Google Doc's and Spreadsheets

Have you ever wanted to collaborate on a document with a few classmates? The collaborative workstations we have here at the Commons allow just that kind of work, but some times you want to work on the document from different physical locations, or even at the same time.

Presenting Google Doc's and Spreadsheets. If you are a GMail user you already have access to this great tool. Just surf over to http://docs.google.com and use your Google account information - that would be your GMail user name and password - and you have an online word processor and spreadsheet program. Some time this summer Google will be adding presentation functionality for those of you who desire something like Power Point.

When you access Google Doc's you will see a slightly different interface. It does not look like word and that is because it is not word. There is no grammar checker to prompt you for that comma fault, and from my experience there is no ability to set margins or view the document in a page by page manner. I don't even think there is a word count option. So what can you do?
You can do just about most everything else you need to do while composing a document. Bold, underline, highlight, set headers, check spelling, etc.

Google has taken the "Content is king" approach to this offering, leaving the more stylistic aspects like margins, which content is on which page, etc to the desktop software crowd. But the most innovative feature to Google Doc's has to be the ability to share and collaborate your documents with others. This is ideal for anyone who has worked on a group project during their university career.

So if you are looking for a way to work with your group members on that paper give Google Doc's a try.