Android Spreadsheets Apps Review

Part of the greatness of a Smartphone is being able to work on the road, and that often means having to edit spreadsheets. Ron takes a look at Spreadsheets for the Android and Shead Spreet Pro.

We're right on the numbers with Android on today's app judgment. Welcome to App Judgment, Revision Three's mobile phone application review show. My name is Ron Richards and today I'm going to be looking at a couple of the most exciting applications for Android ever, spreadsheets. If you're like me, you have a job you and you work in an office-like environment, there's a pretty good chance to you counter the wonders of spreadsheets. These little collections of cells and rows and columns are standard in any office apartment. By having a SmartPhone, not only can I do the fun stuff with my phone like listen to music and use the Internet but since it’s basically a mini computer, I like it to have with me, so I can deal with work on the road and that means I need a way to access and edit spreadsheets. To do this I found two applications in the android marketplace, Spreadsheet by Byte Squared which sells for 99 pence which is British for 99 cents, and Shed Spreet Pro by Keith Wiley which sells for $3.99. Let's start the application I'm going to have the hardest time saying Shed Spreet Pro. Upon startup, I realized that doesn't have a slick looking field that you come to expect from a pro app that you pay money for. It’s very bare boned and to the point that you like. On the main screen you see a simple plain text list of files that you can open. To create a new spreadsheet, you hit the menu button and choose add table. Along the top you can letters spreadsheet’s title and then you're given one cell to start. One cell, really? I'll be honest. The first I've opened up a new spreadsheet, I was completely lost. One cell, what the heck I can do with one cell? You can add additional cells, rows and columns by pressing menu and choosing insert delete rows columns which opens up a window to let you do just that and you can instantly see the problem with this application." The UI isn't clear and when you need to find what you need it stormed together in a cluggey fashion. I tried to import an existing spreadsheet from Excel and while Shed Spreet Pro was able to open the XLS file, I lost the formatting in one row and the formulas broke for the majority of my cells. I could go into more detail about the other features like formatting cells and setting up formulas and calculations which do exist inside the app. But let's hop over and check out the better named, Spreadsheet. Opening a workbook in Spreadsheet is a breathe of fresh air, looking almost exactly like Excel with rows and columns ready to receive data. You can easily maneuver around the cells with your track ball. Data and text entry is a breeze, just type the cell and start typing. Hit menu to bring up the various tools you need to customize and work with your spreadsheet. Hit format and you can access a myriad of ways to format your data, font styles, data type, alignments and border controls, it’s all there. One of the most use formulas of any spreadsheet is sum. Hit the sum button and it pre-populates the formula bar with equals, sum, parenthesis and you're ready to pop in the cells you need to tally, so simple. If you need another type of formula, just tap function to get a list of all the types of functions along with descriptions. Using spreadsheet is ridiculously easy. It's like having Excel on my phone. But how does a deal with the opening of the existing file from Excel? Just tap on your XLS file and voila! Spreadsheet opens it up with no problem, with all formatting of formulas intact. I do have one complaint that applies to both applications. Getting an existing Excel spreadsheet actually into both apps was extremely annoying. If I'm on the road and someone emails me a spreadsheet, I want to be able to click it and open it up instantly which neither app can do. Instead I have to save the file from my email to my SD card, open my file system manager, copy the XLS file into the folder for the spreadsheet applications and only then will the app see the document for opening. It’s that sort of hassle that makes working remotely inefficient. Let's take a break and here about the hot apps of the day and then I'll be back with the break down. Hey everyone Aileen here, stick around for the hot app of the day, okay. True phone for the Android has just been updated. This free app allows you to make free and low cost international calls and you don't necessarily need WiFi. You can also use the app to call your friends if you have Skype and Google Talk accounts. The developer's claim that this version for the Android it faster, more responsive and much more user-friendly. Check it out and let us know what you think. Now for the iPhone, I have a ton of new apps to choose from, CNN, zip car, I TV. The geeks nearly fell over their seats with the launch of the Drop Box app. I was one of them. The app is free and allows you to access your Drop Box account on the go. You can view Word or PDF docs, even listen to MP3s. Tap on the little mail icon and you could share those same files. The star icon is for favoriting a file. Once you tap a file as a favorite, it's automatically stored on your phone for fast access offline. Love it! Now back to Ron and spreadsheets. Well this one is a no-brainier. Here’s the breakdown on Shed Spreet Pro. While it’s a spreadsheet program and gets the job done, it’s clunky UI makes even the simplest task nearly impossible. Importing XLS files don’t quite work as well it needs too and I can’t believe I paid four dollars for this. Don’t download this app. Spreadsheet on the other hand looks and feel just like Excel on the phone and its fully flushed out when it comes to formatting and manipulating data. The only drawback is it’s a pain opening existing spreadsheet that you get emailed to you. Download this app. Spreadsheets are necessarily evil when it comes to doing business and if the application makes the experience of working with the spreadsheet a nightmare. It becomes that much more evil. But with spreadsheet on my phone I'll be able to rock my numbers from anywhere. So what do you think? Is there a better spreadsheet application for Android that I missed? Email us appjudgement@revision3.com and let us know. And Be sure to head over to revision3.com4/appjudgment where you can see all about previous episodes as well as our discussion forums. I'm Ron Richards and this is app judgment and I'm a huge dork for being excited about spreadsheets.