Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

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pkcrafter
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Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by pkcrafter »

Time for a new computer. I've always used laptops, but Chromebook looks pretty attractive and a lot less $$. I understand Chromebook does not have a hard drive for storage, and instead uses cloud. That might be OK, but what about Google's word processing/spread sheet program which I think would be my only option. Is is OK? Also, can I move files on One Drive to Cloud?

Thanks,

Paul
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fakin' the funk
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by fakin' the funk »

The Google suite of products (Documents, Sheets, etc) are quite good for being free, but definitely not as good as Word/Excel if you do a lot of sophisticated stuff like advanced formulas, charts, diagrams, etc. For regular old word processing, bullets, formatting, and on the spreadsheet side formatting, basic statistics, it's just fine.
otinkyad
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by otinkyad »

You can also use Office Online and OneDrive with a Chromebook. You aren't required to use Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets. Personally I use the latter and they're fine for general use but not as advanced as offline apps. I haven't used Word or Excel for ten years and haven't missed them.
UnrealizedGains
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by UnrealizedGains »

Another option you might wish to consider: This fall, Chromebooks will gain the ability to run Android applications. This will allow you to run the Microsoft Office applications for Android.

This article has a list of the Chromebooks that are slated to get Android application support. Of course, there will be additions to this list over time, and odds are that newly introduced Chromebooks will support Android apps.

http://www.androidcentral.com/these-are ... droid-apps
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F150HD
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by F150HD »

pkcrafter wrote:Time for a new computer. I've always used laptops, but Chromebook looks pretty attractive and a lot less $$. I understand Chromebook does not have a hard drive for storage, and instead uses cloud. That might be OK, but what about Google's word processing/spread sheet program which I think would be my only option. Is is OK? Also, can I move files on One Drive to Cloud?

Thanks,

Paul
Have found Google Docs and Drive very useful at work when sharing info w/ co-workers. A learning curve w/ features, but not bad.

GSheets, hit and miss personally. Do not use as frequently.

Personally I think its just a matter of time before MS Office is redundant if not gone. I think we see it everywhere as they were first in the game and had a monopoly on the market.

I am with you on Chromebook, pondering one myself soon as much of what I do at home is on the web etc. Plus hardware is cheap these days compared to back when, when a computer cost $1000+. Not the case anymore for the average user.
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MindBogler
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by MindBogler »

mj13f150 wrote:Personally I think its just a matter of time before MS Office is redundant if not gone. I think we see it everywhere as they were first in the game and had a monopoly on the market.
Office online is now free for home use. I don't think Office is going anywhere but competition is a good thing, it keeps everyone honest.
joebh
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by joebh »

pkcrafter wrote:Time for a new computer. I've always used laptops, but Chromebook looks pretty attractive and a lot less $$. I understand Chromebook does not have a hard drive for storage, and instead uses cloud. That might be OK, but what about Google's word processing/spread sheet program which I think would be my only option. Is is OK? Also, can I move files on One Drive to Cloud?
Try the Google apps for yourself beforehand.
While they are particularly useful for Chromebooks, you can easily try them on your current laptop.

Many folks find their apps easily meet their needs. My wife has a Chromebook and is thrilled with it.
Power users of Word and Excel should dig in a bit more to make sure their specific needs are met.
pshonore
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by pshonore »

Chromebooks are quite appealing but unlike Windows, have limited printing options. Not all printers support printing from a Chromebook
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pkcrafter
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by pkcrafter »

Thanks for the replies. I ran across this article on 9 must-have apps and tips for Chromebook. The article and the feedback/posts on Chromebook have convinced me.

http://www.cio.com/article/2943976/open ... ebook.html

I've been warned about the learning curve. Is it that different and is there good support?

Printing is a problem?

Thanks

Paul
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thecarrotfund
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by thecarrotfund »

LOVE my Chromebook! Use Docs and Sheets but nothing complicated.
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otinkyad
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by otinkyad »

pshonore wrote:Chromebooks are quite appealing but unlike Windows, have limited printing options. Not all printers support printing from a Chromebook
pkcrafter wrote:Printing is a problem?
Could be a problem. Using Google Cloud Print is preferred, and not all printers support it. My cheap Epson did. IIRC from the help page it's not required, but I didn't dig into it to understand the details.
pkcrafter wrote:I've been warned about the learning curve. Is it that different and is there good support?
It's basically a browser. I'm not sure what learning curve would be involved.

