Friday 8 April 2011

Google Docs - three strikes and you're out

Here is a PowerPoint presentation I saved into Google Docs.  Unfortunately, you can't see much unless you download the document.  Even then you lose the functionality of even the hyperlinks, not to mention the embedded videos, etc.  As that's the case, what's the point in having all the pages to scroll through?  You can't do anything with them.  You might as well just insert the text, or even embed a Word doc for all the functionality you're losing.  At least I found that the silly icon in the top left corner takes you to Google Docs so you can find the download function.  Still not yet a Google Docs fan.



Now sometimes even these non-functional pages have disappeared!  They were there when I first published them, then gone, then back.  Grrr!  Is it dependent on whether I'm logged in to Google?  And that's another point.  People can't download from Google Docs unless they have a Google account.  Right, that's it Google Docs.  Don't say you weren't warned!

Here's the URL link in case you can still be bothered with the effort of downloading the document without its functionality :o(  I don't believe it.  Even this doesn't work now.  Google Docs?  Google Sucs!  Should stick to search engines ;o)

3 comments:

  1. Ian, I always thought Google docs were better for collaboration (e.g. this example) had never even thought of them as a way of presenting files.

    Actually, I still think that Google docs would be a better tool for collaborative authoring than a Wiki. At least for the type of one-off, small scale collaborations we've done in the ICTs course.

    Slideshare strikes me as a better tool for doing the above, but I'm guessing that it too loses some of the functionality in powerpoint. But I guess that's the translation price you pay between technologies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an excellent birthday present! Cool. The Jing of real-time Google Docs was interesting too. Thank you.

    As I mentioned in another blog, I agree, GDs' best use is for collaborative authoring.

    I tried Slideshare too. Whilst it maintains the hyperlinks, you lose embedded video files, for example.

    I think it's the price we pay for competing companies trying to "beat" their competitors, when, as we've seen, collaboration is the key to success. Even Microsoft/Apple finally succumbed to Windows for the Mac!

    :o)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's the other blog I mentioned, David.

    http://mrwrights.blogspot.com/2011/04/other-digital-tools-use-in-education.html

    How did you manage to insert a hyperlink in the comment box? Very impressive!

    ReplyDelete