6 ms·

Fed up of all the Google Docs fanfare... Excel features... fast - check. Powerful - check. Works offline - check. Let's get a little closer to google docs...

by csmuk 13y ago

Fed up of all the Google Docs fanfare... Excel features... fast - check. Powerful - check. Works offline - check. Let's get a little closer to google docs... Works online - check. Edit in browser - check. Edit on mobile device - check. Share with other people - check. Cheap - check (o365 sub is really cheap per seat). Can customise the UI - check. Can deal with huge sheets - check. Can extend, script etc - check. Google docs buys me nothing.

sheetjs 13y ago
The $0 Google Docs is correctly priced for what it offers: spreadsheet functionality for the lower 80% of the market that doesn't use advanced features and most likely wouldn't pay for a solution
- csmuk 13y ago
  The $0 skydrive facility (gives you Excel, PowerPoint, Word) is the same on the MS side of things. Hell even a WP8 handset with office is $80 now. If you want to pay for it you get a crap load more from O365.
  - DominikR 13y ago
    > If you want to pay for it you get a crap load more from O365. Might be true, but Google Docs has more than enough features for me so I'm not going to pay for O365. And I am surely not going to use a WP8 handset as long as the ecosystem is so poor compared to Apple's App Store/Google Play.
    - csmuk 13y ago
      The ecosystem was poor. It's pretty good now. In fact Nokia HERE is a killer that wipes the floor with all other platforms. Who the hell needs 100,000 iOS fart apps anyway.
      - staticfish 13y ago
        I don't know if you just really like the platform, or you're on Microsoft's payroll (as this is HN, I'm guessing the second), but you're coming across as the hard-shill.
        csmuk 13y ago
        Odd considering if you look at my other posts you'll find quite the opposite. I sit here writing this on a CentOS ThinkPad... Being fair and balanced and unbiased is considered a shill now... Shill is word of the year.
xhrpost 13y ago
I use MS Office occasionally at work but even that small amount of usage has me wanting to use Google Docs instead. -Someone has the Excel file open on the network? Oh, read-only for you my friend. Have to save? Better track down whoever has it open. -No revision/change tracking. Have to always be alert as to who is changing what and when. Often simpler just to make a new file and add to the clutter on the network folder.
- csmuk 13y ago
  You're doing it wrong. sharepoint/svn avoids these issues.
  - wutbrodo 13y ago
    Isn't that just another point in his favor? It's easy to say "you're doing it wrong, just learn how to use these other technologies so Office works correctly", but most users would obviously prefer a product where "doing it right" is the default behavior. I'm speaking of course only with respect to the feature being discussed here (collaborative editing); I don't have much of an opinion on Office vs Drive overall.
    - xhrpost 13y ago
      Exactly, not everyone using these files are coders or computer savvy enough to tolerate SVN or GIT.
      - csmuk 13y ago
        We have many non technical users doing just fine with TortoiseSVN on windows... If it's a command line app they'd be lost so that might be the basis of your argument.
        ams6110 13y ago
        So you have users editing Office documents and committing changes to SVN and you don't get conflicts? Or if you do, they are able to resolve them?

by csmuk 13y ago

sheetjs 13y ago

The $0 Google Docs is correctly priced for what it offers: spreadsheet functionality for the lower 80% of the market that doesn't use advanced features and most likely wouldn't pay for a solution

csmuk 13y ago
The $0 skydrive facility (gives you Excel, PowerPoint, Word) is the same on the MS side of things. Hell even a WP8 handset with office is $80 now. If you want to pay for it you get a crap load more from O365.
- DominikR 13y ago
  > If you want to pay for it you get a crap load more from O365. Might be true, but Google Docs has more than enough features for me so I'm not going to pay for O365. And I am surely not going to use a WP8 handset as long as the ecosystem is so poor compared to Apple's App Store/Google Play.
  - csmuk 13y ago
    The ecosystem was poor. It's pretty good now. In fact Nokia HERE is a killer that wipes the floor with all other platforms. Who the hell needs 100,000 iOS fart apps anyway.
    - staticfish 13y ago
      I don't know if you just really like the platform, or you're on Microsoft's payroll (as this is HN, I'm guessing the second), but you're coming across as the hard-shill.
      - csmuk 13y ago
        Odd considering if you look at my other posts you'll find quite the opposite. I sit here writing this on a CentOS ThinkPad... Being fair and balanced and unbiased is considered a shill now... Shill is word of the year.

xhrpost 13y ago

I use MS Office occasionally at work but even that small amount of usage has me wanting to use Google Docs instead. -Someone has the Excel file open on the network? Oh, read-only for you my friend. Have to save? Better track down whoever has it open. -No revision/change tracking. Have to always be alert as to who is changing what and when. Often simpler just to make a new file and add to the clutter on the network folder.

csmuk 13y ago
You're doing it wrong. sharepoint/svn avoids these issues.
- wutbrodo 13y ago
  Isn't that just another point in his favor? It's easy to say "you're doing it wrong, just learn how to use these other technologies so Office works correctly", but most users would obviously prefer a product where "doing it right" is the default behavior. I'm speaking of course only with respect to the feature being discussed here (collaborative editing); I don't have much of an opinion on Office vs Drive overall.
  - xhrpost 13y ago
    Exactly, not everyone using these files are coders or computer savvy enough to tolerate SVN or GIT.
    - csmuk 13y ago
      We have many non technical users doing just fine with TortoiseSVN on windows... If it's a command line app they'd be lost so that might be the basis of your argument.
      - ams6110 13y ago
        So you have users editing Office documents and committing changes to SVN and you don't get conflicts? Or if you do, they are able to resolve them?