Google Docs is an online productivity suite that's FREE, uses none of your system's resources and requires no download.
Google Docs is fun to explore and to play with. If you want to jump on the bandwagon and get some of the larger programs off your own hard drive, start with
Google's tour of Docs .
The idea is to upload your existing files and then crate new documents from scratch or from templates. You can share the stuff you write, store it online and set controls to keep it private and secure, they say. I'm not sure I trust online workspaces just yet. I mean, how many times a month do we hear that a given site was hacked and all the users vital data has been scattered across the universe?
It all works pretty well if you have a robust broadband connection, though you'll doubtless experience lags when web traffic is snarled or crowded. I've seen lags. Type a sentence and it appears a couple of seconds later. However, consider this, too. Sites come and sites go. This isn't to say
Google's going anywhere soon, but who thought half the banks of the world would skate the edge of failure, either?
Google Docs is worth a look, especially if you have a thousand year-old version of one of the big name productivity suites and you're seeing the necessity of upgrading. Those high price tags are intimidating in today's bleak economy. Go up online, sign in with your
Google account or
Gmail password and take a test drive. You might like it and you're likely less paranoid than I. By the way, I love
GMail. If you don't have an account yet - give that a shot, too.
More FREE software? Read about OpenOffice
Print | posted @ Saturday, June 27, 2009 12:00 AM