The off line feature of my Google Docs account just got activated. This means that I can now produce and edit texts, spreadsheets and simple presentations on Google Docs without being connected to the internet.
Since this feature was announced I have using Google Docs more and more and for 80% of my activities this suite is perfect. Almost exactly a year ago I posted a review of a number of office solutions, here's a short update:
Mail:
I'm all over Gmail, it works perfect to me. If the for Firefox would work all the time, it would even be better. In order to be able to work off line or with low bandwidth I've got IMAP enabled so I can use Gmail on my iPhone and on my MacBook. In "Mail" on the MacBook I have a full copy of all my mail (also through IMAP) ... just in case.
Spreadsheets:
Anything that involves huge lists or pivot tables requires Excel, but for your budget, forecast or any other sophisticated sheet Google spreadsheet does just fine.
Word processsing:
For now I'm only using Google Docs for writing, editing and sharing texts as such. I still need to figure out how we can get good-looking templates in there for official documents we send to clients.
Presentations:
Google presentation is very basic, so only fit for occasional simple stuff. Keynote on the Mac is still my N°1 presentation making tool. Although the new Powerpoint for Mac is said to be good too. Need to check that out some day soon.
Blogging:
The Blogger editor is still crap. I use ecto from time to time but inserting pictures doesn't work there and the tags are not linked with the Google tags. An alternative is using Google Docs and then publishing to Blogger, but that doesn't work flawlessly all the time either. Any suggestions there are welcome.
