Google Docs – Changing The Way You Write and Work

On 03.11.10, In Applications, Writing, By dancalloway

by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 11 March 2010

WEAVERVILLE, NC – Have you tried Google Docs yet? Are you still creating documents on your computer using office suite applications and emailing them to friends, family, and co-workers using email clients? There’s a better way.

Now, with Google Docs, you can create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets online and share them with anyone you want.

Choose who can access your documents. Just enter the email addresses of the people with whom you want to share a given document and send them an invitation.

Share instantly. Anyone you’ve invited to either edit or view your document, spreadsheet or presentation can access it as soon as they sign in.

Edit and present with others in real time. Multiple people can view and make changes at the same time. There’s an on-screen chat window for spreadsheets, and document revisions show you exactly who changed what, and when. Viewing a presentation together is a breeze, as anyone joined in a presentation can automatically follow along with the presenter.

Create basic documents from scratch or start from a template. You can easily do all the basics, including making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more. And it’s free.

Upload your existing files. Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. So go ahead and upload your existing files.

Familiar desktop feel makes editing a breeze. Just click the toolbar buttons to bold, underline, indent, change font or number format, change cell background color and so on.

Edit and access from anywhere. There’s nothing to download; you access your documents, spreadsheets and presentations from any computer with an Internet connection and a standard browser. And it’s free.

Safely store your work. Online storage and auto-save mean you needn’t fear local hard drive failures or power outages.

Easily save and export copies. You can save your documents and spreadsheets to your own computer in DOC, XLS, CSV, ODS, ODT, PDF, RTF and HTML formats.

Organize your documents. Easily find your documents by organizing them into folders. Drag and drop your documents into as many folders as you want.

Publish your work as a web page. You can publish your documents online with one click, as normal-looking web pages, without having to learn anything new.

Control who can see your pages. You can publish to the entire world, just a few people or no one — it’s up to you. (You can also un-publish at any time.)

Post your documents to your blog. Once you’ve created a document, you can post it to your blog.

Publish within your company or group. With Google Apps, it’s even easier to share important documents, spreadsheets and presentations within your company or group.

Watch the following videos about Google Docs and give Google Docs a try today. I think Google Docs will change the way you write and work.

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Google Wave is Coming

On 12.24.09, In Applications, Google, By dancalloway

by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 24 December @ 20:04 UCT

WEAVERVILLE, NC - Let’s just say this up front: Google Wave doesn’t make sense at first glance. It resembles an e-mail because you send messages to friends, but it’s also like chat because the messages you send to friends can be received and responded to in real time. It’s also a little like Google Docs, because the messages you send are rich in display features.

However, if you look at Google Wave as a mishmash of Web 2.0 technology, you’re missing the point. Google Wave is a communication device all its own. It allows you to communicate online as if you’re in the same room, and it makes your communication with large groups of people more powerful and useful. If you really want to conceptualize Google Wave, you’re going to have to use it.

The first page you come across on Google Wave is basically a three-column spread. To your left is your side column, where you do most of your navigation and contact searching. The middle column is your inbox, which is used just like your e-mail inbox. To the right is where most of your editing and reading happens.

In fact, that right column is where all the action is. So, to prevent distraction, the best thing to do starting out is to remove all the other windows so we can focus on the editing window. To do that, on every window on the left-hand sidebar and the middle inbox, click the minimize button on the top right of the windowpane. You can still access everything you minimized by treating them like the conventional menus of many other applications. Simply click on the menu bar and the options will superimpose over your editing window.

Starting a Wave is just like e-mail. You set up a blank page and invite your friends, or those you want to read and/or edit your Google Wave.

If you have followed me so far, you should have a blank page with a link that says “New wave.” Otherwise, you may be in a Wave already. Start a new wave by clicking on your minimized Inbox and clicking the “New wave” button.

Now you see a new wave, click on the plus button next to your profile picture to add collaborators/readers.

