Regular average user of MS Excel in Windows environment for many years, I wonder how Google Spreadheet compares to it on my Samsung Chromebook.

You may read my ongoing Chromebook testing by clicking >here<

Article to be continued. Last update: October 12th, 2013. Follow me on >twitter< to stay posted about updates.

The comparison here is between MS Excel 2010 and current Google Spreadsheet (September 2013).

Contents

• Latest comment of mine - About me as a tester - My Chromebook
  
• First contact
  
• Challenging Google Spreadsheet - Setting up the challenge -
• Slugging through bigger files - Stats about the document
  
• Disclaimer
  

Google Spreadsheet first contact

My first contact with Google Spreadheet made me feel both relatively familiar with the displayed grid, columns and lines, and somewhat puzzled with the comparatively empty button bar.

I started a trial as anybody would; type some numbers in a column, another series of numbers in another column and enter a basic arithmetic formula in a third column, copy down and check the results.

Spreadsheet understands English only, but explains in your local language

What came next was a trial with a little more elaborate formula; calculate the average value of a series of numbers in a column. Happy owner of a “French” Chromebook and having anything in my Spreadsheet GUI (Graphic User Interface) written in French, I typed in the French word for average which is “moyenne”. Spreadsheet returned an error “unknown name of function”. Sensing what happened, I changed the formula to the English version and result was the expected average value.

So, Spreadsheet understands English only. A fact confirmed with further trials.

Standard deviation is contracted into “STDEV” while a French version of Excel expects “ECARTYPE.STANDARD” as in French standard deviation is “écart type”.

While a French Excel user is familiar with RECHERCHEV, he has to know the English translation is VLOOKUP in Spreadsheet.

The fact Spreadsheet understands English only may not bother any English native speaker, but may puzzle any other user expecting using his local language in Spreadsheet.

Getting Help about formulas

When typing an “=” and the first letter of what may be your formula, a popup window shows you all available choices, which refines as you continue typing letters, together with another popup window with explanation about the proposed formula syntax, function and the option to display all functions. This latter does “nothing more” than opening a new Chrome Tab linked to support.google.com, the online help.

There, a complete functions list shows the syntax, structure and explanation, allowing foreigners to translate their usual formulas into the Spreadsheet understandable ones.

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Challenging Google Spreadsheet

Coming soon!

Setting up the challenge

Disclaimer

The author has no link (other than being customer and user) to Samsung corporation nor Google, neither to any brands mentioned. The opinions in this article are author’s own. This return of experience is provided for free, with sole purpose of helping others to make their own opinion. It is no advertising nor recommendation for any of the mentioned brands or products.

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