Mountain View, California — Ever since Google introduced spreadsheets for mobile phone, the company has been constantly attempting to improve its functionality, and up until now users were only able to read the spreadsheets, but last week Google announced an improvement to the mobile version of Google Docs, which now includes the ability to view, edit, sort, and filter spreadsheets while they are on the go.
Google has added improved support to the newest version of its Google Speadsheet application that allows you to add rows, sort columns, edit a row that already exists, and filter the columns by value, empowering number crunching fanboys to work on those profit and loss sheets away from their computer.
The spreadsheets editable features will function on a number of handsets including Android-powered devices like the T-Mobile G1, the iPhone and iPod touch, and the Nokia S60 phones, so if you are currently rocking one of those, then you can now edit on the go. Documents and presentations remain read-only for now.
At first sight, making it feasible for users to edit a spreadsheet on their mobile phones does not seem like it would be a very hard problem to solve, but the size of these devices does make it hard to develop an interface that is usable, yet still displays enough information.
However, User Interface Software Engineer Eric Bogs, who made the official announcement on the Google Docs blog, shares a couple of practical uses for spreadsheets on the go. “Last week I was trying to find some Broadway tickets to surprise my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day. A friend of mine at a ticket agency publishes an online spreadsheet with a list of last-minute available tickets. From my iPhone, I was able to quickly access his spreadsheet to see upcoming shows,” explains Bogs.
“From here, with just a few clicks, I was able to filter down to tickets available on Valentine’s Day,” he continues. “I could see only the rows that matched my filter, and I eventually found a show that I knew that my boyfriend would like: [Billy Elliot The Musical] at 7pm with orchestra seats.”
Most of us these days seems to be hopping from place to place and more often than we are by our desktops, being able to edit your spreadsheets while sitting at a bus terminal, or in the middle of a lunch meeting could be fantastic. If you are a Google Spreadsheet user, then this is a huge upgrade.
The feature is, however, available in all 38 languages that are supported in Google Docs spreadsheets.