Review of the "Docs" in Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Google continually saves your document as you type. This means that you don't lose much data if your computer loses power, but occasionally, you may find a mistake that you can't undo. You can find earlier versions of your document by visiting the Revisions history. This actually saved the Google Toolbar review, when several words were replaced with the word "null" unexpectedly and undo would not fix it.

Sorting Documents

You can sort and organize documents by tagging them with keywords or flagging them with a star. Documents can be sorted by the date of last modification, document title, or document owner. You can also search within your documents to find a keyword phrase.

The Docs half of Docs & Spreadsheets is often slow and sometimes there are delays between typing and the appearance of the letters on the screen. Docs may be using a programming technique called Ajax to speed up some of the performance of word processing, but it seems to still need some tweaking.

Docs has a nice selection of standard word processing features. It covers the essentials for most writing purposes, especially writing challenges for students who may need to use lab computers, power users who edit documents from more than one computer, or writers who want to collaborate on a document without emailing it back and forth. However, it still lacks features found in desktop word processing applications, such as grammar checking, templates, and the ability to handle larger documents. It is slow and sometimes unresponsive.

Even with those limitations, it's still a great tool with a lot of potential. You certainly can't beat the price, but don't throw out your copy of Microsoft Word just yet.

• Google Docs & Spreadsheets can be found on the web at http://docs.google.com.
• Learn how to share documents with Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
• Read about Google Spreadsheets.