Google Docs Update Adds More Offline Features
Google Docs has rolled out some welcome new features for the company’s online office suite. Most notably Speaker, Google’s Microsoft PowerPoint alternative, now allows offline access.
At the moment the offline features are limited to viewing, but that allows you to give a presentation without needing an internet connection. The Docs team had previously released limited offline features for other Google apps like Spreadsheets and Presentations. The offline features require the Google Gears plugin (which, regrettably, still isn’t Firefox 3 compatible).
Speaker also has a new feature dubbed Notes, which allows you to add notes and make them available in both print and presentation modes. Also new is the ability to embed YouTube movies if you’re looking to spice up your dull presentations with some video. The YouTube tools come with their own custom movie player embedded in your presentation. Unfortunately the new features are YouTube-specific, creating a lock-in with Google’s video service.
Other new features in Google Docs include the ability to save searches as custom views. There’s a new folder pane under a “Saved searches” label, where you can access your saved searches. To create a new one just click “Show search options” and, once you’ve run your search, hit the “Save this search” button and give your custom search a name.
Another new feature for Google docs fixes a small but annoying problem — Google Docs captures your right-click actions and presents its own menu of options rather than the system wide, default right-click menu. While Google’s context menu is helpful when you want it, it was annoying to have to move out of the window to get to the normal right-click menu. Fortunately you can now get to the system menu by holding down the Shift key while you right-click in Google Docs.
While Microsoft is finally starting to ramp up its own online office components, Google Docs is far ahead when it comes to on/offline functionality. Google Docs real competitor at the moment is Zoho’s online office suite, which offers similar, and in some cases, much more impressive features.
[via Google Blogoscoped]
See Also:
- User Feedback Prompts Google Docs And Spreadsheets Changes
- Zoho Business Suite To Challenge Google
- Google Docs' New Presentations Can't Compete With PowerPoint
- Microsoft Live Workspace: Store Files Online, Edit On The Desktop
- Buzzword: Adobe's Latest Challenges Online Office Suites
- Microsoft Finally Wakes Up To The Threat Of Online Software
