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Comment by pixelatedindex | Hacker News Reader

What does Excel do here that Google Sheets doesn’t? I don’t always carry my laptop with me, so local files are kind of annoying.

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I’m not the commenter that you’re replying to but I always get a different “feel” when using a native application like Excel than a web app. I can type as fast as I can think, switching cells, typing values, invoking keyboard shortcuts, etc, and every keystroke is interpreted as I intended. It’s incredible what’s been achieved in modern web apps like Google Sheets, but I still feel like I need to slow down at times to watch what the app is up to - making sure the cell was selected in the UI before entering text or watching to be sure the browser didn’t intercept a shortcut, etc.

If any Excel alternative wants to make a dent in market share, they need an option for users to mimic all the main Excel shortcuts. Google Sheets is close so it's useable; however, trying to use something like Apple Numbers is like switching from querty to dvorak.

Robust macro capability (VBA>AppScript), more advanced data analysis/validation and charting, easy integration with SQL/PBI, a mature add-in market.

And less tangible: it just feels much faster. I don't have any data for this last claim, it's purely based on personal experience. Although, when I use web Excel, this edge goes away.

And I don't use local files at all with Excel. Everything is either in OneDrive or SharePoint, accessible through web or app on whatever platform.

You can use Excel in the exact same way with Microsoft 365.

Last time I had to use it, Microsoft 365's web version was missing a ton of functionality, even more than Google Sheets is. If I need Excel I need Excel, if I can make do with a web version then I'm not going to use Microsoft's.

It's been catching up over time, a couple more revisions and it'll be 99% of the way there, minus 3rd party plugins.

It's pretty good now. I prefer the 365 web version to the native Mac version. It doesn't support some power features but actually has better hotkey support.

These days, I prefer google sheets for most things spreadsheet, but Excel is far and away more capable, and after a certain level of complexity, just unbelievably fast in comparison. Complex sheets in Google Sheets get bogged down very quickly, and the data-access support is weaker and handles errors very poorly.

If you do any serious financial planning for a startup or small business, Excel is vastly superior to Google Sheets. The multi sheet formulas can get very complicated and web based tools can’t perform as well as desktop software.

Where does the syntax differ between Google sheets and Excel that multisheet formulas are more complicated in Google sheets vs Excel?

It’s the required cpu cycles you’re not going to get in any browser based app.

Google Sheets doesnt have Solver in the consumer version for one.

In reference to your second statement though, I also dont always carry my laptop but it doesn't matter because my spreadhseets are in onedrive too, so I can close my laptop and open my phone and have the same spreadsheet with zero thought.

What problem does Solver solve? Reading the overview, I don't really understand how it would be useful.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/define-and-solve-...

> For example, you can change the amount of your projected advertising budget and see the effect on your projected profit amount.

I can do this without Solver.

The main use of the solver is for something that definitely cannot be done without programming vba macro. You use it to find the optimal value in a cell based on the result in a different cell. You have a cell that excels will solve, a cell with the objective and constraints.

For example, let's say you have a spreadsheet to calculate the capacity of a steel column based on its height and cross-section/material. If you wanted to run the calculation backward and find the height that will give you a very specific capacity, you could do it manually by playing with the height until you find it or you can let Excel do it for automatically with the solver.

> What does Excel do here that Google Sheets doesn’t?

Tables.

Google Sheets has tables now

https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2024/05/tables-in-go...

They seem much worse than Excel's though. Are structured references supported? Can the tables be moved without breaking references? It also seems to me that the filter views aren't implemented in the mobile apps yet, so you can end up with a PC-only document.

Cool. I have learned something new!

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