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I may be being silly about this, and I probably should at least try how well google sheets works for me as a regular part of my workflow, but I'd really prefer

I may be being silly about this, and I probably should at least try how well google sheets works for me as a regular part of my workflow, but I'd really prefer an actual local piece of software than a web app.

fifilura 2y ago
The finance department in a previous job rather undramatically moved over to Google Sheets from Excel after seeing the befits of the collaboration/online environment. They got some help by me for moving out the heavy stuff to SQL/BigQuery but that was also for the better. BigQuery and Sheets integrate very well these days so they could even use a Google sheet as a UI for the queries. Rows and columns, much better than any other web UI. (Yes I believe you are being silly)
- deleted 2y ago
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- kbelder 2y ago
  I think Google Sheets is nearly miraculous, with all that it can do as a web app, but it's amazing to me that anybody actually seriously using Excel in a professional capacity could migrate to it. They're not in the same weight class.
zootboy 2y ago
There's nothing silly about wanting to avoid the sandcastle-built-on-quicksand world of web applications. Sadly, the world of native apps, at least in the commercial space, seems to be drifting away from the tenants of stability and user control that the space used to exemplify. Excel 365 (or whatever the hell MS wants to call it) randomly auto-updates itself without warning or confirmation.
NBJack 2y ago
I've used both for a long time (relatively so for Sheets given its age). The online aspect aside, Sheets does tend to work for 90% of my use cases. But that last 10%? It doesn't come close to what I can accomplish with Excel. Exotic dimensions in data, frankly better pivot table support, and perhaps most maddening, the much faster macros.... I created a simple function/macro once in Sheets to help me indicate when a group of rows were done; I had to watch my 3-5k sheet painfully iterate through every line and assign new colors. The script system even gave up at some point after I closed my laptop(? So much for online!..), and I had to manually restart it.

fifilura 2y ago

The finance department in a previous job rather undramatically moved over to Google Sheets from Excel after seeing the befits of the collaboration/online environment. They got some help by me for moving out the heavy stuff to SQL/BigQuery but that was also for the better. BigQuery and Sheets integrate very well these days so they could even use a Google sheet as a UI for the queries. Rows and columns, much better than any other web UI. (Yes I believe you are being silly)

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
kbelder 2y ago
I think Google Sheets is nearly miraculous, with all that it can do as a web app, but it's amazing to me that anybody actually seriously using Excel in a professional capacity could migrate to it. They're not in the same weight class.

zootboy 2y ago

There's nothing silly about wanting to avoid the sandcastle-built-on-quicksand world of web applications. Sadly, the world of native apps, at least in the commercial space, seems to be drifting away from the tenants of stability and user control that the space used to exemplify. Excel 365 (or whatever the hell MS wants to call it) randomly auto-updates itself without warning or confirmation.

NBJack 2y ago

I've used both for a long time (relatively so for Sheets given its age). The online aspect aside, Sheets does tend to work for 90% of my use cases. But that last 10%? It doesn't come close to what I can accomplish with Excel. Exotic dimensions in data, frankly better pivot table support, and perhaps most maddening, the much faster macros.... I created a simple function/macro once in Sheets to help me indicate when a group of rows were done; I had to watch my 3-5k sheet painfully iterate through every line and assign new colors. The script system even gave up at some point after I closed my laptop(? So much for online!..), and I had to manually restart it.