One of the worst jobs in Excel is having to compare data in two spreadsheets. It can be a painstaking process to go through them both and look for things such as price differences and value variations. Compare Spreadsheets for Excel is a powerful and convenient tool for comparison of files in Microsoft Excel. It basically allows you to search for differences without doing any of the hard work.

There is no need to even open the tables to be compared. Simply specify the files, tables or ranges of cells to be compared and choose the aligning parameters for comparison by rows or columns. Specify what you would like to compare: cell values or formulas and set the way of highlighting the different cells (background colour and/or the colour and style of the cell border). The program then proceeds to successfully find all the changes in the latest price list such as new products (highlighted in green) and the changed prices (cells with a red border). There's no need to even run Microsoft Office - Compare Spreadsheets for Excel performs everything independently meaning your workload could be cut in half in a stroke.

In today's working world, mastering Microsoft's spreadsheet application Excel has become as essential as knowing how to write up a CV. The trouble is, Excel still remains a complex tool and you'll need patience and work to become familiar with all the formulas and graphs you can use. Luckily, Codswallop has written up a great list of guides and tips to improve your Excel skills. It includes online tutorials and videos, books, forums, experts to contact, blogs, templates and tools.

I quite like the tutorial on common uses for formulas, which lets you learn how and when you can make use of Excel spreadsheets. I'd also recommend mastering pivot tables (a specificity of Excel) with either of the tutorials on the subject. Also check out the Excel Tips book, to get handy advice on what functions to use. Excel is probably the cornerstone application of accountants and finance workers alike, so if this is your department make sure to take a look at one of the specialized books like Principles of finance with Excel or Sales forecasting with Excel and download some useful business templates like balance sheets or expense reports to save some time. Of the Excel tools provided, I'd suggest Asap utilities, which gives more firepower to your Excel, PDF to Excel, to transfer data from one format to another and FlorenceSoft to quickly compare similar spreadsheets and quickly find differences. Finally why not a little bit of comic relief with some "funny" Excel videos (I know, it does sound a bit scary) or relax with Excit, an Excel-themed Flash game.

A couple of weeks ago I had a first look at Office Web Apps, the online version of Microsoft Office 2010. Today I’m going to compare this newly launched service with another online productivity suite that’s been in the business for quite some time now: Google Docs.

To begin with, the main interface in Google Docs looks much better than the one in Office Web Apps, ruined by the presence of a huge, highly distracting banner. Google Docs is clearer and simpler, just like Google’s style.

Both suites have a similar structure on this main page, with document categories on the left and a list of all the files you’ve created so far. The list on Google Docs lets you select multiple documents at the same time to perform bulk operations such as deleting, hiding, starring or exporting. The list on Office Web Apps, however, only lets you manage files one by one, and doesn’t let you delete files – you have to click More > Properties, and then select Delete.