Scientific spreadsheet programs

Google Sheets may be the most popular spreadsheet web app, but Zoho Sheet has more features. And it's also completely free. It's the best free Excel alternative, if you're looking for the most powerful solution.

Like Excel, Zoho Sheet really packs in the features. There are over functions available, which is more than Google offers. There's support for advanced functions like conditional formatting, pivot tables, and data validation.

You can then control how often Zoho Sheet queries the source for updates. There's a tool called Deluge that lets you create custom functions to use in your own spreadsheets, with minimal coding. You can record macros and use VBA, just like you can in Excel. You can then build your form using drag and drop elements, publish it live on the web, and use the responses to populate your spreadsheet. Like Zoho's other products, Sheet includes real-time collaboration via the Share menu.

Click the chat box at the bottom of the window to discuss the task at hand, or leave Google-style comments. Best spreadsheet software for creating a collaborative spreadsheet without an account. EtherCalc is a web-based spreadsheet tool that doesn't even require you to sign up for an account. EtherCalc can be hosted on your own server and customized to your needs if you possess the technical know-how, or you can install it locally on a computer though it's still accessed via your browser.

But the hosted version on the EtherCalc website will be enough for most users. It's collaborative, so you can work with others in real-time on the same sheet. That's it. There's no fancy permission management or cloud hosting to speak of. With this simplicity, there's a distinct lack of advanced features, like conditional formatting. The UI is a bit crusty, relying on dated icons to access many of the included features. There's basic graphing included, and it works fine, but it's not a patch on Google's or Zoho's apps.

It's not designed for complex projects, but it's perfect when you need a fast and free spreadsheet. EtherCalc Price: Free. Best spreadsheet software for database management. Airtable isn't so much spreadsheet software as it is database software using a spreadsheet interface. Airtable refers to their "spreadsheets" as bases, which should give you some idea of the product's intended use. There's some basic spreadsheet functionality in there, but it's not accessed in the usual way.

There are a lot of templates included with Airtable to help you visualize what the product is capable of. These include product planning flow charts, product launch checklists, sales and CRM solutions, and even video production storyboards.

It's a bit like Smartsheet in that it's aimed at all the other things people use spreadsheets for. The difference here is that Airtable is designed with the database use case in mind.

In Airtable, columns are "fields" and rows are "records. Each field is massively customizable, too. You can't change fonts or sizes, but you can select from a variety of options, including checkbox, date, URL, bar code, and more. You can still do many of the same things you would use a spreadsheet for, like using formulas, creating graphs and pivot tables, looking up records in your base, and summarizing values.

But you can also easily do things like embed content from another web page into a dashboard you have created or manage an editorial workflow editor's note: we use it for that exact purpose at Zapier. Don't come to Airtable looking for just another spreadsheet app.

Instead, use Airtable as a springboard for realizing many of the tasks you wish your other spreadsheet app could do. Excel is the undisputed powerhouse of the spreadsheet world, but it can be overkill for many common tasks. If you want a native application rather than a browser solution, LibreOffice is your best bet. Airtable and Smartsheet, on the other hand, are entirely different beasts, allowing you to do things most spreadsheet apps can't. Quip is your go-to for combining documents and spreadsheets.

And finally, EtherCalc is your quick-and-easy solution. Whichever you choose, make sure to explore it in depth so you don't miss out on any of the features. This article was originally published on January 19, by Zapier writer, Matthew Guay. It has since been updated with new apps and up-to-date features and pricing. Tim Brookes is a freelance writer based in Melbourne, Australia. When he's not writing he's being distracted by cats, riding bikes, or cooking something delicious.

Follow him at timbrookes. Why Zapier? How Zapier works. Product tour. Customer stories. Popular ways to use Zapier. Apps that work with Zapier. Explore Zapier by job role.

Blog Read the Zapier blog for tips on productivity, automation, and growing your business. Experts Hire a Zapier Expert to help you improve processes and automate workflows. Community Ask questions, share your knowledge, and get inspired by other Zapier users.

Zapier University Video courses designed to help you become a better Zapier user. Webinars Learn about automation anytime, anywhere with our on-demand webinar library. Zapier for Teams Share and collaborate on work with your team in Zapier. Zapier for Companies Manage multiple teams with advanced administrative controls in Zapier.

Search apps…. Log in. At present, SciSheets can do robust demos, but it is not yet beta code. Calendar News Contact Us. SciSheets — Spreadsheets for Scientists. This would mean adding cells B6 through F6. Now you can click the cells you want to be referenced, and they will be auto-populated into the formula. You can click-and-drag to specify a range, or click and hold down the shift key and click another cell.

