For a long time now I have worked on Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Excel has been the undisputed king of the home and office spreadsheet market. No doubt Excel provides fantastic functionality, and through its Macro writing feature, Excel can be substantially automated to improve productivity.
But the old king now faces a challenger – Google Spreadsheets. Excel is expensive, Google Spreadsheets is free. Excel resides on your computer, Google Spreadsheets is web based. Excel requires a new version every few years, necessitating a subscriber blow up a few hundred dollars to update, on the other hand Google Spreadsheets improves every other week as new features are added for free.
Microsoft Excel is mainly a standalone desktop application, Google Spreadsheets is easier to integrate with a suite of products, and then there is an array of add-ons that you can get off the Google Script gallery. Collaboration in Google Spreadsheets operates at an entirely different level from Excel.
Overall, there is simply no way we can ignore Google Spreadsheets in desktop level automation of repetitive tasks. It is clear that a number of individuals will choose Google Spreadsheets over Microsoft Excel as the Spreadsheet application of choice.
I must therefore start covering Google Spreadsheets in my books on Macros.
‘An Introduction to Google Spreadsheets and Google Macros’ (the Book) is designed to introduce Spreadsheet users to Google Spreadsheets. At the outset, I assume you (my reader) are somewhat familiar with Spreadsheets, but want to know how Google Spreadsheets work, and you want to understand more about the features available in Google Spreadsheets. I assume you have working familiarity with Microsoft Excel. It is not necessary to have programmed or written Macros before to benefit from this book.
The architecture of Google Spreadsheets is radically different from that of Microsoft Excel, therefore tasks that are simple, almost intuitive in Excel, for example linking data across files, become a little more involved in Google Spreadsheets. Therefore the first Chapter of the Book covers the basics of Google Spreadsheets – creating and storing files, working online and offline and getting off the shelf products from the add-ons gallery. Prepare to be a little surprised.
The second Chapter of the Book covers simple and oft needed tasks in spreadsheets – copy, paste, formulas, linking, formatting, sorting, filtering, key formulas, goal seeks and other optimizers. I describe these features, and compare and contrast them against how these tasks are structured in an Excel Spreadsheet.
Third Chapter onwards, the Book covers Google Macros. Actually, the term for it in Google Spreadsheets is Google Script, and it is based on the javascript language. I will take you through the basics of creating scripts in Google Spreadsheets, and we will do a few scripts such as copy and paste, format, sort, search, Search and Highlight, and even emails, which will give you some mastery over the key commands of Google Script.
This book is comprehensive in that it will enable you to quickly use Google Spreadsheets to do pretty much all you can do in Microsoft Excel. The book will also provide you a good reference for most commonly needed commands in Google Scripts. It is effective – you will be working on Google Spreadsheets five minutes into this Book. It is NOT exhaustive. There is a lot more to learn about Google Spreadsheets. So think of this book as a very good language guide, not a dictionary.
Open up this book in kindle, alongside open up a computer onto Google Spreadsheets, keep a pen and paper handy, and let us get started on Google Spreadsheets.
But the old king now faces a challenger – Google Spreadsheets. Excel is expensive, Google Spreadsheets is free. Excel resides on your computer, Google Spreadsheets is web based. Excel requires a new version every few years, necessitating a subscriber blow up a few hundred dollars to update, on the other hand Google Spreadsheets improves every other week as new features are added for free.
Microsoft Excel is mainly a standalone desktop application, Google Spreadsheets is easier to integrate with a suite of products, and then there is an array of add-ons that you can get off the Google Script gallery. Collaboration in Google Spreadsheets operates at an entirely different level from Excel.
Overall, there is simply no way we can ignore Google Spreadsheets in desktop level automation of repetitive tasks. It is clear that a number of individuals will choose Google Spreadsheets over Microsoft Excel as the Spreadsheet application of choice.
I must therefore start covering Google Spreadsheets in my books on Macros.
‘An Introduction to Google Spreadsheets and Google Macros’ (the Book) is designed to introduce Spreadsheet users to Google Spreadsheets. At the outset, I assume you (my reader) are somewhat familiar with Spreadsheets, but want to know how Google Spreadsheets work, and you want to understand more about the features available in Google Spreadsheets. I assume you have working familiarity with Microsoft Excel. It is not necessary to have programmed or written Macros before to benefit from this book.
The architecture of Google Spreadsheets is radically different from that of Microsoft Excel, therefore tasks that are simple, almost intuitive in Excel, for example linking data across files, become a little more involved in Google Spreadsheets. Therefore the first Chapter of the Book covers the basics of Google Spreadsheets – creating and storing files, working online and offline and getting off the shelf products from the add-ons gallery. Prepare to be a little surprised.
The second Chapter of the Book covers simple and oft needed tasks in spreadsheets – copy, paste, formulas, linking, formatting, sorting, filtering, key formulas, goal seeks and other optimizers. I describe these features, and compare and contrast them against how these tasks are structured in an Excel Spreadsheet.
Third Chapter onwards, the Book covers Google Macros. Actually, the term for it in Google Spreadsheets is Google Script, and it is based on the javascript language. I will take you through the basics of creating scripts in Google Spreadsheets, and we will do a few scripts such as copy and paste, format, sort, search, Search and Highlight, and even emails, which will give you some mastery over the key commands of Google Script.
This book is comprehensive in that it will enable you to quickly use Google Spreadsheets to do pretty much all you can do in Microsoft Excel. The book will also provide you a good reference for most commonly needed commands in Google Scripts. It is effective – you will be working on Google Spreadsheets five minutes into this Book. It is NOT exhaustive. There is a lot more to learn about Google Spreadsheets. So think of this book as a very good language guide, not a dictionary.
Open up this book in kindle, alongside open up a computer onto Google Spreadsheets, keep a pen and paper handy, and let us get started on Google Spreadsheets.
