Glide welcomes spreadsheets, OpenOffice.org

UPDATE: Glide is postponing the release of the Glide Crunch spreadsheet tool for a week. An updated version of Glide Crunch, contained in the Glide Sync download, is estimated to be available November 15. This version of the article also corrects a detail regarding how the Glide Crunch feature is downloaded.

This week, Glide (reviewed) is adding two new features to its beta Web suite, which is already 15 apps deep: Glide Crunch, which is a spreadsheet app, and support for OpenOffice.org.

Glide Crunch. Wednesday, Glide launches Glide Crunch, a spreadsheet app to join its word-processing, image-editing, and presentation-building buddies that sync information between the desktop and most mobile devices, including the iPhone.

Glide Crunch is a local and Web-based spreadsheet app.

Like these, Glide's spreadsheet contains collaborative tools to share, edit, and chat about data. Why this app is not like the others: It peels away from the nearly strictly Web 2.0 nature of Glide's other apps and settles onto the computer's hard drive as part of the Glide Sync desktop download. Spreadsheets with advanced formulas and functions can be crafted online, or offline with Glide Crunch Local, then auto-synced between the two. Pivot table support is anticipated for November 21. Glide Crunch spreadsheets were designed to be compatible with Microsoft Excel imports and exports. Check back tomorrow on CNET Download.com to download Glide Crunch.

OpenOffice.org support. Glide users can already import and export word-processing documents in Microsoft Word, HTML, and RTF formats. As of Thursday, OpenOffice.org joins the mix. According to CEO Donald Leka, syncing to the computer-bound open source productivity suite was a convincingly pleaded user request. It's a pretty minor update, all things considered, but points to the growing popularity of open source productivity software, which, circularly validates Glide's efforts, too.

ThinkFree and Zoho are competing online productivity suites.