Final exams are around the corner and I can’t help but think how useful Google Docs has been for me this year. They may not have implemented the print layout view (although it is surely nearby) I have been longing for, but Google has completely turned Docs around since their acquisition of Writely in March 2006.
While the recent additions like the ability to edit CSS for Docs and save presentations as PowerPoint files are great, they don’t compare to the real reason I use Google Docs – the collaborative features. I have used Google Docs numerous times for writing group papers but I have started using it in another way this semester. I’ve begun taking class notes collaboratively with other classmates on Google Docs. No longer do I have to worry about typing as fast as the professor speaks and so on. Furthermore, thanks to the cloud, I don’t have to worry about Microsoft Word randomly quitting out or kernel panics halting the system and corrupting open documents – I’ve been there.
Of course, Google Docs isn’t perfect. When using it with 4 or more collaborators, I have found that merge conflicts seem to occur quite often and it becomes rather annoying. When pasting text from other sources, there is no way of automatically reverting to default styling so most people first paste to a plain text document and then copy and paste into the Google Doc. Finally, when collaborating with many people there seems to be a slight issue where styling will be forgotten. That is, Docs seems to randomly bold portions of text and change the size… perhaps if one user reverts to default 10pt styling and another user still had the old styling and added some text it saves that over the first user. Then again sometimes those issues go away after reloading or scrolling up and down a few times.
Other than those issues, Docs falls short of being a complete word processing solution for students. With certain professors requiring the Times New Roman font (not offered in Docs) and a real need for a print layout view, many students end up fine-tuning their documents in Microsoft Word before printing and turning them in.
In the meantime, I will get back to studying and consuming bandwidth at the library..
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Since I now have to work as a community servant my trail version of MS office expired and I didn’t really miss it. Every now and then I receive a file I can’t open and so I just load it into Google Docs. It’s powerful for a web app. :)
I’ll get the new MS Office for university this fall. That’s for sure.
Microsoft Office 2007 has been quite okay for me. I see no need for Google Docs just yet, although your post has illustrated its pros and cons and how students can use it to their advantage.
I guess Google Docs just won’t work for high school students!ü
How I long to return to the days of academic network bandwidth…
I wish my college had that kind of bandwidth (or rather, let me access that kind of bandwidth) — Sadly, all of the student-accessbile ports are a slow 10Mbit half duplex.
I’ve begun using Google Docs almost exclusively since my Thinkpad hard disk crashed and I began to adapt to a mostly online lifestyle.
I don’t use the collaborative editing features too much, though I used to share several lists and databases with classmates on the IIM campus, that would otherwise have been Excel spreadsheets on individual computers.
With Offline support, Google Docs can now function more or less as a standalone basic office suite, though there isn’t any support for creating new documents yet. I usually compose drafts of blog posts, papers, and the like while disconnected, and only plug in to post. It’s a great way to automatically save remote copies of your documents, which fits into my online lifestyle rather well.
Doesn’t work with pages?… crappy.
I fooled around on Google Docs this past weekend, so this post is timely for me. I was hoping for more wiki possibilities. I want to put up a paper (a sermon, actually) and allow anybody to change it and access it without too much trouble. It looked like via Google Docs, I’d have to invite folks privately rather than leaving an open invitation through my blog. Still looking for a good wiki way to do so…
http://adamjcopeland.com
I can’t help feeling that Google Spreadsheets replicates the desktop experience much better than Google Docs. The frustration it creates while collaborating led me to switch to Buzzword, recently acquired by Adobe, entirely. It can export to Word files and implements page layout nicely, and the interface trumps Google Docs — hands down.
Flash is perfectly suited to applications like these. I would guess accessibility and screen reader support goes out the window in Google Docs, so why not use the RIA possibilities of Flash?
Before I graduated from Tech (December 2007), my senior design group and I used it to manage all of our documents for our project. You name the document, we had it in Google Docs – requirements, specifications, design documents, presentations, etc. We personally didn’t run into any issues with merge conflicts or other issues; however, there were also only four of us. It was also nice not to have to hook up a laptop to the projectors to give the presentations – we just logged in to Google to access them.
Nonetheless, it was interesting to watch how many people began to use Google Docs as it became more popular. For example, in CS2200 people worked together to take notes during class so that when test time came, we had document full of notes from everyone that had contributed to the shared file. I always thought that was a really good use of the software.
My MS Excel corrupted, so currently the only way for me to view Excel file is through Google Docs. I use it mostly to save my notes whenever I’m in campus, so that I won’t need to bring a long thumb drive :)
I’ve begun using Google Docs almost exclusively since my Thinkpad hard disk crashed and I began to adapt to a mostly online lifestyle.
I don’t use the collaborative editing features too much, though I used to share several lists and databases with classmates on campus, that would otherwise have been Excel spreadsheets on individual computers.
With Offline support, Google Docs can now function more or less as a standalone basic office suite, though there isn’t any support for creating new documents yet. I usually compose drafts of blog posts, papers, and the like while disconnected, and only plug in to post. It’s a great way to automatically save remote copies of your documents, which fits into my online lifestyle rather well.
I had a similar issue with copy/pasting in simple text. There’s a great menubar program for mac called YouControl ($30, free 30 day demo), and among many other useful features, there is a pasteboard that creates a menubar menu which allows you to see and select any of the past 5, 10, or however many past clipboard entries you’ve copied. After you have selected the one you want to paste, there is another menu that pops out that gives the date, time, and application you copied from, and gives you the option to paste in the style it was copied in, or to paste with unformatted text. This is infinitely useful for me because it not only allows me to paste things that have been written over in the current clipboard, but also allows me to paste following the same style I’m already using in a document without having to reformat the style.
