You can also make use of a map gadget to show, for instance, where your business offices or distributors of your products are located, by marking them on a Google Map. To do so, place the address to map in one column and any tooltip text to display when the user hovers their mouse over that location in the adjacent column. You then insert the map gadget and select the cells containing the data. At any time, if the data in the worksheet is updated, the map will redraw automatically. Combine this flexibility with the capability to publish a Google Spreadsheet to the Web, and you have a great tool for providing location-based business information in a graphical way.

Yet another feature of Google Spreadsheets that you can harness for business use--and has no direct parallel in Excel--is the Form feature, which allows you to create a form inside a spreadsheet to collect data from a user. You might use it for an invitation for which you're collecting replies, for example, or a customer survey form.

Once you have created the form, which can contain multiple-choice questions, checkboxes, and the like, you publish it to the Web. As users complete the form, the data is automatically added to the spreadsheet, allowing you to aggregate data from surveys or to gather replies to an invitation all in one place and without your input. (Although you can create a form in Excel, it offers you no simple way to publish it online and automatically collect the data.)

Not all the uses to which people put Excel--or Google Spreadsheets, for that matter--are ideal for the application. Most users who explore unusual purposes with the software do so because they are to do their work. If you were planning to manage your finances, do your taxes, or create brochures, your tool of choice in most cases should be a dedicated application.