Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux helpSpecial Offers
Feature
FOSS spreadsheet hands-on comparison
Share
Print
CommentsFormula tools
When a user enters a function into a spreadsheet, it becomes part of a formula. Of the three programs, KSpread has the fewest tools for formulas. They are Consolidate, for placing data from different sheets into a single area; Goal Seek, for calculating what input will give the desired answer for an operation; and Subtotals, for quickly adding totals. Otherwise, KSpread is somewhat lacking in function tools.
Gnumeric and Calc each have versions of KSpread's formula tools, although under slightly different names. But in addition, both have scenario tools that insert combo boxes of variables. Beyond that, they diverge sharply from each other.
Beyond the basics, Gnumeric tends to specialize in tools for mathematical analysis. Its formula tools include Solver for linear systems of equations, and the self-evident Simulation and Statistical Analysis. By contrast, Calc's formula tools are more general-purpose. Standouts among Calc's tools include Detective, which gives a color coded view of which cells were used as parameters for a functions, and Datapilot, Calc's answer to Excel's Pivot tables, which rearranges existing data to show new relations to it.
Verdict: In this category there's a tie between Gnumeric and Calc -- which one you prefer will depend on your purpose. As with list tools, formula tools are an area that KSpread needs to develop.
Formatting options
Spreadsheet formatting falls into two main categories: formatting for cells, and formatting for printed pages. Cell format can cover any number of cells, including an entire row, column, or spreadsheet, while page formatting sets the layout of hard copy. In both categories, spreadsheet formatting is often manual, although both Calc and KSpread implement styles and templates. Gnumeric, by contrast, contains no concept of styles at all.
All three spreadsheets offer a similar range of manual format options; the main difference is in the arrangement of some features. For example, Calc does not include Protection or Validation as options for formatting, the way Gnumeric does, placing these features instead in the Tools and Data menus, respectively. Similarly, KSpread includes Protection in cell formatting, but includes no tool for validation.
Another difference is that, while all three spreadsheets include the option of wrapping text so that it stays within the boundary of a cell, their implementation of the feature differs. Only Calc offers text wrap with hyphenation. KSpread offers text wrap, but no hyphenation, while in Gnumeric, text wrap means that only as much text as can be displayed on a single line is visible until you click on the cell.
The concept of cell styles is most developed in Calc, which comes with 17 pre-defined styles, as opposed to KSpread's two. The closest Gnumeric comes to styles is Format > Autoformat, which offers a variety of pre-set formats for selected cells. Calc contains a similar feature called Choose Themes which is not available on the default toolbar, but can be added from Tools > Configure. Neither Gnumeric's Autoformat or Calc's Choose Theme tools, however, allow users to add new formats or themes to the list.
Page formatting in the three spreadsheet consists of options for the text and design in headers and footers, and for how spreadsheets (which have no set height or width), are fitted onto a particular page size. All three allow users to set text for the left, right, and middle of headers and footers, but only Calc includes options for setting dividing lines, backgrounds, and drop-shadows. Each spreadsheet also allows the scaling of information to fit it on the page, as well as choosing cells to be repeated on new pages. In addition, for occasions when the columns selected are too wide to fit a page size and orientation, Calc and Gnumeric include the option of choosing whether a sheet is printed from top to bottom first, or from left to right.
Calc has no predefined templates, but, like the rest of OpenOffice.org, is designed with the assumption that templates and styles will be part of your workflow. Calc templates are also available from the OOoExtras site. KSpread comes with 12 templates divided into Business, General, and Home and Family categories. Gnumeric does not use templates, any more than it does styles.
Verdict: For features, styles, and templates, Calc is the clear winner. The other programs are strong contenders, but which finishes second depends on your priorities. In terms of features, Gnumeric takes second place. In terms of styles and templates, KSpread is second. Call this category a dead heat for second.
Next: Charts and computation speedComments
on FOSS spreadsheet hands-on comparisonNote: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.
For the large business, user education and a responsive IT shop can help here. From a large enterprise perspective, spreadsheets and single-user databases (MS-Access) can be bad. They result in inconsistent snapshots of data being held in silos around the business. (Bob's customer file in sales doesn't match Gene's customer file in accounting, etc.) In addition, end users like Bob and Gene may be doing their own Access programming and macro- creation. Finally, these all important spreadsheets could be stored locally and unbacked up on the user's machine.
If a fancy spreadsheet is being used for regular, routine, processing tasks that are essential for a business, a business should probably consider replacing it with a database and program that does the processing and is stored and regularly backed up on a network.
