Evolution is a natural part of life. Change can be a good thing — and in business, when the pressure is on to stay relevant and successful, evolving means staying current and adjusting to what the market demands.
When it launched, Google Sheets positioned itself as the latest and greatest version of what Microsoft Excel started, taking the best of what that product does and expanding on it. It would be easy to classify Google Sheets as the “internet spreadsheet software.” And though it shares similarities with Excel, its functionality and what it can be used for are where it differs.
In this section, we’ll walk through an Excel tutorial, compare and contrast Microsoft’s spreadsheet software with Google’s, and learn how to maximize the features of both to maintain an efficient and successful business.
The foundations of Excel
Our Microsoft Excel tutorial starts by examining exactly what it’s used for. The applications reach far and wide across many different industries.
A shipping company can use Excel to track its daily, weekly, and monthly packages. A bank can use it to keep internal records of its transactions as well as its customers. And marketers can track leads, product strategy, and project assignments, as well as break down individual sales data.
What’s more, Excel enables businesses to perform complicated mathematical calculations by creating formulas based on the type of information they’re examining. There’s also the ability to create growth charts and forecast future earnings.
Learning how to use the software puts the power of the spreadsheet in your hands. Every Excel spreadsheet starts as a blank canvas for a business to paint on.
It’s important to know which spreadsheet software is right for you: Google Sheets? Excel? Let’s detail each and go deeper into the different parts of the software and how they work together.
Google Sheets vs Excel
It’s fair to say that there is no Google Sheets without Excel, so to examine the similarities and differences between the two, let’s look at the actions you can perform with both, where they’re lacking, and where they diverge.
Collaboration
- Google Sheets. You could argue that the ease of collaboration in Google Sheets is its best feature. At any given time, your team members can view and make suggestions to a Google Sheet. Each user is clearly defined, and Google Sheets tracks which user made a particular change — keeping everyone organized and accountable. There’s also total control over who has editing and sharing permissions on a document, so if you deal with sensitive information, you can make sure only those with the proper credentials have access.
- Microsoft Excel. One of the biggest differences when it comes to Google Sheets vs Excel is collaboration capability. On the desktop version of Excel, only one person at a time can access the document. That’s because it’s not cloud-based software like Google Sheets. And while Microsoft has made some adjustments by adding collaboration functionality to its online suite, if you’re using the desktop application, working in real time with your team isn’t possible.
Sharing work
- Google Sheets. The ability to collaborate and share documents in Google Sheets go hand in hand. Because the software is cloud-based, every spreadsheet exists online. This makes sharing work as easy as pushing a button. Google’s suite is set up so that each of its platforms connects with the other. Just click Share to send a document to a team member’s Gmail address.
- Microsoft Excel. There’s a small difference in sharing spreadsheets using Excel, but it’s a noticeable one. If you’re operating off the desktop version of Excel, to share a document, you must attach it to an email in a different application. This makes tracking the document history and keeping a paper trail more complicated than it is with Google Sheets.
Because Google Sheets includes built-in collaboration features, any email message sent within Gmail contains the changes made and who made them. Excel doesn’t have this functionality without pairing it with online Microsoft software, which means keeping up with which user made a specific change could get messy.
Saving documents
- Google Sheets. Google Sheets has an autosave feature that can keep you from losing all the work you’ve done. Everything is backed up on Google Drive, keeping a clear record of each sheet along with the ability to organize each into folders and subfolders. Google Sheets also has a mobile app, so accessing a document on the go within the cloud is as simple as pushing a button.
- Microsoft Excel. In Excel, the only way to access the same type of cloud functionality as Google Sheets is through a subscription. This means cataloging and finding files quickly might take a bit more work. If a business does splurge for a supercharged Microsoft subscription, Excel has a OneDrive online database for documents. But Google Sheets has the clear advantage in this category with its free document storage and tracking.
Charts and graphs
- Google Sheets. Google Sheets is limited in the types and overall quality of the charts it can produce. Simply put, Excel has better built-in chart applications than Google Sheets. While Google Sheets is great for data entry and project tracking, the number of charts it can host and the automation within falls short compared to Excel.
- Microsoft Excel. In comparing Google Sheets vs Excel, Excel has the clear edge in creating data models and graphs. You can design and create more of them than with Sheets, allowing for better data analysis and charting. Excel will also recommend different charts based on the type of data you’re inputting, so you won’t have to spend as much time thinking about how to best model your data. Even better, Excel can combine two charts, providing a plethora of options for arranging and plotting data.
Data analysis
- Google Sheets. Because of the limited charting capabilities in Google Sheets, you might have to do more manual work to shape your data the way you need it. From a numbers standpoint, Google Sheets offers a maximum of 1,000 rows, so a business that regularly deals with a lot of data might find it restrictive.
