What Are Google Spreadsheets?

Google Spreadsheets is part of Google Docs & Spreadsheets, but you can't embed spreadsheets into docs, so it is really two separate services with a common log-in.

Google Spreadsheets has the potential to be extremely useful for anyone with the need to deal with spreadsheets in a group setting.

You can access Google Spreadsheets at docs.google.com

Import and Export

Google Spreadsheets requires you to be logged into a Google account. If you don't have one, it will prompt you to create one. You can import spreadsheets from Excel or any other standard .xls or .csv file or you can create a spreadsheet on the web and download it as an .xls or .csv file

Share the Wealth

This is where Google Spreadsheets is very useful. You can invite other users by email to either view or edit your spreadsheet. This means you could share a spreadsheet with coworkers in your office to get their input on a test project. You could share a spreadsheet with a classroom and let the students input data. You could share the spreadsheet with yourself, so you can view and edit it across more than one computer.

Anyone wishing to edit a spreadsheet must register for a Google account, and Google Spreadsheets doesn't let you change your email address, so it's possible that someone could end up having to create two Google accounts. Google also sends email invites with the return address listed as the email address of the person sending an invite. This can sometimes trip up spam filters. Use a Gmail address whenever possible to avoid this.

Multiple Users, All at Once

I tested this by having four people simultaneously edit cells in the test spreadsheet to see how it reacted. Google Spreadsheet had no problem letting many people edit cells. However, if two people were editing exactly the same cell at the same time, whoever saved their changes last would overwrite the cell. This means you'd need to keep that in mind as you work. You can either create new cells for lengthy inputs from individual users, or you can make sure you discuss all changes beforehand.

Collaborate and Discuss

Google Spreadsheets offers a handy built-in chat tool on the right-hand side of the screen, so you can discuss changes with anyone else who is accessing that spreadsheet at the moment. This helps mitigate the impact of the simultaneous cell editing issue.

Charts

You can create charts from Google Spreadsheets data. You can pick from a few basic types of charts, such as pie, bar, and scatter. You have only basic control over the chart appearance. You can't choose custom colors for each area. The charts feature is also very slow on the computers I've tested.

Once you've created a chart, it is embedded within your spreadsheet. You can edit the chart, and you can save the chart itself as a png image for importing into other programs.

Upload a New Version

Google Spreadsheets seems to be geared towards sharing a spreadsheet, but maintaining a backup copy on the desktop. This is a wise course of action with experimental new software, anyway, but Google offers a handy Upload new version option on the file menu to facilitate doing just that. Spreadsheets also now supports versions, so it isn't as risky to simply leave a document on the Web for editing and publishing.

Limitations

Google Spreadsheets is obviously in the experimental stages of development, which means you may see periodic messages that the service has been disrupted.

There is no way to copy and paste a spreadsheet from Google into Excel, although you can export and import some spreadsheets. This may cause formatting problems. There's also no way to directly embed content from a spreadsheet into a Google Docs document.

The Bottom Line

Google Spreadsheets may still be new, but it's a useful tool for sharing small spreadsheets, and it has promise of getting even better.

• Google Docs & Spreadsheets can be found on the web at docs.google.com.
• Read about the word processor in Docs & Spreadsheets
• Learn how to share documents with Google Docs & Spreadsheets.