google docs

The two main elements of Quip that make it better than Google Docs are Quip’s exceptional communication, revision history, and design.Sidebar — Communication + Revision History. Quip’s hands down best feature is the sidebar that fuses communication and revision history to create an overall real time record of the document’s development that is simply unmatched by Google Docs. Communication itself on Quip is awesome — on Google Docs comments is the closest to the texting-style sidebar and comments suck. The texting style is both very functional and fun.Design. Quip looks awesome. It looks way more modern and simplistic than Google Docs, and its design not only looks better but it also way less distracting and more functional. Google Docs is really complicated and basically retains the old-school floating page Microsoft Word style. Quip has also made a bunch of small design choices that really make it a lot better and more addictive.Also — to reiterate what Steven Walling and Jackson Mohsenin said, the mobile app is significantly better than Google Doc’s and offline is easier. Google Doc’s app kinda seems like a weak afterthought. Most of the features are glitchy, ugly, or restricted. Quip’s app on the the other hand is almost as good as it is on the computer. Important for offline: Google Docs does allow you offline access if you go through the trouble of downloading your docs to your computer, whereas Quip does it automatically and doesn’t take up storage space.

Google Docs. Reasons:Secure - Files are stored on the cloud. In the event of device loss or failure, the files can be access via PC, Chromebook or Android.Restore - Restore to an earlier version of the file if desired. Great for recovering from mistakes.Collaboration - Work with others. Choose from View, Suggest/ Comment or Edit.Table of Contents - Probably one of easiest to use. Great for navigation within large files.Bookmarks - Ideal for zooming to a location quickly.Assignment - Assign tasks to others. They will receive an email and will be able to respond within the file. Great for tracking projects.Unlimited Storage - You heard that right! See this for tips J Cheng's answer to How can I get more than 15GB storage free in Google Drive?Free - Comes with a Google Account.To be fair, MS Word is a refined product and the result of many years of evolution. However Google Docs has most of the commonly used features and is getting better. It is also a better way :-)

IMO Google Docs is pretty basic compared to MS Word. The major plus point for Google Docs is the ability for multiple people to collaborate simultaneously on a doc. Pretty useful feature when doing group assignments and stuff :D However, when it comes to formatting and stuff, Google Docs is not enough for things like writing academic papers, reports etc. Usually what we do when collaborating on a doc is add and finalize everyone’s content on a Google doc and download it and format and finish it up on MS Word. I’ll list down some of the areas where MS Word does better.Formatting - in general, easier on MS Word plus have a lot more options than in Google Docs (everything from table of contents, styling, cover pages, page numbering etc. are much more feature rich and capable than what Google Doc offers).Graphics are definitely better in MS Word. Diagrams created on MS Word are neat and have a modern feel to it. Even bullets have a wider selection.Referencing - MS Word has referencing tools for managing figure and table captioning, citing and bibliography. I use Zotero plugin for MS Word which makes it much more easier than the referencing tools in Word. But no such plugin for Google Docs nor builtin tools for referencing.Equations - while Google Docs have an equations feature, it is not quite as good as what Word offers.UI & UX - definitely better in Word.These are the stuff that comes to my mind right away when comparing the two. And also, pretty much the deal breakers which make me opt for MS Word. Also, insert a lot of tables and Google Docs starts freezing to the point that it’s almost impossible to work on it.

If you’r e looking for something that allows you to organize your team’s knowledge in an easy to retrieve format rather than just dumping files into folders then I would recommend LearnBee.LearnBee is a knowledge sharing + documentation tool that helps companies maintain, update and most importantly grow their internal knowledge base as they accelerate their business.Some of LearnBee’s features that I really like are:Enhanced search: You can use multiple modifiers in their ‘search’ to pinpoint what you’re looking for.Repositories: Repositories make it easy to organize your knowledge, files, documents etc into collections. Making it easy to browse and discover content.Android and iOS apps that allow you to take your company’s knowledge with you.Note that as a tool, LearnBee is supposed to be used alongside Google Docs. Docs have a few problems such as messy permissions, no info on who’s viewing what etc. Using a tool like LearnBee solves these issues.

Point of view: If your needs are moderate, Google Docs will be good enough.Some favourite Google Docs features:Table of Contents - Enables easy navigation within a large documentBookmarks - Allows navigation to a specific point within the documentAssignment - Assign a task to a team member. They will receive an email and give them an opportunity to respond. This is useful for trackingOther reasons why Google Docs is great:Collaboration - Google Docs is built for collaboration. Work with others at the same time. Changes go live instantly. No more wondering who has the latest version of the fileSecure - Since files live on the cloud, if your device is lost or damage, access via Chromebook, PC or AndroidAccess - Work anywhere using your device of choiceCompatibility - Since files are accessed via a web browser or app, no need to worry whether it is compatibleRestore - Restore to an earlier version of the file. Great for recovering from “mistakes”Unlimited storage - Google Docs do not count towards online storage useChromebooks - Use cost effective Chromebooks to access/ work

