week 7 online apps

Activity SevenOnline collaboration

tools

What are online collaboration tools?

• We have seen how to collaborate with others on web pages such as blogsand wikis and online collaboration tools are web-based applications that allow you to work with others to create text documents.

• These tools are similar to Microsoft Office products such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint and therefore fairly simple to use.

• These tools allow users the ability to create documents without the need to download or install software on their computers.

• As the documents are hosted online, all users are editing the one document which eliminates confusion of many different versions being created by users who access the document.

Google docs in plain english

Watch this short video on Google Docs produced by the Common Craft Show.

(This video can also be found at Blip.tv.)

Examples of online collaboration tools

Web conferencing, shared file space, presentations

Presentation sharing site

Word processing tools

Project management tool

Online list toolVideo conferencing

Time to play

Creating a shared document1. Go to http://docs.google.com.

2. Sign in with your Gmail account details (the same details that you use to sign in to Blogger).

3. Click on New in the top left hand corner of the page.

4. Select Document from the drop down options.

5. A new window will open with which is a blank document for you to write in. The page contains similar formatting icons to Word.

6. Enter information about your experiences with Web 2.0 technology.

7. Save your document.

8. Click on the Share button on the top right hand side of the page. Select Share with Others from the drop down options.

9. On the left hand side of the page, leave the radial button selected on Collaborators. This will allow others to edit your document.

10. In the white box add our email address (web2healthlibraries@gmail.com) to share your document with us.

11. Click on the Invite collaborators button.

12. A new box will appear with an email template. You may like to add a message to this email.

13. Click Send. You have now invited another person to work on your document.

14. You will now be able to see that your document is listed as being shared and the names of the collaborators.

15. Close this window and then Sign Out of Google Docs.

Google Docs tips

• Documents are automatically saved periodically but you still should click the save button before closing the document.

• Files are saved in Folders similar to Microsoft software.

• For people to edit your documents you must invite them to be a Collaborator on the document, and not just a Viewer.

• You can download you document from Google Docs to your computer in various file formats including Word, PDF and HTML.

• You can upload documents created in other software into Google Docs to share with others.

• You are able to track people’s changes to a document on the Revisionscreen.

Blog prompts• How different did you find Google Docs to Microsoft Word?

• What features did you like/dislike about Google Docs?

• Do you like the idea of people being able to change your document at any time?

• What uses can you see for these tools in your workplace?