One of the biggest changes we’ve made is that you can now select columns, rows, and cells to apply an action to multiple slices of your data at once. Not exactly the flashiest thing (pretty sure even VisiCalc had selection), but we think you’ll find it’s a nice tweak to the overall experience of using the app.

Building a product is all about getting the right balance of features: we don’t want to create another spreadsheet (it’s been done), and we’re not looking to create another data cleanup tool (there are too many), but we do need some of those features, so what’s the right amount? We’re making something new but it also needs to feel familiar.

How about some quick examples?

Select rows to hide bad data, or non-data rows:

Step one with a new dataset: open in Rowboat to see what’s inside.
Step two: hide the data that’s not relevant.

Select columns to take the same action on all of them, like turning on these inline representations:

One of our most under-utilized features: inline representations break up cells by category and color, making it easy to glance at a column and see what's similar and different.

Select cells to copy their contents:

Rowboat is a means, not an end: getting data in—and back out—is always a priority.

We’ve also been working on some other features that can help with light clean-up.

Double-click cells to edit their values directly:

Lightweight data cleanup and editing, even with massive datasets, but without the need for a complicated data cleanup workbench.

Use the in-column Find and Replace to replace text:

If there’s Find and Replace, can regular expressions be far behind? Stay tuned.

These are just a few of the things we’ve implemented these past few months (we post more regular updates on our releases page), but we’ve really been enjoying these updates in our other day-to-day work. Check them out with Rowboat Web or Rowboat Desktop, and let us know how it goes! We love hearing your feedback.

— Katherine, Ben, and the rest of the crew

P.S. Please enjoy this Easter egg of a demo that our intern, Rahul, found while playing with the new features.

This is what a Harvard education will get you.