Can you answer yes to any of the following?
- Have you ever been involved in a group project?
- Have you ever wished their was a better way to work together instead of everyone "sending their parts of the project" to a person?
- Have you ever wished you had your thumb drive/laptop/desktop with you to work on some homework while you were out somewhere?
Well there's a tool that is out there for you: Google Docs. The simplest way that I can think of to explain Google Docs is to imagine that it is an online, browser-based, Microsoft Office. (e.g. -Word, Excel, PowerPoint) There are other online office suites as well, but I chose Google because for a number of reasons:
- Unlikely Google is going out of business anytime soon.
- Integration with other Google Products (GMail, Blogger, Reader, Android OS, etc)
So why use an online office suite, such as Google Docs, instead of Microsoft Office? Smart or dumb, here are my reasons:
- Much improved collaboration (everyone can work on the same document... even at the same time) no more integrating every one's changes into a single document. Everyone sees what everyone does.
- Access from any computer there are times when I find myself away from home/school and I've had some time to work on my homework. I can just fire up my browser and work on my homework.
My INFS 340 Presentation
My experience
Overall, even though it has just a subset of the functionality of Microsoft Office, Google Docs seems to shine in situations where you need to collaborate/access documents from anywhere. I've noticed that most UCCS students embrace Google Docs when shown, so it shouldn't be too hard of a sell on your part. Used Google Docs? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Posts
I have given Google Docs some serious consideration in the past and come to the conclusion that I will switch if I ever buy an Android phone, or they make a Windows Mobile app that will sync with it. I'm glad to see Microsoft's semi-monopoly on office suits being eaten away a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI know that already you can view Google docs on a mobile phones... which is like a 30% solutions for most. However I agree, I was kind of disappointed that Android/Windows Mobile doesn't have some type of rich client to access/edit Google documents.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your comment about MS grip on this market. I'm of the opinion that the more competition (which are compatible with one another) the better. :)