search

Google

Friday, January 26, 2007

Create and share your work online

Create and share your work online
If you've ever struggled to keep track of different versions of spreadsheet or word processor files sent over email, Google Docs & Spreadsheets may be right for you. Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a free web-based word processing and spreadsheet program that keeps documents current and lets the people you choose update files from their own computers. You can, for example, coordinate your student group's homework assignments, access your family to-do list from work or home, or collaborate with remote colleagues on a new business plan.

Creating

Create basic documents and spreadsheets from scratch.
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 & Spreadsheets accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODF, ODS, RTF, CSV, etc. So go ahead and upload your existing files; all your formatting and formulas will come through intact.

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

Sharing

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

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

Edit 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.

Storing

Edit from anywhere.
There's nothing to download; you access your documents and spreadsheets 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 and power outages.

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

Publishing

Publish your work as a web page.
You can publish your documents and spreadsheets 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. Any tags you've added to your document will become the post's blog categories.