Colorado Libraries 2.0

2b. Web-based office apps – Google Docs

The What

Google Docs (now part of the Google Apps suite of products) allows users to word-process, work with spreadsheets, and even create slide presentations. If you are used to using Microsoft Office products such as MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the Google Docs interface will look familiar and you will find many of the same functions.

Google Docs in Plain English Video

The Why

There are many ways Google Docs can serve librarians and their patrons. Need to collaborate with colleagues on a CAL slide presentation? Create it in Google Docs, give all the co-presenters editing power and voila! it doesn’t matter how far you live from one another. Have a homeless patron who uses your public PCs for creative writing but keeps losing his portable drive? Have him save his work in Google Docs. He can then get to it from any computer with Internet access. Matt Hamilton and Terzah Becker, who created this lesson, used a Google Doc to put it together.

The How

Discovery Exercise

1. View Google’s Google Docs tutorial video to get a deeper overview of the features of the document and spreadsheet functions.
2. Sign up for a Google account so that you can try Google Docs. (Trouble setting up a Google account? See this quick job aid (PDF – need Adobe Reader?) for steps.)
3. Create a basic test document, spreadsheet, or presentation. Try some of the buttons to see if they do what you expect. Save your document and try sharing it with a colleague or friend (or, if you share it with terzahbecker@gmail.com, Boulder Public Library’s Terzah Becker will email you a response to let you know it worked).

More for the Curious

• Google Docs Support – http://docs.google.com/support/
• Articles
  • How Google Docs Works
  • Google Docs & Spreadsheets: Collaborating in the Classroom or Library
  • Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students
• Applications and Other Collaborative Products
  • View Docs templates to see other creative ways you can use Google Docs.
  • You can upload and download Microsoft Office products with Google Docs - see Uploading and Exporting
  • Ning and Ning Apps: Ning is an online platform that allows groups to create a social network for a particular collaborative topic or need.
  • Zoho Office Suite: a Web- based online office suite with word processing, spreadsheets and more.

 

Collaboration Home | Next up: Visual Communications

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About the Authors

Terzah Becker has worked as a reference specialist at Boulder Public Library since 2005. She earned her MLS from the University of Missouri in 2006. Please read her full profile on LinkedIn – add her to your own LinkedIn network while you’re at it!

Matt Hamilton is part hardware geek, part software geek. He brings a punk rock “Do It Yourself” ethos to librarianship, often turning tradition on its head to reshape organizations in way that pushes power down the org chart. Matt was recently chosen for the Colorado Association of Libraries Leadership Institute, where he is learning to elevate his skills as a change agent to ninja status.