Comments on: Review of Google Docs

By: sumwise

sumwise — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:51:16 +0000

ksr00551 – thanks for your question. Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this in google docs spreadsheet. (Even in Excel it is not trivial.) To get the DASHBOARD to refer to your new sheet you will need to unhide all columns and rows in the DASHBOARD sheet and edit the formulae to refer to your new sheet. Although there is a Find and Replace function provided (Edit>Find and Replace) this actually does not find text within a formula, so you can’t use it. If you were doing this in Excel you’d simply use Find and Replace to look for the old worksheet name and replace it with the new worksheet name. Of course, in google docs, if you edit one formula correctly in a group of like cells, then you can simply copy and paste this to the other cells you want to update with the new reference.

Given the difficulty of doing all of this, and the high possibility of making an error, I would highly recommend putting all of your transaction data into the one worksheet – i.e. treat the CASHTRACK worksheet like a database. If you want to view only certain months at a time, you could do this on a separate analysis worksheet.

By: ksr00551

ksr00551 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:21:26 +0000

just wanted to add that i have been using your template to maintain the expense sheet. i used have an excel sheet before for almost 36 months. it is great stuff on the net. just a small query. in the dashboard i am able to see only one sheet data. can i change the reference of dashboard from 1 sheet to other. for example i have tracked my expense for august in one sheet. now for September i have opened a new sheet. the dashboard looks stuck on the august sheet only.
regards

By: Jon Wittwer

Jon Wittwer — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:52:11 +0000

Darren,
I’ve created many spreadsheet templates for Google Docs and I always first create the spreadsheet in Excel, then upload to Google. For me this is about 10 times faster than starting from scratch with a Google Spreadsheet. After uploading, I usually need to make a few changes, but they are often very minor.
All the best, Jon W.

By: sumwise

sumwise — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:31:52 +0000

Here’s a link to a PC World article on the subject:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/168309/microsoft_office_vsgoogle_docs_a_web_apps_showdown.html

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:52:49 +0000

(please notify me of follow-up comments).

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:51:49 +0000

Where you say ‘very simple interface’… that’s because it has ‘very few features’.

Do Google seriously propose Google Docs as a real alternative to MS Office or OpenOffice?

This has to be the worst Office suite I’ve ever used, even going back to the pre-GUI days.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:34:08 +0000

Having now played with Google spreadsheets for 20 minutes or so, I’m aware of the following: 1. No print preview; 2. No way of defining the print area; 3. The text in one cell runs over the adjacent cell to the left only sometimes; and 4. No way of setting the row height and/or column width to a specific size. I’m sure there are many more, but these are some of the obvious shortfalls (in addition to the ones you’ve already mentioned). I would expect that Google will adress all of these in time (although it may be a very long time). Still like the idea of shared spreadsheets that are accesible from anywhere.

By: sumwise

sumwise — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:50:22 +0000

Thanks for your comment Dave. I understand your concern, but an alternate view might be, 1. if they did indeed violate your privacy or deal irresponsibly with your personal information, they’d soon be out of business – and they’re a seriously big company, and 2. I believe it is far more likely that I will somehow lose all of my locally stored files (fire, theft, technical problem, etc) than google going broke. In any case, so long as you can save, download, convert your work, then you’ll have time to bail out before the ship goes down (so to speak). Cheers. Darren.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:43:19 +0000

Well written. I’m just an average “Mom and Dad” user. I’ve only dabbled with Google documents, spreadsheets and calendar. At a superficial glance, they seem pretty good (and will surely continue to improve). I like the idea of being able to access my email, files and calendar from any computer connected to the internet. There are 2 main reasons why I’ve resisted the temptation to do everything with Google: 1. Can I trust them with my personal information (i.e. will they maintain confidentiality) and 2. What happens if Google ceases to exist – how will I reconstruct my life?

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:49:27 +0000

haha...love that "wife acceptance factor" part, good looking out. consider it included in my Best Financial Calculators" roundup for sure.