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Inside Google Spreadsheets  (View post)

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

Tuesday, June 6, 2006
18 years ago16,625 views

I can't make the movies play (problem with the plugin my end I expect). But I saw most of it live anyway.

Page [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

The video did not load for me... just a black screen

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Sigh... anybody else who can see this/ has problems seeing it?

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

/pd has seen it (on the other thread).

Maximo [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

I can see it fine.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

nope its ok for me.. I can see the mouse movement all over. No sound

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Yes, there's no sound in the recording.

Page [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

Philipp: on the other hand http://www.editgrid.com does allow for you to right click and cut and paste spreadsheets....

Tiago Serafim [PersonRank 4]

18 years ago #

Philipp, I think you forgot the "GWT" on this year releases...

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I can see the movies fine, thanks. PSPVideo9 – http://www.pspvideo9.com – will convert WMVs to MPG / MP4 format – and it's free. (You might find it useful for your PSP anyway!)

One small point – the movie's title is shown as "Google Analytics Hidden Input Fields".

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

{ is this on Digg yet ? }

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

is anyone digg it ? we all forgot.. plug bak the linky here pls

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

> One small point – the movie's title is shown
> as "Google Analytics Hidden Input Fields".

Heh. Will fix this, thanks. Downloading PSPVideo9 now...

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

> is anyone digg it ? we all forgot.. plug bak the linky here pls

I put it here:
http://digg.com/technology/Inside_Google_Spreadsheets_(Video)

Page [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

Phillip: I encourage you to try http://www.iRows.com as well, this completely blows google out of the water when it comes to features.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

oh phillip has dugg it already here

http://digg.com/technology/Inside_Google_Spreadsheets_(Video)

Maximo [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Page: GSpread has better Excel import, at least. It supports and maintains more formulas and functions as well as retaining formatting better.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Changed the article to add Google Web Toolkit to the list of product releases. (Thanks Tiago!)

Maximo [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

You now can't invite people who don't have a Google Account:

http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/1752/1598377909737088489_rs.jpg
[edited link]

Ouch.

Maximo [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

PS: Tried to invite somebody with a GMail account...got the same message. I bet Google is just blocking invites for everybody right now.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

yeah, the invite to a share on a spreadsheet is not working for gmail users too. I think that one needs spreadsheet activition before the invite function to do good!!

iZeitgeist [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I logged without an invitation!! (signed up around 8 AM Universal time)

Some screenshots:

http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/1487/1010766043083314587_rs.jpg
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/1721/1623949363586368466_rs.jpg

(I am getting an error when trying to upload an .xls file)

Russianger [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

Google bites Microsoft once again

Ruben [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

numsum.com seems to have a similar concept.

Tiago Serafim [PersonRank 4]

18 years ago #

Digg frontpage now!

Utills [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Invites seem to be working for me. I invited a friend who has gmail account but hadn't been invited before and he could get access.

btw.. How many invites does each person receive?

btw, enter the chat if anyone wants an invite.

Randy [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

The help page says the invite is unlimited...

Ken Kuhl [PersonRank 7]

18 years ago #

Hot diggs. 96 and counting!

dpneal [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I have an invite! yes!

Just thinking about when Eric Schmitt was questioned about a Google Office back in January (i think), he said Google is about search. He obviously knew this was happening, I wonder how many other products he's lied/avoided about? Google Browser? Google PC? Google Cube?

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Yes, good point. What will he say about this next Google press day.

Add to that list: Google Pay Pal. He said they wouldn't make a pay pal. But now... who knows.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

google cube ?? seems like a likely candidate .. :)-

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Integration Options with Google Office and rest of Google's products:

-- Email documents / spreadsheets that you have made direct from the spreadsheet product.
-- When recieving documents / spreadsheets on Gmail option: open in Gword / GSpreadsheet.

Elias KAI [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Hi,
I liked it. I called my son google last year.

BTW when we are trying to invite or share with others cant it be like the way ingmail once u type e you got elias.kai Gmail or adwords accounts
it will ease Google inter connectivity between gmail accounts adwords spreadsheets.

mark [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

yet another great product!

oh, it's possible to null out browser context-menus when right clicking. I've seen it donw before. Look it up ;)

Elias KAI [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

To Sam and DpNeal :

He already admitted the Google Wallet by using the Google TV remote control , pay to play.

BTW, did you see when you try to insert a function , you have in your browser a search in images.google.com _ right ?

dpneal [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

those integration options would be excellent! i hope they are reading this thread.

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Elias: I didn't notice that. Can you clarify what you mean?

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Ok. This definately needs folders or tagging. Imagine if you just had 40 spreadsheets finding them would be a pain.

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

(Also just realised: NO search box!! Is this the first Google product with no search of any kind?)

Agento [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Looks, cool, but as a Mac user and since MS is not supporting WMV my verion 9 wouldn't play the video...damn. I really wish more people would use Quicktime, it's universal.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

funny you mention it Sam , yes there is no search /find / find and replace option!!

