Taking Advantage of Google Docs
I have had some great experiences with Google docs over the last few days. Those experiences lie in three categories:
- The Document Table of Contents functionality
- Drawing Tools
- Document Templates
I have been using Google documents forever…since the Writely days. Since then Google has been working hard to continuously improve these products. I really dig the fact that I can always come back to my document list and organize them in all sorts of ways to find old documents I have created in the past.
Until recently I used Google docs in a more casual way, even though it always gave me good results. Now i am using it exclusively. This means that I need to start to rely a bit more on some of the advanced formatting and shortcuts that are available.
Tables of Contents
In a Google Docs Document I had never really made use of either the Table of Contents feature (found in the Insert menu) or the formatting drop-down. After formatting a few of my headings in a new requirements doc, I experimented with inserting a Table of Contents. Low-and-behold my Headings appeared in an outline mode within the table of contents box. This is a great litle feature as it can be inserted anywhere in the document.
If you are having trouble with the Dark, Bold, Arial font that the Formatting drop down gives you, it is okay to reformat these headings as they will retain their position in the Table of contents.
Drawing Tools
I am just getting started with the drawing tools as well, and I am using them to create a new wireframe for a website design I am working on. I am not likely, going to dump my drawing out onto a pdf and hand it over to the client to sign off on, but I am going to be sharing and revising the document with a designer who will re-create a final version in a more professional template.
Production quality asside this method should really help to make the process much smoother and interaction level much higher with my designer and any programmer resource that I may want to pull in at this phase.
Document Templates
In a new role, I am leading a team into the Agile/SCRUM style development methodology. I have enough experience in this area to know that tracking my team and proving the outcomes will be a big part of being successful here. In order to do this I will be relying on my Trusty Google Docs application and templates that I have discovered through the Template Gallery.
Above the list of documents in your home view you will see a link labeled Browse template gallery. There are a great deal of resources here and the, always present, Google search to find what you are looking for. There are also categories to browse templates that may fit your line of work, or personal activities. Buried in each of these categories you will find Gold.
I would love to hear feedback from users that have found templates that have helped out their work, budgets, project managemet, excercise routine… whatever.
Take a look at Google Docs again…I’m pretty happy about what I see.
