Have you heard of a man who touches anything that becomes gold? I see Google like that man, everything which is touched by Google seems to turn into Gold. Google not only generates billion dollars revenue through its search engine, it also creates other products too.

And today I am talking about Google Docs, one of Google products. Google Docs is an online word processor which is free to use and a great alternative to Microsoft Word, it allows anyone to create a document and edit them. Also, we can share them with anyone and give them access to view and edit documents.

Now, we come to our main topic Blogging. I write blogs and use word processors for writing my draft. And I talked about other bloggers, mostly using built-in text editors or WordPress and any other CMS they are using. Well, I mostly use MS Word, but I have problems while using it, as it is an offline tool. I am a full time Programmer working in the Corporation under the Government sector. I write the draft when I am at home or when I have my laptop with me and get time at the office. The problem is that mostly I didn’t carry my laptop and get a lot of free time many times and can’t work my draft as I don’t have my laptop. So, to overcome this situation, I planned to use an online editor. I worked with in built editor of WordPress and found it was fat inferior to Microsoft Word. I need a word processor like Microsoft Word and found Google Docs, a great alternative to MS Word and it is Online.

Why Should Bloggers Use Google Docs?

All the bloggers believe in using Best Tools to increase productivity. That is why, now I am using Google Docs for writing blog posts and other documentations.

Here are some reasons why should you as a blogger use Google Docs for blogging:

• Easy Collaboration
• Research at your Fingertips
• Quick Image Insertion
• Proofing Tools are in-built
• Add-ons
• Edit History

Easy Collaboration

Blogging is teamwork, I know many are doing it with single hands, but there could be a team involved in researching and putting the content together for a blog post. You might be working for an organisation and the subject experts need to give input for the content.

In terms of collaborate with others, Google Docs offers a wonderful collaboration experience in three different ways:

• Comments: Google Docs offer commenting on the content of a document and response to those comments. Comments allow you to clarify things in collaboration with others.
• Suggested Changes: Sometimes, there are situations where there is not a lot of discussion required and you simply want some changes.
• Edit Together: Google Docs allows you to edit documents with other at the same time and see the changes from other people in real-time.

Research at your fingertips

When we write content for our blog post, we need to research about that topic to give the right information to our readers. Google Docs have a tool named Explore, by which you can research about the content within the Google Docs windows, otherwise we open a browser or open a new tab and research the topic, which is quite impressive.

To research, click on the Explore button at the bottom right-hand corner of your document.

With explore, you can easily search for the content in your own Google Drive as well as from the web. Want to add images, explore, like the image? Now, simply drag it into your document.

Quick Image Insertion

Images or Info graphics, it’s very good practice of using them in your blog posts. They reduce boredom while reading pots. While writing the content, finding the relevant images and inserting them in the posts can interrupt your flow of writing and thought process.

In the previous sub-topic, you have read, how you can search and insert images with the Explore tool, in spite of this, there are some other techniques you can use.

In the toolbar, click on Insert, you have seen the other options:

• Upload from Computer
• Search on Web
• Get images from Google Drive, Photos, URL, and Camera

Google Photos option is very useful, if you Google Photos app on your phone. Simply click photos on your phone, allow Google Photos app to automatically backup those photos to Google Photos cloud. Now, insert images using drag-and-drop from the Google Photos sidebar into your document.

Proofing Tools are in-built

We are not typing experts and make typos like spelling mistakes(I have made a lot) and Google Docs has built-in tools to help you with that. Google Docs spell checker will underline misspelled words like in Microsoft Word and offer suggestions for correct spelling.

Google Docs also has a grammar suggestion tool which gives you feedback and suggestions for grammatical mistakes.

Google Docs also has an in-built dictionary to quickly look up the meaning of words.

Add-ons

As we read above, Google Docs has many useful in-built tools, but sometimes, such situations occur where you may want functionality that Google Docs doesn’t offer. Don’t worry, a solution is available for this too in the form of add-ons.

With Add-ons, one can extend the base functionality of Google Docs with more custom features. Google Add-ons store offers a wide selection of add-ons across various categories. You can find the add-ons by going to the Add-ons menu and selecting Get add-ons.

Edit History (or Versions)

We’re working on a document and made major changes to the document and after sometime realize that we should not have made them and want to revert to a previous version of the document. Before the internet and nowadays too, we make copies of a file before doing any major edits. But the Google Docs have version or edit history feature, with this, you don’t have to worry about this anymore. You can see the changes that were made between different versions and even revert to a previous version.