# I've got Google Spreadsheets! Who wants to be invited to share it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388 "2006-06-12T05:40:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Green\_Means\_Go](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cc9497/32.png) [@Green\_Means\_Go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Means_Go)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/21 "2006-06-15T21:53:12Z")
I would love an invite as well if there are any left!! pgw00 [at] hotmail [dot] com Thanks in advance! ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/22 "2006-06-15T22:04:05Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Can you import vast amounts of data into it? What do you do then - is it just a storage medium or is the point you can collaborate? [/QUOTE] It can open Excel and CSV files, but I don’t know what the row/column limit is. I don’t really have anything huge to try on it. I believe (?) it uses OpenOffice for its backend, though I’m probably vastly oversimplifying that if I’m at all correct. You can collaborate - when you’re working on a spreadsheet, you can share it with other people (“Share this spreadsheet” or some such). You can choose whether to let them view it or be able to edit it. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/23 "2006-06-15T22:07:34Z")
I suppose I should actually reserve questions until I’ve looked at it - but what about find/replace operations? Number crunching? Analysis? Algorithms? Graphing? (I’ve used OpenOffice for spreadsheets and graphing, and it sucked.) If it’s just spreadsheet data storage, it’d still be useful, but with the above, it’d be possibly invaluable to me. ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/24 "2006-06-15T22:13:55Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] I suppose I should actually reserve questions until I’ve looked at it - but what about find/replace operations? Number crunching? Analysis? Algorithms? Graphing? (I’ve used OpenOffice for spreadsheets and graphing, and it sucked.) [/quote] I won’t be the one to tell you one way or the other, to be honest. This much I can say: What I use Excel for - creating a small employee schedule that sums the number of hours each employee worked, using a very simple little addition/division formula and string comparison - it works admirably well. There are plenty of formulas to choose from, but I don’t know whether it provides an apparatus for the user to make more. I wouldn’t do sophisticated statistical analysis with it, of course. But I think it’s more useful than otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/25 "2006-06-15T22:14:56Z")
Oh, yeah, and the most important deficiency I forgot to mention: it doesn not have a graphing or charting. That could be a pain in the ass. I hope that they add it eventually. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/26 "2006-06-15T22:20:50Z")
Well, if I can share a huge spreadsheet with data entry people, and then download it as an xls or csv file so I can do the crunching, that would work. What export formats does it have? I’m not sure csv can support functions that translate to xls. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/27 "2006-06-16T10:09:18Z")
Me too! r t zero zero four two at gmail dot com. (Let’s see the spambots pick _that_ up!) ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/28 "2006-06-16T10:58:54Z")
I wouldn’t mind an invite… gardentraveler at gmail dot com… Thanks! GT ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/29 "2006-06-16T14:43:34Z")
This sounds like fun! jgabbard at the [gmail.com](http://gmail.com) ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/30 "2006-06-16T16:08:51Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] I suppose I should actually reserve questions until I’ve looked at it - but what about find/replace operations? Number crunching? Analysis? Algorithms? Graphing? (I’ve used OpenOffice for spreadsheets and graphing, and it sucked.) If it’s just spreadsheet data storage, it’d still be useful, but with the above, it’d be possibly invaluable to me. [/QUOTE] It’s a _beta_. You’re not gonna find too much functionality. It seems to have most of the rudimentary functions of Excel, but it is sorely lacking the advanced features. The main thing it really has going for it right now, is collaboration and remote storage. I’ve also crapped it out by importing an Excel spreadsheet with hidden rows/columns. If you try to do what you’d normally to to unhide rows in an Excel sheet, it just stalls. I also tried to upload an Excel file of about 600K and it told me it was too large. So there’s a limit on file size, too. Finally, you don’t really need an invitation from anyone to try it. Go to [www.spreadsheets.google.com](http://www.spreadsheets.google.com) and you can sign yourself up - provided you have a gmail account. If you don’t you, you can find someone who has registered to invite you to share one (or more) of their stored spreadsheets. Anyway, looks like a nice and useful idea, but remember it’s a _beta_. It ain’t near ready to be put into service. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/31 "2006-06-16T16:17:32Z")
Hey, I’m in! My gmail’s in my profile. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Stilettos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@Red\_Stilettos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Stilettos)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/32 "2006-06-16T18:27:44Z")
**Hubzilla** and **Paranoid Randroid** , you should have a Writely invitation in your inbox. (Actually, Writely doesn’t do invites. You just add folks as collaborators on a document.) ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/33 "2006-06-16T18:30:28Z")
Can I get a Writely one, too? Thanks! (opalcat at the aforementioned gmail) ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Stilettos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@Red\_Stilettos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Stilettos)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388/34 "2006-06-16T18:33:21Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] Can I get a Writely one, too? Thanks! (opalcat at the aforementioned gmail) [/QUOTE] Done. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-got-google-spreadsheets-who-wants-to-be-invited-to-share-it/360388.md?page=1)