{"id":630,"date":"2008-04-11T22:18:46","date_gmt":"2008-04-12T03:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/2008\/04\/11\/google-docs\/"},"modified":"2008-04-11T22:19:46","modified_gmt":"2008-04-12T03:19:46","slug":"google-docs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/2008\/04\/11\/google-docs\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Docs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google Docs<\/a> is another one of those applications that everyone is clammering about as a Word replacement.\u00a0 It is a free web-based word processor that has incredible “sharing” features.\u00a0 Without installing software, you can create a document and then share that document with one or more people.\u00a0\u00a0Anyone in the group\u00a0can edit the\u00a0document and everyone can see all the edits.<\/p>\n

You can’t do that in Word.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this is where the Word\/Google Docs comparison ends.\u00a0 Although Google Docs does wonderful things for free, with nothing more than a browser, it hardly has the basic requirements of a modern word processor.<\/p>\n

I tried to complete a simple project using Google Docs and here is what I found.<\/p>\n

1 – You can type and format text in basic ways.\u00a0 After selecting some text, the font, color and size can be changed.\u00a0 You’re ok as long as 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24 or 36 point fonts are all you want.\u00a0 There is also no way to format paragraphs or line spacing.\u00a0 It’s all single spacing with no adjustments between paragraphs.<\/p>\n

2 – There is no Find command, but you can use your browser’s built-in find utility.\u00a0 The Find and Replace has no undo.\u00a0 Be careful with that.<\/p>\n

3 – Forget about page numbers.\u00a0 If you print something, you can format your browser so that print job add page numbers.\u00a0 There is no way to tell how many pages you’ll print ahead of time because Google Docs doesn’t tell you more than the word count.<\/p>\n

4 – You can insert a picture from a file.\u00a0 After that, the picture tools fall apart.\u00a0 You can’t crop a picture.\u00a0 If you resize a graphic, there is no way to control the aspect ratio.\u00a0 There are no tools that permit fine adjustments.\u00a0 If you need a picture to be three inches wide, you’ll need to print it, measure it on the paper using a ruler and adjust accordingly.<\/p>\n

5 – A header is something that appears\u00a0at the top of\u00a0the first page and a footer is something that appears\u00a0at the bottom of\u00a0the last page.\u00a0 In between no pages have either.<\/p>\n

6 – There is no style control.<\/p>\n

7 – There is no tab control.\u00a0 I think a tab is half an inch, but the lack of\u00a0a ruler leaves me guessing.<\/p>\n

8 – There is no margin control.<\/p>\n

9 – Ctrl-B, Ctrl-U, Ctrl-I… that’s the end of the keyboard shortcuts that aren’t built into the browser.<\/p>\n

10 – There is no way to fully justify\u00a0a paragraph (margins straight on both sides of the pages).<\/p>\n

11 – There is no “reveal codes” that can show formatting marks.\u00a0 It goes without saying that formatting cannot be adjusted in bulk using Find and Replace.<\/p>\n

12 – The only way to get multiple columns is to insert a table and paste your text into it.\u00a0 I crashed my browser trying to get a long document into two columns.<\/p>\n

If you want a full featured word processor for free, get Open Office.\u00a0 Although the sharing features of Google Doc can be incredibly powerful, it’s not much of a word processor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google Docs is another one of those applications that everyone is clammering about as a Word replacement.\u00a0 It is a free web-based word processor that has incredible “sharing” features.\u00a0 Without installing software, you can create a document and then share … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[336,340,17,11],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edtech","tag-edtech","tag-education","tag-online","tag-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}