Web Based Office Apps – Google Docs & Spreadsheets
ByGoogle Docs & Spreadsheets is a popular web-based Microsoft Office alternative probably because of the Google name front and center. Google developed the spreadsheet program on its own, but bought out Writely in March, 2006, to use as their word processing program.
Take a short tour of the product here, www.docs.google.com.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a totally free service, you need only to sign up for a free google account.
Google allows most common file formats to be imported and edited including; DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, without losing formatting and formulas. Users will see the familiar toolbar icons for bolding, underlining and summing making the web-based application pretty easy. Files can then be saved back to your hard drive into the original file format.
Collaboration is a key feature with Google. After uploading or creating a document, click on the collaborate tab and fill out the required information. Documents can be edited in real time by multiple people with the application keeping track of who changed what and when it was revised. A on-screen chat is available when working on spreadsheets.
Some handy features are the ability to post a document as a web page – no knowledge of html necessary, and an option is available to post a document directly to your blog.
Google is painfully aware they have no presentation application to offer. They hope to remedy this by summer ’07, utilizing technology designed by Tonic Systems.
An offering launched in February this year is Google Apps Premier Edition. The site says, “With Google Apps, you can give your organization Google tools like Gmail on your custom domain (jsmith@example.com), Calendar, and Docs & Spreadsheets. You and your colleagues can check email, schedule meetings, chat in real time, collaborate on documents, and more. Google Apps is accessible via the web, so you can connect with others in your organization 24/7, no matter where you are. And it’s all hosted by Google—there’s no hardware or software to install or maintain—so you can get up and running quickly.” You can check it out here - http://www.google.com/a/.
For small biz owners, they have a suggested package of tools which may be of interest. Click the above link and read more or take an on-line tour.
I was interested to see the rumor mill was perking away last December when it was said Google was in talks with Korean-based ThinkFree to acquire them. So far,ThinkFree has said thanks, but no thanks.
Next, we’ll do a comparison of ThinkFree vs. Google and will compile a list of several other alternatives to Microsoft Office just to make things more interesting. Happy computing!
