Hi Reader,

Welcome to the Google Sheets Tips newsletter #383, your Monday morning espresso, in spreadsheet form!

NASA's Artemis II mission blasted off towards the moon last week. I watched the launch live with my son (on YouTube, not in person, haha). The launch was exhilarating; I was holding my breath for the 10-second countdown! I'm excited to follow along with the remainder of the mission and see close-up images of the moon. In fact, as I press send on this email, they are scheduled to pass behind the moon and set a new record for the furthest distance away from earth!

Two takeaways: 1) the SLS is absolutely gigantic, as tall as a 32-storey building, and 2) those astronauts are incredibly brave to sit at the top of it. I'm in awe of both.

Onward to the moon. And one day, Mars.

In today's tip, I am sharing the differences between the amazingly useful Group By Views and Filter Views in Tables, with examples of when you would use each.

But first, some news from the spreadsheet/AI world.

➜ News

I.
How the spreadsheet reshaped America. An interesting read on how big an impact spreadsheets have had on our world.

​Read more here >>​

II.
Can you pass the Arc test? Or build an AI agent to solve it? This is the current benchmark test for what humans can do but AI agents cannot. It took me a few goes to get the hang of it!

​Check it out here >>​

II.
​Recently, Block laid off about 40% of their workforce (~4,000 people) to bet on smaller AI-powered teams. Last week they published an interesting article about their vision for replacing management layers with an AI-powered company "world model".

It's good to maintain a degree of skepticism as to how this will play out practically, but it's an interesting glimpse into how AI-first companies are thinking.

​Read more here >>​

➜ Sheets Tip #383: Tables Group-By Views vs. Filter Views, which should you use?

When Google introduced the new Tables feature, it changed the way we interact with data.

But even as a Google Sheets power user, it took me a few experiments to get the hang of the two view options built into Tables: Group-By and Filter views.

you access both sets of views through the spreadsheet icon menu in the top left of the table next to the table name:

Now, let's explore the difference so you'll know which view to use when.

1. Group By Views (The Organizer) 🗄️

Think of Group By as your filing cabinet. It doesn’t hide any of your data; it simply reshuffles it into neat, collapsible sections based on categories in a specific column.

It also adds a subtotal row above each section, where you can customize what aggregation measure to apply (e.g. count, sum, average, etc.)

When to use it: Use this whilst you are trying to see the details without losing the “Big Picture”.

Example: You have a massive list of tasks. Grouping by “Status” (To-Do, In Progress, Done) allows you to see exactly how much work is in each stage at a single glance.

2. Filter Views (The Specialist)

Filter Views are more like that sieve in your kitchen. They allow you to sift your data based on specific criteria, hiding everything else that isn’t relevant to your scenario.

For example, here the filter only shows real estate deals over $200k:

When to use it: Use this when you need to focus on a specific subset of data without the distraction of showing all your data.

Example: In a global sales sheet, you might create a Filter View for deals over $5,000. You can then focus on those bigger deals without being distracted by smaller deals.

Another example might be to create a filter view showing only records for a certain geographic area (e.g. Virginia only, or UK only). Again, this allows you to crunch those numbers in peace without affecting those other regions.

For more information on Tables and using these views, check out this article:

​The Complete Guide to Tables in Google Sheets​

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to a friend who might enjoy it.

Have a great week!

Cheers,
Ben

P.S. Smooth moves. Which is your favorite?​