Google Docs

While exploring the way that Google Docs operates and comparing it to Word I found out some of my personal preferences between the two. I first off prefer Word because I have a greater familiarity with it as opposed to Docs, however I do see a large amount of potential in Docs. Because Docs is used from the internet, it makes cloud storage very seamless and allows for access from multiple devices. However it seems to lack some in depth features that are commonly found on the ribbon in word, one in particular that is extremely useful is smart art. I personally use smart art whenever I want to display any information in an image format, it has numerous practical applications as well as being simple to use. I think the lack of this feature as well as several others and the difficulty of cross-compatibility between the two leads me to prefer Word over Docs.

We also read a chapter on how Docs is being integrated with Common Core standards and how it is very easy to use Docs to accomplish these standards. The standards addressed issues of editing, revising, publication, and collaboration, as well as research. All of these aspects are easily doable with the help of Google Docs, and because of the use of Google accounts to link these files to all devices, the students can readily have access to the files at home as well as at school.

We also got the chance to collaborate on a document. the feature that i found to be most helpful was the change log feature. It tracked and displayed all of the changes that had been made to the document and displayed they in a way that you can look up by date or author of the changes. I see this being helpful when there are  multiple people working on a document that cannot work at the same time.

I find Docs to be a very useful program and I appreciate the way that it is setup. However, i do not think that someone who regularly has need of a word processor would find the extent of everything they need in this program.