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Looks, cool, but as a Mac user and since MS is not supporting WMV my verion 9 wouldn't play the video...damn. I really wish more people would use Quicktime, it's universal.
---

Flip 4 Mac is out for a universal beta.

Ken Kuhl [PersonRank 7]

18 years ago #

still don't have my invite so I haven't used it, but Sam & /pd said amazes me: no search!?!? How could a Google product not have search. And search is an integral function in a spreadsheet; I use it Excel constantly. Wow, a Google product w/o a search function...I'm just shocked!

Pau Tomàs [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/its-nice-to-share.html

ummm... seems like the Writely folks are not involved in the project (at least not at the start of it)

Michael Hart [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

You forgot Google Finance and Gmail chat (I know it is only Talk inside Gmail... but I thought it was a big deal).

Art-One [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Did you see the version? V1.1.4
Does that mean that this is a non-beta product?
(Since it has version 1 etc.)

Dr. Pangloss [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

It would be nice to see it...if I could.

Why do people use propietary MS video formats? Linux, Mac & Unix users need not apply...sigh

joe jacklson [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

be a man and get yourself a pc pangloss! [personal attack removed]

iZeitgeist [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

When you search filetype:xls in Google you are able to view as HTML (it breaks the whole structure of it).

It would be great if they implemented it in a way that it opens in a view mode only in Google SpreadSheet. I would hope the same when they release Google Word.

Art-One [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I read a lot of interesting feature suggestions in this thread & in the other thread about the spreadsheet. I open an new one that contains only those suggestions. Handy for the Google crew ;-)

JE [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

Just got my invite. I signed up about 8:30 am EDT, so there's still hope if you're waiting for one.

rajAT [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #


My take on it

http://rajatgupta.wordpress.com/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheet-review/

Zomic13 [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

don't forget the launch of the Google Video Store

Google is on a roll!

Christian J. Koch [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Just got my invite and tested it out...

first CSV file i tried to import was too big, at a whopping 325KB!

http://www.limited-exposure.org/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheets-eeek/

Jeremy Zawodny [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

The integrated chat and mutli-user stuff is quite cool. I'm impresed for a change.

dpneal [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Has spreadsheets gone down? I can't access it.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

thanks for Dropping by Jeremy.. yeah its super kewl!!

Art-One [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I saw something strange ... I had selected a cell & I was moving down with the vertical scroll bar. A label was put around the selected cell mentioning the reference (F5) of the cell... Did someone see the same thing?

Andrew Hitchcock [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Hmm, is there anyway to make it auto insert the date? I remember in Excel you could type a date in one cell, and then click and drag and it would auto-incremement and paste the date in however many cells you dragged through. I can't seem to figure out how to do this. Also, it doesn't like my date format:

2006-06-06

Art-One [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Can someone open this?
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=o06095401282675843797.131093026034260711

(Besides of the guys I invited to open this by e-mail?)

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Art-One – I get this:

We're sorry.

It looks like you don't have access to this spreadsheet.

If this problem keeps happening, please email labs+spreadsheets[put at-character here]google.com and mention this error message and what you were trying to do when it happened.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Mark:
> oh, it's possible to null out browser
> context-menus when right clicking. I've seen
> it donw before. Look it up

Yes, it's possible, but in certain contexts it can't be replaced at all; check Firefox -> tools -> options -> advanced -> disable or replace context menus [ ]

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Sam
> Also just realised: NO search box!! Is this the
> first Google product with no search of any kind?

Interesting. I didn't even notice, but now that you mention it... yeah, it's Google, where's the search box?

Dr. Pangloss
> Why do people use propietary MS video formats?

The Microsoft developer team who created Windows Media Encoder created it without any MPG saving options (Microsoft's stupid monopoly formats/ lock-in strategy, I s'pose), but I'm trying to convert the file using some other program.

Art-One [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Tony Ruscoe: thx.

I thought it was a security breach because the same link is e-mailed to everyone I share the spreadsheet with. But there security is great, they probably check the person who is logged in. That makes an other feature request: public spreadsheets .

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

A search for "date" doesn't yield a single result in the Google Spreadsheets help, as do other important terms. They seriously need to fix that...

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Philipp – dates are there under the Function tab – a whole list criable functions

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

oh ye under th format tab, it takes content which looks like a date "06/06/06" and suggets alternative formats for it , like "6-Jun-2006" (once formated!!)
"

Art-One [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Philipp, help is indeed a bit lousy. Check the one on the key board short cuts:

"Can I use keyboard shortcuts?

Yes, we support some common keyboard shortcuts for formatting, such as CTRL+B, CTRL+I, CTRL+U. For editing, try CTRL+C, CTRL+X, CTRL+V. To see the formula of a cell, click F2. To anchor a cell, try F4. As there are tons of keyboard shortcuts, we won't list them all here. If you find one missing in Google Spreadsheets that you can't live without, let us know."

How usefull are tons of keyboard shortcuts if there is no list available that tells us which one we can use? Maybe they trust on the world hacking there code & make the list for them?

