Talk:Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Change alerting limitation
I just checked, and there is a way in which users can be notified of changes: when you 'publish' a document, you can subscribe to an RSS feed of subsequent changes.

On a different matter: any interest and / or objections to the contribution of an assessment of the licensing terms to this page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.192.82.69 (talk) 16:08, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Regarding List of Office Suites
The folks maintaining List of office suites have decided not to include Google Docs & Spreadsheets, on account of it's not technically an office suite. Would it make sense to remove the reference to that page on this one for the same reason? --128.148.33.128 02:33, 7 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Agree. Replaced with List of word processors. --John Seward 14:39, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

In 2008 is it now considered an office suite yet, having spreadsheet and presentation modes? CortlandKlein (talk) 19:37, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

date of purchase for writely
was able to find the date announced that being March 9' 2006 my sources being http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/writely-so.html and http://writely.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_writely_archive.html Atomic1fire 02:47, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Name of article
Should be Google Docs & Spreadsheets, right? --John Seward 13:38, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
 * yeah --Mambo Jambo 22:13, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
 * The move has been made. Oberiko 22:13, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Security (HTTPS)
This section needs some wording adjustment, while you can change http to https for docs.google.com, only documents can be opened securely, spreadsheet links are non-SSL only at this time. --SubWolf 23:23, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmm, looks like you're right! Thanks for noting this, I had no idea.  I haven't figured out a good way to word that section yet; if you have ideas, please edit! Nemilar 04:11, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Speculation on Google Docs & Spreadsheets' future
It is speculated that Google will release more products in its MS Office competitor. Rumor has it that Google's next plan is releasing a presentation program, codenamed Presently (after Writely), similar to Microsoft's PowerPoint. Ice Ardor 18:47, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Browser Support
Nearly all of Google's services claim to not support Opera 9.0+, even when Opera functions identically to Firefox or IE. Google sniffs useragents to disallow Opera users. Spoofing the UA string fixes the problem.

Although still a beta release, Apple's Safari 3.0 is now available for Windows XP and Vista, and works with Google Docs & Spreadsheets.80.175.134.121 09:27, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Some Google services don't fully work in Opera due to non-standard coding and/or new, experimental technologies which have not become a standard yet. There is a UserJS that fixes Google services for Opera. Ice Ardor 18:47, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

As of September 26, 2007, the most current version of Opera is 9.23 build 8808 and it is compatible with Google Docs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dabrace1984 (talk • contribs) 15:57, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Spreadsheets
Google Spreadsheets does not require any special download/installations! It does require a google (gmail) account. What tech is used to implement the interactivity? Java? Javascript? What are the most important factors the determine performance in typical uses?-69.87.200.81 22:32, 7 April 2007 (UTC)
 * On a PII-266, Win98SE, dialup: Quite slow to start. Reasonable interactive performance with very simple test spreadsheets.
 * On a 2GHz WinXP, (slow) broadband: Good performance with simple test spreadsheets.

Google Presentations
According to their blog, they just bought out a presentation company. Might be time for microsoft to get worried :). Will need adding to the wiki as it is from their official blog Gigitrix 15:07, 24 April 2007 (UTC)


 * It's in the introductory paragraph. Oberiko 16:09, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

AJAX (Programming category) query
Can someone shine some light as to why this article is in the AJAX (Programming) category? 5pitfir3 19:26, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Presumably, because Google's on-line applications have APIs, making them easy to use for AJAX, and because it uses AJAX. I'm not sure if its inclusion is warranted, though, because I'm not sure how much you can embed Google Docs into your own website.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.50.151.142 (talk) 12:23, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

File formats
Google Docs & Spreadsheets accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, etc. You can save your files to your own computer in DOC, XLS, CSV, ODS, ODT, PDF, RTF and HTML formats.

Here's what you can do with documents:
 * Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text (or create documents from scratch).
 * Use our simple WYSIWYG editor to format your documents, spell-check them, etc.
 * Invite others (by e-mail address) to edit or view your documents and spreadsheets.
 * Edit documents online with whomever you choose.
 * Download documents to your desktop as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML or zip.

Here's what you can do with spreadsheets:
 * Import and export of .xls, .csv, .txt and .ods formatted data (and export functionality for .pdf and html).

-69.87.201.134 01:45, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * What exactly can I do with Google Docs & Spreadsheets?
 * How do I save a document or spreadsheet to my computer?
 * What's new in Google Docs & Spreadsheets?

