EditGrid – a better web-based spreadsheet application?

You may have used Google Spreadsheets or one of the other web-based spreadsheet solutions and may have varying experiences with them all. Like any web app, it depends on what you want to achieve and whether the web app in question will help you do that. Parity with desktop spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel is something of a Holy Grail for their web-based cousins and while we may not be quite there yet, EditGrid is a pretty good contribution.

The application is very sleek looking and as this comparison between EditGrid, Google Spreadsheets and Microsoft Excel 2003 reveals, there is quite a bit under the hood to persuade power users to give it a try. EditGrid has also been integrated into web services you may already be using. These web services include Netvibes, Pageflakes and Google Personalized Homepage. According to Read/Write Web, it is also integrated into Salesforce AppExchange and several SaaS products and platforms.

The feature list is pretty impressive and any attempt to list them all here wouldn’t do them justice.

To get a really good idea what EditGrid can do for you, take the tour and spend some time clicking on the various features. Some of the more interesting features (at least for me) include permalinks for your spreadsheets (so you can keep track of them using your browser bookmarks or, better yet, social bookmark sites like del.icio.us or even Connectbeam for online collaborations with colleagues. The option to publish dynamic data to your site is also going to be a great way to keep up to date on the changing underlying data. This feature works in much the same way as a widget works in that you copy customised code and embed that in your site. Visitors to that site will then see up to date data.

Yet another great collaboration tool is the chat feature which users can use to discuss elements of a spreadsheet as it is being developed. Of course EditGrid also has the many features you would expect to see in a spreadsheet solution and while it may not be quite as powerful and flexible as a desktop equivalent, EditGrid seems sure to impress less demanding users.

There are two versions of EditGrid. There is a free version and a paid version which costs $5 per month per user.

(Source: Read/Write Web)

Tags: editgrid, spreadsheet, google spreadsheets, web apps, microsoft excel