Monday, March 22, 2010
Thing Twenty:
Now click on the My Office link at the top of the page. On the page that follows, you will see a New button on the left side. Click on it, then select New Document from the drop-down menu.
As the word processing environment ThinkFree Write loads, you may see a pop-up window saying that an applet wants permission to run. It is OK to say Yes and allow this. This is because ThinkFree Office uses Java.
You'll see that this application offers a few more features than Google Docs. It also has an option for offline use. Try typing some text in and changing the formatting so you get a sense of what it can do.
- Try creating a Note in ThinkFree Office - this is an HTML formatted document, and you can choose from a number of available templates.
- Try using the Upload command in ThinkFree Office to upload an existing file from your computer to your online ThinkFree office.
Thing Nineteen:
First, log in to Google Docs at http://docs.google.com using your Google Account.
On the page that appears, click on the "Create new" button below the Google logo, and choose Document from the drop-down menu to create a new text document.
Now you will be in a word-processing environment, with some tools that should look familiar across the top. You don't even need to click in the white space to get started, just begin typing.
Write a few lines of text, then make some formatting changes to it. For instance, select your text and change the font to one of the other 10 options. Or make some of the text bold, or italic or red. Click on the spellcheck button to check for spelling mistakes. When you're finished, click on the floppy disk icon at the left of the toolbar to save your document, or choose Save from the File menu.
By default, Google Docs will use the first bit of text in your document as the document title. You will see it next to "Google docs: at the top of the window. If you'd like to change the title, just click on the title and enter a new one in the pop-up that appears.
Now, invite another 23Things participant to share your document, so that they can view but not edit it. To do this, click on the Share button at the upper right of the screen, then choose Invite people... from the dropdown menu. In the pop-up that appears, enter the email address of the person you wish to invite, click the radio button that says "To view", change the subject line of the message and add your own message if you wish, then click Send. If you don't have an email address to use, feel free to send the organizers an invite at:
23things@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Additional things:
Create a Form with one question in Google Docs (using the "Create new" button as above but choose Form from the menu). Email it to several other 23 Things participants and ask them to complete it.
Try creating a short slide presentation using Google Docs. Save it it to your computer in PowerPoint format.
Office 2.0 is a term used to describe internet-based productivity applications. This is part of the larger phenomenon of Internet-based or cloud computing. It may look strangely familiar to those of us (ahem) who remember the days when serious computing power was centralised on big central servers, like corporate mainframes. In that scenario, lowly users often had only "dumb terminals" that allowed them to interact with the central computer, which did all the heavy lifting.
Then came the move to personal computers, where users had their own software installed locally, and their computers had the power to run it. This provided additional choice and control, but came with quite a large software management overhead.
Now there is a shift back toward central resources... rather than relying on our own computers to run a word processor, spreadsheet, database or other application, we have the option of using an online provider - connect to them with a browser and you're ready to work.
There are a number of benefits that make this way of working attractive:
Portability: you don't need your own computer to work effectively, just a computer with an internet connection and a web browser.
Low maintenance: You don't need to worry about security patches, updates or upgrades. Google Docs, or ThinkFree Office, or another Office 2.0 provider will take care of that for you.
Collaboration: Because your documents are in the "cloud", you can easily permit others to view and/or edit them. Forget the old compatability issues (she's using Word 2003 on a Mac, he has Word 2007 on a PC, someone else doesn't have the right font) You can all use the same software.
There are downsides too:
Limited features: At the moment, you get a much smaller set of features in Google Docs, for instance, than in Microsoft Word. Some have argued that applications like Word offer too many features and should be streamlined. But you might find Office 2.0 options a bit minimal for your taste.
Dependency: if you use applications and storage that are provided centrally, you rely on these services being available when you need them. You also depend on your internet connection so that you can reach the site. If your connection suddenly slows, performance can suffer ,and watching your typed characters slowly appear on screen will get very a---n---n---o---y---i---n---g.
Note: there are some Office 2.0 "hybrid" applications that allow you to work with applications even when you are offline. This option is available with Google Docs - there is an Offline link at the top of the page that prompts you to install the browser extension Google Gears which will enable offline working.
Privacy: Even though you control access to your documents, some will probably be uncomfortable keeping their documents stored on a company's servers.
The two Things this week will give you just a taste of what is possible with Office 2.0. Once you've completed them, be sure to write a blog entry about how you got on.
And if you're really interested in the concept of "the cloud" and where all that data lives, you might like this... and you might be a geek.
(photo of clouds by Flickr user Kables)
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