How to Use Google Documents

Series Summary

Google Documents is a free web-based program which includes word processing, as well as spreadsheet and presentation software capabilities. One of the biggest advantages of this software is that uses can collaborate on-line, creating and editing documents in real time. These documents can be e-mailed among users as well as edited using the web interface. Google Docs supports common file formats such as .doc and .xls. The application is a combination of the web-based word processor Writely (created by the software company Upstartle) and Google Spreadsheets, initially announced in 2006.

In this free series of internet software lesson videos, our web application expert Drew Noah tells you everything you need to know about using Google Documents. He begins with an overview of the user interface, then tells you how to do basic tasks such as creating a hyperlink and inserting a graphic. But far beyond the basics, Drew will elevate you to expert status if you watch all of these informative videos. Learn how to edit HTML in Google Docs as well as how to manipulate finance and spreadsheet formulas and presentation options. Not sure how to make a chart or publish a file? Let Expert Village show you the way.

Video Transcript

"DREW NOAH: Hi. In this series, I'm going to be showing you how to use Google documents which is it's a free web-based program from Google and what it is it's just like an online version of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, I mean, basically. So, it's just basically an online word processor or a spreadsheet program or a presentation program. And some of the reasons that it's just so cool and why I like it is for, one, it's online so you can access your documents from any computer. You can collaborate in real time with other people so I can share this document with somebody else and then we can both edit it on separate computers in different places in real time. It's got a great little organizational system right here to organize all your documents online. And it integrates really well with some other Google programs especially Gmail. So, to use Google documents, you're going to need a Google account. And I'm going to show you real fast how to sign up for a Google account. Probably, the easiest way is to search for Gmail and just sign up for a Gmail account. And then when you get to this page right here that says, "Welcome to Gmail," I'm just going to go down here to sign up for Gmail. And then here we go, so, you send in here all your information right here. And then when you get done, read through the terms of service and then "I accept, create my account." And then after that, you'll be able to use Google documents and I'll show you how to use it in the following clips."