Google Docs

Dear Caytrin,

Greetings! This is your first installment of "Things I Wish I Had Known or Had Access to as a College Student!". Some of these missives will be long and detailed (as I am wordy and like to hear myself talk/type!). Some of these will be short and sweet. All of them will be most useful (of course!) to your studies and well-being!

Today I would like to introduce you to Google Docs. You may have used it in the past, but if you have not, I'd like you to spend about 15 minutes taking a peek at Google Docs. I ask my students if they have ever wished they had 'emailed' a copy of their assignment to themselves (a great way to have an 'electronic back-up' of a document back in the day) the day before their computers crashed and they accidentally washed their thumb drive. I always have a few who nod sagely- former students of experieince.

So what is or are Google Docs? It is a free, web-based, wordprocessor and place to store your documents provided by the great folks at Google. They also have software for the creation of presentations, forms, spreadsheets, and more! It's a great tool for folks who have computers without expensive wordprocessor programs on them and need to provide electronic documents for courses or their work. It's a great place to back up course work for each and every semester. And it is an amazing collaborative tool. It allows you to share documents (or spreadsheets or presentations) with anyone or no one. You can give folks permisison to read the documents, to edit them, or to even help create that group paper you have to write before midterm! The best part of Google Docs is that you an access your files from anywhere you have Internet access. The link below will take you to a brief video describing Google Docs.

 

But the next link is more of a youthful look at what Google Docs can do. It always makes me smile! Watch it twice and smile for me.

 

Visit the Google Docs site (https://docs.google.com) to get started! You don't need a Gmail Account, but I'd suggest getting one (Or reviving your old one!) since there are so many other helpful tools available to you via Google.

Have a great first week, Brilliant Girl!

Love,

Kat