Uploading a Word Doc to Google Docs
Our Verdict
Google Docs offers one of the all-time user-experiences in word processors right now with superior collaboration tools, support for a wide variety of formats besides as first-class ease of utilise.
For
- Unparalleled Collaboration Tools
- Wide format compatibility
- Fast, easy to navigate
- Uncomplicated but non dumbed downward
Against
- No access to custom fonts
- Offline access requires Chrome Extension
Laptop Mag Verdict
Google Docs offers one of the best user-experiences in discussion processors right now with superior collaboration tools, support for a wide variety of formats likewise as excellent ease of employ.
Pros
- +
Unparalleled Collaboration Tools
- +
Broad format compatibility
- +
Fast, piece of cake to navigate
- +
Elementary but not dumbed downwardly
Cons
- -
No access to custom fonts
- -
Offline access requires Chrome Extension
In a recent survey, two of the three people I shouted questions to from my window last week had no idea what Google Docs was, while the other just told me to put some pants on. Enquire any mail service-Gen Xer what Google Docs is, all the same, and yous're likely to get a different response. While Google (the search engine) has amassed incredible popularity — claiming a market share of over 85% and condign so synonymous with searching for things online that the brand is now more commonly used as a verb than a noun — many other services offered by the tech giants have a ways to go before attaining that same level of familiarity.
One of those services is Google Docs, a office of the gratis Google Docs Editor suite and premium Google Workspace suite of function and productivity tools. If you lot're not familiar with the proper noun Google Workspace, you may have come across it previously as Thousand Suite, or even further dorsum as Google Apps. It's this stream of indecisive rebranding that has potentially inhibited the adoption of Google'south premium online suite by many, but in the loftier-octane, adrenaline-fueled world of word processors, Google Docs is gaining more and more traction as the prime number competitor to market place-dominating Microsoft Discussion.
With more people adopting a work-from-home approach than ever earlier, Google Docs finds itself in prime positioning to run into its user base corking. And so what are some of the standout features that showcase the growing popularity of Docs and highlight information technology as a existent competitor and potentially better-suited app for you to consider?
I get a lot of mileage out of word processors and then I decided to put Google Docs through its paces and permit information technology handle a few of my weekly ongoing tasks and projects to come across how it fared.
Google Docs pricing and packages
If you lot have a personal Google account, you already have admission to many of Google'south productivity tools for free through the Google Docs Editor Suite. That means Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Drawing, Sites, Drive and Go along are all bachelor to utilise at no cost. You tin also apply the app versions of these tools without limitation. Personal Google accounts have a Google Drive storage infinite cap of 15GB, which is a sizable amount for storing office documents. However, if yous need more storage, Google offers a premium service called Google One that can boost your storage to 100GB for as fiddling as $2 a month.
There's no real drawback to using the free offerings from Google; you tin accomplish a lot with Google's gratuitous offerings. However, if you're looking for something more suited for concern or to manage groups of people, there's always Google Workspace.
Google Workspace is the premium productivity suite offered by Google. Information technology includes Google Docs' suite of tools and one or two more that are focused on communication, security and administration for managing employees or users. Prices start from $6 per user, per month and the subscription includes numerous perks like custom email domains, digital whiteboarding, additional file type supports for Google Drive, chat messaging, and better phishing and spam protection. At that place'southward also sizable increases to your storage cap depending on which of Google Workspace's four premium packages you decide upon with 30GB, 2TB, 5TB options maxing out at a rather vague "As much every bit you demand."
There are certainly reasons to go premium should you need to micromanage a number of employees or desire to ditch the Gmail domain from your email. But the core part suite and its features are the main draw, and are simply as functional from within the free Google Docs Editor suite.
Google design and interface
Google Docs retains the usual modern, flat, stylistic iconography that most Google products contain. While it looks neat from a design perspective and breathes modernity into the typical word processor interface, I tin't help only experience there'due south a singled-out lack of personality about Docs' almost sterile appearance. This is, after all, the same company that makes its interns wear propeller hats while expecting their staff to traverse its headquarters using a series of slides and firemen poles similar a agglomeration of pocket-protector-wearing ninja warriors.
