Gota get up to speed on GoogleApps/GoogleSites, yesterday!

March 29, 2008 7:02 AM

GoogleApps: I love it and think it will work for my organization, but where can I find more in-depth user guides and tutorials?

I have 48 hours to get a functioning Google Apps (Google Sites, really) intranet page up and running for my friend's political campaign (primary in five weeks!). Nothing too complex. I don't even want to use half the functionality available (email/chat would be too much). I just need a central site for sharing of spreadsheets and documents, a to-do list, and a calender. And it needs to be dead-simple.

Google Sites will do that for me for free, but I'm too busy/stupid to get it looking right. I have 48 hours left before I present this to the 10 or 12 people who really need it. If it isn't clearly functional, they'll go all Ted Stevens on my ass and then they'll be back in disorganization hell where no one knows what's going on or what needs to be done.

I found the few google-sponsored web videos out there and a start-up guide, but I need something much more in-depth (sadly). The google group for google apps isn't indexed and isn't really helpful in my experience.

The organic city site on the googleapps demo looked so good, where's my organic city site?

posted by willie11 to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Google Apps will NOT give you a to-do list, so if that is a must-have feature, you might want to look at Zoho or another online suite.
posted by misterbrandt at 8:37 AM on March 29, 2008

If you do need a to-do list and you prefer to use Google, you could just compose one in a Google Doc.

I can't think of any how-to guides offhand, but I am absolutely obsessed with G-Apps myself and I wouldn't mind helping you out, via GoogleChat or whatever means are more convenient for you, if you'd like. MeMail me if you're interested.
posted by chara at 9:51 AM on March 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

Be sure it's right for the team -- if you're not someone who spends all their time in a word processor or spreadsheet, be sure to have an extended trial with someone who is. Google Docs is barely competent next to WritePad -- it's certainly not Word.
posted by bonaldi at 10:18 AM on March 29, 2008

It sounds like what you need is something more along the lines of 37signal's "Basecamp". basecamp.com

Google Apps isn't really geared for what you want to do, the Wiki environment will get cluttered rather quickly and as mentioned earlier, it has no to-do list.
posted by cgomez at 10:35 AM on March 29, 2008

Sweet Jesus, I wish we were using basecamp. But that's a bit too foreign for these folks. Sticky Notes can work as my to do list or just a document, I'm ok with that.

What I need is a central place for information sharing. Collaboration will be minimal, I mainly need an easy place where 6 other folks can go to to see a shared google spreadsheet that can be updated by me in real time. That's the functionality I'm looking for.

Really, I need to able to use their silly WYSIWYG editor. That thing just baffles me, despite going through the limited tutorials available at google.com/a
posted by willie11 at 12:45 PM on March 29, 2008