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In managing my blog one of the tools I rely on is Google Docs. In this article I provide an introduction to Google Docs and explain its advantages to those running an blog.

What is Google Docs?

Google Docs is best summarized as a completely web-based, simplified, free version of Microsoft Office. It provides basic functionality such as word-processing, spreadsheets and presentations. The fact that it is an online service gives it a number of advantages, but there are also one or two disadvantages you need to be aware of.

Web-based service

The fact that Google Docs is an online service has a great advantage, you can work on a document from anywhere you have Internet access and a browser. This is more convenient than it sounds. For example, I have several computers and, using OpenOffice, I might create a Word-compatible document on, say, my desktop computer. If I am then on the road I don't have access to that document from my laptop as the document might still be on my desktop computer's hard-drive.

There are ways to transfer between computers, and one technique I used in the past was to email the document to Hotmail. This ensured that I could access the document from any of my computers and it was backed-up by Microsoft. This wasn't convenient though as I ended up having several versions of the document on different computers and keeping track of the current version proved difficult. Google Docs solves this problem as all the documents you create are hosted by Google. You can access your documents from any computer that has a browser and Internet access.

Document import and export

One of the nice features of Google Docs is that you can import existing documents such as Word documents or OpenOffice documents. This means if you have existing documents you can easily import them to your Google docs account. The interface allows you to see all your documents at once and you can also organise the documents into folders using labels. This is similar to how Gmail works. In addition to importing existing Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations you can also export your documents to different formats. For example you can export a Google document to PDF, Word, or OpenOffice XML format. Being able to export documents to a PDF is particularly useful for those creating information products. This also provides a neat backup facility, as in the event that Google disappears (unlikely) you can have versions of your documents stored locally or on another server in any convenient format you wish.

You can easily publish documents to the web

At the click of a button you can publish a document at Google Docs to the web. By default the documents are private and secure (as you would expect), but by publishing the doc Google will make the document available via a URL. You can then email or other publish the URL on your website as required. Further, if you update the document in Google Docs, it will automatically republish the modified document if you require this. This means you can use Google Docs as a basic Content Management System (CMS). This is particularly nice as, because the documents are hosted by Google, the documents consume zero disk space and bandwidth from your hosting provider!

Integrated with Blogger

If you maintain a Blogger blog you are going to love Google Docs. Google Docs is fully integrated with Blogger - you can write documents at Google Docs and then publish them to a blog of your choice (if you maintain multiple blogs) in a couple of clicks. There are a couple of minor niggles with this - the document title doesn't currently transfer correctly, so you have to go into Blogger and add the title. But apart from this it works very well. It's convenient if you are creating a longer post that you might want to reuse on other sites. For example you might want to generate a PDF to email out, and also publish the same post to multiple blogs. Google Docs lets you do this with ease.

Google Docs with other blogs

Google Docs also works well with other blogs or even your own site. Google Docs currently integrates with BlogWare, LiveJournal, Wordpress, BlogHarbour and SquareSpace. There are also options for publishing directly to your own server (although I haven't tested this yet).

Simple interface

Google Docs provides a nice environment in which to write, spell check and view your article before publishing.

Using Google Docs is about as simple as it gets. Once you've created your Google account - if you don't already have one - Docs will appear in your Google account service list. From the service list you can access services such as Docs, Gmail, Blogger, and Picasa, with a single click.

The built in spell checker in Google Docs is particularly useful and easy. Click the 'Check Spelling' link and any errors are highlighted in yellow. You can also right-click on a spelling mistake to obtain a list of spelling suggestions.

Google Docs also sports a Wiki-like 'Revisions' tab. Clicking on the tab shows you previous versions of the document that are created through Google Doc's auto-save feature. You can easily revert to earlier versions should you wish to do so.

Spreadsheets and presentations

I now manage all my personal finances via Google Docs. I used to keep my finances in an Excel spreadsheet - I simply imported those Excel docs into Google Docs - a process that took seconds. I can now check or update my finances from any computer, anywhere in the world.

I also played a little with the presentation facility in Google Docs. You can create a nice presentation very easily using the templates provided. Again you can publish to the web and the built-in interface that the user sees allows them to click through the presentation or just watch the presentation as an automated slide show (they can modify timing and so on as required).

Why should a blogger care about this? If your blog features charts, spreadsheets or presentations then you can simply link to a web published version of the document. It's also possible to use more traditional methods like copy and paste!

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage of Google Docs is that you can only access your documents if you have Internet access. In the worst case, if you knew you were going to be without Internet access, you could export to a local document on your laptop, work on it and then import it back into Google Docs when you get Internet access.

It's also important to remember that Google Docs isn't Microsoft Office and doesn't have all of the features that Office provides. For example, automatic generation of Table of Contents doesn't seem to be supported (although you can have links and bookmarks to help navigate).

Summary

I would say I am addicted to Google Docs and find it to be an essential part of running my blog - it is one of the main reasons I use Blogger. It is convenient, easy to use and being able to store your documents (and publish them) on the web is a huge advantage. I no longer have to transfer documents between computers or worry about issues such as versioning. It is very easy to be able to export the documents to a local file, such as a PDF. So far, I have found Google Docs to be invaluable.

Google Docs can be found at http://docs.google.com

Tony Bedford first started blogging in March 2000. Tony currently maintains a free guide to more profitable blogging at http://the-business-of-blogging.blogspot.com