I don’t know if anybody else is playing with Google Spreadsheets a lot, but it’s driving me a bit nuts. I got into the idea of importXML, but the way it’s coming out is just driving me crazy. For example:
… say I import an XML document, like a list of transactions. And I want to get three or four characteristics from each transaction. I can get them all from a single importXML, but Google Spreadsheets puts each characteristic on a different row. I want them all in one cell! Of course, I could just do an importXML for each item I wanted, but …
… Google Spreadsheets is limited to 50 function calls per sheet. ARGH! Only 50? This reminds me of when the Google API came out in 2003 and you could only use your key 1000 times a day, and that for ten results each time. You have this great tool and your brain is bubbling over with ways to use it — and you can’t! I would pay money for the ability to have 200 or so functions per sheet.
And it’s probably because I’m used to using Excel, but I find the cell editing in Google Spreadsheets completely counter-intuitive. If you’ve got a long URL to edit it seems you have to scroll all over the place to get to the end.
Finally, I still can’t figure out how often the spreadsheets with feeds in them update. Some very clever people on Google Groups have been running experiments, and the consensus seemed to be every hour. But I have a couple of published spreadsheets with feeds in them, and I can’t see that they’ve updated at all.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the import option on the spreadsheets is an excellent tool. I just wish I weren’t bashing my head into the wall quite so much.
Google has expanded its Google Docs offerings to include a new presentation feature, aka Alternative-to-PowerPoint. Y’know, I don’t mind Google emulating Microsoft Office via Web applications, but if I ever log in to my Google account and see Clippy? I’m running away screaming.
Anyway, you’ll need a Google account to start using Google Presentations. Log in to http://docs.google.com/, go to your Documents page, and choose New Presentation. If you’ve ever used PowerPoint, what you see will be familiar — a blank slide that you can add text to, add bullets, do highlighting, add links, etc. There’s a way to change a theme, but I didn’t see a way to change a template. You can copy existing slides however so maybe you’d set the first file up as a template, copy as many as you need, and then fill them up with your content.
Google’s presentations can also be imported from existing PowerPoint files. I tried uploading an old PowerPoint presentation from Web Search University and it came out perfect — with the caveat that I do very simple presentations — no funky transitions or odd formatting. Your mileage may vary if you get fancy.
Google’s presentations can be edited by multiple users in real-time, as can other file formats under Google Docs. Of course presentations are just that — presentations. A presenter can lead a slideslow with participants connected through Google Talk and able to chat as the presentation proceeds. you can also save the presentation as a ZIP file (which looks like it resolves to an HTML file and images) or view it in a printable format.
As you might expect, presentations doesn’t have all the bells and whistles you’d see in client-side software, but it’s very functional. The biggest challenge for me would be to find a conference presenter who’s willing to accept a presentation in something OTHER than PowerPoint format.
I think I’ve made it fairly clear by now that Amazon.com’s search engine makes my skull hurt, but I’m really digging almost everything else they’re doing. Today Amazon launched new “Amazon Widgets,” an interface for building — yes! Widgets that have to do with Amazon! You can start building and implementing widgets at http://widgets.amazon.com/ .
Currently Amazon has sixteen widgets available. Most of them require you logging in with an Amazon account, but a few of them don’t. Some of the widgets look really familiar (a widget banner, a widget search box), but some of them look like fun content (like the Amazon Unbox Video Previewer, which is available only in the US. All other widgets are available for any Amazon site that offers the Amazon Associates program. Yes, many of these widgets allow you to use your referral code.)
I took a look at the Product Cloud Widget, one of the few widgets that doesn’t require a signin. You can specify an Amazon product category (or use the whole store), customize titles and colors, and use sliderbars to change the size of the cloud. Amazon says the items in the cloud will be relevant to the content of your page. I have a cloud below; I leave matching judgment up to you.
For the multimedia fan in you, Amazon has a slide show widget, wherein you can search all of Amazon for product images and add them (with your comments) to a widget slide show. I see potential for unbounded silliness but I shall restrain myself and show you a demure slideshow of books by some of the people at Web Search University. (Oh, and one book by Barbara Quint to see if she’s paying attention.) This one has two steps — find the images and then specify widget size, transition type, speed, etc. This one I had problems seeing in preview, so I’m not sure if it’s going to work or not.
These are just two of the widgets. Other widgets include Wish List, Favorites, and Product Reviews. I think I’ll spend some more time playing with the product cloud…
