Num Sum: A web based spreadsheet that makes collaboration easy

I was introduced to something pretty neat the other day: Num Sum

NumSum is a web-based spreadsheet that doesn’t involve Java, ActiveX, or Flash – just plain old DHTML.

Here is a screenshot of it:

The first line of numbers is actually a computation in the C column.

However, the key to Num Sum is this: Just like how we at the MacBU discovered a while back that most people use spreadsheets to track lists, so has the folks at Metaha. That’s why Excel for Mac debuted the list manager feature. Here is an example (this might not show up in RSS…):

This blog post talks about the inspiration behind Num Sum. It’s a very neat idea – especially in that by having it on the web, they have made collaborating on a spreadsheet super easy: Today, to collaborate, you have to share a file and use Track Changes. With Num Sum, you all simply modify the spreadsheet on the web.

They’ve got a few user interaction problems to solve for now: arrow keys don’t work all that great, hitting return results in behaviors that aren’t always desired. But the community aspect is flat out neat.