Tables: The new spreadsheet for Mac OS X

Originally downloaded 8/6/06. Any time a new spreadsheet package comes out for the Mac, it’s cause for celebration. Microsoft Excel was the first big hit in Mac spreadsheets, and Excel was the star on Macs long before it finally won the PC crowd. Since then, others software has occasionally emerged to challenge Microsoft, but none has really made the grade. The only one I found good enough to switch to was Ragtime, a German software product that covers the entire office/desktop publishing arena, which until recently was available in a free version for personal use. I’m a huge fan of Ragtime 6, which has been out in beta for about 6 months now; however, unless the company cuts individuals like me a break, I’ll have to find something else: RagTime 5 (the current version) is over $800 for a single license! Anyway, I see that Tables is also from Germany, so I’m interested to see how it compares with Ragtime’s excellent spreadsheet module.

Update 3/6/07. Tables is making great strides toward full usability, but it isn’t there yet, according to my tests with some large, real-life spreadsheets. Yet I fully expect to move Tables from the “Reject” to the “Recommended” column if the developer continues making progress as he has since debuting Tables in summer 2006. For a full review of Tables, as well as my thoughts on all the contenders in the Mac OS X spreadsheet market, see my March 2007 article, “Mac OS X Spreadsheet Roundup: A Few Excel, The Rest Should Be Shot.”

Version as tested: 1.2.