Google Docs Improves Collaboration with Comment-Only Permissions

Google Docs has announced a new sharing option to give people comment-only access to documents. Previously, the only options were "Can view" or "Can edit."

With the "Can comment" option, document authors can now allow others to enter feedback on a document without being able to change the document itself.

Here's how I plan to use that feature. I have found, working with too little time and too much content change, that I need a simple "wiki" style web link where anybody can access the latest version of a speaker program, which is something I seem to find myself doing more of.

Up to this point, I have made a document, essentially a program with speakers and topics, available for viewing only, so people always will know how a program line-up has changed, without having to send out all sorts of notifications to everybody who might need to know about the changes.

But that format also does not allow for me to conveniently view, and let others view, helpful suggestions about timing, format, subjects and others who should be invited to speak. With the new feature, I can capture all of that in one place, and propagate the suggestions or comments, in a convenient way. It's very helpful.

Google Docs Improves Collaboration with Comment-Only Permissions

New Google Docs App for Android

The new "Google Docs" app for Android allows users to filter and search for their content across any Google account, then jump straight into editing docs using the online mobile editors. The app also allows users to easily share items with contacts on their phones, right from within the app.

The Docs app also allows users to upload content from their phones and open documents directly from Gmail. Users can add a widget to their home screens for easy access to three core tasks: jumping to your starred documents, taking a photo to upload, or creating a new document with one tap.
Using the app and the phone’s camera, users can turn photos with text into editable Google documents. Just create a new "Document from Photo" or select the camera icon from the widget, and a converted document will appear in the user's documents list shortly after the user snaps the picture.

One immediate use case: all those conference attendees who snap photos of slides during presentations now can turn the pictures into text documents for later sharing.

Users can also convert photos already stored on your phone by sharing them with the Google Docs app.

Introducing the new Google Docs app for Android

Google Enhances Docs

I admit I do not use Google Docs as much as I used to, only because so much of what I write is uploaded directly to a Web site, or in some cases sent as an email message. That's wasn't the case several years ago, when the primary form of document I was required to create was a "Word" document.

I still sometimes need to do a bit of modeling, create a presentation or create a document, so it isn't as if an office productivity suite does not get used, they simply get used less, as most of my daily routine involves creating Web-compatible content.

The exception seems to be that I frequently must capture a graphic or chart of some sort from a .pdf file or Web page and reformat it as a picture for insertion into a post. In that case I find myself using the presentation software simply to launder an image into a .jpg file. That wasn't why presentation suites were created, but that is how I generally will be found using a presentation program, day in and out.

But there is another point about new developments to Google Docs. Lots of people are required to create documents in a word processor, read or create spreadsheets and presentations on a regular basis. And, up to this point, with some salient exceptions, that has meant using Microsoft's "Office" suite.

Google Docs has been useful for students and some enterprises, but has not matched Office feature for feature and with equal and transparent functionality. Most of us still find the default format for any shared bit of work is "Word" for documents and "PowerPoint" for presentations and "Excel" for spreadsheets.

But any attacking company will start low and then gradually begin to enhance the utility of a competitive offering, and that is what Google is doing with Docs.