Google Docs for Journalists: An Introduction

Digital journalists rely on all sorts of costly techie hardware, from cameras and cell phones to audio recorders and laptops. In organizing and managing much of the information we gather and create, though, we increasingly rely on a less gadgety tool: Web-based software.

In a series of posts, I’ll offer some tips on how journalists can make the most of Google Docs.

This first post is an introduction.

What is it?

Google Docs is a suite of free, browser-based software that includes easy to use word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools akin to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The big difference between Docs and Microsoft Office is that your Google documents are stored online, so they’re accessible from anywhere you have Internet access. Docs can be used independently or as part of Google Apps, a software suite for schools and businesses that includes Website-building software called Google Sites.

Video: Google Docs in Plain English

How reliable is it?

I’ve been using Docs for the past two years for my reporting notes, idea lists, and article drafts. Google guards your files with billions of dollars worth of servers and backup servers, so you don’t have to worry about losing anything. I’ve created hundreds of documents and spreadsheets and have never lost a single line of text. There’s no software to download or install. You just navigate to the Docs site, sign in, and start typing. You can be up and running in less than a minute. The program continually saves your work, so you don’t have to constantly hit save.

Here’s Google’s official quick tour of Docs

What’s it for?

Here are three reasons for journalists to use Google Docs.

Streamline Collaboration. We often work with editors, multimedia partners, or other team members or colleagues. Docs lets you share documents with as few or as many people as you want. You can let people view and edit – or just view – a document, spreadsheet or presentation, and you can add or subtract collaborators whenever you want. You can collaborate on a story outline, a radio or TV script, a source or idea list, or a budget spreadsheet, for example. (If you’d like to try messing around in Docs, here’s a sample public spreadsheet where anyone can type in past, future or imagined Google product releases.) You can even open a document to the public for a crowdsourced reporting or information-gathering project. Docs was used to maintain an updated, crowdsourced list of Mumbai terror victims. This summer, a group used Docs to plan a crowdsourced summer trip itinerary.

Save Headaches. You’ll no longer have to e-mail attachments back and forth to try to figure out which version of your story or script is the most recent, or which changes came when. Docs provides relief from that confusion because it keeps documents up-to-date with everyone’s comments and changes, and records all revisions. Docs also now lets you store and organize your PDF files online, which makes it easy to keep track of government and corporate reports and research.

Lighten Your Bag. Lots of us have tired shoulders from carrying so much digital equipment. When your files, notes, and spreadsheets are stored safely online, up in the digital cloud, you don’t have to lug around your primary computer. You can access and edit docs using whatever computer happens to be at hand. It might be a public PC you’re using temporarily in a hotel, airport, or Internet cafe, or a friend or family member’s Mac. Now you can even access docs on an iPhone or BlackBerry.

Here’s a PDF overview of Docs if you’re the print and read kind of journalist.

Part 2: How to Use Google Docs as a Digital Notebook

Part 3: Is Google Docs Secure?

Part 4: How to Back Up Your Documents

Part 5: Google Docs Updates and New Features

8 Responses to “Google Docs for Journalists: An Introduction”

Jay Rosen 27 August 2009 at 8:25 am #

Thanks, Jeremy. Could you add something about how secure Google Docs are? I know journalists who won’t use them to share information on stories because they think they might lose their scoop somehow, that they “putting it on the web” and somehow it will get out. So the password protection, access control, chain of custody issues deserve some ink here. Thanks.

Naomi Price 27 August 2009 at 5:32 pm #

Google Docs is as secure as you make it. You share only with those you want to share with. (Ditto with Calendar.) Or share with no one. I use it all the time. The only thing I don’t care for is re-making files into e-mail attachments; it’s not easy. Or at least I haven’t figured out an easy way. And sometimes you just have to do it that way.

Jeremy Caplan 28 August 2009 at 9:50 am #

Jay, thanks for the good suggestion. I’ll address security in the third post in this series.

Ernie Bornheimer 28 August 2009 at 1:13 pm #

I have lost data with Google Docs. There is (or was) a file size limitation, which I learned the hard way. Once a document goes over 500 kB (I think it was), one of my files was corrupted, including versions in the revision history. There was no warning, and no way to check the current size of files. Be warned! I still use Google Docs, but nowadays I keep my files small and I back them up (there are several backup solutions).

Nils Östergren 29 August 2009 at 10:49 am #

Will Google protect my data if a court order me or Google to reveal a sorce?

Madison McCord 31 August 2009 at 6:24 pm #

Jeremy,

My college newsroom was one of the first in the nation to implement Google Docs into the newsroom. Last year a group of editors and myself spoke on the subject at the Associated Collegiate Press Winter confrence. I am glad someone is bringing it into the spotlight. What a journalist can do with Google docs is amazing. And it doesn’t stop with the writers. Photographers can keep track of their assignments using custom made forms. Editors can keep tabs on their story budgets by making a spreadsheet (also applies to advertising sales)
I’m willing to bet that within a year (aided by the launch of Google Wave), Google Docs will replace all other forms of communication in the newsroom.
Thanks for pointing out this amazing program!

Greg 19 January 2010 at 11:55 am #

Nils,

Will Google protect data from a court order. I suspect the answer is absolutely not. They will immediately comply with U.S. law enforcement and U.S. court orders. Any document stored by Google would not protect cofidential source information.