Google Terms of Service
Shoud this page have a comment on the Google Terms of Service?

see this page Google denies it owns your words and this pageThe Content in Google Apps Belongs to Google. Google Terms of Service 16:58, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Google Docs Uses OpenOffice PDF Writer?
Anyone else notice that pdf files output from the spreadsheet say "OpenOffice" in the producer metadata field? Family Guy Guy (talk) 18:53, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Ok, sorry. It's changed now. Writely documents says "Prince 6.0 (www.princexml.com)" and the spreadsheets say "iText 1.4.1 (by lowagie.com)" Family Guy Guy (talk) 18:53, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Document size and file limitations
The size limitation only appears to apply for uploads. I copy-pasted a 3500 KB document in, saved it and published it and it worked fine. In fact, it's right here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d9fsc5t_4sqb6mkhh May I suggest an edit? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.72.168.218 (talk) 20:01, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm a little concerned about the Limitations and Security sections -- both sound like they were written by someone severely skeptical of the utility of the Docs suite, and as you pointed out, some of the claims may no longer be accurate. --AquaDoctorBob (talk) 09:26, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

The claim "A user can have a total of 5,000 documents and presentations, 5,000 images, 1,000 spreadsheets, and 100 PDFs at one time" seems to be false... This limitation, specifically the limit of 100 pdf files, is not correct. I personally have over 250 in my normal, free account.Kromium (talk) 17:07, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

"Data storage of files up to 1 GB total in size was introduced on January 13, 2011, but has since been increased to 10GB, documents created inside Google Docs do not count towards this quota." makes it seem like users with free account have 10GB free space, but it is only 1GB. 10GB is the file size limit. On the link it is clearly specified about file size and space size. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.176.170.98 (talk) 04:45, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Article lacks mention of version tracking
Google Document (the word processor) deffinately has a level of version tracking, and I'm fairly sure the other two applications do too. This hasn't been mentioned in this article. Is there any reason why? El Paulio (talk) 13:12, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

@ El Paulo : Your assumption is wrong, google draw does not currently support version traking. I agree the "Version tracking" topic needs to be mentioned. --RomualdoGrillo (talk) 12:13, 9 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your suggestion. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the  link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills.  New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). ff m  22:26, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Great limitations not mentioned
What about the extreme basicness of the word-processor (not much above WordPad or HTML email) and the presentations module (only static slides)? I wish someone with more knowledge would write about these deficiencies, which, incidentally, have remained more or less unchanged for a very long time. APW (talk) 08:39, 30 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, that is seen as an advantage by many, but, sadly, will probalby give into the above suggested over-engineering soon.--John Bessa (talk) 19:42, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

Security
Security section only seems to exist to substantiate and sensationalise security blog posts. Maybe the blog author should see his own article of August 24th 2008 entitled 'The Looming Dangers of Security Vulnerability Sensationalism' to see why this is not a warranted sensationalisation.

Also, these claims have been made and reported to google multiple times earlier, such as http://blog.novedge.com/2007/09/google-docs-sec.html and http://www.ati.es/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=390&blogId=2 making at the very least the reference not notable. Fancy steve (talk) 07:01, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Refresh rate
The major technical issue for Gmail document share, IMO, is its slow refresh rate. I did insert a phrase into the article on this, but I'm unsure whether it's the end of the matter. Will all of this be superseded by Google Wave? Tony  (talk)  14:49, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Mobile Docs
One cannot upload and download files, only read files from google mail (I am using Nokia 5800).--Nopetro (talk) 08:56, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Userbox
For editors who use this application you can add a userbox to your userpage if you like:

- Ahunt (talk) 21:01, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Clear sky!!
Section Features claims:
 * Google Docs is amongst many cloud computing document-sharing services[21].

Which isn't true and isn't relevant. The docs are stored on Google Docs, the processing is made by the client and server computers. Everything is clear and identifiable, a classical client-server app. "Cloud computing" refers to distributed processor capacity bought per MIPS or such. What computer is performing the processing is irrelevant, it is one or many randomly/automatically selected computers in a server park. Google Docs have nothing to do with cloud computing. Rursus dixit. ( m bork3 !) 12:57, 8 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Clearly, you're just arguing semantics here. I added a link that is appropriate. Timneu22 (talk) 19:15, 8 March 2010 (UTC)


 * This is a central server system, a cloud is a network abstraction--the exact opposite. It may have fit a cloud definition when it used google gears, which has since disappeared--possibly to implement mobwrite.--John Bessa (talk) 14:47, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Merge DocVerse
DocVerse seems to be pointless. Lets merge it into this. Also, perhaps someone should discuss what DocVerse actually did (or does)! Timneu22 (talk) 16:46, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Google Docs PDF Viewer
I didn't see anything about the Google Docs PDF Viewer - Google Chrome and Google Mail can be set up so that clicking on links to PDF files don't download them or open them in the browser with a plugin, but instead you're sent to Google Docs, which then loads the PDF file for you and lets you preview it on-screen. -- pne (talk) 11:11, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

Criticism: Evolution or de-evolution of google docs?
Many claim that doc's attempt to imitate Microsoft Word has crippled it; that when it was purely web-based, it was much more powerful. The Google Docs division, or "team," had finally removed the last original composing mode, and with it web-publishing and blog-publishing, making it, in the opinions of many, useless except as an advertising icon of the largest advertising firm: Google. The only new useful feature is Mobwrite that quite brilliantly allows instaneous collaboration, and is in the public domain.

