
Today is an epic day. I have used Google Docs for the first time. Having heard about the impending arrival of Google Chrome I do believe that Google is now set to take over the world, or something along those lines, and that I might as well get used to the idea and start taking advantage of online backup.
Having once lost a lot of data on a laptop and having had to pay a lot of money to retrieve it (and even then several files were corrupted) I feel that the idea of having ones primary copy online is a great idea.
I have been using Windows Skydrive for some time but the difference between that and Google Docs is remarkable: Skydrive takes ages to upload documents and if you want to edit them you have to download them all again which would take ages again. You can't drag and drop things between folders in skydrive to rearrange them. It's like trying to push an elephant into the sea.
With Google Docs you can edit items online at the touch of a button. The final deciding factor was when I discovered that you can drag and drop references from Zotero into Google Docs (see video tutorial) . Hallelulia! I have seen the light. Google Docs works at the speed of lightening. Unfortunately you still can't drag and drop items between folders, but really that is the least of my worries. The Zotero function is limited in Google Docs and not as interactive as it is in Word, but the backup function compensates for this, as it is disconcerting leaving all my stuff on a hard drive these days, even with a backup memory stick. Lose the memory stick and forget to backup and you are sunk. So Google Docs it is.
I am sorry to abandon Microsoft, who have been fantastic in my opinion. Do you know that Bill Gates funds nearly all the world's research into tropical diseases? A much maligned company. However, ultimately we have to go for what works best for us.
Comments
I agree with you, it is good - in terms of collaborative working, particularly across different libraries, you can't beat being able to edit in situ, rather than download, edit, save, and re-upload every time.