Improved Sharing and Publishing Controls for Google Docs

Users of the Premier and Education Editions now have improved controls over access controls and publishing for Google Docs. Administrators can now determine if users are allowed to publish documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to the Internet.

Get the details on how to manage the settings here.

Collaboration with Google Sites Just Got Easier

Several recent updates to Google Sites greatly improve their use and value for collaboration.

• The ability to copy an entire site
  
  
• More control over the search box to do things like search across multiple sites
  
  
• The "recent announcement" gadget now allows you to control how much text is shown in the post summary. You can also configure the gadget to show a thumbnail of the first photo in the post
  
  
• The Start Page is now available in all editions of Google

Of these features, the site copy and search improvements offer significant new value.

With the ability to copy sites, it is now possible to create a template site, for customer portals as an example, and copy the site for easy replication. Search gives you the ability to have users search over several related sites, providing easier access to information.

Want the details? Click Here.

More Task Features

If you use Tasks in Google Apps, you can now email task lists. With the ability to have multiple lists, emailing task lists makes delegation easier.

Share with Groups!

In a recent enhancement to sharing in Google Apps, you can now share documents for viewing or editing by Group. This feature makes sharing with project teams, customer teams, or large numbers of individuals faster and easier.

Group sharing is works with:

• Docs (documents, spreadsheets, and presentations)
• Sites
• Video

To learn how, Click Here.

To learn more about how to improvide sharing and collaboration, Click Here.

Set your Sites on better Gadget and LInk Integration

To expand the potential of Google Sites for internal and secure customer portal, Google has improved how gadgets and links are managed.

You can now

• Paste embeddings that use object, embed, or iframe tags; they will be auto-wrapped in a gadget
  
• Add custom links in your sidebar navigation, using manual mode
  
• More easily paste HTML from external sources

Click here to learn more ...

Document Sharing Just Got Easier

One of our concerns about Google Docs was the user interface for sharing. The options were not in one place and were not clear to newer users.

Google has addressed our concerns. All of the sharing options are no located in one dialog box with multiple tabs. The Sharing menu item lets you pick which tab appears when you open the dialog box.

Google Adds Scripts to Spreadsheets

Google Spreadsheets now include the ability to use Google Script, a means for running server-side Java script. Already available for Google Sites, the addition of Google Script in Spreadsheets gives you the ability to automate complex or repetitive actions.

Click here to learn more or to read the overview.

MV=P2 The Law of Meeting Coordination

How may attendees does it take to schedule a meeting?

While it sounds like the lead-in to a good punchline, the reality is that most organizations thrash when it comes to arranging meetings.

James Gaskin, in his Smart Tech for Small Biz blog on ITworld.com, may be the first to quantify the problem with The Law of Meeting Coordination.

"MV=P2. This formula stands for Mail Volume = Participants Squared"

James makes a compelling case for sharing sufficient calendaring information that attendees can negotiate times and availability without the flurry of "I am/I am not available" emails.

I could not agree more. As we finish our migration from Exchange to Google Apps across all of our businesses, we are experimenting with public access to free/busy information in Google Calendars.

Can Unite Create Collaboration?

The team at Opera Software, makers of the Opera browser, released Opera Unite. Unite is a browser-based web-server that allows individuals to share files, host web sites, post notes, share photos, and remotely access music and videos.

The concept and potential for collaborative communications is great. The reality, however, may not live up to the vision.

Home Users:

Definitely the target customer for Unite, home users will be able to create personal and public web presences with little effort at no cost. The downside, however, is bandwidth. Your 5 Mbps DSL speed is download. Upload speed -- how fast data moves from your computer out to the Internet -- is likely no more than 768 Kbps. Accessing Unite sites can be slow and choppy, failing to provide a viable user experience.

Of greater concern, is the networking ports that need to be opened. Your cable Internet or DSL provider probably delivered a router with all inbound access blocked. You can surf the web because the web site is responding to a request that you made. With Unite, you will need to open ports to allow access to initiate from the outside world. Automatic port scanners used by Internet villains will find your computer and you will be attacked. It is only a matter of time.

Small Businesses:

The thought of free web site development and hosting is very tempting to many small businesses. But small businesses face the same issues as home users with respect to security and performance.

In addition, the file sharing capabilities may put your data at risk.

Larger Businesses:

Larger companies with security policies are not going to allow outside traffic into the company's network for Unite sites. It is risky from a security standpoint and with respect to the risk to confidential information via the file sharing feature. Internally, cheap and easy sites for project teams and other collaboration are tempting.

Using Unite within a business, however, creates a host of issues. A collection of disjoint collaboration sites makes it nearly impossible to ensure sensitive data remains private, information on the sites is backed up, and that hosting a local web site does not impede business applications.

In short, the vision and concept behind Opera Unite is pretty cool. The reality of how it can and will be used remains a risky proposition. One of the benefits of using a cloud- or SaaS-based solution is that the vendor provides security and operates on neutral turf. With a service provider, you can work, share, and collaborate without opening your network and computer to outsiders. A little money can save a lot of headache.

Cloud Computing = Innovation Without a Budget

So you think your budget is tight? Just image being an innovative educator in the San Diego Unified School District.

