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Siri for Google Sheets: Type Questions, Get Instant Answers with Wolfram Alpha

2 minute read

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What’s the population of New York City? What does South Korea’s flag look like? How many calories does an egg have?

Using the Wolfram Alpha add-on, you can type questions like these and get instant answers, right within Google Sheets. It makes for a fantastic research tool (Wolfram Alpha is an intelligence service that actually powers Siri). You can access the power of Wolfram Alpha’s computational knowledge in Google Sheets and get instant facts, data, and calculations, all without leaving the window.

 Install the add-on

  • In Google Sheets, head up to the Add-ons menu and then choose Get add-ons.
  • Search for Wolfram Alpha and click the “+Free” button to install it. You will then have to confirm that the add-on can have permission to access your Google account.

Ask away

  • For example, you can type the question, “What is the population of New York City?” into a cell.

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  • With that cell highlighted, head up to the Add-ons menu and select Compute Selection with Wolfram|Alpha. In a moment, you’ll get the answer to your question.

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Here’s another example.

  • You can type, “What does South Korea’s flag look like?” and instantly get back an image for South Korea’s flag.

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Use the sidebar for additional research

  • Head up to the Add-on menu and choose Open Wolfram|Alpha Sidebar. Here, you can conduct searches to see what kinds of information Wolfram Alpha can provide you with.

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  • If you find anything useful in the sidebar, you can insert it directly into your spreadsheet. If you click Insert as Image, it will insert the retrieved data as an image file overlaying your sheet. If you choose Insert as plaintext, it will insert the data as text directly into the spreadsheet itself.

We encourage you to really play around with this. There’s almost no limit to the type of information Wolfram Alpha can retrieve for you!

Click here to watch this video on YouTube.

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