Thing 18: Online Productivity Tools

The availability and use of online productivity web-based applications (think word processing and spreadsheets) has exploded over the past two years and for good reasons! These powerful applications provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the internet without the need of installed desktop applications.

• They eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC.
• They accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf).
• You can even use many of these tools, such as Zoho Writer and Google Docs to author and publish posts to your blog.
• It’s this type of integration with other web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing.

Discovery Resources:

• Lifehacker's Guide to Free Software and Webapps
• Lifehacker is a Web site that provides daily updates on tools and applications. Add it to your Bloglines account if you want to really see all that is offered in the name of productivity.
• A short list of web-based productivity applications – Note: This list was authored in ZohoWriter and exported as HTML.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Explore Google Documents. Take their tour
2. Log in in using your blogger user account and password. Create a simple document, spreadsheet, or presentation (or all three!)
3. Record your discoveries in your blog. How could this be helpful for library staff? Students and other patrons? Presentations and programs?