I was wrong; THIS one's way better
Written: Jun 18 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: ALL the Excel functions most of us would ever use. Syncs to perfection.
Cons: Couple of little things they really could have included.
The Bottom Line: Buy it and don't worry that you spent too much. Lost or corrupted data will cost you a lot more
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| scientist232's Full Review: Quicksheet |
A while back I wrote an Epinion recommending another Palm OS spreadsheet (TinySheet) and, in what I've come to believe was an attempt to convince myself not to spend the additional $10.00 that Quicksheet costs, I compared the two while only having thoroughly evaluated TinySheet.
Bad idea; turns out that there was more than $10.00 worth of aggravation involved with the trial of TinySheet and the smoothness with which Quicksheet operates more than compensates.
As I suggested in the earlier review (http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-1D8D-166C7F64-3A1290DC-prod2/tk_~CB008.1.1) both spreadsheets make similar claims: good Excel interoperability, the look and feel of the heftier sibling and an inexpensive price (always a relative consideration).
What I really LIKE about Quicksheet:
Quicksheet gives you the look and feel of Excel and has just about every numerical, arithmetic, geometric, statistical and trignometric function a person would be likely to encounter. I've got to believe that if you're a theoretical physicist attempting to calculate the precise value of a Hamiltonian you aren't going to be doing it on your Palm device on the bus ride home. (And if you are then you need help)
The value of a handheld spreadsheet drops like a rock if you can't successfully get your data back and forth between it and the desktop Excel. Quicksheet inserts a macro into your desktop Excel that allows you to open, close and save Quicksheet spreadsheets as Excel worksheets. The document itself is untitled as far as Excel knows so you can save it under a different name or the same name as the Quicksheet worksheet. My experience with TinySheet's conduit was an unmitigated disaster; some data making it's way back and forth alright and some not. Sometimes I'd find extraneous data in one version or the other--data that just COULDN'T be valid--and my confidence level in TinySheet as a viable product just died. If data integrity is important you can't afford this kind of malfunction. I must add that TinySheet's product support gave it all they had; the gentlemen with whom I corresponded regularly for a couple of weeks are a credit to their customer service organizations. But if the product can't keep the data straight it has no value.
I qualify the statement that Quicksheet makes excellent use of the precious screen real estate by incorporating most functions from drop-down boxes and from the menu. To be valuable the screen needs to deliver lots of data leaving less space for up/down arrows, scroll-bars and the like.
Having said that,
What I wish Quicksheet could have included:
TinySheet did have a couple of options on which I became spoiled and have been rankled that Quicksheet does not do. First is the use of icons on the bottom of the screen to quickly jump to the top or bottom of the document. Big deal? Maybe not huge but the convenience factor was there. Quicksheet's Page top/bottom feature is in a drop-down from the menu option so it takes two to three strokes to accomplish what TinySheet does in one. But the trade-off is in spent screen real estate. You have to decide which suits you betterr.
The other area in which I think Quicksheet could have done a better job is the highlight function. You can highlight a whole row or column to perform a cut/copy/paste/insert/delete etc. This is good; what would be better is the extension of this functionality to single cells. It's a simple matter in Excel (and TinySheet) but not possible in Quicksheett.
The fact that Quicksheet is a little more pricey than TinySheet initially caused me some concern but overall, I found the reliability of Quicksheet more than compensated for its minimal shortcomings.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
scientist232
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Member: David
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Reviews written: 59
Trusted by: 16 members
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