Live blogging with Docs

Posted by: Amit Agarwal, a professional technology blogger at Digital Inspiration and an exceptionally creative Docs user

We were first introduced to Amit Agarwal when he sent us a video, detailing how to use Docs as an RSS feed reader (check out the accompanying and instructive blog post, as well). We watched the video, read his blog post, and were completely impressed. So, we got in touch, and are now happy to have Amit as a guest blogger, showcasing his newest cool idea for using Docs.

This tutorial will show you how to use Google Docs word processor for blogging a live event – it could be a keynote address or a conference call with media or someone speaking at a local BarCamp in your city.

To get started you would need a laptop computer, a free Google account and few inches of free space to sit (or stand) in the conference room. OK, we are now ready to roll.

Create a new document in Google Docs and give it some descriptive name (like “Launch of Blue Widgets Version 2”) - this will later become the title of our blog post.

Write some placeholder text in the document (like “Stay Tuned, we’ll cover the event live here.”) and save (Ctrl+S).

Now you have two options here. You can either embed this Google document in your blog as an IFRAME or you can republish the contents of this document as a new blog post (better approach though it requires an additional step).

Embed a live document in your blog

From the Share Menu, select “Publish as Web Page” and “Publish Document.” Also check the setting that says “Automatically re-publish when changes are made.”

Go back to the document and select “View as Web Page” from the File menu. What you now see on the screen is a plain vanilla document without any toolbars and menus. To embed this in your blog, copy the URL from the browser bar and use an IFRAME tag (find an example tag linked here).

Now as soon as you write something in this Google document and hit save, the content will appear instantly on your blog. If someone is reading your live blog already, he may have to reload the page.

Republish the Google Document in your blog

From the Share Menu, select “Publish as Web Page” followed by “Post to Blog.”

Now there’s a small trick involved here. Without closing the existing window, open a new tab in the browser and load the same document.

When you add new content to your “live blog” document, switch to the previous window and hit “Republish Post” – Google Docs will overwrite the previous version of your blog post so you readers will always see the latest version. Continue the write –> save –> republish cycle until the even is over.

What are the advantages of using Google Docs for Live Blogging?

First and foremost - you are live-blogging on your own website and not on some third-party platform – that means you retain all the web traffic. Second, Google Docs offers a very rich blog editor so you get to include photos, hyperlinks, tables, etc in your blog post as per the need. And the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut is your best friend – you can save content without reloading the page.

To insert current date in a Google Document

Most live blogs carry a timestamp next to each update. While there’s no shortcut key to insert dates in Google Docs, you may use the Ctrl + M key that is normally used for inserting comments. It gives you the current date as well as that authors name which you may discard before publishing the blog.

Blogs we like, for teachers

Posted by: Meredith Whittaker, Program Manager

Reviewing and revising

My colleague, and one of Docs' marketing managers, Andrew Chang, emailed me the other day, thrilled to have discovered an incredibly incisive post covering a number of ways to leave feedback and organize students' writing process using Docs.

I was as impressed with the post as Andrew, and we're pretty sure you'll enjoy it, too. To see for yourself, head over to Tom Barrett's ICT in my Classroom blog.

The play's the thing

Another charming and wonderfully detailed post walks us through using Docs to facilitate a scriptwriting project among teachers and students (a subject dear to my heart, as a theater enthusiast during high school :)

Especially engaging was the way in which the author presents the aim of his post, and the reason he thinks it's valid right up front, before launching into what is one of the nicest descriptions of a collaborative project using Docs that I've seen in some time.

Check it out on the Teaching with Technology blog, and start plotting your own ideas.

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Finally, if you're a teacher, student, or edu fan new to Docs, get off to a smooth start with our teachers' guide: Using Google Docs in the Classroom, or check out the other Docs resources on the Google For Educators page.

Forms take a hike

Posted by: Garnet Gratton

Garnet Gratton is back, and in the mood for summer. In her last post, she detailed a creative lesson plan using Docs and Mars Phoenix Lander in the news. This time, she'll be telling us about her experience using Docs forms to make scheduling extremely easy, and leave more time for summer fun.

During the school year, my hiking group and I meet every six weeks or so. We hike all over Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, as well as the Channel Islands, exploring new trails and renewing our friendships in beautiful surroundings. The last time we met, we climbed rocks, forded streams, and sat at the side of a riverbed to eat lunches from our backpacks. Usually this is when we decide on our next date to get together, but this time we hiked back without deciding anything.

