is a list of products from Google competing directly with Microsoft Office Applications

  • Word – Writely
  • Outlook – Gmail
  • Calendaring (Outlook feature) – GCal
  • Excel – Google Spreadsheets
  • Frontpage – Google Pages
  • PowerPoint – I am 99.99% sure that Google is currently creating a PowerPoint killer. It’s just a matter of time before it gets released.

Apart from the main Office applications here are other applications for which Google has a competing product.

  • Picture Manager – Picasa
  • MSN Messenger – Google Talk, Hello Messenger
  • Windows Search – Google Desktop Search
  • Internet Explorer – Google Tool bar and Google’s support for Firefox.
  • Visio – SketchUP, a recent acquisition of Google

I think in the next couple of years (around the release of vista) there could be some stiff competition to gain the market share and as always it is we the users who are going to get benefited as a result of competition. Eagerly waiting to watch Microsoft’s next move. What do u say guys?

Links:

Posted in Google/Yahoo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments