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We moved from Google Sheets to use a "fancy spreadsheet" product and the missing table stakes were a lot more painful than the benefits of the fancy features.

We moved from Google Sheets to use a "fancy spreadsheet" product and the missing table stakes were a lot more painful than the benefits of the fancy features. Turns out Google Sheets has solved a lot of corner cases that we took for granted.

swyx 4y ago
dont stop there, can you remember some examples?
- jmathai 4y ago
  Navigating using the keyboard, drag/drop for reordering rows/columns (in a way that wasn't painful), conditional formatting on ranges of cells. At the end of the day, we actually didn't want or need the rigid structure we thought we did .... or at least it wasn't worth giving up the polish of Sheets.
  - patife 4y ago
    Tks for elaborating! I’m the founder of Rows it’s not clear to me if that comparison is with Rows or another product Rows is built to be as flexible as any other spreadsheet - You can add whatever you want in a cell, literals, formulas, we even support json as a primitive type. - we got the same formulas vlookup sum sumifs filter query, plus hundreds new ones like get, put, post, schedule, expand - we got conditional formatting (not as powerful as sheets, we will get there). - we we got shortcuts, above it all ctrl-k/ Cmd-k, but also many block navigation ones (ctrl+arrow, Cmd+arrow), excel windows compatible shortcuts (f2/f4), and a bunch of others. Anything in particular you think is a dealbreaker for you?
    - jmathai 4y ago
      Tx for responding. My feedback isn't specific to Rows. The dealbreaker for us was post-evaluation. On paper, the alternative option looked preferable but it wasn't until we started using it that the friction became problematic. The only suggestion I have is to closely watch standard interactions that users coming from a traditional spreadsheet have. Rows looks great and I hope my post didn't come off wrong. The issues I had may (or may not) be applicable to Rows. I appreciate your willingness to listen.
      - patife 4y ago
        I figured it wasn't specific. I know exactly what you mean by this friction. We will work hard to establish ourselves as a trusted, safe choice.

swyx 4y ago

dont stop there, can you remember some examples?

jmathai 4y ago
Navigating using the keyboard, drag/drop for reordering rows/columns (in a way that wasn't painful), conditional formatting on ranges of cells. At the end of the day, we actually didn't want or need the rigid structure we thought we did .... or at least it wasn't worth giving up the polish of Sheets.
- patife 4y ago
  Tks for elaborating! I’m the founder of Rows it’s not clear to me if that comparison is with Rows or another product Rows is built to be as flexible as any other spreadsheet - You can add whatever you want in a cell, literals, formulas, we even support json as a primitive type. - we got the same formulas vlookup sum sumifs filter query, plus hundreds new ones like get, put, post, schedule, expand - we got conditional formatting (not as powerful as sheets, we will get there). - we we got shortcuts, above it all ctrl-k/ Cmd-k, but also many block navigation ones (ctrl+arrow, Cmd+arrow), excel windows compatible shortcuts (f2/f4), and a bunch of others. Anything in particular you think is a dealbreaker for you?
  - jmathai 4y ago
    Tx for responding. My feedback isn't specific to Rows. The dealbreaker for us was post-evaluation. On paper, the alternative option looked preferable but it wasn't until we started using it that the friction became problematic. The only suggestion I have is to closely watch standard interactions that users coming from a traditional spreadsheet have. Rows looks great and I hope my post didn't come off wrong. The issues I had may (or may not) be applicable to Rows. I appreciate your willingness to listen.
    - patife 4y ago
      I figured it wasn't specific. I know exactly what you mean by this friction. We will work hard to establish ourselves as a trusted, safe choice.