On a different note altogether, I for one find all that bulky deadweight of OOo to be a gargantuan anchor, dragging Calc down -- in contrast to Gnumeric's "lack of other office apps" cited as a drawback in the article.
Not having to install a gigabyte-sized suite of unrelated and unwanted applications is a huge plus.
This is the audience for whom movies and sounds are useful.
The other important point is that Gnumeric has 100% Excel function compatibility (albeit with higher numeric accuracy). I think the other sheets are in the high 90's.
The conclusion to the article didn't seem congruous with the rest of the article. It did not appear to me that Calc came out on top in "more than half the categories". It appeared that Calc and Gnumeric were comparable in the areas the author looked at. So -- do you need the whole suite, or do you just need a spreadsheet? Realistically, how many people actually embed a live spreadsheet table (and not just copy-pasted static data) in their wordprocessor, or a wordprocessor-managed text field in their spreadsheet? Nobody does that anymore, OLE is too clunky. Gnumeric is clean lightweight, and is one of the truly stellar examples of Free software.
A realistic project might have dozens of spreadsheets each containing thousands of rows of a couple dozen columns each. Judging computation speed by "eyeballing" relative performance on a very simple test is a reasonable place to start, but it is not a serious comparison.
Not that this review isn't worthwhile. It is, but it's like comparing a trio of new cars based on dashboard layouts and cabin features.
Thanks!
Unfortunately, most folks use spreadsheets *as* databases, or worse, as a word processor.
The biggest problem at first glance with the open source products is there are no references for functions.
OOo Calc also has good function references (currently under review in the OOo Authors project - www.oooauthors.org).
And the little gaps (macro recorder etc.) are filled in by knowledgeable readers, so it's win-win for everyone.
Thanks for another good one.
I use excel at work and try to use Calc at home, but when i have to get something done, i have to use excel.
The OSS tools havent matured to the extent to support:
- extensive ODBC/web data retrieval
- high row counts
- intuitive user interface (think Mac OS)
No user bothers to try a new product if it takes ages to load and has all the menus located differently, i doubt M$ has copyrighted the term Pivot Table, but if some new learning is required to do the same task, not many routine users prefer that.
At times i have to parse/report from logs and no OSS tool would support text based odbc connects to read a 200 meg plus ascii text and still allow you to build a pivot table with that
Excel sucks once a while, but those limitations are pretty well documented and dont show up as silly error codes most of the time
OSS tools have a long way to go before they can replace M$ office in enterprises and till that happens, they will always be taken with a pinch of salt.
bottomline: features/functionality/disk footprint/load time dont matter as much as an intuitive user experience (think Nokia/Blackberry menus)
OOo version 2 should provide you with a very pleasant surprise. It has good ODBC functionality(provided you include a java runtime environment), and capacity for twice as many rows of data as Excel instead of the half as many rows that you are used to.
The user interface is much closer to Excel than the current version. I don't know if that means easier to learn, or just less hard to change if you already use Excel.
Performance is another area where the OOo team has worked diligently. In my opinion, there is still room for improvement, but the performance compared against OOo 1.x is very significant, with the start up times being a good example. With 1.x you could get reasonable startup times by pro-loading a runtime environment. With Version 2, you can still load a runtime environment to improve startup times, but the startup times with V2 and no runtime loaded seem to be about half as long as the startup times for V1.x when they had a runtime environment pre-loaded.
There is still an issue with comprehensible/consistent error messages, but there has been a great improvement over what was.
(There might be more contributors from OOo, but then OOo has much more people working on it.)
They run the usual course of, "I love Linux, but... there is this little function (x) that I use and Open Source products don't have it."
More than likely it's something Open Source products do better anyway (like ODBC support: Try hooking up Oracle 11i to Excel. Good Luck. It runs fine with OO2)
Just an observation.
Nick
Gnumeric is the unique spreadsheet which is capable of drawing error bars and its charts functionality is better and more complete, from my point of view, than any of the others programs.
Try this simple test: create an empty spreadsheet, copy =rand() to its first 1000 rows and draw a line chart over the range.
Calc 2.0 beta freezes for nearly 30 seconds calculating this on my 1.6GHz Centrino laptop. The same happens when I try to resize the just-created chart object or manipulate it in nearly any way.
In contrast, Gnumeric's response is immediate, with any calculation it might be making so fast that I can not measure it in wall-clock terms.
Macro Recorder?
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on May 13, 2005 01:15 AMWith regard to spreadsheet use in large offices, there are often a few key speadsheet-users whose opinion is important. Any spreadsheet that doesn't satisfy those users has little chance of grabbing a foothold, let alone becoming a standard. Those users typically make extensive use of macro recording.
This is a nice article from the standpoint of home use.
#