Following on from my last post about how to get the most out of Gmail as a location independent digital nomad, this is a further post about how freelancers, business owners and entrepreneurs can take full advantage of 2 of the lesser known features within Google Docs.
Whilst Docs may not quite yet be feature-rich enough to fully replace a desktop software package like Microsoft Office (or its free equivalents – Neo Office for Mac & Open Office for PC), there are some really nifty features which can save you time, money and hassle.
Here are a 2 cool bits of functionality that, if you aren’t already, you really should be using:
#1 Online Forms
I *love* this feature – what it essentially enables you to do is create simple online forms and embed them on your website with the results being automatically compiled into a Google Spreadsheet for you. You can use these for:
- Feedback questionnaires
- Contact forms
- Client brief forms and more
There are 2 ways to create a form:
- Simply go to your main Google Docs interface, click “New” and select “Form”
- In a Spreadsheet, select “Form”
Once you’ve done that, the “Create form” page is pretty user-intuitive to go ahead and create your form. When you’ve finished, you can then choose to either embed your form into a web page or use the link to send people to the form.
Additional Tip: You can also customise the confirmation message someone sees once they’ve filled in the form, so if you want to send people somewhere else after they’ve completed the form or edit the message, click on the “More Actions” button to do this…
#2 Google Presentations
Ignore the traditional use for boring powerpoint slides, standing in front of an audience and clicking through them – and instead use Google Presentations to create smart-looking content which you can embed on your site or share & discuss live over the web with clients/customers.
To share your presentation with others:
When you’ve created a new presentation (in which you can also embed video content), click on “Share” and select “Share with others”…
You then have various options for sharing your presentation with whoever you choose as either a viewer (can’t edit) or a collaborator (can edit).
If you look over to the right and click “Preview presentation as a viewer”…
Another window pops up showing you how your presentation looks to someone viewing it. Note some of the cool features on this screen, including the “View together” option in the bottom right hand corner. Click this, and you’ll get a text window sidebar allowing you to “chat” with other viewers.
To embed your presentation on a website:
From the “Share” options, click “Publish/embed”. You’ll need to publish your presentation before you then get the embed code to add to your site.
There are plenty more nifty things you can do on the Google platform that make it an ideal tool for the work-anywhere freelancer, online entrepreneur and location independent digital nomad – watch out for similar articles coming up on the site soon.
If you haven’t yet checked out our new range of free Tech Tutorials on the site, head over to the Resources section now.
I only use Google docs on a limited basis, but the “online forms” feature provides just the answer that I have been needing for my site.
Hmm… I just thought of a way that the Google presentations will be useful in the future.
Thanks for the great tips!
Great stuff! The other great advantage of Google Docs is you can now access your information from any computer with an Internet connection. By leaving your precious info in the Cloud, you avoid the need for expensive equipment solutions.
I am registering for the business trial now.
I would be wary of data loss, though. I know Google it a huge internet company, but it has happened that entire gmail accounts have been lost. I think this is one reason they keep the “BETA” label.