Google really is mankinds savior

[swolt]

http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/tour1.html

when I read that, I peed a little

[swolt]

ok seriously, this is best thing to have happened since ever.

this might be the happiest day of my life.

[Bennyhana]

I was going to ask what the point was, but then I realized that I might have a good use for it.  So, yeah.  cool.

[dazie]

Explain to me what situation this would work in.  Please.  I mean- I can see that there's obviously a benefit, I just don't know what the benefit is.

[Bennyhana]

Explain to me what situation this would work in.  Please.  I mean- I can see that there's obviously a benefit, I just don't know what the benefit is.

The use I saw for me was keeping track of shop inventory and materials usage, as well as costume pieces that have been lent/pulled from our stock, and where they went.   I could also keep track of show budget estimations and actuals.   I keep track of these on my computer at the shop, but to put it online means my boss could access it, or I could access it from the theatre or from home.  Having things online is quite useful sometimes.

[Bennyhana]

also, not having to worry about having the software everywhere I am to do these things is good.  I mean, it's odd, but I can see uses.

[Jessie]

It would have made it easier when I was asking for chart help the other day.

[Jessie]

I sent feedback suggesting that they have access to the contacts in the sharing fields.

[Bishamonten]

Explain to me what situation this would work in.  Please.  I mean- I can see that there's obviously a benefit, I just don't know what the benefit is.

The use I saw for me was keeping track of shop inventory and materials usage, as well as costume pieces that have been lent/pulled from our stock, and where they went.   I could also keep track of show budget estimations and actuals.   I keep track of these on my computer at the shop, but to put it online means my boss could access it, or I could access it from the theatre or from home.  Having things online is quite useful sometimes.

Tracking who borrowed all your porn seems like a much less interesting use now...

[BigDun]

Great for team sports like bowling, poker, etc where you keep track of the the individual stats.

[meredith]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

[ReBurn]

AJAX is the shiznit.

[BigDun]

My wife uses the Google Search Appliance on the websites she administers and loves it. It's great for text searching and sorting by relevancy.

[Beefy]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google,

Ding.  They track your email, your chat, your searches, and now this.  They're positioning themselves to take over the world, just you watch.

[swolt]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

I love it because it will compete with Excel. Now not everyone has to spend $300+ to get a decent spreadsheet

[swolt]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google,

Ding.  They track your email, your chat, your searches, and now this.  They're positioning themselves to take over the world, just you watch.

google can take over my world any time baby

[BigDun]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google,

Ding.  They track your email, your chat, your searches, and now this.  They're positioning themselves to take over the world, just you watch.

At least their motto is "Don't be evil."

[meredith]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

I love it because it will compete with Excel. Now not everyone has to spend $300+ to get a decent spreadsheet

wuh?

http://www.openoffice.org/

it's at least as terrible to use as excel, possibly worse.  that would make any accountant's day.

[ReBurn]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

I love it because it will compete with Excel. Now not everyone has to spend $300+ to get a decent spreadsheet

wuh?

http://www.openoffice.org/

it's at least as terrible to use as excel, possibly worse.  that would make any accountant's day.

He's just mad that he lost his copy of Lotus 1-2-3.

[swolt]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

I love it because it will compete with Excel. Now not everyone has to spend $300+ to get a decent spreadsheet

wuh?

http://www.openoffice.org/

it's at least as terrible to use as excel, possibly worse.  that would make any accountant's day.

He's just mad that he lost his copy of Lotus 1-2-3.

my god dude, you have NO IDEA. I have Lotus 1-2-3 '97 installed on my work PC right now. Our service database is in Lotus Approach.

openoffice is nice, but most people won't trust it becasue they have never heard of it. But if Google offers it, more people might use it.
plus it's ONLINE. how cool is THAT?

[Listener]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

I love it because it will compete with Excel. Now not everyone has to spend $300+ to get a decent spreadsheet

wuh?

http://www.openoffice.org/

it's at least as terrible to use as excel, possibly worse.  that would make any accountant's day.

NOTHING could be as toe-tappingly-tragic as OpenOffice.  It takes forever to load, the autocorrect feature is a monstrosity to configure, and .sxc files aren't compatible with ANYTHING.

