Review: GridMagic For BlackBerry
[rating:7.5/10] 7.5/10
Link: www.simprit.com
Free Personal Version: www.simprit.com/free
Price: Ranges from free to $49.9
For anyone who has ever used Microsoft Excel in there their profession then this could be a very handy program. GridMagic allows you to perform just about all of the options you have on the desktop version but with the convenience of the ‘Anywhere’ access on your Blackberry.
GridMagic allows you to design your own spreadsheet, to suit the business your in, on your BlackBerry. Whether it be a simple timesheet program (this would make it easy to email your work hours through to the office) or a more complex application specifically designed for you. You can even import your current workbooks into GridMagic since many common formulas are supported. It also allows you to handle Excel attachments which is great compared to the native Excel viewer.
There is also a new free Community Edition that we mentioned previously which is free for personal use and is quite functional. For more just make the JUMP…
The version we used in this review is the latest 3.3.0.188
Features:
- Optimized and designed for BlackBerry smartphones.
- Supports 65,536 rows and 256 columns (same as Excel 2003).
- Multiple sheets per workbook.
- Display formatted cell/text (including alignment, borders and background colors).
- Row and column resizing.
- Find, go to, and End mode.
- Support Zoom factor.
- Workbook editing and cell/text reformatting (cut, copy, paste cell data, insert/delete cells/rows/columns).
- Auto cell formatting by entered example.
- Auto switch to numeric mode based on cell format.
- Saving workbooks to smartphones (workbook categories for easy management).
- Real-time recalculation.
- Features the most frequently used Microsoft Excel functions.
- Desktop Synchronization (compatible with Microsoft Excel).
- BlackBerry attachment integration.
You can do virtually everything that you can do on the desktop Microsoft version including setting cell formulas, fonts, colors and borders to name but a few. One thing I did find is that it can be a bit annoying because of the screen size (Curve). If you need to compare 2 figures that are quite a few rows a part, you need to do a fair bit of scrolling in between then although you can freeze selected cells to hold on the screen.
Another advantage is that you can download Excel files from your desktop PC or Mac to the memory card in you BlackBerry and have access to all the information you need wherever you are. The trick is that you cannot open regular .xls files from your memory card. You have to first put them on your desktop and then sync them with your device. The other option is to get them as an email and Gridmagic will automatically convert them. This may be a pain for some but Simprit has promised to fix this in later releases. I knocked down a few points because of this.
Another nice feature just added by Simprit are the free workbook templates for some regular excel functions. These templates include:
- Mortgage/loan application with amortization schedule
- BMI/ideal weight calculator
- Personalized Lotto lucky pick
- US Holiday 2007
- US Holiday 2008
Excel spreadsheets can be customized for just about any application imaginable. From calculating the re-entry approach angle of the space shuttle to scheduling next weeks home-work for students, it all depends on the programming.
Conclusion:
For those of you that have used (and programmed) in MS Excel before will know if they need this one or not. And if you have never had anything to do with Excel I would recommend you familiarize yourself on the desktop version first as scrolling around on the limited BlackBerry screen can be a bit of a pain in the…
The best part about this program is that you can carry even more information in your pocket and have it on hand if the need arises. The sheer flexibility of the program is a huge plus just in itself…And the price is right…
Check out Simprit’s forum for answers to some of the more common questions or just to let them know how much you like free software :).
