# Lightweight spreadsheet?



## Asmor (Jul 13, 2007)

Hey, I'm actually looking for a lightweight spreadsheet application. Something like notepad which opens quickly and is good for taking notes or saving small tables.

Ultimately, all I really need is tabular data input... Even sorting is really optional, though it would be nice. Most important thing, though, is that it should start up very quickly (say, half a second or less).

Oh, looking for Windows specifically, but if anyone knows of appropriate programs on other OSes feel free to post 'em.


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## GlassJaw (Jul 13, 2007)

I never have a problem with Excel being slow, even on average boxes.  It's much faster than Word or Powerpoint.


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## XCorvis (Jul 13, 2007)

There are a few here:
http://freshmeat.net/browse/78/

Some are Unix only, and most aren't actually spreadsheets, but there are a few that look like they'll run on windows (especially the Java based "OS Independant" ones).


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## drothgery (Jul 13, 2007)

XCorvis said:
			
		

> There are a few here:
> http://freshmeat.net/browse/78/
> 
> Some are Unix only, and most aren't actually spreadsheets, but there are a few that look like they'll run on windows (especially the Java based "OS Independant" ones).




If they're Java-based, they'll almost certainly be slower to start up than any Excel except 2007. And really, if there weren't some issues with running multiple versions of Excel concurrently, that's what I'd suggest; find a copy of Excel 97 or 2000 (or 2002 or 2003, if you're having problems with 2007 being slow) and use that.


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## Bad Paper (Jul 13, 2007)

Asmor said:
			
		

> Oh, looking for Windows specifically, but if anyone knows of appropriate programs on other OSes feel free to post 'em.



On the Mac there are *Appleworks*, *Pages*, and maybe *Keynote*.  Appleworks is relatively ancient these days, but I use it because it's a real spreadsheet, though missing a lot of the things that make Excel so pleasant.  But it is definitely small and fast.  Pages is a word-processor into which you can insert tables (and even those tables use all the math of a spreadsheet).  I have seen a demo of Keynote also taking tables, and I've been mulling over using Keynote instead, so I can have more graphical stuff on the page if I want it.

All of this highlights the lack of a good non-MS spreadsheet.  I have seen screenshots and rumors of a spreadsheet app being released in iWork at the end of this year, to go alongside Pages and Keynote, and if so, yay, very cool, but I'm not holding my breath.

I used to do all of my DM work on Excel, but that glues me to the Windoze desktop machine, and that damn thing takes almost a minute to open Excel, and is even worse when trying to open spreadsheets.  It's only Excel that sucks like that, so there's clearly something broken in my version.


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## Asmor (Jul 13, 2007)

GlassJaw said:
			
		

> I never have a problem with Excel being slow, even on average boxes.  It's much faster than Word or Powerpoint.




I actually don't use MS Office, I use OpenOffice.org. It's not that I'm a FOSS junkie so much as I'm cheap and have been trying to not use pirated software for a long time.  In general, I'm quite happy with OpenOffice.org.

Actually, I should clarify that... I'm very happy with OpenOffice.org, including its spreadsheet portion (known as Calc). However, just as you wouldn't open Word every time you wanted to make a note or copy and paste something, I'm looking for something smaller and simpler that I can open just to make a quick tiny table (for example, d10 random colors).

I'm beginning to think that maybe I'm just better off using notepad and making CSVs in it... Certainly serves the purpose of making something short and simple like d10 random colors. Biggest problems are that this means I can't put commas in whatever I'm making, and it's not easily legible without loading it into an actual spreadsheet.

I wish my programming-fu was a bit stronger and I'd try to whip something up in .Net, but I honestly don't know how well-suited .Net would be to this application. Oh well, something to look into. I even have a good idea for a name... Tablepad (Get it? Like notepad, for tables!)


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