STC Newsletter Collaboration Using Google Docs

By Joan Lasselle, Senior Member, Silicon Valley Chapter

Producing a regular STC chapter newsletter can be a challenge; it requires the collaborative effort of a dispersed team of volunteers who have little time and often shared responsibilities. One of the new set of hosted Web solutions (software accessible from within a Web browser) that can help newsletter teams overcome collaboration challenges is Google Docs and Spreadsheets, a free, online set of tools designed to help eliminate version control and other collaboration problems that result from sharing documents and spreadsheets via e-mail. You can try it out at docs.google.com. In this article I focus on Google Docs, although much of the information is also relevant to Google Spreadsheets.

Google Docs has many things going for it as a tool for volunteers. The first is access. You can start using Google Docs in less than five minutes—no installation, no training, no fees. For any experienced tech writer, the interface is intuitive; you learn to use it while you are writing. Contributors simply start writing in a Web-based WYSIWYG environment, using either Firefox or Internet Explorer. Alternatively they can write the first draft in Microsoft Word and upload it to Google Docs, where it will be automatically converted for online editing. Basic help information is available in the Google Docs online support center.

One of the major benefits of Google Docs is that you can invite others to edit or view your document. This simplifies and streamlines the editing and review process. In fact, multiple people can collaborate on the same document at the same time. A small on-screen note indicates that others are editing the document while you are working. Google Docs also tracks changes so you can easily see what each contributor has changed or added to the document. Revisions are easy to manage. You can even compare one set of revisions to another and revert to a previous version of the document if needed.

Google Docs supports multiple output formats—PDF, HTML, and RTF. Select the format from the "Save As" menu. You can also publish to a blog or other Web environment. Google Docs offers an excellent internal workspace, and, when all contributors have completed their input, the document can be published directly to the most popular Web publishing tools (including Blogger, WordPress, and LiveJournal). These options provide several alternative formats for the traditional e-mailed newsletter.

Google Docs makes it easy to insert images, links, comments, bookmarks, page breaks, and tables; however, as it stands today, the tool does have limitations. Short, text-only documents work best. Nested, bulleted lists can be problematic. In its current release, Google Docs is a tool for collaboration and not for precise page-layout control. However, there has been much speculation that Google's aim is to continue improving the product so it can compete with traditional desktop-installed word processing and authoring tools. So, expect the tool to get better and additional features to be added over time.

To use Google Docs and Spreadsheets, you must have a Google account. The license agreement states this tool is for "your personal, noncommercial use only."

Google Docs offers an elegant solution for getting multiple authors to contribute to a chapter newsletter, and eliminates many of the tracking problems associated with multiple e-mail attachments. It encourages and supports collaboration, and promotes the development of new skills needed by technical communication professionals.

Joan Lasselle is cofounder and president of Lasselle-Ramsay, a professional services organization that works with clients to develop and deliver critical business information and learning solutions for new products, business initiatives, and regulatory requirements. Since 1982, Lasselle-Ramsay has provided services to leading companies in a variety of industries including Fireman's Fund, Genentech, Cisco Systems, palmOne, McKesson, and Hewlett-Packard.