Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Completed Using
Microsoft Excel
and Google Sheets
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
METHODS
TASKS
EVALUATION CRITERIA
RESULTS
TASK 1: ADDING A SERIES OF NUMBERS
Figure 1: Excel Auto Sum
Figure 2: Sheets Auto Sum
TASK 2: INSERT A CHART
Figure 3: Excel Inserting Charts
Figure 4: Sheets Inserting Charts
TASK 3: ADDING A NEW SHEET
Figure 5: Excel New Sheet
Figure 6: Sheets New Sheet
TASK 4: INSERTING A TABLE
Figure 7: Excel Creating a Table
TASK 5: BUILDING FORMULAS
Figure 8: Excel Building Formulas
Figure 9: Sheets Building Formulas
TASK 6: FILE SHARING
Figure 10: Excel File Sharing
Figure 11: Sheets File Sharing
TASK 7: ADDING AND DELETING ROWS AND COLUMNS
Figure 12: Excel Adding a Column
Figure 13: Sheets Adding a Column
TASK 8: FORMATTING NUMBERS
Figure 14: Excel Formatting numbers
Figure 15: Sheets Formatting Numbers
TASK 9: SORTING CELLS
Figure 16: Excel cell sorting
Figure 17: Sheets file shorting
TASK 10: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Figure 18: Excel data analysis
Figure 19: Sheets data analysis
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SUMMARY OF RESULTS
Figure 20: Summary of Liken Scores
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RECOMMENDATION
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Introduction
Spread sheet applications, such as Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, are tools with a
wide range of uses from making charts or graphs to completing complex calculations.
One feature of spread sheet applications is that they make working with large quantities
of numbers easier to deal with. This is great for people such as engineers or accounts.
This white paper will compare and grade the usability of Microsoft Excel and Google
Sheets.
The usability test results between the two software platforms will be presented in this
report. The purpose of this test is to compare the ease of use between Microsoft Excel
and Google Sheets. Ease of use comes down too many features such as basic
commands, general performance, and appearance. This testing will take place as if the
audience has a basic knowledge of how to operate a computer and navigate through
that software platforms presented. This test will take place as if I am the user,
comparing each application at each task.
Methods
This test was completed on August 6, 2016 in my home office. A laptop PC with
Windows 10 was used to complete the test between Microsoft Excel and Google Slides
using Google Chrome.
Tasks
1. Adding a Series of Numbers
2. Insert a Chart
3. Add a new sheet
4. Insert Table
5. Building formulas
6. Filing Sharing
7. Adding and Deleting Columns or Rows
8. Formatting Numbers
9. Sorting Cells
10. Statistical Analysis
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Evaluation Criteria
The tasks were completed using both spread sheet applications, and given a score from
the Likert table below. The questions asked to determine the score of each application
were:
Strongly Disagree
(1)
Disagree
(2)
Agree
(3)
Strongly Agree
(4)
Results
All ten tasks were completed and compared during the usability test. The usability of
every task was given a score based on the Liken Table for each application.
Microsoft Excel has a slight edge over Google Sheets when adding a
series of numbers, because it was slightly quicker to complete.
down menu, charts is one of the options. When charts have been
selected, it opens with several different chart types that can be inserted.
Both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, make it easy to add charts into the
spreadsheets. These applications make inserting charts just a few clicks, which
makes it extremely usable.
Adding a new sheet was made easy in both applications. Excel and Sheets made
adding a new sheet one click away, and it cant get much easier than that .
Criteria
Microsoft Excel
Google Sheets
Excel makes creating a table simple and quick, while Sheets is unable to make a
table unless done so by hand.
Criteria
Microsoft Excel
Google Sheets
Both applications receive high scores on this task, because they made adding
formulas very easy to do.
Although both Excel and Sheets make it easy to share files, Sheets has the
advantage, because they made it faster. Google Sheets is connected to your
Gmail account, so it makes sharing files very fast.
Figure 12: Excel Adding a Column Figure 13: Sheets Adding a Column
Criteria
Microsoft Excel
Google Sheets
Google Sheets has a slight advantage over Microsoft Excel in adding rows and
columns, because it lets you choose where you would like the new one added.
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Both applications make formatting numbers simple and easy. Neither application
has an advantage over the other in this task.
Figure 16: Excel cell sorting Figure 17: Sheets file shorting
Criteria
Microsoft Excel
Google Sheets
Excel has a slight advantage in sorting cells over Sheets, because Excel has a
custom sorting option.
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Excel makes statistical Analysis easy, and with several different options. In the
data tab, there is a data analysis button. When that button is clicked, Excel gives
several options of statistical analysis. Google Sheets also makes this task very
easy, but does not have near as many options. On the tool bar there is a symbol
that when selected brings up different options.
Excel has a slight advantage in statistical analysis, only for the reason that it has
far more option. However, both applications make what they can do simple to
use.
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Summary of Results
Liken Score Comparison
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38
36
34
32
30
Excel
Sheets
Recommendation
Based on the usability results, I would recommend Microsoft Excel. Excel tested to be
easier to use and I never needed to research Help. Google Sheets did have some
advantages over Excel, but they were small advantages. Overall, Microsoft Excel is
what I found to be the better spreadsheet application.
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