Docs maintains its minimalistic presentation by removing a lot of the ataxia that can be found in its contemporaries. Google's done this primarily by limiting Docs to one focused toolbar that covers the most common actions such every bit formatting, fonts, colors, alignments and inserts. Nigh users typically perform the majority of tasks from this primary toolbar, which is great for productivity equally everything feels readily available in one piece of cake-to-reach identify.
Information technology's worth noting that, due to the nature of Google Docs being an online service, you will be limited to fonts within the Google Fonts library. There'southward currently no fashion of importing custom fonts, which tin can be frustrating for those who may, from time to time, need a specialised style for a project they're working on. However, Google Fonts is adequately extensive and and so, with a little creativity combined with a decent number of available add-ons, you may notice this less of an issue.
Farther formatting and tools are found in the dropdown menus neatly tucked into the header of the page. This brings a less distracting workspace that makes the most of whatever screen real-estate is available. However, due to Docs running through a spider web browser, Google's efforts only get as far as the private user setup allows, with bookmark bars, extensions or search bars limiting the vertical space available by default.
Yous can, notwithstanding, compensate for this by minimising the Google Docs header, which will remove the drop-down menus and broader Google Workspace icons from view, and restore some corporeality of lost infinite to the page. Docs then implements a handy search bar into your primary toolbar that allows you to await for items otherwise located in the drop-downward menus, meaning yous're never cut off from those tools should you need them.
The end result is more than just pleasing to the eye; the minimalist aesthetics make the overall presentation appear clean and navigation is a simple affair. Docs maintains the traditional word processor layout while simplifying information technology wherever possible. It'south a design choice that is welcoming to new users without coming beyond like a stripped-downward version of the contest.
Google Docs performance and compatibility
Thank you to the lightweight design constitute in the app and browser versions, Google Docs feels smooth and responsive with files loading with no real delay. Both the browser and app performed impressively as I switched between various documents to gauge their loading times. With well-nigh documents, you're usually gear up to go within a second or two, though paradigm-heavy files volition tend to take a little longer (which is to be expected). However, the entire process of opening files from Google Drive is otherwise quick and painless.
1 of the great things about Google Docs is its cross-platform capabilities. There are no OS-specific file types to deal with when information technology comes to Docs. Instead, anyone with a device that can run Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Net Explorer, or Microsoft Border (or who has the Google Docs app installed on their mobile device) can create, read, edit, and collaborate with people without whatsoever issues. This ways no longer having to worry almost whether a file will open on the platform of the person receiving your document. It's merely one less headache in a needlessly fragmented market place.
Receiving files from others fabricated outside of Google'due south part suite is also much less of a headache as Docs boasts compatibility with a varied choice of file formats. Docs can read and save to many popular formats like Microsoft Give-and-take, OpenDocument, RichText, PDF and Plain Text. You can even download your document as an EPUB if yous're looking to distribute it. While you lot can't direct save to the Apple Pages format, you lot can still load them into Google Docs and edit from in that location, though you will accept to consign it as a different format once you're washed. This level of compatibility is hard to argue with, fifty-fifty if some more circuitous formats like PDFs tend to lose formatting upon opening.
Google Docs features
Google Docs is primarily an online tool. Information technology was designed to be that style. As such, when it comes to working online with others, Docs shines so brightly it could directly aircraft through fog. Once you share a certificate via email or straight link, up to 100 people tin can view, edit and comment on that certificate simultaneously. That's one more than than Discussion's co-authoring limit of 99. Clearly Google is taking a Cost Is Correct arroyo to outdoing the competition. I don't know what kind of horrible mess you'd have to birth in Docs that would really require 100 people to gather effectually, poking and prodding it with suggestions and edits. Simply just knowing you can get such a large group shows the versatility of Google Docs' collaboration tools.
