Office
It's never too late to take a look at Google Documents if you haven’t already done so! This free online office suite provided by Google Corporation allows you to write documents with nearly as much complexity as OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Office, as well as diverse and specialised creations like blogs, web pages, calendars and forms... So how does it work? A computer running any operating system is required, along with an internet connection and a motivated user! The rest will be presented in this article.
Searching at the heart of Google Docs
The strength of the Google engine is in its searching capabilities. Here we find this function on the Google Docs welcome page with it being possible to search documents or models. By clicking on the search options you will also be able to get a range of advanced functions, and although we won’t go into detail, you can note that it is possible to use Boolean strings and varied criteria (search by name, folder, date, day, owner…).
Gears and offline working
When working from a limited connection, for example through a modem, or if you are only connecting randomly via a 3G connection, working with Google Docs is still an effective exercise. You simply have to change to offline connection mode via the hyperlink present at the top of the page near your email. You will then be asked to download and install the Gears function which works under all operating systems.
Previous versions, printing
For each open document, the user is able to see previous versions of their work by clicking on the File menu. This function allows you to view numerous editions of the work (Revision 0, Revision 1, and Revision 2, etc.) of the same document, and to even go back and work on a previous version if required.
When trying to print, Google Docs provides you with different options, as you can set the paper size, page layout, include page numbers if you wish, print page notes at the end and change the margins all by clicking on File and Printer Settings. By clicking on File, Print preview you will see your works as they will be printed, with this function giving away nothing to similar programs which need to be installed. Everything can be configured, the pages to be printed, odds or evens, choice of pages to be printed by page numbers, zoom before printing, etc.
The online help is lacking detail
The help is available in numerous languages, depending on your location in the Google Documents help center. Internet users can enter precise terms in relation to module information that they are looking for (Document, Spreadsheet or Presentation), although the answers are not overly detailed. This is why it is preferable to take a look at the Google Docs forum or Google Docs Help.
The Google Documents gadgets
IThere are numerous gadgets available for testing, from DocSyncer which allows you to synchronise Microsoft Office and Google Docs files and OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs to synchronise with the OpenOffice.org suite. To upload numerous office documents you can use Google tools like l'API Google Docs Uploader (.Net Framework 2.0 required) or the gadget Gdocs which allows you to search, open and send your files. Firefox users will also benefit from other management tools like gDocsBar, iGooglBar, Google Docs Download...
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