Guest Post :: Life in “The Cloud” (Google Documents)

If viewing the changes after a document is saved is not fast enough for you, how about an application where people can share a document and see the changes AS THEY HAPPEN? This, among many other things, is a killer feature of Google Documents. Some of the features of this indispensible tool are:

• Totally free.
• Work on the same document at the same time in real-time collaboration.
• Replicate all of the expensive Microsoft Office applications for free with Google versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Save the documents locally if you need to (as either Word, HTML, PDF, or many other formats with no conversion necessary), or leave them in the cloud.
• Give access to any document to anyone you choose, and decide whether they can read/write or delete each document.
• Use a built-in revision history to keep track of multiple versions of the same documents.

Trust me, you haven’t worked on a spreadsheet until you’ve seen the cursor moving around on its own as you’re editing other cells and colleagues are editing their own info at the same time. It’s almost creepy (but in a good way!)

Paul Meyerson has been a Macintosh consultant in the NYC area for more years than he wants to admit. His new company, www.macsupport.com, aims to take care of any and all Macintosh issues for the home or small business users. Using a combination of telephone support and remote control software, Macsupport.com is able to deal with a variety of home users’ issues quickly, efficiently, and inexpensively.