Well, Google Me Docs!

Google Docs is way cool. I was able to create and save new documents online, translate them into Word and download them. I was also able to upload a Word doc and save changes to it online. (I see that one can also create and modify spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations, though I didn't play with these functions very much.) Google Docs would be a good backup tool for important documents. The ability to share documents with others is a good idea, too. I can see this as a useful replacement to emailing documents left and right and having to wait on someone to email a document from their hard drive.

I love the utilization of online dictionaries and the like to replace the limited (and often dated) database spelling and thesaurus tools that Word uses. The online word lookups performed much faster than their Word tool counterparts, too. Just about everything I like about Word is in Google Docs, and the application and storage are free.

I found a minor flaw (or maybe it's intended as a feature) in that a new document that I had created, downloaded to my hard drive and had no intention on saving online was saved anyway, which is not a huge deal, I suppose. But if you're concerned about privacy, you may want to be careful about what documents you work with in Google Docs even if you go through the steps to permanently delete the document, since those of us who are IT savvy know that no "deleted" file is really deleted unless overwritten. And Google is a large, third-party, corporate entity. I just don't know how much I trust such an entity with any personal information.

Another bug I found was that when I attempted to use the File --> Delete function from within a new document that I was working on, the document was still there in the documents list/folder view page where I was sent upon "deleting" the file. I had to select the document from the list and delete it from there and then empty the trash to get rid of it.

I also could not find a way to simply abandon a document without saving it or falsely "deleting" it. The only options available were to save or save and close. I could not find any links to just get back to the folder view page where I could open a new document or some other file format without saving and closing what I had started, even though it was empty. When I was returned to the folder view page, the empty file had been saved and listed as "Untitled Presentation." In short, Google Docs seems determined to save whatever you create, which while being a possible privacy violation appears to have been created as an idiot-proof backup system.

It's nice to know that these free online tools are available, whether or not you plan to rid yourself of Microsoft products. Now, if only we can survive Peak Oil and continue this nifty technology on alternative energy sources....