Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Access to Documents Wherever You Are

I know most of my readers and are pretty tech-savvy these days, but I thought I would introduce you to Google Docs in case you haven't tried it.

Here's the description from the Google website:


"Google Docs enables multiple people in different locations to collaborate simultaneously on the same doc from any computer with Internet access. For example, Alice and Meredith are working on a project together, and they need to write a document, keep track of their work in a spreadsheet, and create a presentation and a drawing to share with other people involved in the project. Alice lives in New York, and Meredith, in Los Angeles.


When Alice makes changes to the document, spreadsheet, presentation, or drawing, Meredith can see them in real time and respond to them immediately. Both of them work on the same docs, so there's no need to go back and forth, comparing and consolidating individual files."

This is an incredible tool for me as a writer; I often have little flashes of insight, or an idea that I want to incorporate into something I'm working on, and Google Docs is an excellent platform to enable me to take advantages of these little creative bursts. Anywhere I go these days I have either my iPhone or my iPad, and often both, with me. As Google Docs is an application hosted in the Cloud, I can access it from many devices, even a friends PC.

Google Docs is more than just an online Word processor, it's a suite of tools that that allow you to create:
  • Documents
  • Presentations
  • Spreadsheets
  • Forms
  • Drawings
  • Collections - of Pictures and Videos
I decided to use Google Docs for the Manuscript of my next book so that I could take advantage of the document portability. Another useful feature is that your work is saved very frequently, every 3-4 minutes with a Document, and every time you change a cell in a Spreadsheet. When you're writing a large book, this is a lifesaver!

I encourage you to check it out - it's packed with useful stuff, and it's free!

www.docs.google.com

In case you want a little more help...check out these books:

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