Now that you’ve invited everyone, it’s time to start working. Once you start typing, everyone else on the wave will see you type. At that point, you’ll see the similarities to chat. Once you type a paragraph, you see the similarities to e-mail. Once you bold your first headline, you’ll see the similarities to online collaborative documentation like Google Docs.

At this point you need to see what you can do with a single wave. You’d be surprised. All the controls are from the toolbar. (more…)

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Improving Web Performance with “Page Speed”

On 11.13.09, In computers, Internet, By dancalloway

by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 13 November 2009 @ 19:21 UCT

Google CodeteamWEAVERVILLE, NC – The folks at Google have been working for some time on making your Web browsing faster.  Their goal is to make Web browsing as fast as turning the pages of a book.  The Google Chrome Web browser was designed with that ultimate goal in mind.

To accomplish the goal of making your Web browsing faster, Google has approached Web browsing from three separate performance aspects: first, by looking at the Internet protocols associated with making Web browsing possible; second, by focusing on the Web browser itself and analyzing how it delivers pages to you over the computer; and thirdly, by concentrating on Web site development and better understanding how to make websites more streamlined and efficient.

The first aspect of performance–that of Internet protocols–was recently reported in an article by Donald Calloway entitled: “SPDY: New Internet Protocol to Speed up the Web,” in The Clarksburg Post-Intelligencer and will not be repeated here.  For an explanation of what Google is doing in this area, please visit the link and read the article.  You will find it both interesting and quite informative.

The second aspect of Web browsing performance has been tackled by Google through its development of their own Web browser known as Google Chrome mentioned earlier.  You can download this very robust and fast Web browser at Google Chrome Download, which is available in versions for MS Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

And, lastly, the third performance aspect associated with Web browsing that the Google team is addressing quite appropriately is that of efficient, streamlined Web site design.  I encourage you to view the following video to see how the code development team at Google is addressing this Web browsing concept to speed up the Web through the implementation of Page Speed:

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Google Dashboard: Adding Transparency to the Web

On 11.08.09, In computers, Google, Internet, Search Engines, Searching, By dancalloway

By TARA LANE
Published 6 November 2009; Sparxoo

google dashboardWEAVERVILLE, NC – Web privacy is taking center stage as we transition more and more of our lives onto the web. Many people fall victim to breaches in privacy online. For years, people have been putting their trust in Google and other platforms to host and store sensitive data. Just a few weeks ago, passwords were leaked to more than 10,000 Google e-mail accounts, compromising that security.

How Google is Changing the Game

Google has heard the concerns of its users, and is changing the game as far as privacy is concerned. The Google Dashboard was launched on Thursday, as an all-in-one application allowing users to see how much Google knows about them. The information includes recent activity on other apps like Gmail, Docs, Reader and Maps, as well as secure payment information for Google Checkout. From there, users can adjust privacy settings, edit information they didn’t know was available, and much more.

Google has a history of empowering its users through information and accessibility, making it easy for anyone to set up an account and use the features. The Google Dashboard is another easy tool, and the one of the first application of its kind. Even if it’s not used daily, it’s comforting to know that the option exists, should the opportunity arise. On a smaller scale, Google introduced a similar feature within Gmail, with a link at the bottom of a page showing the latest IP addresses that logged into the account. Now, it’s widespread across the entire Google platform, with more added features.

So, How Safe Are We?

This raises the question about privacy in general – how safe are we? Mashable’s Pete Cashmore recently wrote a piece for CNN declaring that privacy is dead, and social media is to blame. With all of our social networks, our information is displayed for all to see, or as much as we allow it to be. With the introduction of real-time Twitter results in Bing and Google searches, that information is displayed across different platforms, when before it was limited to only one. Google Analytics users can pinpoint where their users are coming from. Blog tracking features allow other users to see who has come and gone before their visit. Basically – there’s no hiding anymore. (more…)

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