Thing #18: Online Productivity Tools

The availability and use of online productivity web-based applications (think word processing and spreadsheets) has exploded over the past few years and for good reasons! These powerful applications provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the internet without the need of installed desktop applications. Some experts speculate that this emerging trend may mean the death to Microsoft Office and other software-based productivity tools, while others think web-based applications have their place, but not in the office. But no matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, on this both sides seem to agree; web-based apps have their place.

One large benefit to web-based applications it that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easy accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Zoho Writer and Google Docs to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing.

For this discovery exercise, participants are asked to take a look at a web-based word processing tool (either Google Docs or Zoho Writer), create a simple document and then document your discoveries in your blog.

While you are looking at Google Docs, make sure you read about Monash University's plans to launch this service for all of our students later this month!

Discovery Exercise:

1. Either (a) create a free account for yourself in Zoho Writer; or (b) log in to Google Docs using your Google account details (the same username and password you are using in Blogger).

2. Explore the site and create a few test documents, spreadsheets, presentations, or forms.

3. Create a blog post about your discoveries.

For those who are enjoying the "In Plain English" series of videos, here's their explanation of Google Docs: