All we need now is a way to tap into that via an API and elegant online charts become much more available. Great enhancement.

Yey! Charts at last! One problem for me is you can't (seem) to change the colours, I'll put up with it though as it means I need to use Excel less :-)

I use google spreadsheet but unfortunately it still doesn't do lots of stuff I need and suffors form a lack of customization (http://yedda.com/questions/8622155581718/) to use regularly. I also find it too slow. It is very good for collaborating and presenting documents but not yet as a good way to seriously edit them.

Thats really cool, we have shifted a lot of work to G spreadsheets now. I wish they add the comments also, it was very much needed.

"It is very good for collaborating and presenting documents but not yet as a good way to seriously edit them."

Exactly. And that's why the tool is not a competitor of MS Office. Google is trying to solve a different problem – collaboration.

I wonder how the tool handles imported charts.

http://groups.google.com/group/GDSupdates/msg/10337c3330e64010

I think the new features work great and probably do what they are supposed to do: create graphs and spreadsheets that even the most novice user can master (unlike Excel which you do need a bit of knowledge)

Congrats to Google for that one. It will silence all those saying that Google spreadsheets was too trivial (something which was easily debunked by the way, since Google spreadsheets makes spreadsheet sharing an easy task).

In fact, ironically enough, the lack of support for VBA macros in Google spreadsheets makes Google better suited than Microsoft own Office suite : without VBA macros, no virus.

WOOHOO! I have been waiting for this!!!

AjiNIMC

they've added the comments feature too..!!! check it out!

Hashim

It doesn't seem to. But still a cool feature.

<< And that's why the tool is not a competitor of MS Office. >>

If it wasn't a competitor for Microsoft Office, why bring out a fully-blown web app in the first place? What would be wrong with just an upload interface.

OF COURSE it's a competitor.

The real question I'm asking myself is why Microsoft doesn't release a web office yet.
1) they don't have the developer power?
2) they don't have the vision/ don't see the need?
3) they are already working on it and will release the killer online office application suite any day now?

It would be nice to be able to embed these charts in the docs. Updating the tables would automatically update the document. The same for blogs.

GDS is cool, but NOT a replacement for MS Office (or any office suite). Why? When you're not connected it's not available!!! And I'd say I'm not connected at least half of the time I'm using my laptop.

About time! :-D

>> OF COURSE it's a competitor.

Well, it's a competitor at the lower end of the scale but for MS Office power-users there's no way they'd get away with using Google Docs and Spreadsheets. And most of those lower-end users can't afford MS Office anyway, so I'm not sure it's going to affect MS Office sales. Some people will just end up using GDocs instead of the crap that is known as Microsoft Works that comes pre-installed on most PCs...

Eric: This year Apollo form Adobe is coming. That will change the playground.

Philipp Lenssen said "The real question I'm asking myself is why Microsoft doesn't release a web office yet."

The answer is quite simple. If Microsoft releases a web-only Word/Excel/Powerpoint trio, they canibalize themselves since you don't need Windows.

Of course, that's why, among other things, Microsoft's web strategy is to rely on Internet Explorer extensions to enable new "scenarios". That's what they did by the way back in 1999/2000 when HTML WYSIWYG was all the craze. It resulted in the Internet Explorer incorporating a VML library. For more insight on the subject, be amazed at this Bill Gates memo : http://antitrust.slated.org/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/2000/PX02991.pdf.

As for resources, incredibly enough the Microsoft Office lacks them. They are putting all bets on client-server services (Ray Ozzie's words) that integrate the Office suite with corporate software. Running their software with just a web brower is just not part of the solution.

I am pretty sure we'll see some half-baked Office-like suite, but dumped down because they can't afford to put one of their two cash cows in danger.

Bug1:

If you have a split in your spreadsheet (ie 2 scrollbars down the right) then the header of the chart gets hidden and you can't move or do anything with the chart.

How do I move the chart to a new tab? That's the first thing I usually do on Excel. And what's with the limited range of colors? If I have a lot of items, it makes it impossible on a pie chart to see which item in the legend is which.

<<the header of the chart gets hidden and you can't move or do anything with the chart>>

You can just right-click to get the same menu :-)

Can't seem to change Sheets or colours yet.

its nice

MS now has a problem's

If you need more advanced charts (outside the Google spreadsheet as images), you can also use the free online charting service:

www.chartAll.com

Charts can be created from manually typed data, Google spreadsheets, data linked from url, etc.

Includes basic charts, XY charts, XYZ 3D charts, Gauges, Geographical (mapping / GIS) charts, financial OHLC, and much more.

regards
david
www.chartAll.com