The
computer trade press has been raving about "Google docs" for months.
In
addition to being a great place to store data files, "Google docs" is
a pioneering implementation of an "office suite" in the Internet cloud.
The
"Google docs" Web site is located at
The
home page of the "Google docs" Web site looks like this:
If
you do not already have a Google account , you can
sign up for free by clicking on the blue "Get started" button.
The
key features of "Google Docs" are:
Total
storage space = unlimited
Total
storage space for document
files = unlimited
Total
storage space for spreadsheet files = unlimited
Total
storage space for presentation files = unlimited
Total
storage space for PDF files = unlimited
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
number of document files and presentation files = 5000
Maximum
number of image files = 5000
Maximum
file size for a document file = 500 kilobytes
plus 2 Megabytes per embedded image
Document
file formats allowed = .HTML, .
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
number of spreadsheet files = 1000
Total
spreadsheet size limits:
256
columns, 200,000 cells, 100 worksheets,
(No
limit on number of rows in a spreadsheet file.)
Each
spreadsheet can have up to 20,000 cells with formulas in them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
file size for a presentation file = 10MB
Maximum
number of "slides" in a presentation file = 200
Presentation
file formats allowed = .PPT, .
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Image
file formats allowed = .GIF, .JPG, .
--------------------------------------------------------------------
See
http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=37603
for additional size limits
Maximum
monthly bandwidth = not stated
(The
maximum monthly bandwidth is the total amount of data that
you (and others that you designate) upload to and download from your
free account.)
"Google docs" stores any file that you upload
to it as an .html file.
To get a document file that is stored at "Google
docs" back down to the local hard drive of your computer, click on "File", then select
"Download file as", then select either ".HTML", ".RFT",
"Word", ".ODT", or
"Text".
To get a spreadsheet file that is stored at "Google
docs" back down to the local hard drive of your computer, click on "File", then click on
"Export", then select either ".
To get a presentation file that is stored at "Google
docs" back down to the local hard drive of your computer, click on "File", then click on
"Save as PDF" or "Save as PPT".
To get a drawing file that is stored at "Google
docs" back down to the local hard drive of your computer, click on
"Edit", then click on "Export, then select ".PDF",
".
When you first log into your new "Google docs"
account, it will look like this:
*
Click on the "Create New" button:
*
Then click on "Folder":
A folder called "New Folder" will appear in
"My folders":
*
Click on the "Checkmark" box next to the
"New Folder" folder:
Click on the "Rename" button:
*
Type in a name for the "New Folder".
In this example, I named it "Internet Talk
Articles".
Double-click on the new folder to open it up:
Note that there are no files or folders inside the
"Internet Talk Articles" folder yet.
Click on the "Upload" button:
*
Click on the "No folder" button:
*
Click on the folder that you wish to place the uploaded
file into:
Click on the "OK" button:
"Internet Talk Articles" will be displayed as
the folder that the uploaded file will reside in.
Click on "Select files to upload":
*
Locate/move to a file that you want to upload and click
on it to select it:
*
Click on the "Start upload" button:
Click on"Back to Google Docs":
The file that you just uploaded is now displayed inside
the designated folder.
*
Double-click on this file to view it.
When you sign into "Google Docs", it looks like
this:
*
When you first log into Google Docs, you do not see any
of your folders because you are in the default "All items" view. In
this default view, all of your files will be displayed, regardless of which
folder they actually reside in.
To see the items in a specific folder, click on that
folder's image in the lower left pane. For example, after I click on the
"Internet Talk Articles" folder,
only the files and folders inside the "Internet Talk Articles"
are displayed:
*
*
To create a new document, click on the "Create
new" button near the upper left hand corner:
*
A drop down list lets you pick whether you want to create
a document, a presentation, a spreadsheet, a form, or a folder. Whatever you create will reside at the
"Google Docs" server farm, not on a local hard drive. If you create a
document, a presentation, a spreadsheet, or a form, it will be stored at the
"Google Docs" server farm in HTML format.
For example, if I click on "Spreadsheet", a new
browser window will appear as follows:
*
Note that my new spreadsheet is located at
http://spreadsheets.google.com.
Now you can enter data into this online spreadsheet:
*
It looks, feels, and works like Microsoft Excel or
Quattro Pro or Lotus 1-2-3.
