Microsoft Office or Google Docs?

Although cloud computing is taking the world by storm, excuse the pun I wasn’t quite sure if this was for me. 

And yes, I do realize that there is more to cloud computing that being able to write your resume using Google Docs…

I mean I’ve been a Microsoft man ever since I can remember.  I’ve always enjoyed the DOS prompt and reluctantly switched to Windows when clients I was working with wanted their staff to become more productive.  That was my first foray into graphical user interfaces – I wasn’t a complete newbie and before Windows came along and in the DOS world I used to program in Turbo Pascal and built several GUI interfaces for applications that I’d developed and transmitted over my lowly 300, then 1200, then 2400 then 38,400 baud modem to BBS’s around North America or onto the various file sharing services.

My real first experience with GUI was the Apple Macintosh at school.  I hated it.  It did not make sense to me at all.  It was then that I decided GUI interfaces were not cool.

But now all you can find is GUI interfaces, even if you decide to run Linux on your computer.  What doesn’t have a GUI front end on it anymore?

Back to my story… I’ve always loved Microsoft products.  I’ve shelled out hundreds of dollars to stay current with the latest versions of Office Professional — even if I would never use part of it.  I just wanted to have it.  The last version I purchased (I’m still using it) is about 5 years old.  I thought of buying the newest version, because that’s what I use day-to-day at work but the cost far outweighed the use.

I could have bought only Word or Excel, but what if I needed PowerPoint or wanted to do some Access programming (like I ever would – you know, been there and done that).

But then I had a need to be able to take my files with me.  So I have several external hard drives and USB keys and while it’s great that I can take my data with me everywhere – you need to have the applications on the PC you’ll be working on.  If I’m at the library, or a friends house chances are that I won’t have MS Office on the PC.  When I’ve travelled and used the hotels Internet and PCs they’ve never had Office on them.

What do you do?

Then I thought of trying Google Docs.  I was hesitant at first.  I mean, I was cheating on Microsoft.  Would I like it?  Should I really use it?  My documents are out in cyberspace for anyone to gain access to.  What if someone found out my password… so one of the first things was to generate a 12 character password, complete with upper/lower case characters, numbers and symbols.  I can’t even remember it.  It’s on my iPod Touch.  So much for security.

I first started playing with the spreadsheet.  It was being used to do some basic tracking – nothing fancy like pivot tables or massive lists.  It worked great. 

Next was the wordprocessor.  This was really the key, because this would be the one tool that I would use most often.  I mean suppose I wanted to update my resume?  I could do it on Google Docs and always have a copy there.  Or what if I’m in an interview and needed a recent copy?  Simply hop onto any PC that you can be given access to, grab the resume and print it out and you’re done.  You don’t have to search for a PC with Office on it.

The other key feature of Google Docs has been the ability to upload/download files.  So I can work locally on my PC at home with my old, and outdated version of Office – upload the documents and I’ve got instant access to them from a user friendly interface.  The key really is user friendly interface.  I’m not uninitiated when it comes to cloud storage and I know all about being able to save documents etc., using Yahoo Mail, or Google Mail – but those require workaround and Google Docs does not.

I’ve been using Google Docs for about two weeks now, and during that time I’ve noticed that my use of Microsoft Office is slowly dropping.  From using it virtually 100% of the time to down around 50% and dropping.  Will it ever get to 0%?  Perhaps, but right now I’m not willing to leave Microsoft Office entirely since I’ve not done anything that requires the professional touch with Google Docs.

Do you use Google Docs?  I’d love to hear your stories about it.