008 Battle of the Spreadsheet Software – ProductivityCast

Let’s get ready to ruuuummmmmblllllle! We’re going to battle until the last spreadsheet software is standing! Okay, not really. But, isn't that an exciting way to start anything!? In this episode, we introduce our latest, regular podcast contributor, Art Gelwicks of The Idea Pump, to ProductivityCast. We’re excited to now have Francis and Art join us going forward and really increase the value of diverse productivity perspectives and knowledge. We each come at the world of personal productivity from different angles and backgrounds, and we believe that strengthens our ability on ProductivityCast to get to universal axioms as well as the deeper discussions of differences in personalities and workflows, from which you, our listeners, will benefit. So, let’s get on with the discussion about the pro’s and con’s of the most popular spreadsheet software--and their productive uses! Enjoy! Give us feedback! We love to hear from you and send your questions and suggestions. And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Show Notes Resources we mention, including links to them will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Early history of Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel Google Sheets Apple Numbers LibreOffice Calc SharePoint Microsoft Access G Suite ← this is a free 30-day trial of G Suite for new accounts (Thank Ray, Google Small Business Advisor - Productivity! ;-) Getting Things Done in Google Sheets / Excel (template and video tutorial) Evernote ← Sign up for a free Evernote account here! CRM (This is a Webinar Ray presented on How to Choose a CRM for Small Business) OneNote Google Apps Script Google Slides Apple Pages iCloud Apple Keynote OpenDocument format Google Drive Microsoft Excel Training Google Sheets Training Apple Numbers Training Ray: We didn’t discuss this, but I’d remisce if we didn’t mention Airtable. Per their website, “Airtable makes it easy to organize stuff, people, ideas and anything else you can imagine with your team.” Worth checking out! Raw Text Transcript 0:00:00.030,0:00:04.080 are you ready to manage your work and 0:00:02.129,0:00:05.940 personal world better to live a more 0:00:04.080,0:00:07.049 fulfilling productive life then you've 0:00:05.940,0:00:09.750 come to the right place 0:00:07.049,0:00:12.450 welcome to productivity cast the weekly 0:00:09.750,0:00:14.880 show about all things productivity here 0:00:12.450,0:00:18.510 are your hosts Ray Sidney-Smith and 0:00:14.880,0:00:20.580 Augusto Pinaud and welcome back to 0:00:18.510,0:00:22.050 productivity cast everybody the weekly 0:00:20.580,0:00:24.510 show about all things personal 0:00:22.050,0:00:26.279 productivity as do you know I'm Ray 0:00:24.510,0:00:28.500 Sidney-Smith and I'm here with Augusto 0:00:26.279,0:00:30.900 Pinaud how's it gonna Augusto going pretty 0:00:28.500,0:00:33.090 well pretty well fantastic 0:00:30.900,0:00:34.890 well it's our pleasure to introduce our 0:00:33.090,0:00:36.780 newest podcast contributor to the 0:00:34.890,0:00:38.790 productivity cast team Art Gelwicks 0:00:36.780,0:00:40.860 he's a business process project 0:00:38.790,0:00:42.450 management and collaboration consultant 0:00:40.860,0:00:45.059 for professionals small to medium-sized 0:00:42.450,0:00:46.770 businesses and nonprofits our is also 0:00:45.059,0:00:48.930 the founder of The Idea Pump 0:00:46.770,0:00:51.120 consultancy definitely check out the 0:00:48.930,0:00:53.969 blog over there at the idea pump dot com 0:00:51.120,0:00:55.620 and is an experienced public speaker 0:00:53.969,0:00:57.300 welcome to ProductivityCast oh thank you 0:00:55.620,0:00:59.940 I appreciate it it's good to be with you 0:00:57.300,0:01:02.430 guys and talk about the topic du jour 0:00:59.940,0:01:04.170 we're looking forward to having you on 0:01:02.430,0:01:05.040 as a regular contributor so that's 0:01:04.170,0:01:09.659 always a good thing 0:01:05.040,0:01:14.220 and so today we are going to be talking 0:01:09.659,0:01:16.320 about software that I think everybody 0:01:14.220,0:01:18.720 pretty much knows I mean you know we all 0:01:16.320,0:01:22.110 use it in some way shape or form which 0:01:18.720,0:01:25.470 is spreadsheet software and there are so 0:01:22.110,0:01:26.880 many today that we sort of I thought 0:01:25.470,0:01:30.060 would be really fun for us to actually 0:01:26.880,0:01:33.210 discuss the variety of them and their 0:01:30.060,0:01:35.640 pros and cons based on how all of us 0:01:33.210,0:01:38.310 sort of used them just as a sort of 0:01:35.640,0:01:40.409 primer you know we started off with 0:01:38.310,0:01:42.540 really Microsoft Excel I mean it was a 0:01:40.409,0:01:45.390 it was another product that was bought 0:01:42.540,0:01:47.159 by Microsoft way back you know in I 0:01:45.390,0:01:48.750 