using google documents for creating posts

Looking at using Google Documents to create web content for my website.

Creating content using Google documents.

Back in the 80s, I was involved in setting up an experiment for a national newspaper to test out the viability and use of computers for the creating and editing of content for their weekend magazine supplement. At the time desktop publishing for newsprint was unheard of and was still the domain of designers. We gave computers to the journalists to simply type up their copy, these machine were simply glorified typewriters with green screens, a floppy disk drive and a simple text interface, no Windows at this time. When the journalist had completed their copy, the disk would be sent to the designer to layout the pages of the paper using Apple Macs with big A3 monochrome monitors. Once the pages were given the go ahead by the editors, the pages would be printed and sent for the print run of the magazine. The process had to be designed within the abilities of all involved, things had to be familiar. Journalist - type; editors - edit; and printers - print. Familiar is good, even new things can feel familiar. In a busy newsroom you cannot have people fumbling around trying to work things out..

Now I use Google Documents for most of my writing and creating spreadsheets. Google documents and ODT format files has become a trusted friend and familiar. By syncing the documents with my local computers, this has allowed me to use them with other applications. For most of my work I am Google Documents based, so when it came to the website the questions was “How could I use it?” or even “‘Should I use it?”

Should I use Google Documents for my website?

The obvious question I should of been asking is, “Why am I not using Google Documents to create content for my site?” and “Why is no one else using it?” It seems weird, we use familiar applications to create documents, spreadsheets and images, but for our website we are told to use something else. It may not be Google Documents, but MS Word, Openoffice or Libreoffice. We use these familiar applications for most of our working day and perhaps even type up the drafts for our websites, to only then copy and pasted the content into our website’s admin page. It seems to me why others are not using familiar is because they have not thought of it or the programmers just don’t think that way.

From my experience of working with Apple Macs, what stood out was how each new piece of software you add, allows you to use your previous knowledge of already installed software. This seems to have been lost when it comes to applications and the user experience of website applications. So experience tells me, use what’s familiar and so I asked “could I use Google Documents?”.

Could I use Google Documents for the website?

Yes, but how? The guggesites way.