Major Updates to Google Docs Spreadsheets App – Menus, Named Ranges, Toolbar

Google Docs – spreadsheet application has introduced some major upgrades to their editor today.

Some of the key changes include:

• Introduction of menus to access all spreadsheet functions / features by category: Now the spreadsheet app menus look more like Excel 2003 menus. Looks like Google is trying hard to close gap between the two applications.
• Improved and less ambiguous toolbar: Now the toolbar has lesser icons on it but it is more user friendly and simple.
• Named ranges: I haven’t seen these before. Or they were hidden somewhere in the cluttered toolbar. But the named ranges feature can be really useful if you work with tabular data and use lots of formulas.

  

• New share and auto-save buttons: The new “Share” and “save” buttons are cool and functional. They have replaced the earlier “save”, “save & close” buttons. They have also changed the “share” screens, now when you click on the share options, you would see a normal dialog box with spreadsheet sharing options etc. instead of the earlier version with screen tabs.

Give these new features a try, who knows, you might find spending 90 odd dollars on a full blown spreadsheet application like MS Excel a waste of money.

PS: the first screenshot of Docs is from Google spreadsheet help page