Benefits of Working with Google Docs

Benefits of Working with Google Docs

• Google Docs provides you with the office editor and the oice suite, which means that you can easily create any type of document online like; Word document, Power Point presentation, Excel spreadsheets or even im Once you have created the document, you can also share and collaborate them with others and allow them to edit it in real-time as well.
• If you have created certain files or documents on your desktop computer, they can easily be uploaded to Google Docs using the This serves a very handy way to store and keep a backup of all your important iles in one place on the cloud, where it can be accessed from anywhere. What’s more, with Google Docs you can also work in the online mode, by simply installing its software on your computer, thereby making it easier for you to sync your documents.
• Working on web-based software also means that you can work across operating systems, whether it is a Windows PC, Mac or a Linux based Therefore when you are collaborating with others, Google Docs eliminates the need to send files back and forth multiple times and everyone sees the document in the same format. Google Docs support various formats like DOC, DOCX, PDF, XLS, PPT, RTF and many more.
• Google Docs is a secure web applicatio Therefore, you can be sure that your data will not be accessible to anyone, unless you decide to share it. Since the data would be residing on Google servers, chances of it being lost are minimal. The data is constantly backed up to provide sufficient mitigation of risk in case of hardware issues. Google service are reliable and they offer a 99.99% uptime, therefore one does not have to worry about data availability. Not only that, the security of documents with respect to infection with viruses is also taken care of.
• You need to have a Google account for working with Google Registration is free and if you have a Google account, you can use that to access Docs. Google Docs offers 1GB of storage space for the free account, however please note that this limit is for documents not created with Google Docs and there is no limit for storage space for documents created within Google Docs.
• Another major advantage of using web-based software is that not only does the software meet your requirement now but also gets better with tim Unlike software installed on a PC, you do not need to keep updating or upgrading the software to get new advanced features. As soon as new features are added, they become available to all users.

What You Can Do With Google Docs

Google Docs help you to undertake almost all tasks offered by a machine hosted office suite. Currently the elements, which form part of the Google Docs suite are; Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Drawings and Forms. These are the applications, which are more frequently used by average users and hence will cater for most number of people. The snapshot below shows the Google Docs Home page with the nav bar and various items displayed.

You can easily create documents from scratch or upload your existing files. All the basic tools for editing and formatting documents like bullets, adding tables, fonts etc are available for making compelling documents. The toolbar buttons are simple and familiar and hence the editing is quite easy.

 

Sharing your documents or collaborating with others in real time with Google Documents is a breeze. You can invite others as viewers or collaborators by simply entering their email addresses. Anyone you’ve invited to either view or edit your documents can access it as soon as they sign in. Multiple people can view or edit the documents simultaneously. At the time of writing, a document can be shared with up to 200 viewers and collaborators and up to 10 people can work on the document simultaneously. For spreadsheets a chat window is provided, which allows the collaborators to chat while viewing or editing the documents. The document revision history keeps a track of who edited what and when.

 

In addition, Google Docs has an auto save feature, which regularly saves your documents, and you do not have to worry about data loss due to power outage or hardware failure. You can also store and organize your documents in manageable collections within Google Docs, so it is easy to find and retrieve documents. “Collections” work on the same concept as the more conventional folders.

 

Google Docs allows you to publish documents as web pages with just a click. You can also control who has access to your document very easily. If required you can also publish the document directly to your blog.

 

Google has thousands of templates in the templates gallery that cater for almost any requirement, which you can use to create interesting content. This can potentially save you a lot of time and effort in designing and formatting your documents from scratch.

Elements of Google Docs

• Documents

The toolbar in Google Documents is simple to navigate and contains the familiar editing tools that are used to format the documents the way we want. In addition to the basic tools required for formatting and editing, there is a translate option, comment option as well as the collaborate option which allows you to either share the document with others or send it as an attachment with an email, all this without leaving the current window.

 

The revision history is maintained and you can roll back to any version at any time. The documents provide conversion to and from Word, Open Office, PDF, RTF, HTML and TXT format.

 

•     Spreadsheets

Just like the Documents toolbar, the spreadsheet toolbar is simple to use and contains familiar icons to make working easier.

With Spreadsheets you can import and convert the .xls, .csv, .txt and .ods formatted data and export to all these formats in addition to the HTML and PDF formats. You can insert / create charts, gadgets etc and also have the provision to embed the spreadsheet on your blog or website.

 

 

 

• Forms

With Google Docs you can easily create forms or surveys, send it to your friends and colleagues and keep track of responses in a single spreadsheet. The form can be created separately from the Docs list or in a Google spreadsheet. After you have completed making the form you can either email it to the prospective respondents or embed it in your blog / website. When the respondents ill out and submit the form, the response is automatically recorded. The responses received are assimilated in a spreadsheet and can be viewed either in entirety or as a summary. Forms are a very powerful tool and can be used by schools, businesses or by individuals for gathering feedback.

 

•     Google Drawings

Google Drawings enable you to easily create, share and edit drawings online. The drawing can be a low chart, a line diagram or a plain simple drawing. Besides the usual features of sharing and collaborating online with others in real time, a drawing created with Google drawings can be embedded into another Google document, spreadsheet or presentation and minor adjustments can be made inline, within the document.

 

•     Presentations

The presentations support the .PPT and .PPS format and you can import or export your presentations in these formats. In addition, the presentations can be downloaded in the TXT format.

 

As with the other applications you can share, collaborate and view the presentations online with others and also embed the presentations in your blog or website.

Google Docs Viewer

Google Docs Viewer is another impressive and helpful application from Google. The Docs Viewer is integrated with Gmail and most of you must have noticed that when you get an attachment in Gmail you are given two options, View and Download. If you choose View, then you are shown the document in Google Docs Viewer.

 

The Docs Viewer supports 15 types of file formats which includes, besides the commonly used formats, Apple Pages (.PAGES), Adobe Illustrator (.AI), Adobe Photoshop (.PSD), Tagged Image File Format (.TIFF), Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF), Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG), PostScript (.EPS, .PS), TrueType (.TTF), XML Paper Speciication (.XPS) and Archive ile types (.ZIP and .RAR).

 

So next time Windows tells you that it could not find a specific program to open a file type, you can try out Google Docs Viewer.