I've had a Chromebook at work for a couple of years for tasks in the server room that require a direct network connection. I had been tallying my home computer use on my old MacBook, and it was Chrome and TurboTax for over a year, so when the MacBook died I got a Chromebox. I got the box rather than a laptop because the cheap Chromebooks are cheap (the keyboard and trackpad are not nearly MacBook quality), and because 2 USB ports would mean an Ethernet dongle and USB hub for use at my desk with keyboard, mouse, and monitor. I did strongly consider the Acer Chromebook 14, but got the Acer Chromebox. The Acer models have been updated more recently than most (vs HP, Dell, Asus, et al.).

I did notice that sites that use a lot of animated ads are slow (e.g., Yahoo). I don't use such sites very much, and the performance on financial sites, Google Sheets, etc., is fine. If you are concerned, there are some slightly more expensive models with Intel i3 or i5 processors instead of Celerons or less.
frequentT
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by frequentT »

I have been actively using Google Sheets for about 4 years. If you have experience with excel, sheets are an easy transition. Sheets are more than adequate for personal finance work. If you are used to building mega size models with complex functions in excel it might not be for you.

Of course you can upload any excel doc you have built to google sheets and get a demo on how it works.
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Toons
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by Toons »

Been using Chromebook since their inception.
Google Docs is superb.
I back up "everything" to Google Drive with Chromebook.
:happy

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CFM300
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by CFM300 »

If you want to try out a Chromebook without buying one, download Google's Chrome browser to your current computer and then don't use any other program. That's what it will be like to use a Chromebook.

You can use whichever online ecosystem you prefer.

Gmail + Drive + Docs
Outlook (online) + OneDrive + Office (online)
Fastmail + Dropbox + Zoho

But you WILL have to have a Google account, because that's how you sign on to a Chromebook. Unless you use it in Guest mode.
c078342
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by c078342 »

My wife has used a Samsung Chromebook for few years now, but has recently switched back to a PC laptop. THe sharing of spreadsheets and documents with colleagues was not easy -- most could not open these files. So when she had to share, it was back to my PC laptop. Printing, while can be done with Google Cloud Print, is not fool proof. Had many occasions with multiple printers requiring to be re-enabled.
leonard
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by leonard »

I converted to Google sheets and doc - because I didn't want to pay for Excel/Word. I have been an intermediate to expert user of Excel/word.

Google sheets and doc work very well for beginning or intermediate level requirements. If you need the basics plus a bit more, they will work. excel knowledge transfers right over.

If you need to do a lot of formatting or more professional or more complex functions - I'd stick with Excel and Word.
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Casimir
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by Casimir »

I use open office. It is freeware, open source, good security, private, with regular updates and extensions, and has good user help via internet. You can keep your private information on a thumb drive and don't need permanent hard disk or cloud.

Keep it simple.
michaeljc70
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by michaeljc70 »

UnrealizedGains wrote:Another option you might wish to consider: This fall, Chromebooks will gain the ability to run Android applications. This will allow you to run the Microsoft Office applications for Android.

This article has a list of the Chromebooks that are slated to get Android application support. Of course, there will be additions to this list over time, and odds are that newly introduced Chromebooks will support Android apps.

http://www.androidcentral.com/these-are ... droid-apps
+1

There are also other Android Office Suites. As others indicated, none of these are as sophisticated as Office, but will do everything most people need.
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pkcrafter
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by pkcrafter »

Thanks everyone, excellent input. I'm going to get the chromebook.

Paul
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Gattamelata
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by Gattamelata »

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but I thought I'd add that in my experience there are some areas where Google Sheets is better than Excel.

This is most particularly true in the filter() and sort() types of functions, which don't exist in Excel. filter() is particularly valuable for me in things like my rebalancing spreadsheet, because it allows me to search a list of rows to find a particular value, then it will give me the corresponding value in another column of that row. I've found it to be much more useful than vlookup(), and to enable data manipulation in much more useful ways. Google also handles returning arrays of data from functions more intuitively than Excel does in my experience. Google sheets also has the googlefinance() function, which allows you to pull current or past finance data.