The program is a bit resource hungry, and at a price of $30 this may not be the most elegant solution if you only get the pasteboard out of it. However, the other functions of the program are very useful – the ones I use include an iTunes controller, weather forcast, address book, and an enhanced date/time in the menubar.
http://www.yousoftware.com/control/
Since I’ve started using Google Docs, I haven’t opened a Microsoft Office program once. There’s simply no need for me to do so. My professors don’t have font type requirements, so I can use the fonts included with Google Docs. I haven’t done anything complicated to the point that Google Docs couldn’t provide what I needed. There’s no incentive or need for me to use Microsoft products when Google Docs is exactly what I need. I agree with you, it’s changing the way I work as well.
Now I want that connection speed at home :P
Good post! We love Google Docs. My kids do all of the papers for school in it. That way their work is always backed-up and accessible to them from anywhere, school or home.
What are your thoughts on Zoho ?? I use both Zoho and Google Docs and I should admit that Zoho is way better than Docs in everything excpet UI . Any thoughts on that ??
@Gonzaque, I have that connection speed at home…. live on the uni network ;)
All i can say is Google docs is useful for opening things i get via email but i always use Latex and Numbers and thats it
I wouldn’t mind an 80Mbps down/40Mbps up connection – HD might almost become realtime :D
Btw, is that bandwidth shared or not?
“I should admit that Zoho is way better than Docs in everything excpet UI . Any thoughts on that ?”
-(Deepak’s comment above)
Don’t worry, bro. In a few months, Google will systematically disintegrate Writely’s beautiful interface and strip it down to that sickening white/blue/read/green combination with no image backgrounds/icons whatsoever.
That’s really smart. I’ve never thought of taking notes that way to collaborate, but that is a great idea. Wish Google Docs was up to speed when I was in college.
Good tip.
dude! thats some crazy ass bandwidth!
I also have great expectations for Google Docs. I use it sporadically since the late Writely days and it keeps evolving to good directions.. However, to make me a full time user they should:
a. offer support for bibliography (either support for popular bibliography software, like Endnote, or their own solution to add bibliographies to a document)
b. find a way to share/edit documents with people who don’t own/want a google ID
c. easy sync with an offline folder of ms office compatible docs.
How I use it:
a. open all word, excel and powerpoint docs attached to my gmail
b. collaboration on simple work files- mainly outlining progress or planning future projects with other people
In any case, I see a big part of my everyday work migrating to cloud in the very near future…
Not only does Google Docs appear to be the best alternative a digital life… it saves you from some serious crashes… which is why I’m also trying to use GDocs even more after my last incident:
http://www.jpmartin.com/life/7-lessons-learnt-when-your-digital-life-crashes
I started using Google docs a couple years ago to collaborate with coworkers on web development projects. I use the spreadsheet all the time to list all those little details that have to be taken care of on a project. When the task is done, we cross them off the list and everyone knows it was taken care of. I don’t use the word tool, because it’s too limited for a designer-type like me. The thing I really love about Google docs is that I can access the info from anywhere — home, office, wherever. Working remotely is getting more efficient all the time. Love it.
As to collaborating on notes in class? Gosh, I wish we had that in my day.
I try to include Google Docs in the way I work too! Till now, I just use it to open files from my gmail! I would really like to test it more and try to co-author a paper sometime through Google Docs!
Hey have you used http://www.basecamphq.com Basecamp before (this is not a commercial)? How do you think its collaborative tools compare? 1 project, unlimited users, is free. They have “Writeboards” which are like Google Docs. Although there’s no granular security/permissions/sharing control. But if there’s one large project or you’re not worried about permissions, it’s got some good stuff (including to-do lists, our favorite).
Well said, man. I haven’t used G docs very extensively yet – mostly just for backups. However, one thing that’s happened to me a couple times is that I’ll upload a file, and then if I try to print that file from G docs it doesn’t keep the margin settings I originally made in Word. I know you can change them back, but it seems like you shouldn’t have to.
No Times New Roman of all things to leave out!
Even though I have checked out google docs, I still haven’t wholeheartedly started using it. It’s a mental block I guess. Making the shift from working on a document on your desktop application as opposed to an online one. Enjoyed your suggestion about collaborating to take notes. Very useful.
nice post – docs was actually what made me switch last week to all of igoogle offerings. I’ve been using thunderbird for like 2 years hoping it would merge with Firefox – the search in thunderbird is incredible. but Docs is so productive for my co. and gmail is better than thunderbird intuitively anyways. chat is the big kicker tho, having it in both gmail and docs is it
Yo! I just logged on to Google Docs today and was delighted to see a new “fixed width page view.” It’s not exact, but it’s pretty close.
Also, since Google Docs can’t control browser level margin settings, it creates a PDF when you click print. Just like I described in my previous comment on this topic.
Pretty cool.
I use Google Docs religiously now for Word Processing. It’s simply a magical app.
And just a heads up – They updated the print view and it’s pretty sweet.
@Nate – I saw that view, they call it “fixed view” instead of print layout… because it doesn’t really offer any real view of how it will be printed, no rulers or anything. It’s still neat though.
Working collaborately to write down what the professor tells on a lecture is an excellent idea! I wish I cound have had Google Docs and a internet enables notebook in time colledge times.
And just recently I’ve experienced the convenience of Google Spreadsheets, when together with my friends we REMOTEDLY composed to-do and to-buy list for a party. That was really fun :) If not Spreadsheets, we’d have taken a lot more time to meet, discuss and so on.