30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 30

Day 30: What I Learned from Spending 30 Days With...Google Docs
Well, I made it. After a decade of daily reliance on Microsoft Office, I managed to survive an entire month using Google Docs. So, what has the 30 Days With...Google Docs project taught me, and what do I do now that the project is over?

I have to admit that the experience has given me much greater respect for Google Docs. As I pointed out in the Day 29 post, there are a number of things that I found to be unique benefits of Google Docs that Microsoft engineers should be looking to emulate in Microsoft Office.

Google Docs performed admirably over the course of the last 30 days.On the other hand, there were also a number of things I really didn't like about Google Docs. One thing that didn't even make the list--because it is a proprietary issue that is probably not the fault of Google Docs--is that I repeatedly ran into formatting issues copying and pasting text from a Google Docs document into the PCWorld content publishing tool. Annoying things would happen, like taking a multi-word URL link in an article, and instead linking each individual word. Suddenly, five links in an article would turn in to 30 links, and I would have to go back through and manually clean those up.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 29

Day 29: Five Things I Like Most About Google Docs
The 30 Days With...Google Docs project has been a worthwhile experiment for me. Despite mycomplaints, pet peaves, and whining, there were also many things about Google Docs that pleasantly surprised me. Here are the five things I liked most about using Google Docs this month.

1. The Cloud. Having access to my productivity apps and data from virtually any Web-connected device, anywhere, and any time has its advantages. Google Docs provides a relatively consistent experience across different devices from Windows and Mac PCs, to Android smartphones and tablets,and on my iPad and iPhone--although Google Docs from theiPhone had some issues.

It wasn't all whining and pet peaves, there are some things I like about Google Docs too.2. Collections. It took a little getting used to, but once I familiarized myself, the idea oforganizing and categorizing files in collections rather than the files and folders I am used to on my PC made great sense. A file can only exist in one folder (although you could place copies or shortcuts in other folders), but the Google Docs collections let you organize a single file in a variety of ways. For example, a spreadsheet calculating expenses for a golf league can be tagged as a "spreadsheet", "expenses", and "golf" collections so that you can find and work with it in whatever way makes sense to you.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 28

Day 28: My Five Biggest Google Docs Complaints
We've come down to the wire on 30 Days With...Google Docs. The final three days will be spent reflecting on the experience, starting today with my five biggest pet peeves about Google Docs.

1. Browser Tabs. While many readers commented--some more nicely than others--or sent me emails to explain that there is an option in Document Settings to open new items in the current window, that setting seems to have a very limited scope. Although opening a document will use the same tab Google Docs is already in, clicking Documents from that open document will open Google Docs in a new tab.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 27

Day 27: Google Docs Scripts and Power Tips
With the month coming to a close on the 30 Days With...Google Docs project, I think we have established that Google Docs is more than adequate for creating simple documents,spreadsheets, presentations, and other content. Now, let's take a quick look at some of the features that power-users might appreciate.

For more advanced users, Google offers Google LookUp and Google Finance to automatically search for and add information to cells in your spreadsheet.By adding Google LookUp syntax to a spreadsheet cell, you can populate the cell with information stock data, country demographics, celebrity details, planets of the solar system, and more. Google says that the data can come from any Web site, but that certain sites like the CIA Factbook and Wikipedia tend to appear as sources more often than others.

Google Docs has advanced features for power users too.To use Google LookUp, type "=GoogleLookUp("entity";"attribute")" in a cell. For example, if you want to populate a cell with "=GoogleLookUp("Michael Jordan" ; "average points per game")" Google LookUp searches to find out what Michael Jordan's average points per game was, and automatically populates the cell with "31.5".

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 26

Day 26: OCR in Google Docs
There are enough different features and scenarios to explore with Google Docs that 30 Days With...Google Docs only scratches the surface in some ways. For example, here we are with 25 days down and a only a handful to go and we haven't yet examined the OCR (optical character recognition) feature.

