Using Google Spreadsheets

In an earlier post I mentioned Google Spreadsheets. I decided to use this web app for a fairly detailed spreadsheet recently. My initial comments are:The good…

• The web-app is fairly responsive and you can easily and quickly update a spreadsheet. Navigation within a spreadsheet is fairly snappy.
• Smaller spreadsheets load quickly from the Google site. Smaller spreadsheets also load quickly from your local machine.
• To format a cell, change the font, and create a function is very initiative and easy.
• Spreadsheet navigation is quick, easy, and initiative.
• It’s very easy to share a file to collaborate on a spreadsheet.

The bad…

• Maybe this is a Mac problem, however I couldn’t see a cursor when editing a cell. This makes it very difficult to edit a function, especially very complicated functions.
• Uploading a file of any significance size takes loooooooooonnnnng. I have a 6Mbps connection. It’s still very slow. It’s not really practical to work like this.
• Ok, so you developed an elaborate spreadsheet and now you want to print it. Well, the printing functions are VERY limited in this version. The only way to print a spreadsheet is to render it in HTML and then to print the web page. Not the most powerful way to print. The rendering is also very bad.

Current assessment: Don’t delete your Microsoft Excel application just yet!I would like to hear about your experiences with Google Spreadsheets.