Google Docs
By Parrish Reinoehl, Pathfinder Networks
November 2006
For many years, at least since the mid '90s, Microsoft Office has been the predominant office suite. For clarification, an office suite is a group of programs used to perform normal office tasks. In Microsoft's case these programs are called Word (for writing documents), Excel (for spreadsheets), Outlook (for email and appointments), Access (for database work), PowerPoint (for presentations), and Publisher (for creating brochures and fliers). Word and Excel are the most commonly used of these programs. In fact, a very large number of users are not office users at all- they are home users using these programs for general document writing, such as writing letters.
Other office suites do exist but have never been able to get the foothold Microsoft Office has. Some of these are Corel WordPerfect Suite, OpenOffice.org (a free, and very good alternative to Office), StarOffice, and Ability Office.
Now comes another competitor to Microsoft's dominance- and one that is completely free and doesn't even require you to install any software. Google, in it's long standing battle to compete with Microsoft, has now released their Google Docs suite of programs. Google Docs (visit http://docs.google.com) currently consists of two online programs- Docs and Spreadsheets. Docs is used to write documents, just as you would use Word. Spreadsheets, as the name implies, is used in the place of Excel for spreadsheet work. Both of these programs are free to use, but you will need to sign up for a free Google account to use them. They do not require any software to be downloaded or installed to your PC- all you need is an active Internet connection. The downside to that is you need to be connected to the Internet the entire time you are using Google Docs. But this is likely not an issue for many as a large number of users now have a Broadband Internet connection anyway.
I've been using Google Docs for a few days now, in fact this article was written entirely using the Doc program. While I will definitely not be replacing my tried and true Office 2003 suite with Google Docs I do see where many users would do just fine using the Google option (especially when you consider that Office Professional has a retail price of about $400!).
Google Docs offers many of the same features as Word and Excel. You can copy and paste, adjust your fonts, insert lists, modify your indentations, change the text alignment, insert images and tables, spellcheck, etc. You can even right-click on your document and perform editing options just like you would in Microsoft Office. The user interface is quite a bit simpler than Word and Excel, but much of the same functionality is still there. One of the biggest issues I've had with using the service is a very slight lag in typing. I type fairly quickly and notice that I can, quite easily, type faster than what Google Docs can display that text. This happens because every character you type or image you insert has to be uploaded to Google. If you have a very slow connection, such as a dial-up connection, the lag will likely be more of a problem. It's not a huge issue, but it can be disconcerting until you get used to it.
One feature that Google has been able to trump Microsoft is with the Save As feature. With Google Docs you can choose to save your file in many different formats. You can choose to save as HTML, Rich Text Format, Word, Excel, OpenOffice, and PDF. That's right- you can now create your very own PDF files- for free! The forthcoming Office 2007 will be able to save as a PDF file as well- but it's not yet released. You can also choose to save your documents online at Google's server or locally to your own PC. The online option can be very useful if you tend to work at different PC's or locations. For example, you could create a document at home and then access that document from any PC with an Internet connection- such as at work or in your hotel. Imagine being someone that is constantly on the road at customer sites. You could have your documents stored on Google and access those documents at your customers location. You could use it to edit and print contracts, sales agreements, invoices, etc right from the customers PC! There is even a collaborate option which allows you to collaborate with other Google Docs users of your choosing. Imagine your a telecommuter and being able to create and edit documents while your manager and other coworkers can view and edit those same documents at company headquarters. One issue this brings up, however, is with security. I doubt I will store any documents on Google's servers that contain business critical or personal information such as credit card numbers or Social Security numbers. There is nothing in place to prevent Google from viewing your documents (not that they will- but you never can be 100% sure).
While I'm not going to proclaim that this is the Microsoft Office Suite "killer" that many companies have been trying, in vain, to come up with, I do see it as a very useful and functional tool. It is still very new so there are bound to be some big changes coming as it matures. The nice thing is that you won't need to buy and install any upgrades to take advantage of any new features- they will automatically be there the next time you logon to Google. I encourage you to give it a try- what have you got to lose?
About the Author:
Parrish Reinoehl is President of Pathfinder Networks; a Niles based technology consulting firm specializing in providing affordable computer services to small businesses and home users including networks, PC support, sales, and service. Pathfinder Networks can be reached at 269-684-7696 or via email at parrish@pathfindernetworks.com
Pathfinder Networks website is http://www.PathfinderNetworks.com
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