I haven't done much with OCR in recent years. I recall being highly disappointed in the concept during the early days of mainstream consumer scanners. Back then OCR was about as accurate as Google Voice speech to text transcription. Just as Google Voice transcription tends to yield more gibberish than coherent sentences, OCR results made more work rather than making life easier. I was apprehensive, but hopeful that the OCR in Google Docs is better than what I remember.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 25

Day 25: Don't Lose Your Google Docs Data
Now that I have spent the last 24 days prolifically cranking out 30 Days With...Google Docs blog posts and feature articles on various subjects, I have a fair amount of content built up in Google Docs. So, the question I inevitably ask myself is "hey, what happens if Google crashes and my data disappears?"

What's that you say? You thought part of the point of the cloud was that it is where you put your data to protect it from disaster? Google has redundant backup to multiple data centers, so I have nothing to fear?

Just as you back up local data to the cloud, you should back up your cloud data locallyWell, yes. It is true that for businesses and consumers that have crucial data stored locally, the cloud makes a great storage solution for backup data. It is ostensibly secure--although its up to you to do the research and make sure your online data is secure. It is off site, so whatever catastrophe or natural disaster that might occur and wipe out your local data won't get your backup data at the same time. But, the cloud isn't without some risks of its own.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 24

Day 24: Google Docs Drawing vs. Microsoft Visio
There is another tool buried in Google Docs that we haven't yet looked at during our 30 Days With...Google Docs--Drawing. The Microsoft Office equivalent, or counterpart, would be Visio, although Visio is an additional purchase that is not part of the Microsoft Office bundles.

While Drawing sounds like an art program--and it could be used as such to an extent--in the context of Google Docs, or office productivity, it is more about business drawings like flowcharts, organizational charts, or other charts or diagrams for business documents or presentations.

Google Docs Drawing allows for online real-time collaboration on charts and diagramsYou can open a Drawing as a standalone document type by the Create New drop-down from the Google Docs home page and choosing Drawing. You can also add a Drawing as an element of the other doc types by using Insert on the tool menu and selecting Drawing.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 23

Day 23: Syncing Google With My iPhone
One of the things I relied on Microsoft Outlook for prior to embarking on the 30 Days With...Google Docs adventure was to sync my contacts and calendar events to my iPhone. Today we'll walk through how I set my iPhone up to sync with my information out in the Google-verse.

Keeping contact and calendar data synced with my iPhone is crucial. As I roam about, the iPhone is my lifeline to the world, and it needs to have current, accurate, contact and calendar information in order to be of any value.

Before this month my iPhone (and iPad for that matter) would simply sync all contact and calendar information from Microsoft Outlook every time I connect it to the USB port on my PC. Now, when I connect iTunes still syncs my music, photos, and apps, but the Microsoft Outlook data is gone.

Thankfully, Google figured out a way to leverage the Exchange Actice Sync capabilities of iOS to sync email, contacts, and calendar information from your Google account. Best of all, it syncs wirelessly on the fly so I am not dependent on tethering my iPhone to my PC to make sure I have the most current information.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 22

Day 22: What If You Can't Connect to Google Docs?
We have gotten through three weeks of 30 Days With...Google Docs. We are entering the home stretch of the project, and we haven't addressed one of the most crucial questions to ask when considering Google Docs--what do you do when you can't connect to Google Docs?

One of the first questions that comes to mind for me whenever anyone talks about "the cloud" is, "that's great, but what do you do if the service has an outage, or you just can't find an Internet connection?" With free Wi-Fi on virtually every corner, it is not the issue it once was, but it is possible that you may not be able to connect to Google Docs for some reason, and then what? You just can't get any productive work done?

Google pulled the plug on Gears more than a year agoI am not just picking on Google Docs, either. If you follow my writing, you will notice a theme. The idea of what happens when you rely on a cloud service but can't connect to the cloud is a recurring pet peave. I mentioned it as a fatal flaw for the Chromebook, and I pointed it out as a serious concern when it comes to cloud music streaming services.

Well, some of you may be familiar with Google Gears, and using Google Gears to sync content for offline access. The problem with Google Gears is that Google pulled the plug on supporting Gears as an offline content solution a year ago.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 21

Day 21: Chrome Extensions for Google Docs
There are other benefits to using a Web-based productivity platform aside from the ability tocollaborate online in real-time. For today's 30 Days With...Google Docs post, we'll explore another one of those benefits--the ability to extend functionality with browser add-ons.

