Confessions of a Game-Mistress

I adore tools that I don’t have to worry about lugging around. I’m an inherently lazy beast. I suppose I was doomed the minute I decided that Mycroft Holmes was a far more interesting character, eh?

That being said, I love online tools. The more I use them, the more I adore them. So when Google gave me the chance to beta test Google Spreadsheets, I gleefully said yes. I was already a beta tester for Writely when Google bought them.

The combined package, now known as Google Docs and Spreadsheets, is now out. It has its advantages, and I use it constantly.

You can either create new docs onsite or upload them from pre-existing docs. When you’re done, you can print them, save them to Google for safekeeping, or export them to your system in a variety of formats. 

If you used Writely, there are a few quirks of Docs and Spreadsheets that you should know. If you’re used to choosing all of your docs and archiving them on your system as a zip, that still works, but only if you’ve not selected any of the spreadsheets. Apparently the system doesn’t know what to do with them and the docs at the same time. If you’re in a spreadsheet you can save it to a number of formats, but it’s nice to save as a chunk.

In general, if you can use Word and Excel, you can use Docs and Spreadsheets. The menus will look familiar to you.

The basic functions of Word and Excel are supported, and supported well. I’ve been using it to write both game plots and the oft-neglected novel. In Excel, I’m using it for some basic sales tracking, and I’ve found that most Excel spreadsheets work just fine uploaded there.

In general, if you need access to documents and spreadsheet info from a variety of places, Google Docs and Spreadsheets is definitely worth looking into.

One nice last-minute bit - Google has been incorporating the tech of Docs and Spreadsheets into their GMail. So now you have the choice if your attachment is a spreadsheet to open it with Docs and Spreadsheets instead of downloading it. Nice touch, Google!