The decline of Google Docs should stimulate the creation of a peer-to-peer collaboration suite, or perhaps protocol, that would allow democratic net collaboration without limitations imposed by oligarchic de-evoltuion (in our generation, or perhaps, just societal creep).--John Bessa (talk) 14:53, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Screenshots and Images
The screen-shots at the top really need to be updated. Google has changed its look entirely, and there are many new features not flaunted in the version shown. (It also looks a bit drab, so anybody discovering Google Docs through Wikipedia won't want to use it.) 41.138.236.42 (talk) 17:58, 12 November 2011 (UTC)WLD (NUA (No-User-Account))

OpenOffice.org Calc to MediaWiki
I have been trying to get the answer to this: How do I import an OpenOffice.org Calc spreadsheet to Wikipedia? Someone suggested uploading it to Google Docs, but will that work, and is that the best way? Allen (talk) 13:05, 17 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I think it will work, You can convert OpenOffice Spreadsheet to MS format or Google Format by using Google Docs. --Jerrywjh (talk) 03:24, 19 March 2012 (UTC)


 * How do I do it? Allen (talk) 10:41, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Free storage
15GB is now provided free not 10GB as in script. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.113.80.55 (talk) 07:39, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
 * There is no specification on their homepage, just "Download" to start, or "No Thanks." -- Charles Edwin Shipp (talk) 15:30, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Explanation of revert of edit by 120.59.36.123
Hi.

The following a more comprehensive edit summary for the reversion of edit 608408029 by 120.59.36.123:
 * 1) AJAX is reverted because it is not a programming language; it is a technique. Before putting it elsewhere, be advised, it needs a source.
 * 2) Change of link from Internet Explorer 9 to "Internet Explorer 9" goes against WP:EGG
 * 3) Changes to genre partially reverted because "a software" is a wrong English construct. "An app" or "a web app" is correct.
 * 4) Change of license from "Software as a service" to "Proprietary software" violates . "Saas" is a delivery model and a licensing model.

Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 01:02, 14 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi again. In response to continued reverts by IP users (probably the same), I added source to software as a service article that proves SaaS actually is a licensing model, per our definition.


 * Best regards,
 * Codename Lisa (talk) 13:58, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * The words 'app' and 'application' mean the same. The word 'application' is only an expanded and more formal form of the word 'app', and can be substituted for the latter in almost all cases. A web app and a web application, a collaborative app and a collaborative application, are nothing but the same. This can be clearly seen in the article Web application which begins with the words 'A web application or web app is...'


 * Also, writing 'software' cannot essentially be wrong as the article Web application clearly states that a web app is a type of application software. 59.177.73.196 (talk) 17:22, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Let me introduce some counterexamples. Take mobile app for instance: You can get an antivirus from App Store (iOS) and it is called an "app" but an antivirus is not an application. It is a utility. Or take Windows Store App for instance; you can certainly get utilities from Windows Store but they are called apps.


 * It is a known fact that short forms of words may have different use grounds than their parent. A "PC" is not always "personal computer" because a Macintosh, a personal computer, is not a "PC". (When people say "PC", they mean "not Mac".) Also an "IP" in Wikipedia does not mean Internet Protocol, it means a user who leaves his IP address as his identity, like yourself.


 * Best regards,
 * Codename Lisa (talk) 11:18, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Merger
Hi. I propose merging Google Drawing and Google Spreadsheets into this article because one is no bigger than a paragraph and one is only one line. They essentially talk about the same thing too. Page size tool reports article wiki text size at 29 KB, well below WP:SIZERULE requirements, so the article won't become too large.

Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 14:37, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * As of May 2014, Google has announced stand-alone Google Sheets and Google Docs applications for Android and iOS. A similar app for Google Slides is coming soon. In such a case, I think that Google Spreadsheets should be renamed Google Sheets and similar articles be created for Google Docs (application) and Google Slides. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.59.167.81 (talk) 15:03, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Disagree (later, vote changed to Agree) : Because Google Drawing is distinct.  Occult Zone  ( Talk ) 16:49, 14 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi. I just wanted to make sure you understand our other options: If they don't merge, they get deleted because of lack of notability. Wikipedia does not have a mandate of one subject per article. (This is deliberate, to allow contents to survive deletion by merging.) Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 05:15, 15 May 2014 (UTC)
 * With more than 85,000 results of "Google Drawing", I don't think there is any need to argue about the notability. I would've never reviewed this page if it wasn't notable. I am here only because I had reviewed the page at first.  Occult Zone  ( Talk ) 14:41, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi again. It might interest you that there is even more search results for "Windows 13", about 1,180,000. Pick you favorite nonsensical word; 90% probability you will get one million search result. Notability requires verifiable evidence, not search results. Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 15:21, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh yes, after all we do have multiple sources for the subject. I am not sure how a merge will effect, in future you will have to separate the article.  Occult Zone  ( Talk ) 15:57, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, yes, naturally adding sources would solve the notability problem. Only then, I would merged without even asking because we have a guideline supporting this action. Now, I've been watching Wikipedia grow for a decade now and I have never seen an article whose growth is taken for granted or promised to actually grow. (Even if you show me one, that would make the ratio of promises met to promises made something in the neighborhood of 0.001.) So, I am confident that the prose size of an article on Google Drawing will NEVER grow beyond 40 kB, as WP:SIZERULE requires. I can wait; but I will be very surprised if you or anyone could make it that big. Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 16:44, 19 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Google Drawing is poorly-written and overly detailed. Information about the product is already covered in Google Docs within the Features section. The excess details are not required. So, In my view, the article should be deleted (or redirected to Google Docs) as per WP:N or some other criterion. If not, then at least a cleanup template should be added. Also, the article ought to be renamed 'Google Drawings', which is its real name, as I have already stated on its talk page.


 * As for Google Spreadsheets, it only contains two sentences, both of which already appear in Google Docs. The best thing to do would be to create a redirect in its place, as is the case with Google Slides. Also, since the product is now called Google Sheets, a renaming can be considered. -59.177.70.226 (talk) 08:04, 15 May 2014 (UTC)
 * I agree. What can I say? Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 10:35, 15 May 2014 (UTC)
 * If it is poorly written, you should work on making it better.  Occult Zone  ( Talk ) 14:41, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
 * No, not really; we even merge well-written stuff, per WP:MERGE. Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 15:21, 19 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Merge per Codename Lixxx235 (talk) 15:52, 17 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Comment : Google Drawing is a notable subject, yes and also Google Spreadsheets. But there is not enough material for adding on both articles. I've changed my vote to merge.  Occult Zone  ( Talk ) 12:25, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

I believe we have a consensus to redirect Google Spreadsheets to Google Docs, for now. -120.56.166.130 (talk) 05:34, 28 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Agreed Can you specify your WP editor ID? -- Charles Edwin Shipp (talk) 15:33, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

As Google Drawings has currently underwent a major cleanup and expansion, please reconsider your arguments. Moreover, I do not think it would be practical to integrate the contents of Google Drawings into Google Docs as it would cause a problem of undue weight. Drawings is not a very significant part of Google Docs and thus does not deserve to be covered in such length. - SD0001 (talk) 14:34, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

It seems odd that Google Drawings is a stand-alone article and Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides are lumped together into a single article. It is also a bit ambiguous since people tend to use "Google Docs" improperly to refer to all three apps when Goolge Docs is just the word processor in the Drive Suite. I propose splitting this page so that each has its own article. For examples see Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite. Individual products like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Acrobat, and After Effects all have stand-alone pages. Many issues discussed in this section could be resolved by splitting. SBCornelius (talk) 19:35, 18 October 2018 (UTC)

Given the reasons stated above, I've split the page into individual articles for Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Forms. I'm also moving some information that was more about Google Drive to that page as well. No information was added or deleted in this process, I just sorted the information and kept structure of the new articles identical to what was used here. I've left hatnotes here to help users navigate to the article they are looking for. I believe that this article should be redirect to the Google Drive page once the hatnotes have been in place for a period of time. SBCornelius (talk) 17:25, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Splitting
I propose splitting this article into four individual articles I've created for Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. They include all information that is in this article without any additions. I sorted the information by product and even kept the same overall article structure. This brings this software suite in line with how Microsoft Office and it components of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel are represented on Wikipedia. This also holds true for the Adobe Creative Suite. SBCornelius (talk) 17:38, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

With some guidance from Oshwah, I've redirected this page to the Docs, Sheets, and Slides section of the Google Drive article. From that section users can access the new stand-alone articles I created using the material on this page. No material was added or deleted during this process. The new articles are Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. SBCornelius (talk) 16:58, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

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