Actually, let me start out with the caveat rather than tossing it in at the end--Microsoft Office has thousands of add-ins as well, so I guess that being Web-based really has little to do with whether or not new features and capabilities can be added in.

The Chrome browser has a number of extensions that are very useful for Google DocsEven though it may not be something that sets Google Docs uniquely apart from Microsoft Office, there are awide variety of applets and tools that can be tacked on to a Web browser to provide additional features and functionality for Google Docs. Let's take a look at some.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 20

Day 20: Collaborating in Real-Time With Google Docs
I think I may have been a tad remiss. Granted, I did cover the Google Docs Discussions feature for exchanging comments and editing a document in real-time, but here we are on day 20 of 30 Days With...Google Docs and I haven't really covered one of the defining features of Google Docs--real-time collaboration.

I have spent years "collaborating" the old-fashioned way. I write a draft of a document, and I send it off to a peer or editor for review. They take their turn commenting and editing and send it back to me. I then take my turn revising the document based on the comments made, and so it goes. Collaborating like that is inefficient--like trying to have a conversation on a walkie-talkie where only one party can speak at a time.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 19

Day 19: Google Docs Adds New Features on the Fly
Here we are, more than half-way through the 30 Days With...Google Docs project, and we have new features to discuss. One of the advantages of hosting an online productivity solution is that Google can easily introduce new features without having to wait for some major release or update.

What is the great new feature? Google rolled out a new pivot tables feature for Google Docs spreadsheets. I will be honest and tell you that I have absolutely no idea what a pivot table is, what it does, or why anyone cares--but apparently for spreadsheet power-users they're all the rage. Microsoft Excel has had pivot tables for quite a while, so that is one more advanced feature Google can check off the list on its quest to rival Microsoft Office.

Google rolled out a new pivot tables feature for Google Docs spreadsheets this week.Since I have no idea what pivot tables are, and little interest in finding out, I won't dwell on the new feature itself. If you are curious, you can check out the Google Docs Blog post announcing the new feature for a detailed explanation including screenshots and video clips. Instead, I just want to point out that one of the benefits of a server-side, cloud-based solution is that it is relatively easy for Google to turn on a new feature like pivot tables and deliver it instantly to all Google Docs users around the world.

With Microsoft Excel, a new feature like pivot tables would most likely be incorporated into a major release, or at least a service pack. Once released, it would have to be downloaded and installed on each individual system. Suffice it to say that it would be a much bigger ordeal to add features to a client-side, locally-installed product.

That said, the constant unpredictability of Google's perpetual beta development model could be an issue for some organizations. IT managers and admins don't like surprises. Companies like to test things out to make sure crucial functions or processes aren't impacted, and prepare for any support issues that might arise as users start using the new feature.

Putting the power in Google's hands means walking in thinking it's just another normal day, sitting down with a cup of coffee, and finding out that Google Docs spreadsheets now has pivot tables.

Source: pcworld

Day 18: Google Docs Translations Don't Make Sense

Day 20: Collaborating in Real-Time With Google Docs

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 18

Day 18: Google Docs Translations Don't Make Sense
One of the features touted by Google for Google Docs is the ability to easily translate documents into 53 different languages. For day 18 of 30 Days With...Google Docs I decided to put those translations to the test.

I don't do a lot of work internationally that would require me to have to translate my documents from English to some other language, or to take documents I receive in other languages and translate them into English. So, for the purposes of testing out the translation capabilities of Google Docs I enlisted my Twitter followers to help out.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 17

Day 17: Uploading Folders of Data to Google Docs


I need access to my files. 17 days into the 30 Days With...Google Docs process may seem a bit late, but with each passing day I am finding more and more that I need all of the files I normally work with in my Documents folder in Windows 7 on my local computer to be available to me in Google Docs.
Over the course of the past 16 days I have covered the basics of working with and organizing files in Google Docs, and a little bit on some of the fidelity issues with converting Microsoft Office files into Google Docs formats. But, so far my efforts have focused mainly on uploading or downloading single files.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 16

Day 16: Forms and Surveys Made Simple in Google Docs

Here we are on day 16 of the 30 Days With...Google Docs project. Having spent the last couple days describing the Discussions feature, and describing the pros and cons of my experience trying to use Google Docs Discussions, we are now going to move on and look at the forms feature of Google Docs and some of the ways it can be used.

