Google Sheets compatibility

[Celly]

Hello all,

So I have a large and complex spreadsheet that I've been developing for several years. It was designed largely using formulas for compatibility with Excel Online, which has been successful. Recently I did some testing with Google Sheets, and the results were not as good. The main issue I've encountered is "named ranges". These are essentially limited to static range references in Google Sheets. I have dozens and dozens of these which employ dynamic range expressions. Converting all of these to use helper cells and INDIRECT references is going to be brutal. Is there any hope here? Will Google ever improve the compatibility of this? It seems like a bust.

My application is here:

Retireator.org – Retireate Away!

 

[MARK858]

Will Google ever improve the compatibility of this?

No idea but no reason why they should. Microsoft and Google aren't a partnership and Google have never stated that one of their aims was to make Sheets fully compatible with Excel.
Personally I would think that you would get more help with this by posting it on a Google Sheets forum rather than an Excel forum as most with Excel don't have much dealings with Google Sheets.

 

[Celly]

That's fair, although I'd contend that the more compatible Google can make their offering, the more successful any "embrace and replace" strategy would be. It's not like we're expecting VBA to work.

I think I'm probably toast here, but I thought I'd do a bit of a fishing expedition before punting on it.

 

[MARK858]

although I'd contend that the more compatible Google can make their offering, the more successful any "embrace and replace" strategy would be.

Or on the other hand they might (if they feel they are established enough, which they probably are) want to diversify away from Excel to make a more distinctive product rather than being seen as a cheap copy of Excel.
Both have their advantages long term as a business strategy.

 

[Celly]

I wonder if LibreOffice has the same limitation with named ranges?

If I could get two for the price of one, it might be worth the refactoring effort. But that is going to suuuuuuuuck.

 

[MARK858]

I wonder if LibreOffice has the same limitation with named ranges?

As far as I remember it does for dynamic named ranges, Haven't used it for a long time though.