September 18, 2007

Google Your Project
by Amanda C. Bartels

The Usefulness of Google Docs and Spreadsheets

 

What to Do? 
You’ve just been assigned to do a group paper for class. Slowly you start to realize that outside of this class, there is no time you and your classmates can all meet. What to do? Maybe you decide to meet only a few of the people at a time and send e-mails to those that missed out. Perhaps you try to write a draft by yourself and then send it out to everyone. Unfortunately both these methods can be a headache. Not to mention that compiling all that feedback can consume what little time you have. Before you have a nervous break-down it would be wise to find out about a useful tool called Google Docs and Spreadsheet (For the purpose of the article, we will simply call it by its shorts and trendier name, Google Docs.)

 

Get Comfortable 

Google Docs is a collaboration tool that can be found through the Google search engine. Google Docs is the result of Google integrating its online spreadsheet and word processor into a single service, which is available to anyone with a Google account (Sherman). Signing up for it is not only easy but free. Some might be weary, from bad web experiences, that signing up might be free, but the service itself is not. With Google Docs the service itself is free as well.

Google Docs is considered a user-friendly tool. Unlike programs, such as Microsoft Office or Excel, Google Docs focuses on applications that everyone can understand for editing a document. After signing up a user first post a document or spreadsheet to the page. The user then invites collaborators or viewers, by e-mail, to the Google Docs page. Once all the collaborators have been added everyone has access to a singular, centrally located draft. This system of organization eliminates the hassle of multiple drafts. Google Docs also shows a history of revisions. All collaborators can see who has changed what and the entire document can be reverted back to an old draft if someone choices to do so. This not only saves a group from confusion about removed information but also creates a old copy if something goes horribly wrong. Google Doc also has special tabs so the document can be produced as a URL or for making comments on the document. 

 

It's Not Just For Students 

Google Docs is not only a wonderful tool for students but also a useful tool for teachers and companies. Imagine a teacher having to be absent from class for a few sessions. With Google Docs a teacher can have a running document with that day’s work posted and waiting for the confused sub. Alternatively, the teacher can post a document and add their students as collaborators to work on it together. The same applies with companies. A project foreman can post a document and make it available to all his colleagues for editing and comments.     

 

The Disadvantages Of a Simple Tool  

Although Google Docs is a wonderful tool, like all pieces of technology it has its problems. Many users complain about not having a viable e-mail to have the collaborator’s invite sent to. Also, “There is a limit on how much a user can store on his/her account. Each document must be under 500k plus 2MB for each embedded image. Each spreadsheet must be under 10,000 rows, 256 columns…A user can have a total of 5,000 documents, 5,000 images and 200 spreadsheets.” (Google Docs Help Center). Also Google Docs can't “creating large documents with multiple chapters, with a table of contents and index generated automatically, or creating graphs and charts embedded within a spreadsheet” (Sherman). The right users have over their own work has also been called into question. One of the user clauses for Google Docs reads: “By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant Google a worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, modify, publish and distribute such content on Google services for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services.”(Schick). Giving up intellectual rights over your own work seems a steep price for having a centralized draft but it’s not as dire as it sounds. This clause in the user agreement basically means that Google reserves the right to use a fragment of your document for their own gain, such as in an advertisement or to promote their products.

 

In the End 

Google Docs is a good tool for people who need to collaborate and work together over when they can’t meet in person. Like all programs it has problems that people hark on but it is a simple tool that has done the job it set out to do. Until it adds more tabs and features it will continue to be a steady base for those who need to collaborate and wish to avoid the immense and complex programs of Microsoft.