Microsoft Word has plenty of really cool built-in templates, and tons more available online. Certainly, there are templates out there for creating forms, surveys, and sign-up sheets. But--at least to my knowledge--Microsoft Word does not have any wizard-like feature to walk you through creating a form the way Google Docs does, and Word will not automatically track and tally the responses.Microsoft Word gurus can feel free to call me on that if I am wrong.

Forms is one of the dynamic, real-time collaboration areas where Google Docs shines.Forms in Google Docs is another area of real-time online collaboration where Google Docs seems to set the bar. In Google Docs, you can create a form or survey in a few simple steps using the forms feature. You can use the feature to create sign-up sheets, surveys, product feedback, etc.

To get started, you can click Create New -- Form from the Google Docs home page, or, if you are in a Google Docs spreadsheet you can click Tools -- Form -- Create a Form. Either way a form template will open.

Star by giving your form or survey a name. Beneath the name, you can add some sort of explanation or description in the text field so others will know what the purpose of the form is. Then, there are two boxes set aside for sample questions.

At the upper left there is a drop down menu to add an item. You can choose from text, paragraph text, multiple choice, checkboxes, choose from a list, scale, or grid. Beneath those choices, you can also add a section header or page break.

Next to the add item drop-down is a button to assign a design theme. Click the theme button to open a browser window with nearly 100 different themes to choose from to give your form a little personality.

Once you have walked through creating and formatting your form, you can click Email this form and select the recipients that you want to fill out the form or sign-up sheet, or participate in the survey. You can click the See responses button and choose from Summary or Spreadsheet to see how things are going. The Summary displays graphs and charts that summarize the responses, while Spreadsheet displays the actual responses.

This can be a great tool for business or personal use. Let's say you are trying to organize training for your team. You could create a sign-up sheet using a Google Docs form and send it to the team. As each person fills in their responses, you can easily view the results in Summary or Spreadsheet mode and schedule the training sessions accordingly. Using an iframe gadget, you could even embed the Summary page on a team site so everyone can monitor the results.

I can think of a variety of situations where this could be a valuable tool. Like other things Google Docs, though, it relies on your form recipients also having Google accounts.

Source: pcworld

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 15

Day 15: Google Docs Discussions Are Great for Collaborating...With Google

We have reached the half-way point for the 30 Days With...Google Docs project. On Day 14, I discussed the Discussions feature introduced in Google Docs earlier this year, and today I spent some time seeing how it works in the real world.

For the sake of those who skipped yesterday and can't spare the five minutes it would take to go read Day 14 first, let's recap. Google rolled out a new feature for Google Docs called Discussions which turns document comments into a message thread that appears to make collaboration a much more dynamic and efficient process. You can add individuals to the document Discussion by simply @-ing them--typing the "@" symbol, followed by their email address.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 14

Day 14: Google Docs Discussions--Comments on Steroids

One of the newer elements of Google Docs is Discussions. In March of this year, Google rolled out the Discussions feature to streamline collaboration, and improve the concept of commenting, and that is what I am going to check out next on my 30 Days With...Google Docs odyssey.

I can say that when I am working with a peer or an editor on a Microsoft Word document, I greatly prefer turning on revision tracking and using the Comment feature to annotate the file. Some people just add thoughts and comments in line with the rest of the text which A) makes it more difficult to find the comments, and B) makes it more tedious to remove them once the issue is resolved.

Google Docs Discussions turn comments into collaborative threads.That said, even with the Comment feature there are still some issues. For example, I have never really been sure when responding to a comment in Microsoft Word whether the proper etiquette is to reply within the existing comment field, or start a new comment in reply. And, once the issue raised in the comment is resolved I like to remove the comment so I can tell I am making progress, and so it doesn't clutter up the documents, but then the comment is gone and we no longer have it as a reference point for what was discussed and changed.

