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Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides are a word processor, a spreadsheet and a presentation program respectively, all part of a free, web-based software office suite offered by Google within its Google Drive service. The suite allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating with other users in real-time.
The three apps are available as web applications, as Chrome apps that work offline, and as mobile apps for Android and iOS. The apps are compatible with Microsoft Office file formats. The suite also consists of Google Forms (survey software), Google Drawings (diagramming software) and Google Fusion Tables (database manager; experimental). While Forms and Tables are only available as web applications, Drawings is also available as a Chrome app.
The suite is tightly integrated with Google Drive.[2] All files created with the apps are by default saved to Google Drive.
Google Docs originated from two separate products, Writely and Google Spreadsheets.
Writely was a web-based word processor created by the software company Upstartle and launched in August 2005.[3] It began as an experiment by programmers Sam Schillace, Steve Newman and Claudia Carpenter, trying out the then-new Ajax technology and the "content editable" function in browsers.[4] Writely's original features included a collaborative text editing suite and access controls. Menus, keyboard shortcuts, and dialog boxes are similar to what users may expect in a desktop word processor such as Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer.
Google Spreadsheets, first launched as a limited test on Google Labs on June 6, 2006,[5] originated from the product XL2Web by 2Web Technologies, which was acquired by Google in June 2005.
On March 9, 2006, Google announced that it had acquired Upstartle.[6] At the time of acquisition, Upstartle had four employees.[7] Writely closed registration to its service until the move to Google servers was complete.[6] In August 2006, Writely sent account invitations to everyone who had requested to be placed on a waiting list, and then became publicly available on August 23. Writely continued to maintain its own user system until September 19, 2006, when it was integrated with Google Accounts.[8]
Writely originally ran on Microsoft ASP.NET technology which uses Microsoft Windows. Since July 2006, Writely servers appear to be running a Linux-based operating system.[9]
Meanwhile, Google developed Google Spreadsheets using the technology it had acquired from 2Web Technologies in 2005 and launched Google Labs Spreadsheets[5][10] on June 6, 2006, as the first public component of what would eventually become Google Docs. It was initially made available to only a limited number of users, on a first-come, first-served basis. The limited test was later replaced with a beta version available to all Google Account holders, around the same time as a press release was issued.[11]
Google Docs is Google's "Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome browsers running on Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux operating systems.[37]
Google Docs serves as a collaborative tool for editing documents in real time. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users simultaneously and users are able to see character-by-character changes as other collaborators make edits. Users cannot be notified of changes, but the application can notify users when a comment or discussion is made or replied to, facilitating collaboration. There is no way to highlight changes made by a particular editor in real time during a writing session, nor a way to jump to the changes made. However, an editor's current position is represented with an editor-specific color/cursor, so if another editor happens to be viewing that part of the document they can see edits as they occur. A sidebar chat functionality allows editors to discuss edits. Also, the revision history included in the service allows users to see the additions made to a document, with each author distinguished by color, but the entire document must be manually searched to find these changes. The revision history feature only displays one edit at a time, i.e. only adjacent revisions can be compared, and users cannot control how frequently revisions are saved. A new collaborative feature introduced in June 2014 allows any user with commenting access to make edit suggestions. However, this feature is currently available only for documents.[20][38]
The application supports opening and exporting two ISO standard document formats: OpenDocument and Office Open XML. It also includes support for viewing proprietary formats such as .doc and .xls.[39]
Google Docs is one of many cloud computing document-sharing services.[40] The majority of document-sharing services require user fees. (Google Docs is free for individuals, but has fees for business starting at $5/month.)[41] Its popularity amongst businesses is growing due to enhanced sharing features and accessibility. In addition, Google Docs has enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity among students and educational institutions.[42]
In September 2009, an equation editor was added which supports the LaTeX format; however, Google Docs lacks an equation numbering feature.[43][44]
A simple find and replace tool is available; there was no ability to do the search in a reverse direction in the original release, but a later version allowed reverse search and reverse replace.