With summer approaching, all six of us all had plans to be away on vacations at different times. Due to so many varied schedules, it looked like we might have to suspend our meet ups for the summer. This, until my friend Mary, who knew I'd been developing Google forms for classroom applications, suggested that I send out a form to collect vacation schedules from our hiking partners. Brilliant!

(A photo from a recent hike. This is what it's all about in the end :)

Once everyone sent me their away-dates through the form, I plugged them into Google Calendar. We are all going to be busy this summer, but looking at everyone's schedules, I realized that there were still a few hiking days available. Compared to traditional scheduling, rigorous hikes are a breeze. Using Docs forms for scheduling, however, makes even easy hikes seem difficult by comparison :)

Here's the form I used to collect the info (so simple, no?)

Featured gadget: map it in your spreadsheet

Posted by: Meredith Whittaker, Program Manager

The situation: My good friend Tomashi is visiting New York, and I want to map out a few places for her to visit near my work before we meet for the evening.

What do I do? I use the spreadsheets map gadget, which easily adds a Google map pinpointing all the addresses I've entered.

Here's how:

1. I choose some places in the neighborhood that I think Tomashi would like visiting, and add their addresses along the first column of my spreadsheet.
2. In the next column, I enter the name of each place, and a short description.
3. I highlight all of the cells that contain information I'd like included in the map.
4. Along the top of the toolbar, I click, "Insert Gadget." In the menu that appears I select "Maps" from the list on the left, and choose, simply, the "Map" gadget.
5. Finally, I give the map a title, check the box next to "Last column as tooltip" and, as is my preference, choose to allow zoom using mouse wheel. When all's done, I click "Apply and close."
   

Here's the published map (which can be embedded in any HTML page, if you'd like):




And, here's a link to the full spreadsheet, showing the guide that I'll share with Tomashi when she visits.

Of course, this is great for a lot of other things, apart from visiting friends. These include:

• House hunting (enter the addresses in one column, and any corresponding numbers, or information in the next)
  
• Road trip planning
  
• Charting restaurants, shops, or other places you'd like to visit
• Anything else where a map could flesh out a list of addresses :)

Hot tip: Create new docs, even faster

Posted by: Michelle Lee and Dave Young, User experience designers

With all of the meeting notes, design documents, bug lists, presentations, and other files we share with our teams at Google, we create up to a dozen new documents a day. Of course, this means a daily stream of new docs.

To make this as fast as possible, we use these three shortcuts:

1. Drag the links below (one for each type) into your browser bookmarks toolbar (also known as the navigation toolbar).

New Document

New Spreadsheet

New Presentation

2. Now, you can create a new doc simply by clicking the appropriate link. And to create a new doc in a new tab, you can hold Control (command on Mac) while clicking the bookmark.

Google Docs on the Eee PC

Posted by: Regina Dinneen, Docs User Operations (aka Google Docs Guide 2)

I recently took the plunge and bought an Eee PC to bring with me on my volunteer mission (see the Craigslist / Forms post). If there's Internet on the island and in the schools, I'd really like to use Google Docs with my students. So, after booting up my new computer I noticed that it came pre-installed with a Google Docs icon that automatically sends you to http://docs.google.com.

I was intrigued – could I actually use Google Docs on a computer with such a small screen? Turns out it works pretty well. Here are two pictures to show you how it looks (to get an idea of just how small the Eee PC is, I've put it on top of my Macbook Pro).

Although the toolbar and white space take up a lot of room, spreadsheets is still usable on this subnotebook.

However, if you freeze too many rows, the vertical scrollbar will disappear. Not good at all.If you've tried Docs on the Eee PC, leave us a note in the comments below.

What could we change in Docs to make the experience better on the smaller screen? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Google Docs means business

Posted by: Meredith Whittaker, Program Manager

Recently, we were introduced to Lynette Chandler through her wonderful video detailing how to create spreadsheets forms.

Well, Lynette and her Docs expertise are back. This time, she's put together a resource for businesses, giving six creative ways to employ Docs in the workplace.

Check out her guide, 6 Ways Google Docs Can Improve Your Team's Efficiency, then leave us a comment here, letting us know how you use Docs in your business life.