Use the F2 key of your keyboard to initiate the editing
of any cell that already has data in it.
When you are finished working on this spreadsheet, click
on the "Save" button near the upper right hand corner.
A "Google Docs--Webpage Dialog" box will be
displayed:
*
Replace "Untitled Spreadsheet" with a more
descriptive name:
Click on the "OK" button:
Then, close the spreadsheet window by clicking on the
"X" button in the upper right hand corner of the spreadsheet window.
*
We are now returned to the original "Google
docs" window that we were in before we started the spreadsheet work:
*
Note that the new spreadsheet that we have just created
is nowhere to be seen.
Now click on "All items" near the upper left
hand corner:
*
Now, the new spreadsheet that we just created is
displayed in the "Today" section.
The new spreadsheet file does not reside in an existing
folder, which is the default location for any newly-created file in
"Google Docs".
If we right click on the spreadsheet, a popup utility
menu is displayed as follows:
*
If we then click on "Move to", a dialog box
showing the folders hierarchy appears in the upper left hand corner:
*
In our example, we will click on the "Internet Talk
Articles" folder to select it:
We will then click on the "Move to folder"
button. The new spreadsheet is now located in the "Internet Talk
Articles" folder at "Google Docs".
Next, we will export this document from the "Google
Docs" server farm down to the local hard drive of our computer. The
spreadsheet that we just created is stored up at the "Google Docs"
server farm as an html document. We will now export it to our local hard drive
in a format that is more usable for the spreadsheet software that is installed
in our computer:
Perform a right mouse click on the spreadsheet:
*
Click on "Export" on the popup utility menu:
*
*
If you want to create a spreadsheet file that is not in
Excel .xls format, click on the dropdown list arrow:
*
Click on either Microsoft Excel format (.xls) , Open
Office Spreadsheet format (.ods), or PDF format.
*
Click on the "Continue" button:
A "File Download" dialog box will be displayed.
Click on its "Save" button.
*
A "Save As" dialog box will be displayed.
Work your way to the folder on the local hard drive that
you wish to create and then store the spreadsheet:
*
Click on the "Save" button of the "Save
As" dialog box.
*
Click on the "Open Folder" button:
*
*
A "Windows Explorer"/"My Computer"
window will display the newly-created spreadsheet that has been exported from
"Google Docs".
*
As part of the export process, "Google Docs"
has converted the spreadsheet from the .html format that all spreadsheets are
stored in to the Excel *.xls format that we requested.
To test this file, let's double-click on it:
It opens up nicely in Excel as follows:
*
Using Excel 2003, let's add more rows to the spreadsheet
that is on our local hard drive:
*
Now click on the "Save" button in the
"Standard Toolbar" of the Excel window.
Then, click on the "x" button on the upper
right hand corner of the Excel window to close it.
At this point the spreadsheet that is stored on the hard
drive and the one that is stored at the "Google Docs" server farm do
not have the same data. The one that is up at "Google Docs" has three
rows of data in it and the one that is on the local hard drive has six rows of
data in it. We will now upload the spreadsheet that is on the local hard drive
up to the "Google Docs" server farm:
Let's go back to "Google Docs":
*
Right click on the now-obsolete spreadsheet:
*
Click on "Rename" on the popup utility menu:
*
*
Press once on the "Home" key of your keyboard.
Type in "old" without the quotation marks and
press once on the <enter> key of your keyboard:
The spreadsheet at "Google Docs" is now renamed
to
old + <former name of spreadsheet>
Click on the "Upload" button near the upper
left hand corner:
*
Click on "Select files to upload".
*
*
Work your way to the file that you wish to upload to
"Google Docs":
*
*
Click on the file so that it goes into the "File
name" box:
*
*
Click on the "Open" button.
*
The name of the file that you wish to upload should be
shown in the "Upload Files" list.
Click on the "Start upload" button:
*
The file upload is complete when the green checkmark
appears to the left of the name of the spreadsheet files.
Click on "Back to Google Docs":
Note the spreadsheet that we uploaded from the local hard
drive to the "Google Docs" server farm is now displayed as a
spreadsheet there. As part of the upload process, "Google Docs" has
converted this spreadsheet from Excel .xls format to the .html format that all
spreadsheets at the "Google Docs" server farm are stored in.