Google’s office suite is available to anyone with a Gmail email address. These users can store up to 15 GB of documents online for free and have several different office applications to use for work, school, and a variety of other purposes. More storage and professional versions of the suite are also available. Go to drive.google.com to access it.
key applications
- Docs – word processor
- Sheets – spreadsheet
- Slides – presentations
- Drive – document manager
Web page contents:
- Applications
- Overview videos
- Other links
OS-College thoroughly examines the applications in the above list, through Web pages and videos about their features and functions. Web pages and videos in this subsection also cover the other applications.
Regardless of whether you use Mac, Windows, Linux, or a Chromebook, information on the OS-College Website will help you become more familiar with the applications that can be accessed by anyone with a Web browser.
applications
Docs, Sheets, and Slides can open applications in Microsoft Office formats, OpenDocument Formats, and other formats, but each have their own native formats for creating documents. Users can access these applications through just about any Web browser, though Google Chrome will give users more editing options and features for documents.
Each of these three applications has its own document manager, that allows users to focus on one of the three different document types. The document managers will list all the documents the different applications can open and edit. For example, GDOC, DOCX, and ODT formatted documents will be in the Google Docs manager.
In addition to the three applications and their document managers, OS-College has videos and Web pages about Google Drive, the central document manager. Google Drive is a Web interface, and it also has an application that can sync documents with Windows and Mac desktops. There are third-party applications available to Linux users.
Click one of the drop-down items below to learn about the application or item. Each will reveal a description, an image, and a list of links to related pages. There are also links at the bottom of the page.
Google Docs
The word processor has eight menus and a taskbar. New documents are created in the GDOC format. Word documents (DOCX) can be opened directly in Docs without being converted into this file format. However, for documents in other formats, a copy of the document will be made in the GDOC format. These include documents in OpenDocument Text (ODT) and Rich Text formats (RTF).
Web pages and videos in this subsection are about items in the menus and taskbar. It also covers right-click menus and keystrokes. Many items in the menus can also be found in the right-click context menus and performed when keystrokes are pressed.
Google Sheets
The spreadsheet application has nine menus, a taskbar, and a formula bar. It has many of the capabilities as Microsoft Excel. Most of the formulas Excel users can perform will also work in a Sheets spreadsheet.
A new spreadsheet will be created in a proprietary format, GSHEET. Microsoft Excel spreadsheets also can be opened directly in Sheets. However, Sheets will make a copy of spreadsheets in OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ODS) and in other formats that Sheets can open before opening them. More features are available in GSHEET documents than Excel ones.
This subsection will cover the features and settings that are in the menus and taskbar. The right-click menus and keystrokes also will be covered. These will be covered in Web pages and videos.
Google Slides
The presentation is the third application in Google’s office suite. Like Docs and Sheets, new documents are created in a proprietary format, GSLIDES. The nine menus and taskbar are available to these documents and PowerPoint formatted presentations (PPTX) that have been uploaded to Google Drive.
In addition to menus and a taskbar, presentations have slides and themes side panels. Videos and Web pages cover these.
Google Drive
The central manager has various settings that can be applied to one or more documents or folders at a time. These settings and features are available through a right-click menu or through a menu at the top of the document list that appears when documents and folders are selected. There are other items in Google Drive.
Other subsection
The Other subsection has Web pages and videos about other applications, such as Forms and Drawings. Some features and functions are the same across all or several of the applications, such as opening a document. Videos and Web pages will cover these functions and features.