Google Docs --- anyone use it?
 

I'm getting tired of my favourite word processing programmes letting me down (and no, I'm not springing for Microsoft Word!) so have started using Google Docs. However it scares me: nothing is saved locally, it's all done online and you don't even get to save yourself, as the programme does that in the background.

My question so is, does anyone use it and is it to be trusted? At the moment I'm copy/pasting all entries for my journals that I write in GD back into my WP in case, as I don't want my writing to disappear into the ether. Do I need to? Is this programme reliable? Anyone any advice or tips?

Thanks
TH

Answer to all your Microsoft Office problems.

Apache OpenOffice - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

If you won't use that then yes google docs is ok and reliable but doesnt have near the options in formatting etc that open office or Microsoft office does.

It has been essential to me - mostly for sharing documents/working on collaborative things though. As for its reliability, as long as Google doesn't go out of business or have all their servers crash (it's possible) then it will save your stuff forever. As for local saving you can do that by going (in any specific google doc) to: "File>Download as" and it will DL to your hard drive in a file format of your choice (.pdf, .txt, .html, and so on)

Da fuq? Why would you trust local saves over cloud storage? Cloud storage is saved forevers!!!!

Local saves are so fickle and if your machine crashes and dies on you then it's a wrap but cloud storage is way more better to depend on. As soon as your machine is useless you can always get your docs back on a new machine.

Thanks Rez. Have that but had a lot of problems --- files disappearing and so on,
Thanks Engine, I did not know that. Very helpful tip. Appreciate it.
Dunno. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to have a physical (as it were) copy of the file I can see when I want to, move places if I need to make backups and so forth, rather than trust that a "city in the sky" I'm never going to visit is holding my files safe for me. No, I'm not very au fait with cloud computing, obviously.

I honestly thought the title of this thread was in reference to an online automated doctor. You type in your symptoms, it does a few calculations, then tells you you have cancer or crabs or summit.

Windows 1995? Does anyone use it anymore?

Cloud storage is the wave of the future. Get on or get left behind!

It's actually current, not future. And I agree it's reliable. For me though, important files need to be saved in 2 places. In the olden days that meant 2 discs/hard drives. Now I'm happy with the cloud and 1 disc. This is for really important stuff only. Less important stuff can live on the cloud. It is more reliable than a heavily used personal disc but you have to remember that the cloud is not actually a heavenly body. It exists because there are people who own servers that host the files that live up there. Those people may die and their servers too.

Anyway, on topic, I feel that google docs is perfectly fine and I trust it as a cloud service. On the other hand, I keep personal backups of files that are too important to lose.

I know it's current. I just meant more and more companies are using it and I was basically taking a jab at him being an old timer and not wanting to adapt :p

more reliable than word as far as saving to me

I've lost multiple word documents cuz i didnt click the floppy disc icon, google saves everytime i type something i think

I prefer Dropbox over anything that can save files. I've had it for a few years and I've never had a problem, plus the fact that I can get to it from any computer and phone that I have the app/account linked to. It's a nice way to save space on my computer.

More or less how I feel too. As you say, old days (shut up DJ!) ;) we would save a few different locations on the hard drive(s), another separate floppy disc for extra backup and then one kept offsite (I used to keep mine in the office) as a super deep level of security, just in case. I did in fact begin using FTP as a way to hold an online version in the event that my computer got stolen or something, so technically Mister DJ I was using an embryonic version of cloud computing back in the 1990s! :laughing:

But yeah, for important stuff --- and I count my journal as important in that, what's written there can't be rewritten exactly the same if I lose it, and I have done on more than one occasion --- I still prefer a copy I have control over, and know where it is.
It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Tablet? I don't need a tablet! I'm not sick --- oh, THAT kind of tablet... :rofl:
Yeah I use Dropbox too. Problem is that it seems to be reliant on where you keep your files, and if you move them to another location and don't update Dropbox it doesn't know and so won't make copies of those new files.

I've used Google docs for a few things, but mostly I stick with the industry standard MS Office, and even OpenOffice at times throughout the years. Google docs will facilitate being able to access your documents from anywhere but in your situation it's probably not an issue. If you're just looking for a good word processor, here's a good free one you may want to look into:

http://www.abisource.com/downloads/a...etup-2.8.6.exe

I use google docs for everything both at work and home. Super trustworthy, imo.