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CATEGORIESThe Big Issue with Google Docs
October 21st, 2007I’ve been using Google Docs lately to write papers because it is so much easier to move from computer to computer than with traditional word docs. Once you get used to the interface, it really is just as effective… save for one major problem — there is no way to determine how much you have written!
Paul Stamantiou says it much better than I, so I suggest reading his post here.
“The problem comes with the fact that it is damn hard to get a real sense of how much you have written in Google Docs due to the lack of a proper, ruled page layout view. I have gotten to the point of frustration; continually copying and pasting my documents into a real word processor…”
Try Buzzword (buzzword.com). It is a GREAT online word processor with an intuitive interface that shows very clearly how much you’ve written. You work in a page layout view and the scroll bar has page number markings so it’s easy to move to any page. It was recently purchased by Adobe as they gear up for an online office suite so it will likely be around for awhile.
I use google docs too, and in my opinion not knowing how much you had write is a good thing. When writing papers i need a minimum number of pages, and not knowing how much i writed makes me write more, thinking what i did is not enough. So, with gdocs i keep writing until i really don’t have nothing more to say, and when i paste it to a word processor i always get more pages than the expected.