I've been using Google Docs before Google acquired Writely and I've pumped tons of data into it, invited people to collaborate and today, I barely use it.  My use of Drive has been reduced by 10-20x over the past 2 years.Most of my data in Google Docs feels like a big hidden silo of data.  I bought into the dream my data would be searchable and found out the hard way, Google's vision for search doesn't work well in a "personal" paradigm.  Google's claim to fame is external search and indexing the web.   I had the same issues searching my gmail and used 2014 to eliminate primary dependencies on email (and for the record, primary dependencies on Dropbox and file systems in general).Now to be fair, Evernote's search has its issues (more on the performance side of things, I find what I need a good 99% of the time and have 11k notes and 15-20GB of data).Evernote is more effective at cross linking notes and something subtle I discovered, is it's much better at handling what I'm going to call "micro content" - Evernote has no issues with a note with 10 words on it (think a post-it) - do that in Google Docs and you set yourself up for insanity.  Evernote has proven to help me organize and synthesize my notes and it's nice platforms like Postach.io support you on sharing your most important work.  While I'm sure solutions for Drive exist, I can't say they are that polished or well-known.The world continues to go mobile and Evernote was clear to focus on making it's mobile client a great experience - I can't say the same for Google Docs - while I was able to make minor edits here and there, it was invented in and built for the desktop because a primary target market is to transition Microsoft Office users (like myself, I haven't touched Office for 10 years).  Google Docs is one of the few tools I share with people who haven't quite embraced cloud computing where it really makes them think twice about why they use Office.That said, I love Google Docs and maintain multiple Google Apps instances.  It's all here to stay.   I think Google has a huge opportunity with Google Keep if they extend the notion of our Google data to the totality of everything Google-related.  Google may need to shift its business model - it's core business model is to monetize your data.  Your personal notes typically contain a lot of personal data and some people might find it quite uncomfortable to have Google-driven ads thrown at them based on very personal information.   I know I personally am seeing more targeted Amazon ads and while I am an open book on the Internet (see my profile), things like diving into my browsing history just strikes me as a bit "weird."Google is rumored to have a 300 year plan (HBR reference) and it continues to dumbfound me to this day why they axed Google Wave.  Sure it was a hard product to market - doesn't Google like challenges?  I feel it speaks a lot to Google's priorities - they aren't 100% vested in a the future of Google Docs (which I personally feel it had the potential to be).  Now to be fair, startups like Rizzoma have their challenges taking the codebase in new directions - if Google is really serious about creating a competitor to Evernote - it will continue the work they already started and begin to address some of the weaknesses Evernote has (like collaborative editing) and provide new value.   Though that said, I am really surprised how little contention I really run into (nearly zero) while using Evernote with others.Lastly, I feel Evernote is better positioned for sensemaking.  Both Google and Evernote allow 3rd parties to build on top of their data.  What I feel is making a difference is when the CEO says it himself that he would be thrilled if the community invents a better UI to their data.  Yes, it would have cost him a pretty dime for all the clients developed to date and if they need to be let go, they need to be let go - the value of the Evernote platform will remain in the data you've chosen to capture.Hope this gives you a sense of some of my rationale as to why I put Google Docs/Drive on the backburner.   I look forward to Google doing what it does do well - surprise us :)

Considering the size and scale at which Google operates, I guess they are using in-house developed frameworks and tools.Google docs isn't an exception to the above mentioned rule.More specifically, the front-end part is probably built using Closure Tools, which are mainly used to write JavaScript codeFor the layout and design, I guess they are using the Material design framework. Finally, for the back-end part, Google docs probably uses some of the internal tools written in C++ and/or Java.Hope this helps (even though my answer lacks references).Some references:Closure tools website: Closure Tools  |  Google DevelopersMaterial design introduction website: Introduction - Material design - Google design guidelines

If the two Google Docs are similar in content, copy and paste the contents on top of each other in a new blank google doc and go to File See Revision History to view the highlighted changes.Update:This doesn't work in practice as it just crosses out everything you pasted over.In theory, google's built-in revision history for documents handles this problem from ever presenting itself IF the document was created in google docs to begin with.  A google doc by design has only one version and -isn't ever copied.  It's shared and updated only by those with edit access.  All user edits are tracked with time stamps and reverting back and forth in time is a breeze.  Spotting what someone did to a google document is simple and you should (in theory) never need to have 2 separate versions of a google document. This doesn't solve the issue of migrating a bunch of word documents into the cloud however and seeing the differences between them.  MS Word is designed to have multiple saved versions of a document filling up your email and your hard drive.  So, if you google "comparing 2 word documents to see the difference" you will find a few solutions to the problem because, that's a core problem with Microsoft word.

Here are some strategies that I have derived for managing content using these services. These are based on using both Evernote and Google Docs for more than four years and learning what doesn't work through trial and error. Evernote is my Outboard Brain and my Everything Box. I have multiple ways of getting information into it. I like that I can throw all sorts of files in there and access everything easily later. As the search is very powerful I find that I spend less time constructing elaborate taxonomies and other such meta-work — this is a lot more important than you might think.Google Docs is for documents that I need to collaborate on with my associates.Dropbox is for sharing. I mostly need to share non-Google Docs types of files: a lot of Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop files etc with clients and third parties. In theory I could now start doing that with Google Drive, but Dropbox has proven its worth here.I use Simplenote for my long form-writing outside of my professional activities. I do this on iPhone and the Simplenote app outclasses Google Docs.I find Evernote is weak at capturing quick thoughts on the fly. So for short notes the new Drafts app is very effective and action-orientated. It integrates well with Dropbox for back-up, but I tend to migrate text out of this app quicklyMy guiding principle is to have only one location for each class of content. If I am totally clear about what I put into each service, then I will know where to find things more efficiently  in future.I aim to review this approach annually and update it based on my actual usage patterns reinforcing activities which streamline effort and removing those which are just busy work.