All edits take place in real-time, with each unique user tracked down in the document with a randomly assigned color and cursor. Their edits and suggestions are marked by assigned colors and hover to the right of the page, awaiting your feedback. If you choose to accept these suggestions, changes are made to the document automatically. Comments fabricated by editors about specific sections are highlighted in yellowish, and clicking on that department will highlight the feedback for your acknowledgment.
Information technology'south piece of cake for documents to go chaotic and hard to read amidst the collaboration procedure. Thankfully, Google Docs' focus on a simplified work surface area means you lot shouldn't discover yourself lost amongst a bounding main of corrections that are hard to read or process. Yous'll fifty-fifty have access to your entire edit history should y'all brand changes you after second-guess.
Google Docs, at its core, is a fairly robust word processor. What elevates it to a truthful competitor are all the Google bells and whistles information technology brings along. Inserting charts, images or files within your certificate draws upon the wider Google Workspace and Google Drive services. Y'all can translate your document to every bachelor Google Translate language without likewise much fuss. Yous can also use your voice to type, making utilise of Google's impressive Oral communication-to-Text technology. Docs can automatically correct whatsoever spellings and make grammar suggestions in real-time thanks to Google's car learning and dictionary. There's also the Google Workspace Marketplace which affords numerous add-ons to farther expand the features available.
In that location are also some interesting built-in tools that further boost Docs' productivity, namely the outliner and explore tab. The outliner is a sliding sidebar menu that automatically keeps track of your headers and titles, then presents them every bit an interactive listing that acts as an alphabetize of sorts and so y'all can picture show through larger documents much easier. Near the base of the page is a floating push button that directs you to the explore tab, allowing you to quickly search for citations, images and Google Drive contents.
Google Docs autosave
One of Docs' most valuable features is its car-save. Y'all'll find a distinct lack of a save button inside Google Docs; this is because saving is a continuous procedure performed automatically with each keystroke and click (and so long as y'all have a stable cyberspace connexion). It's invaluable if you're the blazon of person who often saves as an afterthought rather than a addiction.
Should your reckoner lock upwardly — or you exit your device unattended briefly and that Windows Update you've been delaying for a week finally decides to push itself through — you won't be left as a potential r/WatchPeopleDieInside candidate. In fact, should that happen, you could avert any wasted fourth dimension and load up the aforementioned document on another device and seamlessly proceed your work from the moment you left off. And one time you have access to your main device again, simply switch dorsum with all your up-to-appointment work waiting.
Cheers to spotty internet, there were a few times I lost connection while using Google Docs. In those moments, I continued writing and the document instantly began its saving routines once a connection was re-established. At that place is an offline version of Google Docs bachelor, just it's only obtainable through a Google Chrome extension. For an app that does so much to promote compatibility across numerous platforms and browsers, it's a shame Google decided to lock offline access in such a specific manner.
Lesser line
When it comes to choosing your word processor or office suite, we all know that Microsoft is the king of the hill in many eyes. With nigh four decades of evolution, it isn't easy for another tool or suite to come along and take hold of up. And while information technology can be said that Google Docs doesn't quite have the same level of features every bit Word, is it actually missing $lxx worth of features? In my view, no. Most of what Docs is missing can exist found every bit add-ons, and the tools information technology does offer for free should make you 2d gauge paying so much for a Microsoft 365 subscription.
In that location's a freshness to what Google is offering with Docs; information technology looks modern, feels modern and is made with modern internet-focused collaboration in mind. What it does, it does very well. What it doesn't practice won't exist important to most users.
Docs outshines the contest in collaboration, portability, compatibility, and even in potential customization through the Google Workspace Marketplace. It'due south easy to get the hang of, at that place's less ataxia, and the overall experience is smooth and intuitive. Oh, and it's complimentary.
To anybody subscribed to the competition, Google Docs is at the very least worth giving a shot because you lot may be paying for a suite of tools that is already available to you lot for free.
Google Docs, either through Google Docs Editor suite or Google Workspace is a definitive challenger in the office and productivity suite market. It may fifty-fifty be the future of it.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/uk/reviews/google-docs
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