Google docs

I've been using Google docs for awhile now, and I think it's really wonderful.

It may be limited in its features, but it's nice to have a way to store and share files online.

I've used it for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.

One thing I use it for is to maintain the weekly page schedule online. I share it with the SV pages, and now they have a way to check the schedule online, from anywhere (like at home or school).

It can be a convenient way to keep statistics among a group of people. I run online training sessions as part of a group of SJSU students, and we track our reservations and attendance for the sessions in a shared Google spreadsheet.

I've also used Google docs as a way to backup files or make them accessible from different computers when necessary. Very handy! No need for a storage device. I don't however recommend it for files with special formatting, because some gets lost.

It's a great service for patrons using our internet computers. It offers a way to do word processing on the computers that only have web access. And it can offer patrons a backup if they need to save their files or transfer them to another computer for any reason.

These online productivity tools are surprisingly easy to use. The options may be limited, though, and the issue of where your files are stored (on the service's server) has its pro's and con's.

I have tried publishing my Google docs to a blog, which I thought was a great feature, but I wasn't pleased with how it came out. I think it works better with some style temp[lates than others. With the design I chose for my blog, the blog post column was too narrow for the Google doc that was trying to fit in the space. So that was not very useful. It could be useful, however, with other documents or other blog templates.