The search giant’s online office alternative has a few neat tricks up its sleeve.
Open Attachments Online
Gmail users rejoice and convert others while you’re at it: Thanks to Google Docs & Spreadsheets, you can open attachments and save them online. With supported document types, click on the “Open as a Google document” choice, right between the familiar “View as HTML” and “Download” choices. Click the link, and the attachment opens in GD&S in a new browser window, ready to be edited, stored, or shared.
Share Files in a Flash
Google’s online model is a problem when you have spotty Internet access, but it makes things like sharing a document much easier than with desktop-bound software. In a document, simply click the Share tab at the right, and either type in the e-mail address of those you want to have access to the document, or (even easier) choose them from your Gmail contacts list.
Free Publishing
Did you just finish the great American novel and now want the world to see it? GD&S makes it easy. Upload the file to your Docs and Spreadsheets account (or e-mail it to your Gmail account, and open and save it to GD&S), then click the Publish tab. Google will generate a URL link to te document (which appears as an ordinary Web page – no coding required) that you can then share with literary agents and critics. Or at least your mom.
Goodbye, Blog Software
GD&S lets you post docs you create online directly to your blog. Simply click on the Publish tab and then the Post to Blog button. This way, when you get bored and give up the blog like so many others, at least you haven’t invested a ton of time learning new software.