Google Tables for Viewing Large Excel Spreadsheets on the Web

If you need to view Excel data without Microsoft Office, just upload the file to Google Docs and it will display the spreadsheet data in the web browser. This sounds like an easy plan but the problem is that you can’t import large volumes of data into Google Docs.

For instance, Google Docs would only allow you to import spreadsheets (or CSV files) that are less than 1 MB in size and have no more than 200,000 cells in 256 columns or less.

These kind of size limits should be sufficient for most spreadsheets but you may find them pretty limiting in case you are planning to view large amounts of data in Google Docs like the population statistics of the world. view large data

Enter Google Fusion Tables - it’s a new product that lets you view Excel files as large as 100 MB in the browser - you can either upload the files from the desktop or pull it directly from your Google Spreadsheets gallery.

Unlike Spreadsheet, Google Tables is primarily for handling tabular data so it can’t understand formulas or cell formatting. However, the system can recognize columns that contain values that can be geo-coded. For instance, if the column contains country names or street addresses, Google Tables can easily plot that data onto a world map.

google tables

You can also apply filters to the data or create views so that only a subset of data is visible to the outside world. Later, you can export the edited data out of Google Fusion Tables as a CSV file.

Related: Google Docs Guide & Tutorial

Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

0

Awards & Titles

Digital Inspiration has won several awards since it's launch in 2004.

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

Google awarded us the Google Developer Expert award recogizing our work in Google Workspace.

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

Our Gmail tool won the Lifehack of the Year award at ProductHunt Golden Kitty Awards in 2017.

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft awarded us the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for 5 years in a row.

Google Cloud Champion

Google Cloud Champion

Google awarded us the Champion Innovator title recognizing our technical skill and expertise.

Email Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter to stay up to date.

We will never send any spam emails. Promise.