Tech Table Radio Show

Tech Table
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

October 29, 2013

Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.

Diana: And I’m Diana.

Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.

Diana: We promise, it’ll be easy to digest.

Diana: Well hello, Justin.

Justin: Hello. It’s Tuesday on the Tech Table.

Diana: That’s right. Right.

Justin: How are you, Diana?

Diana: I’m all right. It’s kind of a long weekend. Very busy, I should say. With Monday in there, I was able to get a little recovered.

Justin: Oh, so you’ve recovered.

Diana: I’m still struggling a little bit.

Justin: It’s Tuesday, and you’ve recovered.

Diana: Yeah.

Justin: Well, that’s good. I don’t really remember Mondays usually, so Tuesday is definitely a restart day. Today we’re talking about Google Docs.

Diana: Love it.

Justin: Everyone knows what Google is, in one way or the other. You’ve heard Google. Many people know it for search.

Diana: Right, that’s how I started using Google.

Justin: Absolutely. But of course, then they started offering email.

Diana: Right.

Justin: Now, if you don’t have a Gmail account, you’re behind the times.

Diana: Right. I think everyone has Gmail, just about. If they have a business.

Justin: Absolutely. We always recommend using Gmail for your business and then you can also use Google Docs. What Google Docs is, well, I always describe it, and you may challenge me on this, Diana, but I always say it’s like having Word, Microsoft Word, wherever you go.

Diana: That’s absolutely true.

Justin: Right. What do you use Google Docs for?

Diana: I use it for keeping lists. I make documents, like you said, Microsoft Word documents. It’s very similar to the format that you would use there. You can access spreadsheets. You can make presentations. I have actually created presentations like PowerPoint would have the Microsoft name to it, but they have presentations in Google that you can create slideshows. It’s pretty cool.

Justin: Right. It’s a really neat thing. You actually access Google Docs through your Gmail account, or your Google account.

Diana: Right, your Google account.

Justin: You really can just use it anywhere.

Diana: Anywhere. You can log in from any computer.

Justin: Right.

Diana: Or your mobile device, and update or use it.

Justin: It automatically saves.

Diana: Automatically. You don’t have to push a save button.

Justin: Right, it automatically saves and everything, so you don’t have to worry about actually using a series of programs. I don’t know how I want to say it. Production suite. That’s what it’s called. It’s called a production suite.

Diana: Oh, okay. Yeah.

Justin: A workplace production suite, like Microsoft Word. I don’t really use that anymore, because I use Google Docs. You don’t really have to worry about having your documents on an individual computer these days.

Diana: Right. Now, what about for people who have already saved a lot of important documents to Word?

Justin: Import.

Diana: Yay.

Justin: You can import them, any Word document that you have that you use a lot. I actually took a bunch of song lists and things like that, because I work in music too. I took those song lists that I always have saved on one computer in my office and I uploaded them all into Google Docs. I just imported them right in, and there you go. Now I have them wherever I go, on whatever device I need them. It’s really cool, and it’s really easy to do. There’s a little learning curve, but it’s easy to do.

Diana: Yeah. And one thing we should definitely mention is sharing.

Justin: Yes, and that’s a big part of Google Docs. You can share with other users a document. You can change it, if you don’t want them to be able to edit, just to view. You can change that.

Diana: Make comments directly on the document.

Justin: Yep, you can make comments directly. You really can collaborate with people.

Diana: Yes.

Justin: If you’re working on, like I do a song list, I’m working with another musician. We can work together.

Diana: Look at it at the same time.

Justin: We can even look at it at the same time on different devices and make edits in real time, which is pretty cool.

Diana: Yeah.

Justin: Yeah. So check out Google Docs. It’s an awesome, awesome thing. I think you’ll really enjoy it. Until next time.

Diana: Take care.

Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at askmpa.com.

Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com.

Justin: Thanks for listening.