believe it's the 80s and forgive me if 0:01:47.159,0:01:51.329 I'm someone can correct me if I'm wrong 0:01:48.750,0:01:53.430 but the you know the software has 0:01:51.329,0:01:56.790 developed into what is now Microsoft 0:01:53.430,0:02:00.450 Excel and here we are you know 30 odd 0:01:56.790,0:02:02.969 years later and now we have you know 0:02:00.450,0:02:05.310 products from Apple to open-source 0:02:02.969,0:02:07.500 software like libre office having calc 0:02:05.310,0:02:10.700 to so many other spreadsheet software 0:02:07.500,0:02:13.770 and I want to just sort of talk about 0:02:10.700,0:02:17.520 what we use why we use it 0:02:13.770,0:02:19.590 and the pros and cons of those pieces so 0:02:17.520,0:02:22.440 let's start off with the big elephant in 0:02:19.590,0:02:24.630 the room which is Microsoft Excel what 0:02:22.440,0:02:27.810 we all have experienced with Microsoft 0:02:24.630,0:02:29.400 Excel how Microsoft Excel is one of 0:02:27.810,0:02:31.920 those things that I consider the Swiss 0:02:29.400,0:02:34.710 Army knife of the office suite I've used 0:02:31.920,0:02:36.930 I have used personally and watched Excel 0:02:34.710,0:02:38.520 be used for just about everything 0:02:36.930,0:02:40.950 positive and lots of things that 0:02:38.520,0:02:43.200 probably shouldn't be used for when you 0:02:40.950,0:02:45.390 look at the function set that's included 0:02:43.200,0:02:48.180 in it and its capability of not only 0:02:45.390,0:02:49.650 handling and basic mathematical 0:02:48.180,0:02:51.690 functionalities and financial 0:02:49.650,0:02:54.510 calculations things that are extremely 0:02:51.690,0:02:57.480 common that it's used for Excel is also 0:02:54.510,0:03:00.510 very commonly used as a data modeling 0:02:57.480,0:03:02.160 tool in a database in many cases where 0:03:00.510,0:03:04.200 you would actually think that you would 0:03:02.160,0:03:07.110 probably push into a larger database 0:03:04.200,0:03:09.330 system a lot of those pieces come back 0:03:07.110,0:03:11.100 into Excel I work a lot in the 0:03:09.330,0:03:13.380 collaborative space with systems like 0:03:11.100,0:03:16.110 SharePoint so you start to see Excel 0:03:13.380,0:03:19.110 tying to those data systems to pull 0:03:16.110,0:03:21.030 information down for analysis the 0:03:19.110,0:03:23.610 challenge you get with something like 0:03:21.030,0:03:25.890 Excel is you're right it's the elephant 0:03:23.610,0:03:29.040 in the room and unfortunately often the 0:03:25.890,0:03:31.410 elephant can take out 90% of the room it 0:03:29.040,0:03:33.810 has such a intersect and so many 0:03:31.410,0:03:36.060 capabilities that like most things in 0:03:33.810,0:03:38.670 office only about 20% of them are 0:03:36.060,0:03:41.180 actually used by anyone but you start to 0:03:38.670,0:03:44.100 miss out on some of the capabilities but 0:03:41.180,0:03:46.020 just over a couple of days like today 0:03:44.100,0:03:48.660 I'm going to be spending most of the day 0:03:46.020,0:03:49.620 using Excel building out data models and 0:03:48.660,0:03:52.770 wireframes 0:03:49.620,0:03:56.670 or an application design is it the 0:03:52.770,0:03:59.220 optimal tool for that no but it can do 0:03:56.670,0:04:01.050 it and it can do it notably well and it 0:03:59.220,0:04:04.500 happens to be one that's right there and 0:04:01.050,0:04:06.570 readily available I remember my first 0:04:04.500,0:04:09.840 use of Excel was actually developing 0:04:06.570,0:04:12.360 applications for you know the company 0:04:09.840,0:04:14.180 that I worked for and you know because 0:04:12.360,0:04:17.450 it could do all of these sophisticated 0:04:14.180,0:04:21.419 formulas that we just decided to turn 0:04:17.450,0:04:25.740 the various sheets into the workflow 0:04:21.419,0:04:27.360 that helped us move data from one set of 0:04:25.740,0:04:30.150 cells within 0:04:27.360,0:04:32.250 one tab to the next each department put 0:04:30.150,0:04:34.710 in their information you know in each of 0:04:32.250,0:04:38.219 the various tabs and then we got sort of 0:04:34.710,0:04:40.289 the output on the other side and it was 0:04:38.219,0:04:41.789 it did its job you know what I mean it 0:04:40.289,0:04:44.669 was great and there was a time in which 0:04:41.789,0:04:49.409 I felt that was sort of the ultimate 0:04:44.669,0:04:51.629 until I got more geeky and excited about 0:04:49.409,0:04:53.460 using access Microsoft Access and then 0:04:51.629,0:04:56.460 we used you know the Microsoft Excel 0:04:53.460,0:04:58.830 database as our as our database to pull 0:04:56.460,0:05:01.409 into access and really use the front-end 0:04:58.830,0:05:05.370 access you know graphic user interface 0:05:01.409,0:05:06.930 the GUI for purposes of having forms and 0:05:05.370,0:05:09.419 things of that nature for people to be 0:05:06.930,0:05:12.449 ...