Going Google (apps) Part 3: Share/collaborate

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	TOP STORY Going Google (apps) Part 3: Share/collaborate
	By Woody Leonhard If you’ve ever tried to share documents or struggled with merging edits from multiple collaborators, Google’s productivity apps make the process easy. Here’s how to share and collaborate with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides — three apps that are both capable and free.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/going-google-apps-part-3-sharecollaborate/ (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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I’d like to see WS (and the online world) change how they describe software and online products. “Paid” (licensed) vs. “free” is no longer a valid split, and increasingly is a lie. Today there is “open source” that is open in so many ways (and can also be profitable), then there is “free” in the original sense that the user gives, donates, sacrifices, etc absolutely nothing known or hidden, and then there is the bulk of software, including most of the brilliant software that Google delivers and which has admittedly changed my life for the better. For lack of a better term (and arguably imagination 🙂 I’ll call this last category “fee-based” software. Whether the user gives money for a license, accepts ads and tracking of personal behavior, agrees to test another product, first buys some hardware or whatever, this category is decidedly not free.

I don’t love or loath any category in particular, but I hate and take great offense to misrepresentation and the intense and intentional lack of transparency and honesty in the current software environment.

Google makes more money in a year than recently existed in the entire world by collecting and selling everything ever known or thought about everything in the known or imagined universe. Apple litters every device and polutes all iOS bandwidth with ads and tracking via so-called “free” apps. This I don’t like, the lack of honesty, despite how much I love and depend on the products.

Tech journalists have a great responsibility to bring greater transparency to the current state.
And for that, I depend on you 🙂

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The inline file sharing capabilities of Google docs is fantastic. Great that you are alerting your readers to it’s strength. Wonder if you have reviewed IBM’s offering in this area via their Connections product as the file editing capability has multi-person edit capabilities also.

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Woody, you say that “No, there are no pivot tables in Google Sheets”. In fact, Google sheets do have pivot tables. Their functionality is limited, compared to Excel, but they’re easy to use and very useful. I use them all the time.

I would also comment that in my experience it’s important to either stick with Office or move completely to Google. Mixing the two is a recipe for disaster – misformatted documents and spreadsheets, comments confused and all over the place. Moving documents from Google to Office and back (or vice versa) is not a trivial exercise. I think it’s worth mentioning that to anyone who is considering making the switch – don’t dip your toe in, jump in the deep end (with appropriate backup strategies if it doesn’t work out…)

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Using Google Docs may be wonderful for some things (multiple editors, rapid response to edits, etc) but if you are working with a report that includes figures, tables, and pictures, it is very difficult to use compared to Word. Although Word isn’t as friendly as WordPerfect in this regard either. And since it’s difficult to use Word for some things and Google Docs for others, you are still better off using just Word; even though it is going to be more expensive in terms of $$$$. It’s still less expensive in terms of time.

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Using Google Docs may be wonderful for some things (multiple editors, rapid response to edits, etc) but if you are working with a report that includes figures, tables, and pictures, it is very difficult to use compared to Word. Although Word isn’t as friendly as WordPerfect in this regard either. And since it’s difficult to use Word for some things and Google Docs for others, you are still better off using just Word; even though it is going to be more expensive in terms of $$$$. It’s still less expensive in terms of time.

I think Woody covered this issue in his columns pretty thoroughly.

For many Office users, some missing features will make using Google’s productivity apps a nonstarter. For example: Yes, Google Docs does not have anything like MS Word’s Document Map. No, there are no pivot tables in Google Sheets and cell data does not automatically flow into an adjacent empty cell. True, you can’t go back and retrieve an email you deleted three years ago. If Google apps don’t provide some feature you can’t live without, that’s cool. Stick with Office.

Even with Pivot Tables now available in Google Apps, there are format and compatibility issues which I doubt that even our resident Google Apps Expert can fully resolve.

By the way, one of the complaints about GMail is precisely how DIFFICULT it is to absolutely, completely, forever delete ANYTHING. Mail “deleted” often shows up as only being “Archived” — often much more than three years after it was “deleted”. A second “delete” operation is often needed to really make a Message or Conversation disappear — and Google still retains their own copies for up to two years, according to their own Privacy Policy.

-- rc primak

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Bob,

Gmail’s Trash, just like inbox, spam, sent, etc are just “views” created with labels.
When you Trash a message you are attaching the Trash label, which is a special label that overrides all the other labels. Messages in Trash retain any other labels, so that when, as and if you restore them, they will again be visible in the other label “views”.

Gmail’s Trash is similar to Windows Recycle Bin in some ways. The messages stay there until they are actually deleted. You may go to Trash and delete messages manually. Messages in Trash older than 30 days are deleted automatically. The consumer edition of Gmail includes an archive of about 10 GB and the Business edition includes an archive of about 25 GB, so you may not need to spend much time deleting messages. To find messages larger than 10 MB, just search for: larger:10m

And this makes GMail easier to use — HOW???

I also note you conveniently did not answer the complaint about Google retaining copies of all email for up to two years. Still an issue for a lot of folks!

-- rc primak

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The newsletter and website are called Windows Secrets, not Google Secrets. Has Woody been paid to go into bat for Google? In my opinion, Google is a bad company that doesn’t obey the rules it sets for other websites and lives off the efforts off others without paying much in the way of tax and invades personal privacy to an utterly unacceptable degree in order to offer customised ads, so I don’t buy or use anything associated with it. Google has joined the list of companies facing criticism over tax avoidance in the UK after public accounts showed it paid only £600,000 in UK corporation tax despite local revenues of more than £1.25bn. It stashes its income away in tax havens.

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You might want to practice this a bit before working on important documents. Play around with dueling edits — see whose edits, typed in simultaneously, take precedence over another’s. In general, it’s easy to stay on top of the changes — in real time on your netbook, MacBook Air, iPhone, Galaxy Tab, or other Web-connected device.

I’m rather curious, why the omission of MS surface tablets? Doesn’t Google Apps work with surface?

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I’m rather curious, why the omission of MS surface tablets? Doesn’t Google Apps work with surface?

Yes and no. It doesn’t work the same way in an ARM environment as in a x86 environment, and it doesn’t look the same. Some of the Google Apps (like GMail and Google Drive) aren’t supported in Windows RT. The Chrome Browser isn’t supported in Windows RT either. It is not available as a Metro App.

http://blogs.cio.com/windows-8/17996/looking-new-and-cool-windows-rt-apps-youre-out-luck

-- rc primak

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Woody,
As you going to talk about outlook as an email backup in your next column, I would highly recommend the free [for non-commercial use] MailStore Home currently on version 8. It can be found at http://www.mailstore.com/en/mailstore-home.aspx. it will archive and index multiple email accounts. I have used it for a couple of years to backup 5 different email addresses, including one that can no longer receive email as the domain does not exist. I highly recommend this program for maintaining an offline copy of your email accounts.
Rick

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