Adding new rows is also a manual process, so the workflow for this type of data processing might be slower than what you’re looking for. This lack of processing power is something to keep in mind when choosing software — the last thing you want is to be halfway through a hefty project on Google Sheets and realize it doesn’t have the capacity you need.
- Microsoft Excel. Excel’s advanced charting capabilities make it easier to draw quick conclusions and make better decisions than with Google Sheets. And while Google Sheets has pivot table capabilities — a summary further breaking down data — there’s just more built into Excel.
The spreadsheet software was created to host large amounts of data and has advanced abilities to organize and condense that data. You can create charts for data sets, stack one product’s sales against another, and find common ground within. Excel has long been the leader in this type of data analysis, and it remains the standard by which all other spreadsheet software is judged.
Google Sheets 101
After examining the intricacies of Google Sheets vs Microsoft Excel, you have a choice to make. If that choice is Google Sheets, it’s important to understand the features and operations within Google Sheets that will help you get the most out of the software.
How to create a Google Sheet
Creating a Google Sheet is pretty simple. Make sure you’ve set up a Google account first so you’ll have access to Google’s cloud connectivity. After that, there are a few options to get started:
- Access Google Drive, click New on the dashboard, and select Google Sheets.
- Launch Google Sheets, click File, and select New and then Spreadsheet from the dropdown menu.
- Select a template from the Google Sheets homepage.
Now you can start inputting data and personalizing your spreadsheet. You can also add new sheets within your master spreadsheet to separate different categories.
Google Sheets are defined by individual cells — this is the space where a single data entry lives. Each entry is entered into a row and a column, so make sure you’re only entering a single data point in each. If that sounds too time-consuming, you can copy and paste data into a sheet from an outside source — or even better, import data in from an outside file.
How to convert an Excel file to Google Sheets
Though Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel are seen as competitors, there is some compatibility when it comes to importing data from one to the other. If you want to convert Excel to Google Sheets, you can do so with a few quick clicks. Upload your Excel file to your Google Drive. Once it’s in your browser, you’ll have the option to select Save as Google Sheets.
This creates a newly converted file, along with the original. You can also adjust the settings within Google Sheets to streamline the process each time you upload any Microsoft files to Google. Even better, this functionality extends to spreadsheet-database hybrid tools like Jotform Tables where Excel files, along with other file types, can easily be imported into the platform.
Operating within Google Sheets
It’s important to understand how to work within Google Sheets and how to perform its basic functions.
Dropdown menus
Google Sheets gives you the ability to create dropdown lists to input data based on set criteria. You can create lists from a range of values in certain cells or an assortment of numbers or text.
The main reason to do this is to ensure the data you collect arrives exactly as you want it to. Plus, it moves the process along for users who, for example, answer a survey or are asked to rate an experience numerically. This guide from Google gets further into the technical specifics.
Locking cells and freezing rows
Learning how to lock cells in Google Sheets is a way to isolate them from the rest of the sheet. All you have to do is highlight the range of cells you want to protect and change the editing privileges based on what you’re trying to do.
You can also freeze single or multiple rows to separate different numerical values or create a data group for analysis. There are lots of different ways to complete this action within the Sheets interface.
Sort and alphabetize your data
It helps to arrange the data you enter into Google Sheets. This can mean recategorizing a client list based on the state clients live in, alphabetizing last names, or sorting clients by the amount of business they’ve contributed, to name a few examples.
When it comes to sorting in Google Sheets, all you have to do is choose the column you want to sort, select the Data tab in the Google Sheets menu, and click the Sort range option. Customization takes over from there, allowing you to sort columns however you need.
Wrap text within a cell
Another valuable function Google Sheets offers is the ability to wrap text within a cell. There are a few different ways to do this. This guide is a good place to start. It only takes a few clicks within the Format tab.
Wrapping text in Google Sheets is especially helpful when cells include a list, because you can see each item without having to click on them individually.
Hiding columns
Learning how to hide columns in Google Sheets is worthwhile if a business traffics in sensitive information.
There might be an instance where a company works within a Google Sheet but only wants certain employees to see certain aspects of that sheet. That’s where hiding columns is beneficial.
This is a simple one-click maneuver — and you can choose to hide a single column or multiple columns. This doesn’t mean they’ll stay hidden permanently, so if you change your mind or make a mistake, this setting can be toggled on and off.
The world on a string
With Google Sheets, there are many functions to take advantage of. Excel’s fingerprints are all over Google Sheets, but the software has differentiated its offerings and the ways a business can use its workflow processes to accomplish its goals.
Now that we’ve examined Excel and Google Sheets, we’re going to explore how to go even further into Google Sheets’s data analysis and table creation capabilities.
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