Ever notice my fascination with cloud-based computing? Well after fiddling around on Google Docs (which has now become my only word processor), I found out even MORE advantages of the cloud; and this time, it’s not because I have an awful computer.Google Spreadsheets allows for more than you'd expect. It easily allows for use of graphs, or charts, just like Excel, but you can export them to external sites.
So, you want to show someone your data? Embed the given code into your site, and BAM!, the graph/chart will appear and automatically update when you edit the spreadsheet. But what really amazed me is Google’s new take on the ‘fill-handle.’ Below is a chart I made, showing the birth place of 11 random presidents on top of a Google Earth map; It took me a total of 3 minutes. With the ‘ctrl’ key plus the fill-handle, Google will automatically search the Internet for related words. Want a list of fruit? Type in apple, banana, and pear, select them, and ‘ctrl’ fill-handle down, and Google will automatically search for related words, and put them into the spreadsheet. You want to find out the origin of the fruit? Google has a formula for that. In the next column, put in “=googlelookup(Cell# of ‘Origin’, “of the apple”)” and Google will automatically search for the context, and put the information in the cell. Don’t like the answer? You can also change it to other possible results that Google has. That is just one of the hundreds of powerful formulas that Google Spreadsheet lets you use.
Next time I need to make a chart for class, I know were I’ll be going, and so does Google considering I haven't logged off my Docs account in three weeks.
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