To specify specific cells to add without making it a range, you should hold down the command key Mac or Control key PC and click all the cells you want. In our spreadsheet on the types of weapons used in homicides, for example, what if we wanted to know the average number of firearm-related homicides each year between and cells B6 to F6.

One advantage to Google spreadsheets is that it is designed to work with the Web. Specific functions allow you to load data dynamically directly from a website. CSV files comma separated values can be imported directly into a spreadsheet from anywhere on the Web. CSV is one of the most common data formats and can be found with a simple Google search.

For sample data, we will use a piece of crime data from UC Berkeley in hosted on Github. Click the small plus button at the bottom of our workbook document:.

Many files will not be this clean and may require cleanup. Governments regularly update CSV files on their servers. This may happen frequently with certain files such as election results. In the previous example, you might have noticed the date and time columns display these strange numbers which should be dates and times of each crime.

Raw cell data for a time value is the number of days since Jan 1, and may even be different when using Microsoft Excel. We can easily adjust this by changing the cell format.

Tables can frequently be imported directly from a Web page into a spreadsheet. Note: This example will tie into the next section on charts, so we use it for convenience. However, we do not advocate using data from Wikipedia in any production sense. Always vet and corroborate data directly from the source when used in journalism. The third parameter is which table element we should find, in case there are multiple.

Live data from Google finance can be imported into your spreadsheet. The data updates automatically every time the spreadsheet is loaded. Quotes can have up to a 20 minute delay, which is common for financial data. The initials at the beginning of the parentheses are stock ticker symbols. You can find the symbol for any stock at Google Finance. The same function can be used to load historic data. With the spreadsheet on types of weapons used in homicides, for example, you could more easily see which weapons are most frequently used by ranking them from the highest number to the lowest number for any given year.

To do this, you first need to highlight the area of the spreadsheet that you want to sort. The highlighted area now includes the headings for the types of weapons used and then the numbers for each type of weapon for each year. You also can select whether to sort that data in ascending order A — Z so the smallest number appears at the top of the sorted data, or descending order Z — A so the largest number appears at the top. A spreadsheet provides a lot of options for re-formatting the information being displayed.

These are similar to the options in a word processing program like Microsoft Word or many other applications. They include:. Some of these options are available by selecting Format in the menu at the top and then picking one of the choices in the drop-down menu. This tutorial was originally written by Paul Grabowicz for students in his Computer Assisted Reporting class, and later modified by Jeremy Rue for public use. I first learned how to use the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program many years ago using that book, which took a step by step approach based on how a journalist uses a spreadsheet.

I tried to use the same approach with this tutorial. This content may not be republished in print or digital form without express written permission from Berkeley Advanced Media Institute. Please see our Content Redistribution Policy. On your screen will appear a basic spreadsheet, divided into numbered rows and lettered columns.

The rows and columns intersect to create small boxes, which are called cells. Each cell is identified by its column letter and row number. Thus the very first cell in the upper left-hand corner is called A1.

In the image below, for example, cell D9 is highlighted. Setting the View Options You can select some settings to change the view of the spreadsheet or display toolbars you frequently use, such as the one for entering formulas to make calculations. Entering Information in a Cell You enter information into a spreadsheet program by typing it into each of the cells.

You can enter three different types of information into a cell: Numbers — so you then can perform mathematical calculations on them. Text — to identify what the numbers in the columns and rows represent, usually by typing headings across the top of the columns or on the left edge of the rows Formulas — to perform calculations on the numbers in a column or a row of cells.

To enter information into a cell, simply click on the cell and type in the information. Text Headings To enter text headings for the various columns and rows to identify them, follow the same procedure as you would with entering numbers. Importing Data Into a Spreadsheet Many government agencies and private organizations provide data on their websites in a spreadsheet or other format that you can download onto your computer. After a few seconds you should see a Google Docs spreadsheet that looks like this: This spreadsheet shows the number of murder victims in each year from to in five columns, with the columns labeled by year in cells B4 to F4.

Resizing Columns or Rows You can improve the display of the data in a spreadsheet by increasing or decreasing the width of a column or the height of a row. Deleting or Adding Columns or Rows You can get rid of unwanted data or other information by deleting rows or columns.

Use the same procedure for deleting a column. Learn to work with data in a spreadsheet and to create engaging charts, maps and graphs in the Berkeley Advanced Media Institute Data Visualization for Storytellers Workshop. Formulas — Adding, Subtracting, Multiplying and Dividing With a spreadsheet you can insert a formula that will instantly add, subtract, multiply or divide numbers in columns or rows.