Excel still rules the roost in certain areas. If you use more than basic pivot tables, Excel is better. Excel has better data visualizations. Excel's PowerPivot is a fantastic way to pull data from databases. And Excel is a desktop application (unless you're using Office 365) and so can deploy the power of your computer more effectively against large data sets.
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Epsilon Delta
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by Epsilon Delta »

lookup, index, address, indirect and frenemies, are one of the most miserable APIs I have ever had to work with. It's all inconsistency and off by ones and converting numbers to strings and pasting strings together to do really simple things. Makes me pine for BSD Unix, at least all the Berkeley programmers were using the same hallucinogen.
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by tinscale »

pkcrafter wrote: can I move files on One Drive to Cloud?
I use OneDrive and Google Drive. In both cases the files are on my computer and backed up to the cloud and also accessible. If your OneDrive files are also on your hard drive, then all you do is upload them to Google Drive. If your OneDrive files are only in the cloud, then you have to download them to you hard drive and them upload to Google Drive.

Once uploaded to Google Drive, if you open MS Word or Excel docs in Google Docs or Sheets, it will convert them the best it can but you may have to clean them up a bit.
mancich
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by mancich »

Google Docs and Spreadsheet are certainly good enough in most cases, so it is largely a matter of preference vs. using MS Office or OpenOffice/Libre Office. I personally prefer MS Office 2007. I've tried newer versions of Office, and found the added bells and whistles just run more slowly.
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reriodan
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by reriodan »

Chromebooks are perfect for probably 90% of the people who use computers. Yet, apple still somehow convinces people to shell out 10x more for a macbook pro.
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munemaker
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by munemaker »

I have two Chromebooks, both Toshiba Chromebook 2s which I have been very happy with; one has an Intel Celeron processor and the other has an Intel i3 processor. The display and sound on the Toshibas are really good. There are many other good Chromebooks too.

If you have a Windows desktop PC, you can print to any printer from a Chromebook. We have a desktop computer and a Brother printer that is connected to our home network via ethernet. No problem printing to the Brother. It would not work though, if we did not have the desktop. The Chromebook prints to the Brother printer through the desktop PC (even though the printer is a network printer).

Google Docs and Sheets can edit Microsoft Word and Excel files. You can keep them in the Word and Excel format or save them in Docs and Sheets format.

Chromebooks have a solid state drive that usually is 16 Gb, but some have 32 Gb and in a few cases even larger. You can store files on the solid state drive. In some cases the SSD can be easily upgraded if you had the need for local storage, but personally I don't think that is necessary.

In addition to Google Drive, you can use other cloud storage platforms if you like.

Most have slots for SD cards. I have a 256 Gb SD card in which I planned to use for local storage. Google Drive works so good though, that I seldom use it.

There are also USB ports so you can plug in flash drives or external hard drives.

You can use an extension to access shared files on a Windows machine/ file server.
CFM300
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by CFM300 »

Gattamelata wrote:...there are some areas where Google Sheets is better than Excel.
...
This is most particularly true in the filter() and sort() types of functions, which don't exist in Excel.
I was not aware of Google's filter() function. Pretty slick. Thanks for sharing.
CFM300
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by CFM300 »

Epsilon Delta wrote:lookup, index, address, indirect and frenemies, are one of the most miserable APIs I have ever had to work with.
What are you referring to? Excel? Sheets? Something else?
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munemaker
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by munemaker »

Epsilon Delta wrote:...at least all the Berkeley programmers were using the same hallucinogen.
Which one was that?
macheta
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by macheta »

I keep general stuff on the Google cloud which uses the Google apps. Anything specific about my personal stuff I keep on my computer and use the MSFT apps.
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Re: Google Word Processing and Spreadsheet

Post by jchef »

Casimir wrote:I use open office. It is freeware, open source, good security, private, with regular updates and extensions, and has good user help via internet. You can keep your private information on a thumb drive and don't need permanent hard disk or cloud.
It's not directly related to this thread, but you should be aware that OpenOffice is considering shutting down. Most of the developers that used to work on OpenOffice moved to LibreOffice a number of years ago. LibreOffice has an extremely similar look and feel to OpenOffice and all of your files should work on LibreOffice without any problems. So you may want to consider switching.


http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... shut-down/
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