Best tool for working on docs/sheets by far
April 02, 2018
Best tool for working on docs/sheets by far
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Google Drive
We currently use Google Drive for (1) storing files and (2) to collaborate on projects.
Number 2 is the one that gets more use. We create documents and spreadsheets with shared content. Sales, customer data, project information, almost anything that needs to be shared within our team and needs collaboration of many people. We use it across the whole organization. Sales creates spreadsheets with reports; logistics create sheets with delayed packages; marketing uses it for storing ideas, making forecasts, you get the idea. Everybody could use a spreadsheet or document for something and then share it with another.
We also use it to collaborate with people outside our organization when it's needed.
Number 2 is the one that gets more use. We create documents and spreadsheets with shared content. Sales, customer data, project information, almost anything that needs to be shared within our team and needs collaboration of many people. We use it across the whole organization. Sales creates spreadsheets with reports; logistics create sheets with delayed packages; marketing uses it for storing ideas, making forecasts, you get the idea. Everybody could use a spreadsheet or document for something and then share it with another.
We also use it to collaborate with people outside our organization when it's needed.
- Very fast at creating and sharing documents. You can start a document in less than 3 seconds and share it in another 3.
- It works very fast, considering you're working on the internet, on real time, with lots of people and for free. It's amazing.
- Versioning is great. All the history gets saved and it's easy to restore in case you made a mistake.
- You can upload almost anything and send it to somebody. Interface is easy to use.
- Managing permissions is easy and useful.
- Importing CSV, a very particular feature, works VERY good. You can also export to XLSX or whatever you want.
- Adding features via scripts works awesome too. You can export JSON, create macros from one sheet to another... endless possibilities.
- Some functions are not there, in Sheets or Docs. Of course you need to consider that this is made for collaboration and you can't expect to have all the functionalities in Word or Excel, but from time to time the things you need aren't there (more graphs and advanced customization options). In line with that, Slides is way worse than Powerpoint, so we don't use it much.
- When you have very big files, it gets slow. That's reasonable but if you work with huge files it may be a problem.
- The ROI is huge. You don't have more "doc1-final-finalv2" documents on your workplace. It is just the version with comments, online, where you can easily access, share and change whatever you want. For us it's been extremely useful.
- We also use it to test concepts before automating them in our software. We create spreadsheets or docs, automate them (or use them manually) and if that works, then we automate then in our internal software. This is a very cheap way to test things and Drive allows us to do so.
- Storing files, in my particular case, has been very useful. For $24 I'm able to store 100GB. I'm sure Google will keep things way safer than me, so I pay happily.
- Dropbox and Zoho Books
It depends on which area you are evaluating. On storage, you have many options. I don't think the biggest value comes from there. If you consider the working environment and collaboration, then there are not many alternatives as complete and as good as Drive. You have Sheets, Docs, Forms, Slides, draw.io for diagrams. Actually, you have a full suite of working products, online, for free. I can't think of a better alternative. The benefits are huge: files stored online, anybody can change anything, access control, easy sharing, ease of use. For me it's 100% recommended.