[ReBurn]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

I love it because it will compete with Excel. Now not everyone has to spend $300+ to get a decent spreadsheet

wuh?

http://www.openoffice.org/

it's at least as terrible to use as excel, possibly worse.  that would make any accountant's day.

NOTHING could be as toe-tappingly-tragic as OpenOffice.  It takes forever to load, the autocorrect feature is a monstrosity to configure, and .sxc files aren't compatible with ANYTHING.

Isn't Java on the desktop great?

[swolt]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

I love it because it will compete with Excel. Now not everyone has to spend $300+ to get a decent spreadsheet

wuh?

http://www.openoffice.org/

it's at least as terrible to use as excel, possibly worse.  that would make any accountant's day.

NOTHING could be as toe-tappingly-tragic as OpenOffice.  It takes forever to load, the autocorrect feature is a monstrosity to configure, and .sxc files aren't compatible with ANYTHING.

Isn't Java on the desktop great?

ohhhh ReBurn just BURNED Sun!

[ReBurn]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

I love it because it will compete with Excel. Now not everyone has to spend $300+ to get a decent spreadsheet

wuh?

http://www.openoffice.org/

it's at least as terrible to use as excel, possibly worse.  that would make any accountant's day.

NOTHING could be as toe-tappingly-tragic as OpenOffice.  It takes forever to load, the autocorrect feature is a monstrosity to configure, and .sxc files aren't compatible with ANYTHING.

Isn't Java on the desktop great?

ohhhh ReBurn just BURNED Sun!

As holder of several Java certifications, I feel as though I speak for myself when I say that Java apps as Ui clients still have a ways to go.  I guess it's more the fat-assed virtual machine and it's tendency to eat resources over long periods of time.  I really like the concept of Swing, but I've never been comfortable with it.

/geek

[meredith]

i'd like it more if it weren't only hosted with google, what with the trusting them with your data and all.  (local data sources are also out of the picture.  does it allow linking between spreadsheets?)  but i can see this as handy for home and small business users.  they could have templates available for many common activities.

they just need to implement a complete AJAX-based office suite, and sell it on appliances like they do with the google search appliance.

I love it because it will compete with Excel. Now not everyone has to spend $300+ to get a decent spreadsheet

wuh?

http://www.openoffice.org/

it's at least as terrible to use as excel, possibly worse.  that would make any accountant's day.

NOTHING could be as toe-tappingly-tragic as OpenOffice.  It takes forever to load, the autocorrect feature is a monstrosity to configure, and .sxc files aren't compatible with ANYTHING.

you haven't touched it since release 2 at least.  the default file format is now based on the OpenDocument standard, which is meant to interoperate between any office application out there.  Microsoft is the only one who has tried to fight it, and they're swaying due to demands for open file formats.  now, if you want to deal in excel file formats, you are free to open from and save to them.  you can change the default file formats used for all openoffice apps to use the microsoft file formats, if you want.  it's under load/save in the preferences.

yes openoffice will load a java VM up if you have one, but it's not written in java.  java has pretty much been abolished in 2.x in favor of embedding python, which isn't great but isn't nearly as awful as VBA.

openoffice 2 also defaults to using the QuickStarter feature, which they wanted to avoid because it's rather rude to preload most of an office suite in memory in order to make it appear to start faster.  but, they had to do so in order to compete with microsoft (who does the same thing in a way that is hard to disable) when people try to compare startup times.  i'm clicking OpenOffice Calc in the start menu on my laptop and it's appearing instantly. 

but other than that, they've been working on startup times.  now, i'll kill the quickstarter, which removes the preloaded data from memory.  OpenOffice Calc .. between 5 and 6 seconds startup.  i haven't done anything other than install OOo on this system, no tweaking of settings.



the only feature of google spreadsheets that is actually worth mentioning, IMO, is the integrated group editing with chat.  most people just use revisions to do it, but i've set up a few sessions where we used remote-control apps (VNC, WebEx) to do the same thing in a less bandwidth-efficient manner.  in the same way, SubEthaEdit ( http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/ ) is very cool for collaborative coding.