Thing #20 Google Docs

There are things I love about Google Docs and I use all the time and others that don't meet my needs. I love the forms and use the survey tool frequently to collect information. I used to send out email surveys and spend hours collating the responses into a spreadsheet. Now, I send out the survey and a spreadsheet is created automatically from the results. I can export that spreadsheet to Excel and also share the results with everyone or just a few people. For example, I used this form to collect science TAKS scores from other area districts.

I'm glad that Google provides a free online software for people to create documents and spreadsheets if they need that service. However, I already have software that has better functionality so using the Google software instead of Microsoft Word or Excel doesn't help me any. The first thing that happened when I went to create a table in a document was that I couldn't do what I needed to do. I almost always end up merging cells in a table and there isn't an easy way in the Google document to do that. I went to the help forum and thought it was funny that the inability to merge cells easily was the first thing that popped up.

Instead of using Google Docs for that purpose, I use Dropbox if I need to collaborate on anything. I can upload the document to be collaborated on and it can be accessed from anywhere by the people given permission to edit. Since I am collaborating with people who also have the Microsoft Suite, software isn't a problem. If you would like to use Dropbox, use this link to sign up. You can have up to 2 gigs of space for free.

I also tried out the Google Presentation Tool to create this presentation on Natural Resources. I won't be using it though because PowerPoint is much more powerful.