This month, several features have been added to Google Spreadsheets. As you can tell, the one I'm most excited about is the ability to share a Google Spreadsheet with anyone. When you enable a spreadsheet to be viewable by anyone, it creates a special URL that can be sent to anyone; you can invite others to view your spreadsheet from here, as well.

Though it requires the invitee to have a free Google account, this will be a powerful, easy way of sharing important, detailed information to anyone you want. As a matter of fact, it just so happens that I have some important information to share with you in my own Google Spreadsheet that I've created for my readers. OK, maybe it's not that important, but I share it all the same!

Other features that Google has added include the ability to convert to PDF or Open Document Format (ODF), and the ability to print your spreadsheet easily. Check out their What's New page for more information on all of their new features.

While using Google Spreadsheets for updating a small file I use for the site, I ran across a huge software bug. I couldn't believe that it actually happened. Of course, I reported it to Google right away. Here's what I wrote:

"... The last time I was working on this spreadsheet, I did a lot of formatting (colors, numbering, etc.)  When I opened the same file today, all of my formatting was gone; as if I never did any of it. The data was retained, but not in the format I had it in."

I have all the confidence in the world that this will be fixed soon, as well as any other major bugs that are in the queue. This is just a public service reminder from me that Google Spreadsheets is still in Beta, and that it should not be used for any data you hold dear to your heart ... yet.

A couple of weeks back, I received my invite to test Google Spreadsheets and have since maintained a few files that I use for personal reasons. And as promised in my previous post about it, it's time to start letting you know my thoughts on it. You can probably tell by my tone that my first impression is leaning towards unfavorable, but not totally.

Now don't get me wrong, it would be unfair to expect a lot of advanced and intermediate features from this product, I know that. I also know that it'll get better with time and more feedback. In the meantime, there are just a few simple things that I think would enhance my experience with it and would encourage me to use it more.

• Charts. How can you not have the ability to create a chart in your first release? I realize it's not that simple, but there's a whole slue of online graphing components that would easily accommodate this. It would be in there best interest to have this added sooner than later.
• Auto-Fill. If you can't get us a handle on the bottom right of the cell that we can grab to auto-fill a formula, that's fine; but there has to be a better way than copying and pasting cells.
• Click & Drag Cells. It's just nice to be able to highlight a range of cells and click & drag them wherever I want. If I'm working with a large spreadsheet with several sections, copy/paste just isn't fast enough for me.
• Format Painter. I miss my Format Painter. I use it all the time, seriously. Google needs to provide a way to copy/paste just the formatting of a cell.

I agree that these things are petty. Yes, Microsoft has spoiled me; but it is what it is and I make no apologies for it. The hard truth is that little things like this have become a part of my user experience and what makes me productive.

As I eluded to before, making your "day-to-day job easier" is what helps you master your productivity. And though I think being able to share a Google spreadsheet online (a lot!), it is harder to use than Microsoft Excel and a lot of other products like it. An "even easier to use" Microsoft Excel 2007 will only make this worse.

It looks like Google is jockeying for position to make a "go" at Microsoft Office. First, they acquire the online word processing application called Writely in March 2006, then they roll out Google Calendar shortly after that. Now they've introduced Google Spreadsheets in what they call Limited Test, which means that you can sign up to test the beta when it becomes available.

In addition to signing up for a limited test, there's a small tour available to check out some of the features; but it's still too soon to see how it compares to Microsoft Excel. However, I would imagine that the advanced features would be limited but that the basics are good enough for most people. I've signed up, so I'll let you know how I like it as soon as I can.