In his blog, Doug's Dirt, Doug McIntosh explains the problem and his solution (hint: it includes Google Apps).

Next, look at the Google Apps in the Classroom, a Google Site he created that tells other teachers how to use the tools themselves.

Imagine if the move to Google Apps was a district-wide initiative, creating a communication and collaboration environment among faculty, administrators, resources, and staff .... not just in the classroom.

Smaller Collaboration Firms add Validity to the SaaS Market

Smaller companies, like drop.io, are coming out with innovative, feature rich offerings to strong reviews.

While these solutions compete with specific collaboration functions, they do not yet offer an integrated communications and collaboration solution.

Can Unified Communications Improve Productivity?

Summarizing a study by SIS International Research, ChannelWeb is reporting that the greatest communications pain point for SMBs is waiting for information. The study defined "waiting for information" as the time it takes to reach someone to pass along information or get an answer.

More interesting facts from the study:

• On average, 70 percent of SMB respondents said they experience the top five pain points, and 17.5 hours each week is spent addressing communications barriers
  
• The average cost of the lost productivity due to dealing with these pain points was about $5,246 per employee

Click here for the full article.

Google Calendar User Interface Upgrade

Last week, Google added five new User Interface improvements and features to Google Calendars (all editions):

• Collapsable screen area for all-day events
• Ability to add Google Docs files to events
• Streamlined settings for sharing, unsharing and deleting calendars
• New 'Save and send emails' option for new events
• Better accessibility with improved support for screen readers

Being able to include documents with event invitations and the streamlined buttons for sending emails when you save the event both enhance Calendars for most users.

Previewing the Print Preview Feature

In early February, Google announced a new Print Preview feature for Google Apps (all editions). For those familiar with Google's nearly flawless PDF generation capabilties, the preview function looks familiar.

In fact, Google is using the PDF engine to provide the Print Preview, with a helpful index of page thumbnails as well.

If you haven't created PDFs from your Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presenations, try it out as you try out the print preview. The accuracy and clarity is impressive.

Will There be a G Drive in Our Future?

Several stories like this one from Jan 30 on ChannelWeb point to signs that the often-rumored GDrive is coming from Google. Like Amazon's Simple Storage Service (a.k.a S3 Drive), the word on the street is that Google's GDrive will provide large quantities of low cost, or even free, storage in the cloud.

More interesting with Google, however, is the potential value of integrating the GDrive with Google Apps Premier Edition. If provided, this integration will provide businesses with a means of storing, sharing, and protecting data without the need for local servers or setting up a myriad of Google Sites.

If and when the GDrive arrives, we will try it out and report.

Offline Access for Gmail

With the recent announcement that users can access their Gmail service offline, Google continues to move Google Apps towards a fully independent working environment. Offline access to Gmail should mitigate the need for other email clients, such as Outlook.

For Google Apps Premier Edition, some offline capability already exists across the Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presentation applications, as noted in the online help file.

Here's an overview of which functions you can do in Google Docs while you're offline (the 'X' means the function is available).

• Docs: View, Edit
• Spreadsheets: View
• Presentations: View

While the functionality across the Google Apps suite is limited, look for more offline features in the coming months. Several third parties, such as Zoho, are already using Google Gears to provide offline integration with Google applications and services.

Tech Media Miss the Mark on Google App Reseller Launch

When Google announced the launch of the Google Apps reseller channel on January 14, the technology press and reseller channel pressed jumped on the story as this is big news for the industry. Google continues to prove it is serious about enterprise computing and challenging the status quo models for in-house computing. With the opening of the official reseller channel, Google is demonstrating a commitment to ensure that businesses get the support, integration, and training services necessary for any successful platform or application rollout.

To much of the media focus, however, has been on how Google Apps Premier Edition compares with Microsoft Office. While Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presentation are pretty cool applications with some amazing collaboration and integration features, they are not as mature with respect to traditional features -- fonts, formatting, styles, etc. -- as the Microsoft suite.

More importantly, these applications are not the best reason to use Google Apps Premier Edition. Google Apps provides a hosted environment for communication and collaboration that delivers features, capability, and value that few, if any, other providers can match.

Here are reasons to consider Google Apps Premier Edition:

Hosted Email and Calendars

• The easy-to-use GMAIL web interface
• Full IMAP support lets you use pick nearly any email client, including Outlook
• Private, shared, public, event, and resource calendars
• 25 GB of space per mailbox
• Free blackberry and PDA integration
• Secure Instant Messaging with searchable archives and VoIP telephone service

Collaboration Tools and Solutions

• Embedded collaboration in Docs, Spreadsheet, and Presentation saves money on fee-based web conferencing services
• Google Sites enable easy and fast creation and management of Intranet and internal project sites
• Secure customer portals with no network adminstration required
• Google Forms for simple information gathering and management

Content Management

• Embed content within Google Apps dymanically into public web sites, including calendars, events, and response forms

In summary, Google Apps Premier Edition provides a better solution for companies already using hosted email, calendar, and collaboration services and can provide a more cost effective means of delivery these services than upgrading current in-house systems.

Regards,
Allen