Daryl Goard
Postmodern CriticMy Google Office
August 3rd 2008 21:08
I confess- I have used Microsoft products almost exclusively for the majority of my career in Tech. The past couple of years I have played with open source alternatives to Windows (Linux) with moderate success, but instead of replacing the whole OS I have looked lately at the applications I used most often. The office suite. I have moved my domain over to
Google Apps for domains so my domain name now has the following services tied to it, all for free:
1. GMail- The bestest email system ever!
2. Google Docs- Spreadsheets, Documents, Presentations
3. Google Sites- Sites for collaboration similar to MS Sharepoint
4.Calendar
5. Google Talk
There are some other small things that go with Google Apps like Google gears, which allow sync with all your docs so you can use them online or offline.
Things I like about this environment:
1. It's free
2. You can share docs with others and collaborate on them in real time
3. Everything is online so you can work where ever you are.
4. Alerting features for Calendar, and document updates
5. Exporting of documents to different formats (Doc to PDF Etc.)
6. You can work offline with Google Gears
So for an office of 5-10 people the Google office suite could save you several hundred dollars or more on software. It's not as pretty an interface as Microsoft Office but it is functional.
With the Google Sites portion you can drag and drop your way to building your company intranet.
The other thing to wrap your head around is that I havent had to install anything on my local machine (unless I want the offline sync cabability) this is the definition of cloud computing in case you were wondering.
There are other internet based operating systems and office suites out there but since this has the Google brand attached to it, it will have the most eyeballs on it. I think that this concept will be the norm as we move forward towards our always connected world, as well as the work anywhere and anytime world.
I will keep you posted as I dig into this suite further.
Peace.
Google Apps for domains so my domain name now has the following services tied to it, all for free:
1. GMail- The bestest email system ever!
2. Google Docs- Spreadsheets, Documents, Presentations
3. Google Sites- Sites for collaboration similar to MS Sharepoint
5. Google Talk
There are some other small things that go with Google Apps like Google gears, which allow sync with all your docs so you can use them online or offline.
Things I like about this environment:
1. It's free
2. You can share docs with others and collaborate on them in real time
3. Everything is online so you can work where ever you are.
4. Alerting features for Calendar, and document updates
5. Exporting of documents to different formats (Doc to PDF Etc.)
6. You can work offline with Google Gears
So for an office of 5-10 people the Google office suite could save you several hundred dollars or more on software. It's not as pretty an interface as Microsoft Office but it is functional.
With the Google Sites portion you can drag and drop your way to building your company intranet.
The other thing to wrap your head around is that I havent had to install anything on my local machine (unless I want the offline sync cabability) this is the definition of cloud computing in case you were wondering.
I will keep you posted as I dig into this suite further.
Peace.
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Comment by Janet Collins
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Again, great info, particularly for someone like me who has only used MS products and is reluctant to let go.
Janet