davidh
June 17th, 2006, 06:02 PM
I tried google spreadsheets, my prelilminary results are ok so far.
You need a google account to sign in. I signed in with my google email account.
I uploaded a three column CSV (comma separated values) table with 536 rows and 3 columns. It also supports other formats, besides CSV, I think, but I forget the details.
I shared it with my wife who is in vietnam so she can use her medicinal herbs database table in vietnam at the internet cafe. We don't have a laptop and it might be unsafe to take one to vietnam even if one has one, esp. if one is vietnamese (I'm paranoid to think that they might confiscate it on the excuse that one is a suspected political activist, etc. and just take it home to keep for themselves. Not to mention, theft in airports or housekeepers in hotels or restaurants.)
I had uploaded the table to a "database" in a private Yahoo group, but she could not access http://groups.yahoo.com from the internet cafe. I suspect that Yahoo groups is blocked by the communist firewall around vietnam because of political and human rights groups (bulletin boards) on Yahoo.
I just hope that the gov't there does not block http://spreadsheets.google.com
That's also the URL to go to to start playing with the spreadsheets.
That's where you log in to create your spread sheets.
If you want to UPLOAD a CSV file for example, you have to click OPEN (this is non-intuitive, but maybe intentional to reduce excess uploads during early beta testing).
When you share a spreadsheet , google sends and email to the person(s) with a special URL link to the spreadsheet. If the person's email is not on google, then the message gives them a link to click by which they can create a new google account, so if your colleage already has a google email acct. DO NOT invite them to view your spreadsheet via any NON-GOOGLE email of theirs.
I did not try any calculations.
There is also a save as HTML option that might be intended for "publishing" the results, haven't tried that yet.
Performance was adequate even on dial up.
David H.
You need a google account to sign in. I signed in with my google email account.
I uploaded a three column CSV (comma separated values) table with 536 rows and 3 columns. It also supports other formats, besides CSV, I think, but I forget the details.
I shared it with my wife who is in vietnam so she can use her medicinal herbs database table in vietnam at the internet cafe. We don't have a laptop and it might be unsafe to take one to vietnam even if one has one, esp. if one is vietnamese (I'm paranoid to think that they might confiscate it on the excuse that one is a suspected political activist, etc. and just take it home to keep for themselves. Not to mention, theft in airports or housekeepers in hotels or restaurants.)
I had uploaded the table to a "database" in a private Yahoo group, but she could not access http://groups.yahoo.com from the internet cafe. I suspect that Yahoo groups is blocked by the communist firewall around vietnam because of political and human rights groups (bulletin boards) on Yahoo.
I just hope that the gov't there does not block http://spreadsheets.google.com
That's also the URL to go to to start playing with the spreadsheets.
That's where you log in to create your spread sheets.
If you want to UPLOAD a CSV file for example, you have to click OPEN (this is non-intuitive, but maybe intentional to reduce excess uploads during early beta testing).
When you share a spreadsheet , google sends and email to the person(s) with a special URL link to the spreadsheet. If the person's email is not on google, then the message gives them a link to click by which they can create a new google account, so if your colleage already has a google email acct. DO NOT invite them to view your spreadsheet via any NON-GOOGLE email of theirs.
I did not try any calculations.
There is also a save as HTML option that might be intended for "publishing" the results, haven't tried that yet.
Performance was adequate even on dial up.
David H.