If you need to make a spreadsheet, we can use Excel and it is usually the most common option. But it is not the only option and we can use free alternatives like Google sheets. What is Google Sheets? In the next paragraphs we explain how you can use online spreadsheets, what are the differences from Excel or how we can create a sheet from Google for free to share and edit it in real time with other users.
In the next paragraphs we will explain how to do it, how to create Google spreadsheets, from what platforms we can create them or what templates there are.
What is Google Sheets or Spreadsheets
Google Sheets is Google’s tool for creating spreadsheets in the same way that you create them in Microsoft Excel, a mythical and fundamental tool created in the eighties. But Google Sheets is free and allows us to edit collaboratively in real time with any Google account. We can have as many spreadsheets as we want and insert formulas, automate tasks, validate data, assign tasks or combine with other Google applications.
One of the main advantages of this tool is that the changes are automatically saved in the version history so that everyone works with the most recent tool, but we can also undo possible errors. And we can manage all kinds of spreadsheets by customizing them with filters, actions, columns, colors, fonts… Or we can download them to consult them offline or to open them from other similar programs, such as Excel itself.
Supported Platforms and Devices
We can use Google Sheets from the browser, simply by accessing our browser and opening our Google account. From here we can open Google spreadsheets without any problem and it is compatible with the main browsers: you can use it in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Apple Safari…
We can also use it by downloading the application on our mobile phone because since 2014 we can use a specific application to open Google Sheets on the smartphone with access to all your sheets created from the application.
The application is free for Android and iOS and has a comfortable interface from which we can take a look or edit all the sheets that we have linked to our different emails without having to resort to the browser.
Differences with Excel
There are hardly any differences between Google Sheets and Excel and we will know how to use Google Sheets without any problem. There are hardly any differences and we can use the same format in both: the documents are compatible with Excel if we create them in Google. There are differences that allow us, for example, to collaborate in real time from Spreadsheets without the need to have any specific program installed.
But both allow us to add formulas and use all kinds of filters and filter views for columns. Both also allow us to manually create graphs or pivot tables , but Google Sheets adds some advantages such as creating graphs or pivot tables automatically with “Explore”.
Both are practically identical and there are no differences in terms of use since most formulas can be applied to both and their uses are exactly the same. In addition, the formats are compatible with each other and with any template.
How to use Google Sheets
To use Google Sheets or Google spreadsheets we only need to have a Google account completely free of charge. Your Gmail account is the same one you need to access Drive and also to access tools like this one, for example. Once you have the account created, we just have to go to Sheets to create a spreadsheet from scratch or open the template gallery.
As you can see in the screenshot below, we can tap on the “+” at the top of the screen to create a blank sheet, but we can also tap on the template gallery to use any of the preloaded ones and we will only have to modify the data or colors to adapt it to what we need.
At the bottom of the screen we will have, once we have created a sheet, all the spreadsheets. In addition, we will see a series of filters that allow us to filter and choose only ours or all that we have in our Google Drive regardless of who owns it. We can manage them by folders or we can order according to the last ones you have opened or from A to Z, for example, as you can see in the image below.
template gallery
We can choose between the templates that are available in Google sheets. Differentiated into different categories, we can choose between several models and then customize them and modify everything you need: colors, data…
Among the categories we find: personal, work, project management, education. And within them we find all kinds of templates that we can use: task list, annual budget, monthly budget, Google Finance investment record, calendar, travel planning, wedding planning, list of team players, advantages and inconveniences, invoice, time sheet, annual budget control sheet, expense report, purchase order, employee shift planning, customer relationship manager, Gantt chart, project schedule, project tracking , event marketing schedule, attendance, report card, task control sheet…
You simply have to click on any of them and we can start editing everything we want by touching on the different columns and rows. We can change designs and content, we can modify the typography, the colors, the titles or the different texts until it adapts to what we need but without having to create it from scratch. It can be useful if it fits you into something that is already done.
Create a sheet from scratch
Another option is that we start a sheet from scratch that is more suited to what we need and whatever the use we want to give this spreadsheet. Be professional or personal. We can use it for a budget, to keep track of students, to manage tasks at work or simply to organize tasks at home or know how many times something is repeated over time.
We simply have to follow the previous steps and touch “+” to create a sheet in which we will see all the corresponding columns and rows. We can add different sections, add formulas, add filters… We simply have to insert all the data or use the options offered by Google spreadsheets.
For example, we can create a spreadsheet with colors like the one you see in the screenshot below and with filters that allow us to automatically add the total for the week, the total for the month… Also, as we see in this example, we can add different colors according to columns, types, etc.
At the top we can see the different modifications of the created sheet. We can review previous versions or restore a version in case we have deleted something by mistake or just want to see who has touched what. We can see all the changes with date and time, as you see in the example.