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

The date formats it actually accepts as dates are pretty poor. It doesn't even try to parse non-US formatted date strings as dates – e.g. 2006-06-06, 12/13/2006, 6 jun 2006, 6 june 2006, etc. Likewise for currencies – it has to be dollars to be recognised as a currency.

BTW, I know it's still in its pre-beta Labs and Limited Test stage, so I'm not criticising them for this – but I hope it's on their To-Do list!

Why don't Google publish public To-Do lists for their products? That would stop people wasting their time suggesting features if they know it's already planned!

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

To do list... Tony that is a whole other product.

toml [PersonRank 6]

18 years ago #

I didn't get an invite but from now i have access to gs. It's open for everyone now i think

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

The google listening posts is here

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Spreadsheets

all Suggestions and feature request should be be placed their in case the Voice of the Community needs to be heard. Posting here is great, but the the googler developers obtain their feedback from monitoring the groups within labs..!!

I suggest that cross post your suggestion there too

dan [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

hey jacklson,

For a blog that claims to cover Google and web technology, you'd think people here would be a little bit more savvy on being OS independent. WMV? Why not just use Excel too?

If you see Google as just another tool to add to your windows toolbox you need to open up your mind.

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Agreed dan. Google is all about the OS not being important (as far as possible). Get everything in a browser. Browsers are cross platform. Problems solved.

Ed Burnette [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Hey, you're on the front page of zdnet now:
http://www.zdnet.com

See also:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=127
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?page_id=128

The videos have been mirrored on zdnet's servers to help relieve your bandwidth.

If somebody has a good WMV->MP4 or MOV converter they can run over the videos we'd be happy to host those versions instead. Can everybody see MP4? Here's a sample: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=104 .

kalmi [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

There are no ads because google mustn't have ads in beta products by law.

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Try the latest Super
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/05/play-and-convert-any-multimedia-file.html

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

> There are no ads because google mustn't have ads in beta products by law.

Erm... what about Gmail (amongst others)?

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

to convert WMA to MPEG, MOV or something else

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

hey Alex: thks for that pointer. Its great insight! :)-

SCJM [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

What program did you use to film this?

elyk [PersonRank 6]

18 years ago #

"Just thinking about when Eric Schmitt was questioned about a Google Office back in January (i think), he said Google is about search. He obviously knew this was happening, I wonder how many other products he's lied/avoided about? Google Browser? Google PC? Google Cube?"
It is possible that he didn't know about it. I heard that he wasn't notified that google trends existed until a couple days before it was released, so it could be the same case with this/any other upcoming products that he's denied.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

SCJM:
> What program did you use to film this?

I used Windows Media Encoder 9.

Ed:
> Can everybody see MP4?

I can't see it here...

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Just want to forward the thanks from the ZDnet article to here:
"Thanks also to Andre L. Pan and others at Google Blogoscoped for contributing to this story."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=127

Sam Davyson [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Philipp SolutionWatch also used one of the screenshots from the big test we did (one from the Flickr album)

http://solutionwatch.com/427/google-spreadsheets-in-limited-beta/

Hatem [PersonRank 2]

18 years ago #

My first review is already up check it out

http://googling.phpmagazine.net/2006/06/google_spreadsheets_reviewed.html

/pd [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

What does the f5 key do ??

The f2 is the classic edit button,..but the f5 is it doing the recal here ?

Andrew Hitchcock [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

BTW, I'm trying to do a stress test with shared albums. I want to see how many people we can have editing one (I've done similar things with Gmail). Here's the page with more information:

http://andrewhitchcock.org/?post=263

Also, if anyone has a shared calendar already, you can invite me with: adpowers[put at-character here]gmail.com :)

SCJM [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Jawesome I got my invitation.

Thanks Google!

Arvind [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

Congrats to the Google Spreadsheets team on a wunnerful product!

Just in case you haven't come across Zoho (http://zoho.com) yet, we have our own spreadsheet app, Zoho Sheet. Try it out at http://zohosheet.com

andrea [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Hi,
what tool did you have used to record the video??

Thank you

Randhir Reddy [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

Its a great tool for a new entrant. collaboration and clean UI is its strenght. Its only a matter of time before they'd ramp it up with all the features missing and more, just like they did with Gmail and other products.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

> what tool did you have used to record the video??

Windows Media Encoder 9, somewhere available at Microsoft's site...

Kirby Witmer [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

it's amazing to me how google spreadsheets are working soo smoothly as of yet.. for me anyway.. maybe google learned their lesson and didn't invite as many people.

Elrod Gould [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Any word on ability to paste or connect somehow the spreadsheet data --including X,Y – into GE. ????

Brian Edwards [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

cool, now google will have a complete record of your numeric data to go with all of your email, blog, calendar information and chat logs. and they never delete anything. they are going to know you better than your mothers. i recommend that you download all of the csv's from your bank accounts and credit cards into a google spreadsheet right now.

Art-One [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

There are some minor layout changes for Google Spreadsheet. And the version has changed with an added b. (v1.1.4b)

(I screened the forum & I didn't find it mentioned yet, however I missed some threads last couple of days...)

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