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The main difference between a simple spreadsheet and what Airtable offers is its complexity. And because Airtable is cloud-based, instead of sending a document back and forth between your team, everyone can collaborate and make changes in real time. You can add dropdown menus, checkboxes, and file attachments.
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The software also keeps things nice and clean. Say you’re working on a certain project, and you feel confident about certain aspects but want to take a closer look at others - Airtable gives you this prioritization option and arranges the view on your screen in a way that emphasizes this process. You can also customize how your tables are arranged. You can manage workflow and set up alerts to track task progress.
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If you’re learning how to use Airtable, you should be aware of its customer relationship management, or CRM, capabilities. And where Excel doesn’t have calendar operations, Airtable does. But Airtable has formula and data linking possibilities galore. For instance, you can’t connect data or formulas across different Excel spreadsheets. And while the program has plenty of worthwhile uses, it also has limits. When you think of spreadsheets, you probably imagine Microsoft Excel.
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Read on as we explore Airtable’s capabilities, what exactly a spreadsheet-database hybrid is, and how these things can improve your business’s efficiency. The former uses it to track all of its vehicles, and the latter relies on the software to track its editorial calendars for the year.Īirtable is best known for its ability to store data, manipulate it, and present it in ways that make sense for your business - all in a flexible and user-friendly way. Rather, it’s more of a spreadsheet-database hybrid.Īirtable’s wide functionality means it can mold itself to a wide variety of businesses - Tesla and Time magazine are among those that use its services. Airtable is not just a spreadsheet application. Understanding how to use Airtable and its functions means first understanding what it is and what it isn’t. In this chapter, we’ll explore Airtable’s functionality, the steps it’s taken to separate itself from the pack, and exactly what makes its software useful. And now, with a valuation at $1 billion, Airtable has reimagined the spreadsheet in its own image. The team continued to tinker, gathering user feedback and shaping the software around new and exciting functions.Īirtable is more than just a spreadsheet - it’s a database. Over the next few years, the company grew exponentially. Off the support of more funding and buzz, Airtable officially launched in 2015. Its earliest versions were more of a grid, designed as what has been called “spreadsheets on steroids.” It took two years behind the scenes before they had anything resembling what Airtable is today. With early encouragement, the Airtable team got to work. Idea to realityĮven in its early stages, Airtable drew lots of attention - a pitch to Ashton Kutcher on the set of Two and a Half Men convinced the actor to invest and left him considering the software’s possibilities beyond Hollywood. His idea? Create a new platform where spreadsheets are readable, have a multitude of practical uses beyond those existing platforms are capable of, and do so in a way that makes sense to users. His background at Salesforce left him discouraged with what he saw as spreadsheet misuse - clutter everywhere and no clear way to maximize potential and give businesses the jolt they crave. Liu’s thinking was that although spreadsheets were prevalent, they weren’t being used the way they were supposed to be. Founded in 2012 by Howie Liu, along with former Google Maps guru Andrew Ofstad, the company’s goal from the beginning has been to revolutionize the spreadsheet. It has taken this concept and flipped it on its head. They are easy to understand and interpret - which is why they serve as the backbone for a successful operation. Spreadsheets are a universal tool for companies of all sizes.
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Think about all the different things we use spreadsheets for - balancing budgets, listing supplies we need for a party, doing our taxes.Īnd in business, there are even more practical uses for spreadsheets, with various departments in charge of tracking information, data, and internal operations. Spreadsheets fall into this category too. Both of these advancements are utilities - things we use as shortcuts to make our lives easier. And GPS devices have changed the way we travel and navigate our daily lives. Smartphones have taken over how we communicate and access the internet. When it comes to technology, there are some universal truths.
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