Group projects with Google Docs

What do you do when you need to share the work on a spreadsheet or word processing document? I don't mean distribution to multiple people - I mean where two or more people need to actually work on a document or group of documents.

I recently helped a small group do that. We used Google Docs and a custom mailing list that I set up for the group. The mailing list was not even absolutely necessary: the whole project could have been done with Google Docs.

Without a tool like Google Docs, this type of project can be very difficult as versions of documents are shipped around between participants. Confusion as to the current state of the project and who added what are almost guaranteed, but using Docs eliminates all that.

Mailing Lists and Yahoo Groups

I want to mention the mailing list because it, too, can be a useful tool. Typically, people who are unaware of the advantages of these tools will simply use regular email and CC or BCC all the people involved.

There are disadvantages to that approach. The most obvious is that participants need to remember to hit "Reply All" if CC is used and cannot reply to all if BCC is used. With a mailing list, participants reply to the group address and all participants are automatically notified. The email of the participants can be shown or not shown, depending on the desire and purpose of the group.

As an example, I might set up a mailing list for the members of our local computer club. As members may want to post to the list (email to all other members) without exposing their own email address, I set up that list to not show the original email of posters.

Another way to do this is to create an on-line group like those at Yahoo. You can create a group there that has similar features to a mailing list.

Both of these methods provide a way for a group of people to communicate easily, but not for collaboration on documents.

Google Docs

To access Google Docs, you need a Google account. If you already have one (Gmail, Blogger, Google Plus or whatever), just point your browser at docs.google.com and sign in. Otherwise you'll need to create an account, but that's quick and easy.

Do you see the big red "Create" button? You can use that or the small "Upload" icon beside it to put up documents (writing, spreadsheets, presentations and so on). You'll find the editing tools to be quite straightforward - if you've worked with something like Microsoft Word, you'll be fine with Google Docs. If not, Help is readily available.

Many people use Google Docs only as a replacement for office suites like Microsoft Office, but for collaboration, there's much more we can do.

Sharing

You can share your document however you like - with specific people, with the whole world, or only with specific people.

For a small group, you might choose "Anyone with the link" - if you give them the link, they'll have access, but Google won't index it so outsiders will not find it.

If you share with specific people (using their email address), you can additionally grant them editing capability. Note that you can add specific people with editing power while still sharing publicy or through a private link.

The link gives access. For example, here is a demo of a Google Docs "Presentation" that I created. You won't be able to edit that, but you can view it.

Shared Editing

People with editing ability can comment on the document - these comments appear separate from the document. That's very useful, but Google Docs also offers a revision history.

You'll find "See Revision History" under the "File" menu. If you turn that on, you'll see something like this:

The box at right shows every person who has made a change and the date/time that they made it. Clicking on each change shows you the actual changes they made. For example, above I had taken out the word "Draft:" so that shows in green with a strike-through.

This feature makes it easy to see who did what, and also makes removing unwanted changes or recovering earlier versions much easier.

Free to use

Google provides these tools at no charge. You should really consider this if you need to collaborate with other people on any project. The "Commenting" feature can also eliminate the need for a mailing list or Yahoo group in some situations, letting you do everything in one place. The flexible sharing options allow the editing group to include viewers or easily add new editors.