Do you like the cool features of Google docs spreadsheets but too comfortable with MS Excel’s UI? Well, the supercool OffiSync add-in is for you. It is developed for Oudi Antebi an former marketing manager at Microsoft.
How OffiSync Google Docs add-in for MS Office works?
Once you finish the installation of the addin you will see a new ribbon in the corresponding applications (word, excel and powerpoint)
When you want to open a google doc, just hit the open button, select the document you want to open and bingo, it is available for editing right inside excel.
You can even try options like collaboration, sharing from excel.
The limitations of OffiSync:
Google has some very cool functions like GoogleFinance(), ImportHtml(), ImportXml() etc. using which you can build a stock portfolio tracker, Webpage monitors, RSS to Excel converter. But these functions don’t seem to work properly when you open the document in Excel using OffiSync.
Also, when you have the addin installed, Excel takes more time to open as it needs to connect to google everytime you run office.
What do you think about the OffiSync add-in ?
[Hat tip: Digital Inspiration]
8 Responses to “Now Edit Google Spreadsheets using MS Excel”
What about all functions/formulas only available in excel? What happens if you use them in a Google spreadsheet?
I successfully installed Offisync couple of days ago after few attempts. The problem was with downloads on amazon, and not related to Offisync.
After the install, the Offisync Ribbon appeared on my Office 2007. Upon entering my Google credentials, I was able to access all the docs and spreadsheets stored in Google Docs. Very very cool.
Couple of minor things I noticed:
1) You can't add "everyone" as collaborator from within Offisync. You have to enter email addresses of each collaborator, one-by-one, which could be painstakingly slow. But seems like this is limitation is due to Google API. See: http://twitter.com/OffiSync/status/1855024033
2) After the install my "Recent Documents" list from Word and Excel was MIA. This could be a one off thingy. Did anyone else experience this?
Note: I love MS Office Live [1] because of its seamless integration with Office 2007 Suite. Now Offisync provides same integration with Google Docs. A dream come true.
1. http://workspace.office.live.com
@Noone... obviously they fail to work on gdocs. I think this add in is one step towards being able to use gdocs on office and still be able to collaborate with others using gdocs alone.
@Saqib: thanks for sharing your review. I havent tried the office live features yet. May be I should do it sometime...
@Chandoo -
Both Google Apps and Office Live Workspace provide a very capable collaboration platform. Sometimes I find myself struggling to decide to which platform to use for my classwork.
Office Live Workspace, as expected, provides seamless integration with Microsoft Office, which is critical if you are working with lots of documents and spreadsheets. But with release of Offisync, a 3rd party plugin for MS Office, the same level of seamless integration with MS Office is now available for Google Docs users.
MS needs to learn about collaborative editing from Google, and Google needs to learn about building user-friendly interfaces and seamless integration with desktop apps from MS
Hi Chandoo,
I just came across this. I've been using Google Cloud Connect add in for MSOffice. It syncs to Google Docs, but not quite as nicely as this. Great find!
I have been trying to fit a regression line in my data using Google spreadsheets, managed to come up with the chart, but some how have failed to insert the regression equation and being able to solve for the coefficients.
In Excel we have the option of "Add Trendline". Does any body know how it can be done? Will be glad if you helped.
Fatiha
In Excel Select the series you want to add a Trendline to
Right Click, Add Trendline
Select the Trendline, Right Click Format Trendline
Tick Display Equation on Chart
In regards to adding a trendline to the Google Charts
Have a read of: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/docs/MWHGXDn27S8
or
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/linear-regression-in-google-docs/
It's no longer available.