Introduction

Google documents allows users to save, share, and edit documents online. The advantage for educators is the ability for groups of students to collaborate on a paper, to safely save important documents online, and to have universal access to your stuff.

If you do not have an internet connection, this will not work. You also should have a pretty new browser, like Firefox or Explorer

HOWTO

1) Enter the following url in a web browser: docs.google.com

2) Note the login page

3) If you have a google account, login

4) If you do not have a google account simply click on Create a new Google Account

The process is pretty simple!

5) Once you have logged in, note the Google docs:

We'll cover individual topics below:

- Creating a new document

- Saving a document

- Renaming a document

- Basic editing

- Tagging a document

- Collaborating and sharing a document

- Publishing a document

- Printing a document

- Copying a document

Creating a new document

1) Click on the New Document Link (shown below)

2) That's it!

Saving a document

1) Click on the File button and choose Save. Note you can also use Control + S

Renaming a document

1) Click on the File button and choose rename.

2) Type in a new document name and click ok.

3) That's it!

Basic Editing

1) Note the formatting bar - click once to turn on, and twice to turn off.

Tagging a document

Google doesn't use folder to organize stuff. Google uses tags. Think of a tag like a keyword which describes a file. Files can have multiple tags. You can sort your documents by tags - which is very handy if you have many documents.

Here's a screengrab of some tags:

Note the tags on the right side of the file name. If I click on a tag, I will see all the documents with the tag I clicked.

So, to tag then...

1) Click on the checkbox next to the file(s) you want to tag.

2) Click on the Tag menu, and choose a new tag, or simply click an existing tag. You can also choose multiple tags (I suggest you always use multiple tags - it makes it easier to organize files) .

Collaborating and sharing a document

In order to share a document, the person with whom you are sharing must have a google account.

1) Open google documents and note the list of documents

2) Click share now on the document you want to share. Note the sharing
dialog:

Note you can invite people as viewers or as collaborators.

3) Type a brief message, and click Send

Publishing a document

Publishing a document makes it visible to the entire world. Google adds it to the google-index, so if you add your resume, and someone googles your name, your resume might turn up!

Publishing is ridiculously easy.

1) On the upper-right side of the screen, please note the "publish" tab.

2) Note the publish screen. Simply click publish, and you are done!

Printing a document

There is a very simple file -> print operation to print.

However, I have found a slightly more reliable manner of printing.

1) Click on file and then Save as PDF

2) Click OK when you see this dialog and print from inside Adobe Reader!

Copying a document

1) Simply click on File and then Copy document.

2) Note the confirmation dialog.

3) The file is saved as "copy of <filename>"