Google Docs is a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool that runs in any web browser, with your documents stored on Google's servers rather than your computer. The beauty of this is that you can sit down at any online computer - regardless of the operating system or browser - and pick up working right where you left off. You can also easily collaborate on documents with colleagues.

Google Docs offers all the basic features of Microsoft's Office applications. It puts an end to shuffling files between work and home, or between your desktop and notebook computers. Open documents are automatically saved every five minutes, to minimise data loss in the event of a hard drive failure or other disaster. The service lets you access previous versions of your documents and even compare changes between versions.

If you've got a Google Gmail account you're already set up to use Google Docs - just click on the "Documents" link in the menu at the top of the Gmail interface. If you don't have an account, you can sign up at http://docs.google.com. Once signed in, you're presented with the Google Docs index page. From here, you can create a new file or else upload files from your desktop. You can upload Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenOffice, StarOffice, CSV, PDF, RTF, HTML and text documents. Clicking on "Upload" also reveals a custom email address that allows you to email documents directly into your Google Docs storage area. You can also export documents in all the same formats, although the document's formatting may be affected.

You can create folders for storing your files and then drag and drop files between folders. Document can be searched from this page index and you can save regular searches.

Opening a file in Google Docs' word processor presents you with the Documents interface, which has a look and feel somewhere between Microsoft's Word Pad and Word.

It offers basic formatting such as paragraph, font, point size, colour and alignment. You can also insert links, tables, images, comments, headers, footers and page breaks as well basic style formatting such as headings. Other features include spell check, word count, auto-save, print and print preview - in all, pretty much all the features most people ever use in a word processor. The help menu presents you with a list of handy keyboard shortcuts.

Most of Document's features are self-explanatory for anyone who has ever used a word processor. Thankfully, the spell check offers the option of UK English and you can add custom words to your dictionary. The word count also counts paragraphs, sentences and pages as well as gauging readability. Frustratingly you can't run a word count on a highlighted passage within a document, but an easy workaround is to create a document called WORD COUNT and paste sections into it as you want to run a word count on them.

The bookmarks feature lets you create shortcuts to specific places within a document, which can be useful for creating a table of contents. You can create a bookmark point from the "Insert" menu, although you can't see them on the page. To create a link to a bookmark point, highlight the text to be the link and select Insert/ Link then choose Bookmark and select the bookmark point you previously created. You can also create links to other documents, URLs or email addresses.

Another interesting feature is the ability to post directly to a blog. It's pre-configured for Blogger, Blogharbor, Blogware, Wordpress, Livejournal and SquareSpace accounts but, if you host your own blog, you can select "Custom server" and follow the instructions for accessing 19 types of blogging software.

 

Looking Good(ish)

Google's Presentation app is the most basic of the suite. It comes with around a dozen simple templates and includes features such as speaker notes. When it comes to adding multimedia, you're restricted to inserting images (from your desktop or online) or videos from YouTube. You can run presentations online, taking your audience through the slideshow and chatting to them via Google Talk. Presentations can also be embedded into websites.

Google Docs' key strength is the ease with which you can collaborate on documents. The blue "Share" button at the top right of the interface lets you share, email or publish a document. Share lets you email other Google Docs users and invite them to view or edit the document - with that document now appearing in their Google Docs index list. Publish lets you put the document online where anyone can view it if they know the unique URL. From this page, authorised collaborators can edit the document, and you can set the preferences to automatically republish the updated version.

When co-editing a document, a pop-up at the bottom right of the screen tells you who else is editing the document. Each party can view the other's changes within a few seconds. Users can also view revisions to a document, including which user made them. Comments within documents also identify the user who made them. The Discuss tab in Spreadsheet lets users chat, but it's not available in the Document or Presentation.

If changes conflict whilst editing in Document, the user whose changes are over-ridden is warned and told which text has been lost. When editing in Presentation, you're warned that edits couldn't be applied, but you're not told which edits are affected. When you're editing a cell in a Spreadsheet, other users see the cell as greyed out to prevent conflicting edits. There's no warning at all if two people open the same cell simultaneously, it seems whoever makes the change last wins out.

For group projects, you can create RSS feeds to alert users of changes to documents or the creation of new documents. You can also automatically send email notifications when changes are made to spreadsheets.

On Reflection

The Google Docs apps are very handy but are unlikely to meet all the needs of power users. You'll notice inconsistencies between the features of Document, Spreadsheet and Presentation because they were separate products lumped together, rather than having been built from the ground up as one integrated suite. Of course, Google Docs' key weakness is that it requires you to be online, but Google has recently added offline editing using the Google Gears plugin.

Google Docs has a few online rivals offering similar services, but Microsoft isn't one of them. Microsoft's Office Live is a suite of online tools aimed at home and business users, but it doesn't actually offer document editing the way Google Docs does. Google Docs' closest competitors are ThinkFree Online (http://www.thinkfree.com/), Zoho (http://www.zoho.com) and Adobe's Buzzword (http://buzzword.acrobat.com). Of the four, Zoho easily has the most applications, more features and most polish. Google's key advantages are its integration with other services such as Gmail and the fact that most internet users already have a Google login so it's easy to collaborate on documents.

Your opinion of Google Docs will depend on how you intend to use it. The word processor isn't a true WYSIWG editor, as what you see is not exactly what you get when you print particularly if you re using advanced features such as tables. The addition of the fixed-width page view option has made it closer to WYSIWG, but those looking to regularly print documents will still be frustrated. At the same time Google Docs is not a pure HTML editor either - when you change a passage of text to bold, it changes the look of the text rather than inserting the <b> and </b> HTML tags into the text. You can edit the underlying HTML code (and even define CSS styles for documents) but the HTML view offers very messy HTML code. Spreadsheet and Presentation also have their limitations and Microsoft Office power users shouldn't abandon the desktop suite just yet.

At this point, Google Docs is probably best suited to those who need basic word processing features but don't care too much about the final look of the page, such as students writing school assignments or journalists writing magazine features. It's also extremely useful for on-the-fly collaboration documents that would be difficult to produce via email over the telephone. Mobile users, such as iPhone owners, can view but not edit Google Docs, although mobile editing is on the product roadmap. Google is constantly adding new features, so it's worth regularly revisiting Google Docs to see if it meets your needs.

Note:  Adam Turner©   Permission to copy or quote extracts from this article may only be done with the written permission of the author.  Adam posts regularly at http://www.hydrapinion.com/index.php/play

Reprinted from the August 2008 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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