Here are a couple of Google Sheets features I sometimes find myself telling people about, and which often trigger a "oh wow, I wish I knew about this years ago" reaction. ## It's easy to import data from public URLs If there's a table or list of data on a public web page somewhere, it's really easy to get that data into a Google Sheet. You just need the IMPORTHTML() function [^1]. E.g. the following gets COVID-19 cases by UK region: ``` =IMPORTHTML("https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-number-of-cases-in-england/coronavirus-covid-19-number-of-cases-in-england", "table") ``` If there's a CSV at a public URL somewhere, you can get the data into your sheet: ``` =IMPORTDATA("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/master/csse_covid_19_data/csse_covid_19_time_series/time_series_19-covid-Confirmed.csv") ``` [^1]: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093339?hl=en ## You can write custom functions that run whatever code you want You can write custom functions in Google Sheets [^2]. Some illustrative examples: a. CLEARBIT([email address]): get data from Clearbit enrichment API based on email address. b. MIXPANEL([email address], [traits]): get user traits or event data from Mixpanel based on email address c. IS_NEWSLETTER_SUBSCRIBER([email address]): return true/false according to whether this person is a newsletter subscriber in MailChimp. d. MD5([email address]): run a numerical function (e.g. a hash algorithm) that's difficult to express in native Google Sheets syntax. e. DO_ACTION([params]): do some action e.g. send an email or send an event. Often Zapier is better for this sort of thing, but not always. [^2]: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/sheets/functions ## There's a Google Analytics integration The Google Analytics Google Sheets add-on is useful for creating reports based on Google Analytics data in Google Sheets. You can also schedule reports to run on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, so it's handy for making dashboards based on Google Analytics data. Details here: https://developers.google.com/analytics/solutions/google-analytics-spreadsheet-add-on ## The "protected range" feature helps prevent mistakes The “Protected range” feature lets you define a range then specify (a) who should be allowed to edit it and (b) whether a warning should be shown when edits are made. Find it in the “Data > Protected sheets and ranges” menu.