February 9th, 2007
Top Ten Things That Suck About Google Docs
I’ve been using Google Docs to work on some documents with other collaborators. This was my first real test of Google Docs, and I have to say, while most of the application works quite well and online collaboration really is a new paradigm, some fundamental elements of the application really SUCK. Here’s my top ten list of sucky things about Google Docs:
- Sloooowwww to load, especially revision pages. What happened to Google’s famous devotion to speed?
- No find/replace function (although an “experimental” version was just introduced — “Undo does not work with this feature, so be sure what you do!”) — for me, this was like launching without a WYSIWYG editor.
- Impossible to match printed version to browser version, even by narrowing the browser view, which makes matching up edits made on paper (yes, this is still an effective way to edit!) to the onscreen version a HUGE hassle.
- Automatic numbering function is VERY buggy — can’t Google afford to hire more QA folks?
- Can’t make edits on pages that show revisions — so if you don’t like someone’s revisions, you have to go back to the edit screen (slow to load!), find the place, and make the change. MS Word track changes, annoying as it is, is far superior.
- The underline/bold/italics function is buggy — hello, QA?
- No offline access.
- No offline access.
- No offline access.
- No offline access.
I couldn’t come up with more than seven things that suck at the moment, and needed to get this off my chest, but no offline accesses is SO annoying, especially if you like to work on a plane, that it can fill out the list of ten for now.
Is there anything else that bugs you about Google Docs? I’ll gladly update the list with your gripes.
Let me cavaet by saying that I really HATE Microsoft software — it’s brought me lots of misery over the years. But there have been times working with Google Docs that I’ve longed for the security of MS Word — I’m just one user, but this is exactly the reaction that Google needs to avoid at all costs if it really wants to go mano-a-mano with Microsoft.
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Number 3 really irks me. I also wish that their custom context menu had suggestions for incorrect spelings.
I wish they would incorporate instant messaging (like Gmail). Sometimes I want to discuss a section in real time with my other collaborators.
Okay. I’ll admit it once more. I really love it when you get pissed off.
Scott Karp. Obviously, Google Docs aren’t as good as Microsoft Office. The question is are they good enough — or how long will it take to make them good enough. For home managing, it appears close for Li, although she finds much to dislike. For Karp, the
[…] Top Ten Things That Suck About Google Docs … I’ve been using Google Docs to work on some documents with other collaborators. This was my first real test of Google Docs, and I have to say, while most of the application works quite well and online collaboration really is a new paradigm, some … Read more […]
I find that adding extra rows at the end of the spreadsheet can be a real pain in the butt. This mostly happens when working with larger amounts of data.
As far at the offline acces goes, I normally just export it to Excel or word when I know I’ll be out of net access areas and then re-import when I’m back online. A bit of a pain but at least I can then access my docs.
I’m curious what you mean by “Offline Access”. Not that I’ve played with it that much, but can’t you save any document as either .doc or .odt to your hard drive? And thus, edit it offline?
Personally I find the product handy, mostly because its an easy way to keep documents synced between the multiple computers I work on (and the Gmail integration is sweet). Mostly I just write with it though and treat it as an online text editor - formatting is just too basic and too unwieldy to be of any use. For that stuff I just drop the text into the equally free openoffice.org
http://publishing2.com/2007/02/09/top-ten-things-that-suck-about-google-docs/
I’m with you. Most of this list applies to the “new” Blogger too. Despite a supposedly WYSIWIG mode and a separate preview, Blogger still can’t do something as basic as reliably position a graphic in line with text.
Maybe Google doesn’t have any QA, or Macs. Or maybe, accustomed as we are to 10th generation desktop word processors, we’ve forgotten how primitive most new tools are.
Eric,
Offline access means using the same application on the same document. Remembering to save it as a Microsoft Word document before you head to the airport is NOT offline access. I don’t have to remember to do anything with my Word files to access them offline.
I agree that it’s a “handy” product, but it’s got a ways to go.
Let’s not forget the fact that you can’t use the FireFox 2.0 spellchecker. It’s a 100 times quicker to use than the Google one, yet Docs disables it.
Not a fan.
Ryan
No Format Painter.
I really wish they would incorporate that the Format Painter, which you can use to select a piece of text and “copy” the qualities of that text (e.g. bold, centered, font size, etc.) and apply them to another piece of text. I find this the most useful tool on Microsoft applications and have asked for it multiple times, but still never received a response.
There’s a problem copying out or pasting into the docs using a right-click. You have to use CNTR-C, etc. The error message indicates that the problem is with the browser, but I haven’t experienced this on any other site, and I’m a power right clicker who does it hundreds of times a day online.
Glad to see you beat up Google over this, because we (Seeking Alpha) starting using Google Docs and have become totally addicted to them, and want them to improve.
We never expected this, but they’ve revolutionized our business:
- we’re moving all our employees to web based aps to cut our IT requirements. Our main publishing system (financial content) is web based, so everyone needs to be online all the time anyway. We now don’t need to purchase MS Office for most employees, and that saves us a ton of money.
- The collaboration of Google Docs has massively raised our efficiency. We just uploaded our phone directory as a Google spreadsheet, and everyone updates their own info themselves. We just worked collaboratively in a Google doc on a press release announcing our China coverage, and it saved us hours.
- Integration with Gmail is key. We get articles submitted to us via email, and instead of having to download an attachment and then open it, gmail plus Google docs allows our editors to open it immediately.
- We’re even sharing docs with customers (people who sponsor our free conference call transcripts). We put together a pricing spreadsheet containing various customized purchase options, and they can play with it.
We’ve also noticed many of the drawbacks you mentioned (thank you for summarizing them so succinctly!), and we’d really like to see them fixed. But even now, Google docs are providing a huge productivity boost and cost saving to us.
Top Ten Things That Suck About Google Docs » Publishing 2.0 - “No offline access†is at positions 7,8,9 and 10. I HATE listmakers that try to be too smart for their own good
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Top Ten Things That Suck About Google Docs » Publishing 2.0 - “No offline access†is at positions 7,8,9 and 10. I HATE listmakers that try to be too smart for their own good
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Add this to the list of things that suck:
I tried several times to publish a document as PDF with images in it. And it keeps shrinking the images down to about 1/5 the size.
And that really sucks!
Google Docs really sucks. Try opening up one of the templates and editing. You ~never~ be able to get your text to line up.