Is is me, or does Google Docs suck?
November 5, 2013 1:46 PM Subscribe
As an experiment in avoiding Word, I decided to do our last couple of proposals in Google Docs. It wasn't the worst experience I've ever had, but Docs seems to have one quirk that is driving me nuts. Wondering if it's just me or somebody else has dealt with this and has a solution.
Images seem to behave very poorly in Docs. Images that I had previously inserted earlier would move on their own, even though they are set to wrap and thus should move with the text and stay orderly looking. Instead weird stuff happens and if you click on the offending image the cursor jumps to a different image in the document. Temporarily deleting the image it jumped to will often cause the formatting at the original area to fix itself, then you can paste the image you just cut back in and all will be well, until it happens again. Googling the problem only suggests closing the tab or reloading the page.
Sound familiar? Anybody else find a way to make Docs usable? We all work remotely often so editing online is very useful, if we can make Docs work.
Images seem to behave very poorly in Docs. Images that I had previously inserted earlier would move on their own, even though they are set to wrap and thus should move with the text and stay orderly looking. Instead weird stuff happens and if you click on the offending image the cursor jumps to a different image in the document. Temporarily deleting the image it jumped to will often cause the formatting at the original area to fix itself, then you can paste the image you just cut back in and all will be well, until it happens again. Googling the problem only suggests closing the tab or reloading the page.
Sound familiar? Anybody else find a way to make Docs usable? We all work remotely often so editing online is very useful, if we can make Docs work.
I use Google Docs exclusively. It has a lot of quirks and does not work like MS Word or PowerPoint. It can drive you craze when it refuses to update or load. That said, I have found that once I got used to it, I prefer it. I am going to try MS 360, or whatever the new cloud MS Office suite it.
posted by fifilaru at 1:56 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by fifilaru at 1:56 PM on November 5, 2013
I have found Google Docs extremely frustrating to use. An alternative (which works well for me) is to have a shared Dropbox folder containing Word documents...
posted by HoraceH at 1:57 PM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by HoraceH at 1:57 PM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
We generally use GDocs for collaboration and then when we get to v1.0 on outline and content, someone takes that and prettifies it in Word or InDesign.
posted by rocketpup at 2:00 PM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by rocketpup at 2:00 PM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
I find google docs incredibly lame but for it's collaborative capacities, which are acceptable. I stopped using it.
posted by jcworth at 2:03 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by jcworth at 2:03 PM on November 5, 2013
I like to use Google Docs for taking notes, collaborating, sharing - basically anything that is internal. I have been able to use images in it in a basic manner but I don't try any fancy word wrapping.
Any time I need to make something customer-facing or otherwise more presentable I use Word.
I try to approach Google Docs differently than I do MS Office. It's meant for casual use and collaboration. It eliminates messy version tracking. It's not meant for professional papers or presentations, or anything but the most basic spreadsheet functions. Also, it's free, so you get what you pay for.
posted by radioamy at 2:07 PM on November 5, 2013
Any time I need to make something customer-facing or otherwise more presentable I use Word.
I try to approach Google Docs differently than I do MS Office. It's meant for casual use and collaboration. It eliminates messy version tracking. It's not meant for professional papers or presentations, or anything but the most basic spreadsheet functions. Also, it's free, so you get what you pay for.
posted by radioamy at 2:07 PM on November 5, 2013
If you like the web-based editing, maybe give Quip a try. It's simpler than Google Docs, but the collaboration features are pretty great and the UI is much more polished. It definitely won't solve every Docs use case, but it's great for creating simple, good-looking documents and collaborating on them.
posted by duien at 3:52 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by duien at 3:52 PM on November 5, 2013
They're not out (quite) yet, but Apple is launching web-based versions of their iWork apps on iCloud.com very soon, and they look very impressive.
posted by mkultra at 4:42 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by mkultra at 4:42 PM on November 5, 2013
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are available on iCloud now, though they're listed as being in beta. I've been playing with the Pages and Numbers web apps, and they're pretty snappy and work well enough for casual use, but I still prefer to work in the native apps when I can. Still, it's really nice to be able to open up a Pages document even on a PC.
What is it about Word that you're trying to avoid? Or what is it about Google Docs that appeals to you? If you're just trying to avoid the cost / proprietary nature of Word and MS Office, you might consider Libre Office. Much of the same look and feel as the MS counterparts (prior to that awful ribbon nonsense), and they save in an open format (and can save as MS Office formats as well.)
If it's the collaboration of Google Docs that appeals to you, Quip is pretty slick, but I had trouble with more complex layouts.
posted by xedrik at 5:30 PM on November 5, 2013
What is it about Word that you're trying to avoid? Or what is it about Google Docs that appeals to you? If you're just trying to avoid the cost / proprietary nature of Word and MS Office, you might consider Libre Office. Much of the same look and feel as the MS counterparts (prior to that awful ribbon nonsense), and they save in an open format (and can save as MS Office formats as well.)
If it's the collaboration of Google Docs that appeals to you, Quip is pretty slick, but I had trouble with more complex layouts.
posted by xedrik at 5:30 PM on November 5, 2013
Response by poster: I'm all Linux at home, and I was trying to go web based so that I would be able to work from home without always dragging my Macbook Air back and forth from the office. Also, weird formatting crap seems to happen in Word when the proposals get opened by our two Macs and one Windows 8 laptop. I actually liked writing the proposals in Google - but editing one page causing 20 minutes of work when 8 other pages blow up is not going to work.
I'd love to get everybody to standardized on Libre Office Hell, we are an open source consulting company, we should be on Libre. But clients expect Word docs and I guess they had issues before I got here with stuff not working well between Libre Office and Word on our clients machines.
Maybe I'll try writing everything and not inserting screen shots and graphics until the last minute.
posted by COD at 6:18 PM on November 5, 2013
I'd love to get everybody to standardized on Libre Office Hell, we are an open source consulting company, we should be on Libre. But clients expect Word docs and I guess they had issues before I got here with stuff not working well between Libre Office and Word on our clients machines.
Maybe I'll try writing everything and not inserting screen shots and graphics until the last minute.
posted by COD at 6:18 PM on November 5, 2013
If you're stuck on word, you can try microsoft's online versions of the office suite, too.
posted by empath at 8:07 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by empath at 8:07 PM on November 5, 2013
We use GDocs quite a bit here, and like others have said, it's kind of lame for anything more than simple text editing. I love and use GDocs a lot since most of my Docs end up getting shared or collaborated with, but I usually only use plain text, bullets, & tables. Anything more complicated than that and I'll use Word because weird quirks do quickly arise when you try being all fancy.
posted by jmd82 at 8:53 AM on November 6, 2013
posted by jmd82 at 8:53 AM on November 6, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
1. Are you using Google Docs in Chrome? Because Chrome is made by Google, you will get a better experience than in other browsers such as IE or Firefox. I've found that quite a few bugs are only there when not in Chrome.
2. Since you are talking about images, is it possible that you would be better served by Presentations and not Documents? (I am still talking Google Docs).
posted by rada at 1:52 PM on November 5, 2013