With that as background, the Google Docs Discussions feature sounds awesome. Rather than plain static text, Google Docs turns the comment into a discussion thread. Collaborators can reply, and each reply is timestamped and has the profile picture of the commenter.

With Google Docs Discussions, new users can be invited into the discussion by using '@' a' la Twitter. Simply type '@' followed by the email address of the individual, and the text of your comment is emailed to the person. The individual can then reply to your comment via email, or click through to the actual document to reply within the Discussion thread.

Finally, when a Discussion has run its course and the issue being discussed has been taken care of, you can click the Resolve button to effectively shut the discussion down and remove the thread from the live document. But, the discussion thread is archived and can be recalled by clicking on the Discussion button at the top of the Google Docs screen. Watch this video to see Google Docs Discussions in action.

But, that is all theory based on how Google describes the capabilities of Discussions. It's easy to make a feature look good in your own professionally-produced, time lapsed video, but tomorrow I will actually test it out and see how it works in the real world.

If you have used the Google Docs Discussions feature, I'd love to hear from you as well to find out how the experience was, what you would change about it if you could, and whether or not you would recommend others jump on board Google's new commenting on steroids approach.

Source: pcworld

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 13

Day 13: Google Docs on the iPhone - Don't Try This at Home

I am really pushing the envelope on this mobile computing thing now. Here I sit, typing a 30 Days With...Google Docspost in Google Docs on my iPad over a Verizon 4G MiFi portable hotspot while sitting in the middle of a field at my daughter's soccer practice. But, we can push that envelope just a bit further, so today I am going to examine using Google Docs on a smartphone--specifically my iPhone.

If I had an Android smartphone, I could be using the Google Docs app, but I don't. There are a couple third-party apps for viewing Google Docs, but there is no app for actually working in Google Docs on iOS.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 12

On a whim, I decided to focus 30 days With...Google Docs today on the ability to use Google Docs while on the go using a tablet--specifically my iPad. So this post is being typed on my iPadfrom the Safari browser.

To begin with, when you go to docs.google.com from the Safari browser on an iPad, Google automatically redirects you to a mobile version of the site. I could tell immediately because A) the site looks completely different than what I am used to seeing in the Chrome browser on my laptop, and B) the URL in the address bar redirects to docs.google.com/m.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 11

Day 11: How Google Docs Saved My Life Today...and Not

Google Docs saved me today. OK--"saved my life" is a tad melodramatic and sensational. No, it didn't give me the Heimlich Maneuver, or prevent me from seeing that Rebecca Black video, but it did enable me to roll with the punches and remain productive even though I am not using my primary computer today.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 10

Day 10: Organizing Files in Google Docs


After more than a week of the 30 Days With...Google Docs project, I have my share of complaints about things I miss from Microsoft Office, but so far it seems like Google Docs is a relatively capable productivity platform. But, now that I am starting to accumulate a fair amount of files within Google Docs it occurs to me that they need some structure.

30 Days WIth...Google Docs: Day 9

Day 9: Taking a Closer Look at Google Docs Spreadsheets


Today for the 30 Days With...Google Docs project I did some more exploring to see what Google Docs spreadsheets can do. While I don't want them to get in the way of real functionality, I am admittedly a fan of bells and whistles. The ‘gee whiz' factor is not lost on me, so I like to play around with features like the Gadgets that Google offers for the spreadsheets.

I did some clicking about to see what features are hidden in the menus. File has the obligatory New, Open, and other file management options, as well as Import and Download as which let you import and export Excel (and other) file types.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 8

Day 8: A First Look at Google Docs Spreadsheets

Today's post will be brief. Not only is it Sunday, but it's Mother's Day, so I was a bit busy devoting the day to trying to repay my wife in some small way for all she does all year to make sure I don't totally screw up our kids. Suffice it to say, sitting in front of the PC playing with Google Docs was not high on my list of ways to show my wife how much I value her contributions as the mother of my children.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 7

Day 7: Google Docs 'Fidelity' Leaves Something to Be Desired

Today's installment of 30 Days With...Google Docs will focus on ‘fidelity'--specifically how well Google Docs maintains fidelity with Microsoft Office when working with converted files.

