LostInTechnology

Replace Your Office Suite with Google Docs

Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Nicólas Crognali in How To

Most of us are chained to our work computer in order to get any work done.  Some of us are lucky enough to have a way to remotely login, but you still need a work computer.  Then, there are the few that can log into their work from any place and any computer.  These people are more than likely using an online office suite like Google Docs.

In this article, we are going to discuss the reasons you might want to make the switch to an online office suite and the ways to do it.

Reasons

The very first reason I’m going to draw your attention to is that hard drives fail, and if you don’t have the back ups for that data, you can really be out of luck depending on what was on the hard drive. If you switch over to a web based system though, you’re data is going to be protected by a team of industry professionals who know what they’re doing more than anyone else.

Another fabulous reason to make the jump is that you’ll have a much wider range of ability when it comes to being able to pick up your work and continue working at a different location on a different computer as you please. Using the power of robust databases, you’ll be able to save data and access it from any computer at anytime without having to worry about hard drive failure or other related issues.

The best part about all of this is that you won’t lack in the quality of the tools you’ll now be using and (for the most part) will have all the same functions as you’re current office suite, but online.

One of the ways to make this transition is to use Google Docs.

Google Docs

Google Docs will allow you to keep all your documents in one location with the ability to allow friends, co-workers, or colleagues to edit the documents, thus making a very collaborative environment.  The next question though is “how do you completely switch?” Follow my outline below for a simple transition process.

1. Back up all your office data. Find all those pesky little documents that you’re about to give a new life to. I’d recommend putting them on a flash drive or CD so you can have a copy of them if something happens later on.
2. Sign up for Google Docs. You can use your Google account or make a new one by going to Google Docs.
   

   Getting started

3. Now you see the main screen, the holy grail, your lifeline. It will look something like this.
   

   (Had to shrink image to fit on page)

4. As you can already see, there’s many wonderful features you’re probably itching to try out, but I’d recommend that you start uploading your data. In order to upload all the data you have at once, put all the data you backed up into a folder, go to the main Google Docs screen, press upload, and select the folder by ctrl + left clicking on the folder all your data is in so that everything will be uploaded at once.

What Now?

Well, anything you want really. You can go out for Starbucks, grab a coffee, bring your laptop with you, connect to their free wi-fi, go to Google Docs, and begin working on whatever document you left off on. If you’ve read this guide and still don’t believe me, just give it a go and see what happens. You’ll be amazed at how much this can actually improve productivity.

By Anthony Crognale, founder of Pluble.net, helping you get your freelance writing projects done on time in a very cost effective manner. Need a freelance writer? Check out Anthony’s freelance writing portfolio.

Image by Travis Isaacs

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Tags: free, Google Docs, office, online