* Converting Excel spreadsheet to JavaScript and HTML
I just got my hands a really cool product. It’s called ExcelEverywhere published by Framtidsforum I&M AB (see links below).
This amazingly clever product takes an Excel spreadsheet and converts it to JavaScript and HTML. Currently at beta release, the product has a few rough edges but nothing that would stop me from recommending it.
To run this release of ExcelEverywhere for HTML (it is Version 2) you can build spreadsheets using Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel XP or Excel 2003 on Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000 or XP. End users who are going to access the resulting content will need Internet Explorer 4, 5 and 6, Netscape 4 and 6, Mozilla, Galeon, Konqueror running on Windows, Linux, or Unix. The company also claims that the content will display on many embedded devices such as set-top boxes.
Installation is simple though there’s one part missing: The product has the ability to post results and the company plans to offer a proxy service that’s not yet in place.
The range of functions supported by ExcelEverywhere is impressive and includes financial functions (DB, DDB, FV, IPMT, IRR, MIRR, NPER, NPV, PMT, PPMT, PV, RATE, SLN, and SYD) as well as some statistics (COUNTIF and NORMSDIST) and one item from the Analysis Toolpak (QUOTIENT).
You can select what is to be shown to the end user in a workbook, whether output content should be presented with a dynamic (resizable) or static grid, how input cells should be presented, how recalculation should be done (automatic or manual), and whether there should be buttons for recalculation, printing, resetting, or submitting the data.
And if that isn’t enough the product costs just $99, has no limitations on the deployment of its generated content, and comes in variants that generate the same code for server-side implementation as ASP/ASP.Net ($149), Java/JSP ($149), and J2ME ($29)! Outstanding value and huge potential. What a product.