Google Docs and the suite of online tools available from Google may be an adequate replacement for Microsoft Office for some organizations, but the world still revolves around Microsoft Office and much of the value of Google Docs is connected with how well it can create, view, and modify documents in the common Microsoft Office file formats.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 6

Day 6: I Miss Automatic Things That Just Work

After spending the past couple days talking about Gmail, the focus of 30 Days With...Google Docs today is on things working automatically. There are many features and functions that Google Docs has in common with Microsoft Word, but in Microsoft Word they just worked, and in Google Docs they technically exist, but you have to find them first and manually activate them.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 5

Day 5: Gmail Tips from the Trenches

Yesterday I walked through the steps I followed to add my email accounts to Gmail. Today, we'll dig a little deeper into some of the other Gmail settings, and go over a couple tips I got from readers that you might find useful with Gmail.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 4

Day 4: Setting Up POP3 Email Accounts in Gmail

When you make the switch from Microsoft Office to Google Docs, you don't just lose Microsoft Word and Excel, you also lose Outlook. One of the first things I did to kick off the 30 Days With...Google Docs project is to set up my POP3 email accounts in Gmail so I can continue to receive and respond to email messages.

So, for any readers who may wish to follow in my footsteps, or who stumble across this project at some point in the future, we are going to take a step back today and go over the steps to add a POP3 email account to Gmail. As a side note, I tried this in IE9, Firefox, and Chrome, and the buttons and text did not render properly in IE9. I recommend using Chrome for this process.

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 3

I feel compelled to start today's entry by reiterating the premise of the "30 Days With..." project.

After having used Google Docs in place of Office for the first full work day, my post yesterday was filled with issues and complaints. Some of the comments were constructive and helpful, but many said clever things like "Wow, maybe PCWorld should rename itself to whiney whine whiner world," or "This has got to be a joke. Why is this guy writing an IT article?"

30 Days With...Google Docs: Day 2

Day 2: So Far I'm Not Loving Google Docs

I know. I have only been using Google Docs in place of Microsoft Office for two days, but so far it is a fairly frustrating experience. Suffice it to say, I'm not in love with Google Docs just yet.

Where to begin? Well, for starters, I don't like that every time I click on one of the Google Docs tools at the top left of the browser window it opens a new tab. I do a lot of clicking from Gmail, to Calendar, to Documents--where I might open various docs and spreadsheet files. I don't need 37 tabs open in my browser, and I don't want to have to stop and clean up after Google Docs every 15 minutes.

30 Days With...Google Docs

You can do anything for 30 days, right? I mean, it's only one month. How hard can it be? Well, I'm going to find out because today is the day I start my new project: "30 Days With..."

Each month I will embrace a new platform or technology--immersing myself in it and abandoning the tools and software I am familiar with. I will blog each day to share my experience, documenting the good and the bad (at least in my opinion). In addition, I will write up how-to's and tips to help guide those who might follow my path someday.

Back Up Your Web E-Mail Account

Yes, we know--it's hard enough to remember to back up your desktop, your laptop, your smartphone, and your tablet, and now we want you to think about backing up your cloud-based e-mail account, too.

This may seem like a drag, but we're not being paranoid. Recently, 150,000 Gmail users were left in the dark when a glitch in Google's system deleted all of their e-mail messages and disabled their Gmail accounts. Sure, only 0.02 percent of Gmail's user base was affected, but that 0.02 percent was pretty ticked off, to say the least. Luckily, Google not onlykeeps multiple copies of user data in multiple data centers(under different circumstances, knowing this fact might actually make you feel worse), but it also keeps tape backups, and thus was able to restore the deleted e-mail within a week.

The recent Gmail outage may have ended happily, but it still should be a wake-up call for anyone who relies too heavily on the cloud. The time to back up your Web-based e-mail is now.