Collective Collaboration: Using Google Docs & Spreadsheets

The web’s onslaught of productivity tools that allow for group collaboration and creative correspondence has bought forward today’s wiki sites, social and business networking systems, company intranets, and teleconferencing. Having the ability to correspond in a ‘live’ format with coworkers and project participants is easy for anyone; no special software, downloading, or enhancements are required with today’s options available on the web.

Google has recently released its Docs & Spreadsheets  products to add to its growing list of online tools. Along with Gmail, Google Video (and the recent acquisition of YouTube), and Google Notebook, Google Docs & Spreadsheets brings users a great new asset for efficient and effective productivity. Google Docs & Spreadsheets can easily take the place of many office suite packages, or be used in conjunction with today’s standard programs for some extra benefits.

Take file sharing and correspondence, for example. With Google Docs & Spreadsheets, you can create a document, invite other people to ‘view’ it and edit it, and watch and track the changes from any computer. There are no chat windows required, no teleconferencing setups, or any other complicated processes involved. Google Docs & Spreadsheets allows you to just let people know that the document is ‘out there’, and can even send a link like an invite to them. They can ‘retrieve’ the document, work on it, and you will be updated on changes. It’s a huge step into the world of online collaboration with minimal effort.

Google Spreadsheets is a handy tool for creating formulas, calculations, and other basic spreadsheet functions from any computer while you’re online. Being able to save the spreadsheet as a working project allows users to work on it at any time, space, or location. It’s also easy to collaborate and network with others on specific data or formulas all in one place.