Use Google Docs for Collaboration

At the place where I work, I have to work with data from different sources on a regular basis to churn out quarterly reports that are used to make decisions about next actions. This means, I used to have to hunt down folks across department in the office and quiz them about the results they were getting in order to make evaluative decisions that determined how we were to progress. There were five different sources and at least four different types of data to compare each quarter. That's twenty times I'd have to go find people for their data each quarter - if I was successful at getting their data the first time around.

This year, our organization has been using Google Apps in our business to streamline our processes. Google Docs is a great web application to work with lots of sources to collaborate data, even of different types. Most folks where I am have a Gmail account (work at least, if not their own) and most of us already are savvy with office productive tools such as Microsoft Office, so it's an easy transition to use Google Docs.

Get a Google Docs Account
You already have one. If you use Gmail, you already have access to Google Docs. It's on the top left hand corner of Gmail, right next after Calendar. Go there.

Work with different types of documents
Whether it's working with different people on a document that goes to print, numbers that need crunching or a shared presentation, Google Docs can work it for you. You can start from scratch with a new document, that's the first button, you seen on the left side of the toolbar. Or, if you have an original document you can work with, it's as simple as pie to upload it. When you open a document in Google Docs, most of your screen will be the document space, topped of with all the basic functions most people will ever need on their word processor. The hack to collaboration with Google Docs is the blue Share button on the right. You won't need to use that thumb drive anymore to collect data from colleagues.

Another good reason to use this app is that you won't need to save it to your desktop or create a back-up copy just in case. There's the Save or Save & Close button on the right side of the tool bar to do that.

Work with your colleagues on the documents in real time
Whether it's an uploaded file or a new document you are creating, you can immediately invite them to 'share' access or get the link to share to your colleagues. They won't even need to have a Gmail account - but I'm sure they'll be convinced when they see what it can help them do.

Need them to input data into the spreadsheet? Make editing changes to a document? Comment on an upcoming presentation? Give them full Edit and View rights. Or Not. You can determine the privacy settings of any of the documents or invite whole mailing lists to work on a document even. Collaborating editors can even invite others to do the same. Delegate. Delegate. Delegate.

You know its real time because you can see it
All of the collaborators on the document can work on the document at the same time, on different locations. Let's not sit around one table and squint at one screen, twiddling our fingers while one person makes the changes. Everyone can get in on it together. Talk about full productivity! Google Docs will show an indicator on the top right hand corner that lets all users know who else is making changes to the documents. You'll even see the changes as it occurs, if both of you are online together. And, to help you work together even better, you can even use Google Talk in Google Docs to discuss the work that you're doing.

Here's how I used Google Spreadsheets
Let's face it; you probably already have all the documents and templates you regularly use so there's no need to go make another wheel. I didn't start from scratch. I uploaded the excel template into Google Docs, the same one I used to send to all my collaborators. I made changes to the calculations we would be using for the quarter into the document itself then added a new sheet at the bottom of the page for each collaborator to input her data. What I needed from them was to input their data into their individual sheets, so that's all I did and what I'll go through here. You may have different needs for your spreadsheet or documents but that's for a tutorial on Office productivity applications.

I then hit the blue Share button on the right of the tool bar and put in the email addresses of those I needed to work with and gave all of them Edit and View rights. For my purposes, I didn't need all of us to work on the documents together so I just left them to their own devices to put in their data when it came to them. On their end, they would receive an email invitation stating that I'd uploaded a document and invited them to collaborate with me by clicking on the link. When they did, they'd come to their own Google Document page and could put in their data at their own time.

And that's it! We just saved time running around like headless chickens looking for folks and data, saved a ton of emails and attachments back and forth, not to mention the confusion of which was the most updated copy - now the most updated copy will always be the only one online!