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New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

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Re: New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

#141

Post by ChikkaChiChi »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #129
gdulli wrote: post #24

I'm at my first company that uses Google apps and it's been a bad experience. There's so much about email and calendaring that Outlook/Exchange got right that it's hard to be without it after taking it for granted. Using a native rich application is always going to be superior to building a web app on top of a browser. Once you're used to real applications, Gmail and the other apps aren't suitable for anything more t…

> I'd prefer that any money my company might be saving be deducted from my paycheck if it would mean they'd get off of Google apps. Sysadmin here. How much are you willing to pay? I'll need at least 2 domain servers, exchange server, backup server/device/nas/tapes, etc to give you a stable and recoverable environment. I'll need an air conditioned server room/closet as well and a decent UPS. We'll need to pay for offs…

Much better put than just saying 'diminishing returns'

Re: New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

#142

Post by ChikkaChiChi »

toddmorey wrote: post #119
bane wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also at a company that's a 100% Google Apps and so have been forced to make a good go at it. - Gmail is great for near-term communications, having chat in the same place makes it a nice communications hub for immediate and near-term communications. I like it better than Outlook and it seems much snappier in day-to-day use. But I find it almost unusable when looking for emails from a while ago. It's so bad that I…

There's a sad irony that your #1 complaint about Google's email product is its search functionality.

If you can't find it in GMail, then how on Earth do you find things by Googling them?

Ten minutes spent learning how operators works will save you hours of time. Google was right when they said 'archive everything' and that folders were a terrible idea.

Re: New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

#143

Post by ladzoppelin »

source99 wrote: post #123
gdulli wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could definitely be part of it. Outlook isn't dumbed down because it's not primarily aimed at home users. Maybe Gmail makes sense for few people in the office the way Outlook makes sense for few people at home. That doesn't change the fact that the bandwidth/latency profiles are different going to the server room in the building than going out to the internet. But I might see a big improvement over what Gmail is…

What features would you add to Gmail to make it more useful for business users? What UI fixes would you make? How do I get started writing plugins for gmail to add the above features and fixes?

For starters Google could of kept compatibility with the activesync protocol instead of making calender sync with outlook the horrific monster it is today. Actions like this are just one of the multiple reasons I tell people to not invest invest Google business products.

Re: New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

#144

Post by [deleted] »

source99 wrote: post #123
gdulli wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could definitely be part of it. Outlook isn't dumbed down because it's not primarily aimed at home users. Maybe Gmail makes sense for few people in the office the way Outlook makes sense for few people at home. That doesn't change the fact that the bandwidth/latency profiles are different going to the server room in the building than going out to the internet. But I might see a big improvement over what Gmail is…

What features would you add to Gmail to make it more useful for business users? What UI fixes would you make? How do I get started writing plugins for gmail to add the above features and fixes?

[deleted]

Re: New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

#145

Post by thefallsman »

cglee wrote: post #49
gdulli wrote: post #24

I'm at my first company that uses Google apps and it's been a bad experience. There's so much about email and calendaring that Outlook/Exchange got right that it's hard to be without it after taking it for granted. Using a native rich application is always going to be superior to building a web app on top of a browser. Once you're used to real applications, Gmail and the other apps aren't suitable for anything more t…

This is how a disruptive technology starts. Google Apps doesn't have to be better, but the idea is that one day, you'll find Google Apps "good enough", with all the benefits of being online (and now offline, too). You're just on the higher end of the power-user curve, but your "good enough" day is approaching.

I agree completely. Google apps have already come a long way. Even right out of the box, I liked the spreadsheet functionality. Excel is great for complex projects but for simple data storage, I find docs to be easier to use.

I believe they were the first to auto sum columns in the bottom right hand corner, a feature which excel later added (feel free to correct me if i'm wrong). Something simple like this can be great for quick projects. I also like the ability to share within a group and allow multiple people to edit it. Imagine how much longer it takes to pass an excel sheet to 10 people and have them edit things.. I like the new update to edit without making instant changes that others will see.

More to your point, I would say that the spreadsheet app is definitely "good enough" for basic use but the word copy in docs needs some work. I like the share-ability feature, but I think word is better in almost every way.

Re: New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

#146

Post by samspot »

gdulli wrote: post #24

I'm at my first company that uses Google apps and it's been a bad experience. There's so much about email and calendaring that Outlook/Exchange got right that it's hard to be without it after taking it for granted. Using a native rich application is always going to be superior to building a web app on top of a browser. Once you're used to real applications, Gmail and the other apps aren't suitable for anything more t…

I have to say that I find the gmail experience vastly superior to thunderbird with my work email. There is something to be said for having a server do all the work instead of my desktop.

Thunderbird is currently my #4 memory hog, behind java and firefox, on a computer that routinely hits 100% memory usage.

Re: New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

#147

Post by taylorwc »

kyrra wrote: post #135
gdulli wrote: post #24

I'm at my first company that uses Google apps and it's been a bad experience. There's so much about email and calendaring that Outlook/Exchange got right that it's hard to be without it after taking it for granted. Using a native rich application is always going to be superior to building a web app on top of a browser. Once you're used to real applications, Gmail and the other apps aren't suitable for anything more t…

I went from a fully MS Office company, to a different company that used Google Apps, which was recently bought by another company that uses MS Office (that we are now moving to). I've had extensive experience with both products at this point. ===Outlook vs Gmail=== Outlook has a lot of things going for it. One of my main complaints is the functionality difference between the PC and OSX versions of Outlook. Outlook on…

> On the plus side of Outlook, it has much more powerful searching/sorting abilities

I'm a bit surprised by this one. I'd pick Gmail search over Outlook every time, though my only real choices are Outlook for Mac or OWA.

Re: New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

#148

Post by csmuk »

VikingCoder wrote: post #139
csmuk wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're doing it wrong. sharepoint/svn avoids these issues.

"sharepoint/svn avoids these issues"? Utter fail. It's like you're telling me to send a TELEGRAM rather than use IRC.

Care to expand on this rather than draw a baseless analogy?

Re: New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

#150

Post by lallysingh »

bane wrote: post #88
gdulli wrote: post #24

I'm at my first company that uses Google apps and it's been a bad experience. There's so much about email and calendaring that Outlook/Exchange got right that it's hard to be without it after taking it for granted. Using a native rich application is always going to be superior to building a web app on top of a browser. Once you're used to real applications, Gmail and the other apps aren't suitable for anything more t…

I'm also at a company that's a 100% Google Apps and so have been forced to make a good go at it. - Gmail is great for near-term communications, having chat in the same place makes it a nice communications hub for immediate and near-term communications. I like it better than Outlook and it seems much snappier in day-to-day use. But I find it almost unusable when looking for emails from a while ago. It's so bad that I…

For #1, Hit the "Expand all" button (it's the one to the left of the print button at the top of the entire conversation. Then use Ctrl-F to search within.
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