Google Sheets Beginner Course 1

Let’s know about Google Sheets

1. what is Google Sheets?

　Simply put, Google Sheets (Sheets) is a free, cloud-based alternative to Microsoft Excel (Excel), that provides typical spreadsheets features with the ability to share spreadsheets live online. If you’re new to Sheets or Google Drive, this below may help you imagine.

　It greatly resembles how Microsoft Excel, along with Word and PowerPoint, is included as part of Microsoft’s Office suite. But, Google Drive is very different in the nature that also lets us store files automatically, that are created or edited through their suite of Office apps, – Sheets, Docs and Slides onto their servers. It also allows us to synchronize files across devices, and share files with other users in real time.

2. What is Google Sheets good for?

　For years, Excel was surely miles ahead of Sheets in terms of its capabilities and especially, its popularity. On the one hand, the gap has been closing in recent years, and is now widely seen as a viable alternative to Excel in most circumstances. Here, let’s see what Sheets is particularly good for ( together with the pros and cons of each if any).

1. 　It’s free
　You need nothing more than a device capable of running a web browser to use Sheets. All the capabilities, including data storage (up to 15GB for free), are derived from remote servers, or Google Drive. Users can expand the storage from 100GB to 30 terabytes through optional paid plans.








2. 　It’s cloud-based
　Again, Sheets is “a Cloud-based application” which is a blended form of a Web-based app and Desktop app. That means, it benefits a lot from its Web aspects, e.g., for data storage into a cloud and sharing files, that need an internet connection. Meanwhile, that still has offline capabilities like Microsoft Office, by placing data in cache memory for temporary storage.
As follows, let’s see the key benefits of being “cloud-based”.

What’s the difference?
・Web-based apps – are very the websites that need a continual internet connection or else they will not act the part. Facebook and YouTube in a web browser can be good examples.
・Desktop apps – are, on the contrary standalone in nature, means it works by itself offline. They’re to be installed separately on each device. Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop are typical examples.



　Auto-save

　There’s no need to press a “Save” button. If you access Sheets offline, any offline files will be cached and then updated simultaneously on Google Drive the next time your device syncs with the internet.



Cash and Cache
Cache and cash are homophones (words that are pronounced alike but have different meanings, origins, or spelling) whose likeness in sound may lead to perplexity.
Cache primarily refers to a thing that is hidden or stored somewhere or the place itself. It has recently taken on another common meaning, “short-term computer memory where information is stored for easy retrieval.” 
If you find yourself confused by these words, remember that you can store cash in a cache, but you can’t do the reverse. Be mindful, too, that if you run out of cash you won’t be able to buy something, but if you’re short on cache, your computer won’t work.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cache



　Real-time collaboration

　If you have a file that you want to share or edit together, you can invite collaborators simply by clicking the Share button in the upper-right corner, emailing a link and having them in the same spreadsheet in real-time. You can change what they can do with it in advance.






3. 　It’s a Google product
　It may sound a little bit out of place, but there’re plenty of the merits that Sheets is “a Google product”. Let’s say, if the data you want was written in foreign language, you can use the formula =GoogleTranslate. If you want to keep your team organized and on track, you may sync a schedule from Google Sheets into a team Google Calendar. Yes, you can take advantage of its other free programs within Sheets.

Let’s use Google Sheets

1. How to import data into Google Sheets?

　If there’s a file that you’d like to add to a spreadsheet in Sheets and it turns out to be an Excel document, it’s no problem. Sheets enables us to import various different filetypes:

• Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx, .xlxm, .xltx, .xltm)
• Comma Separated Variable (.csv)
• Text files (.txt)

To convert an Excel file to Google Sheets,

1, Hit the “File“ tab in the left-right corner, then select “Import“.
2, Next, determine how to import a file. In the case of an Excel file you already downloaded locally, you can click “Upload“ to add a file from your computer.
3, If you have just opened a blank spreadsheet, select “Replace spreadsheet” with the Excel file that you want to import.