Google Docs includes a web clipboard tool that allows users to copy and paste content between Google documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings. The web clipboard can also be used for copying and pasting content between different computers. Copied items are stored on Google's servers for up to 30 days. For most copying and pasting, Google Docs also supports keyboard shortcuts.[45]
Google offers an extension for Google Chrome Office editing for Docs, Sheets and Slides that enables users to view and edit Microsoft Office documents on Google Chrome, via the Docs, Sheets and Slides apps. The extension can be used for opening Office files stored on the computer using Chrome, as well as for opening Office files encountered on the web (in the form of email attachments, web search results, etc.) without having to download them. The extension is installed on Chrome OS by default.[46]
Google Cloud Connect was a plug-in for Windows Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 that could automatically store and synchronize any Microsoft Word document, PowerPoint presentation, or Excel spreadsheet to Google Docs in Google Docs or Microsoft Office formats. The online copy is automatically updated each time the Microsoft Office document is saved. Microsoft Office documents can be edited offline and synchronized later when online. Google Cloud Sync maintains previous Microsoft Office document versions and allows multiple users to collaborate by working on the same document at the same time.[47][48] However, Google Cloud Connect has been discontinued as of April 30, 2013, as Google Drive achieves all of the above tasks, with better results.[49]
Google Spreadsheets and Google Sites also incorporate Google Apps Script to write code within documents in a similar way to Visual Basic for Applications in Microsoft Office. The scripts can be activated either by user action or by a trigger in response to an event.[50][51]
Google Forms and Google Drawings have been added to the Google Docs suite. Google Forms is a tool that allows collecting information from users via a personalized survey or quiz. The information is then collected and automatically connected to a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is populated with the survey and quiz responses.[52][53]
Google Drawings allows users to collaborate creating, sharing, and editing images or drawings. Google Drawings can be used for creating charts, diagrams, designs, flow-charts, etc. It contains a subset of the features in Google Slides but with different templates. Its features include laying out drawings precisely with alignment guides, snap to grid, auto distribution, and inserting drawings into other Google documents, spreadsheets, or presentations.[54][55]
On May 15, 2012, a research tool was introduced in Google Docs.[56] It allows users to easily access Google Search through a sidebar while editing a document.[57]
On March 11, 2014, Google introduced add-ons for Google Docs and Sheets which allow users to use third-party applications installed from the add-on stores to get additional features within the main services.[32] The add-on store was also made available to Google Forms on October 2014.[58]
Individual documents may not exceed 1 GB as of 13 January 2010, embedded images must not exceed 2 MB each.[59] Files uploaded, but not converted to Google Docs format, may be up to 5 TB in size.[60]
There are also limits, specific to file type, listed below:
Files in the following formats can be viewed and converted to Docs, Sheets or Slides formats:[63]
It should be noted that the viewing/conversion is not always complete or accurate (inaccuracies are mainly formatting and will be visible). Converting a document from a Microsoft format, Openoffice, or ODF format to Google and back again will remove some information and features, and the layout can subtly change. In particular, Google does not support file/document properties (metadata), which would be viewable from Windows Explorer and within the relevant Microsoft application; when converting a document from Google format the file/document properties will not be set.
On April 30, 2014, Google announced standalone mobile apps for Google Docs and Google Sheets on Android and iOS. A similar app for Google Slides was stated to be "coming soon". Google Slides for Android was released on 25 June 2014 at the Google I/O developers conference, while the iOS version was released on 25 August 2014. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides allow users to create, view and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations respectively. These apps also work offline and are compatible with Microsoft Office file formats.[64]
The Safari browser on iOS also allows users to view documents, spreadsheets, and presentation and to edit and create Google Docs documents and spreadsheets.[65] Furthermore, the Google App for iPhone and iPad allows users to view and edit Google Docs files. Most other mobile devices can also view and edit Google Docs documents and spreadsheets using a mobile browser.[66] PDF files can be viewed but not edited.
While Google Docs has been criticized for traditionally lacking the functionality of Microsoft Office, it has received praise for its simplicity, ease of collaboration and frequent product updates. In 2011 The Next Web described Google Docs as a "pretty robust set of free tools that are improving every month".[67]
Apple Inc., IPod, ITunes, Os X, IPad
Google, Google Nexus, Samsung, Linux kernel, Google Play
Microsoft Office, Proprietary software, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Windows 95
Canton, Ohio, Video on demand, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
ACE (editor), Apache Wave, BeWeeVee, CoOffice, CoWord