Google announced today another update to their online Docs software. If you haven’t used Google Docs, it basically an online Office-type application that beat Microsoft to the punch. Docs is great for online collaboration and cloud storage. The latest update allows users to graph multiple ranges and the ability to hide sheets.
Graphing multiple ranges can be done by clicking on Select ranges… and add another range. This gives users the ability to create charts that show multiple graphs to contrast different trends. It’s handy, especially if you want to contrast and compare such things as origins of web traffic or company income. It’s something users have wanted for sometime now.
The ability to hide sheets is another Spreadsheet addition that Docs users will find helpful. To enable it you simply need to click a sheet and choose Hide Sheet. This doesn’t completely remove the sheet from a users view – to bring it back into view you can click the Hidden sheets option in the View menu. This probably isn’t as needed as the graphing addition, but I’m sure there are users out there that were really wanting this option.
While Microsoft’s online version of Office, known as Office 365, continues to languish in private Beta, Google Docs is moving forward. It’s encouraging that they are coming closer to a full suite that can rival Office. They aren’t there yet, but in terms of online applications they are probably ahead. And that, going forward, is probably the best place to be.
I just finished listening to the unabridged Audible audio book version of “The Man Who Lied To His Laptop” by Clifford Nass and Corina Yen.
Similarly, BMW had a big problem with male German car owners complaining loudly about the integrated BMW GPS units. It turns out that German men objected over and over again to BMW’s help line that the BMW GPS units came equipped with a female voice, and that just wouldn’t do, because it just wasn’t “right” to take driving directions from a female voice. “Knowing” that mostly male engineers had developed it wasn’t enough to eliminate the problem.
Most households in America are now starting to see more than one computer in them. Today my kids share a single PC, and as they get older I am sure each will have to have their own. My wife and I each have laptops. Not to mention the desktop machine I use for show production. A road trip earlier in the year caused me to have an extra laptop that the wife uses, but before she went house mobile she had her own desktop machine.
