Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Adds Scripting Capabilities To Google Docs

Posted by Soulskill on from the scripted-dialogue dept.

snydeq writes "Google will add scripting capabilities to Google Docs, allowing organizations to customize their online applications and automate tasks. Google plans to sign up about 1,000 customers over the next few weeks to test the feature, called Google Apps Script. It will be tested initially in Google Spreadsheets and extended to other Google Docs applications over time. The company isn't saying yet when Apps Script — which is based on JavaScript with object-based extensions added by Google — will be widely available. Google Docs users can already apply to try it out."

4 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. What about integration between Google Apps? by ThePhilips · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If they want to make any impression on M$Office advanced users, they have to also offer inter-application scripting. e.g. script to convert special text document to spreadsheet. or script to convert spreadsheet lines into appointments.

    The forte of M$Office is seamless - from scripting point of view - integration between the applications.

    --
    All hope abandon ye who enter here.
    1. Re:What about integration between Google Apps? by confused+one · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The user has a point. There's a massive number of companies, large and small, that have business processes dependant on VBA scripts in Microsoft Office apps. This keeps a lot of companies using Office, because they don't want to re-create those scripts -- many of which were created by people who don't know java; or, to be fair, don't know how to code in Basic either. (some of the stuff I've seen *shudder*)

      If Google can offer similar scripting capability, and interpret existing VBA scripts, they might take some of Microsoft's business. Unfortunately, there are licensing fees Microsoft demands for VBA.

  2. Re:Who cares about Google Docs anymore? by Philip_the_physicist · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Of course forums like this will still exist. Usenet is still in use, even for important stuff (like comp.risks, or news.admin.net-abuse.*), as well as places like the scary devil monastery. I even found a dial-up BBS that was in active use last year, although that was mainly being used as a historical curiosity than as a proper means of communication. Some things will die out and switch to Google waves, many others will stay in use as they currently exist.

    On the other hand, switching to Google Wave would bring back the days of a single place to find conversation on any topic imaginable, but because it would be under the control of a single corporation, this could well be argued to be a bad thing, for obvious reasons.

  3. The end of Microsoft Office? by dword · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Now, we all know that there are two kinds of companies: those that afford buying quality custom software and those (a lot!) that can't and use Excel and Word scripts. With the power of sharing, multiple simultaneous editors, chat, publishing, safe backups, etc. could Google Docs be considered a more powerful Office suite? They still have some limitations like the number of rows in Google Docs Spreadsheet is a lot lower than the number of rows limit in Microsoft Office Excel. What will happen when they'll overcome those limitations?