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The four letter word that's making a difference in my life

The word is Docs and the company is Google.

Google Docs is a collaboration software that packs a big punch with its ease of use and web based access.

To use this software you just need an internet connection and a Google account. Once you have signed up for Google Docs you log in with your user i.d. and password and are taken to a screen where you will be able to choose whether you would like to create a word document, presentation, or spreadsheet. For the purposes of a simplified explanation, I have taken a screenshot of what it will look like if you choose to create a word document.

You will have all of the standard functions that you would have in a word processing software. You can boldface, adjust text color, add hyper-links, indent, make quotes, etc. with a click of your mouse.

Rather than provide a tutorial on how to use the functions of Google Docs, let me give you a few reasons why you should consider it:

If you work with an assistant or other team members, you can collaborate meeting agendas, marketing materials, advertising prospectus and much more. The great thing about this software is that you can have a team member on the phone with you and make changes as you work them through. The changes are instantaneous and your other party can see them. Hallelujah.

2. If you work with a title company or lender and are trying to work out some pre-closing issues you can communicate back and forth with this software rather following and chasing a long tail of emails. It is highly efficient and when you are done you can save the final copy in a PDF format (this software will do that for you) and email it to your closing attorney to finalize the terms into a legally binding document. Amen.

3. On a personal note, if you have a son or daughter who is school aged and leaves the special printing paper their homework is supposed to be typed on at school (ahem, Zoe, ahem) you can have them type up their assignment in Google Docs, save it as a PDF document, and then email it to our child's teacher. When your child gets to school he/she can use the computer lab and print out the school assignment on the correct type of paper.

If you haven't delved into Google Docs yet, I recommend that you check it out.

Keep track of your keywords and Google positioning for your blog and website with the Spreadsheet feature. Share this information with your tech team.
Create rough drafts of your marketing materials. Share this with your real estate team before you have your meetings.
Prepare a presentation for a speaking engagement with the presentation feature. Share this with your partner and walk through changes that you both make to the presentation on the phone if you can't meet in person.

I'm sure there are many more uses. I couldn't say it any better than Dr. Seuss:

"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!"

So go on and give it a try.

Posted by Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant on 02/25/2008 10:57 PM

Comments (26)

collaboration software, google docs, working as a team, marketing materials, internet based software

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26 Comments on The four letter word that's making a difference in my life

FEB

2008

Is there anything that Google doesn't have? I think they are taking over the world :o)

And...I don't have to buy Microsoft Word, excel, etc!

Great post. I've been using Google Docs for a while now. I was actually introduced to it by my daughter, who's teacher requires all her students to use it, for the very reason you mentioned. Great tool!

Great information, thanks for sharing. It does seem as though Google has everything....or they will soon!

Are there any possible security risk if you are conveying information with assistants or title companies? That would be my concern. I haven't checked it out yet but sounds like a great tool for passing general non-confidential info.

Rebecca:

Thanks for the great info. I did not know that Google had this feature. I am so glad that I have access to AR.

FEB

2008

All very cool. It is taking us awhile to migrate everything to the net...

Your friend in Charlottesville!

Rebecca - I have used Google Docs a little, but not much - but I am now going to give it another look. I like your idea of the spreadsheet feature.

Great info thanks. Do you need to purchase for every computer?

Rebecca,

Google is obviously turning into the king of web-based apps-Open Office is pretty close to having MS Office without the price!

Steve

Rebecca, thanks for this valuable post (especially the specific ways to use Google docs). I use the google calendar to share my schedule with my clients, but never thought of these ways of using the docs.

FEB

2008

Rebecca - we used GoogleDocs with an out of state client and it was great. We kept a list of the properties they liked and the features that were important to them in an excel spreadsheet. With GoogleDocs we could both update it as necessary and everyone knew the status of those properties. When they got to town, we were able to look at the finalists and write an accepted offer on the 2nd day!

Thanks for sharing this!

FEB

2008

I just signed onto Gmail so I can check this out. Rebecca, you are all over this technology stuff. I'm still learning as I go. Thanks for another great product review.

Hello Rebecca - Thank you for the information. I love to here everything about Google.

MAR

2008

Is this a partnership with Microsoft? I had heard it may be, and wonder if the file extension is .doc?

MAR

2008

Cristal and Jim- I don't think there is anything missing, but if they are, certainly they will find it.

Tina- Too Awesome:-)

Ryan- I have only been using it for a little while. I absolutely love it, and I just discovered that if you have a blogger blog you can create it in Google docs and upload to your blogger account.

Mike- I have used it as collaboration software before and haven't had any problems yet. You chose who you want to share certain documents with. Also, you can hide documents so even if a particular person isn't given access to all your documents, when they come to a main page, they can't even see them.

Lorraine and Loretta, Benjamin, and Michael- Happy to share.

Charles- I hear you. I would like to start scanning my paper documents next and store them online. Hard to give up paper, just plain tough.

Steve- Hope it works for you.

Jess- It is a web based product. So it just travels with you. All you need to do is enter your username and password for your google account. Also it is Free.

Steve- I have used Open office before. I like anything that frees up space on my computer though:-)

Jackie- Thanks for the share on the calendar. That is a good idea and I just checked it out:-)

Kevin and Monica- That is an awesome use for the software, thanks for sharing.

Andrew- You are welcome. I hope you find it useful. I am always learning too:-)

Gina- Not sure, but I do know you can export a document you create in this software as a Word document. I would wonder about the partnership part, because Google is creating some friction right now against Mcrosoft for their attempted purchase of Yahoo.

MAR

2008

Very cool, Rebecca. Thanks for sharing this information. I've used google presentations to show powerpoints remotely pretty successfully. I like your idea of sharing a spreadsheet for a closing; as an intermediary for 1031 exchanges, coordinating closings is an important part of our business. Thanks again

Ken Tharp, Iowa Equity Exchange

APR

2008

Rebecca -the thinks you can think! love it.......you ARE a wealth of information......just in time as i tried to download my microsoft business 2003 onto my new computer with Vista...which it wouldn't! Now I don't need to................so off to Google docs I go...!

Liz- Glad to hear it. I love Google Docs. I also use it now for editing my blogs. I have never studied HTML, I know a very limited amount. So when I compose a post, I can type it in Google Docs as a document, I then hit the edit button and it gives me a drop down option to Edit HTML. I chose this option and then it give me the HTML code which I then paste into my A/R blog on the HTML setting and voila, a well laid out post. You can also use it as a word counter for any blog posts or ad copy you write.

JUL

2008

I have never used the Google Docs before but I now think I will for sure check it out - I do use the calendar and share it with my two team members and also use the gmail -- thanks for sharing!

Norma-Thank you for coming by. I am sure that once you start, you will find unlimited ways to use the blog.

Great post. There is always something new.

Michael- Thank you and you are right, there is always something new. The nice thing is that Google Docs is a good product too. Some new things are just time wasters. This isn't one of them.