A lot of us spend an awful lot of time writing things in electronic documents. We, as authors, are normally extremely proud of the words we use, the way we’ve managed to succinctly encapsulate the issues before us and the formatting we spend ages fixing.

At the very last moment we then decide to allow others into our document by sharing it by a multitude of means - printing, emailing as an attachment, sending as a link or even publishing to the Intranet.

And then what?

If you’re like me it probably sinks lower and lower in our vision as we embark on creating more and more documents full of more and more words.

For the readers of the document they may find that your words have been the answer to all their problems and they pass it on. They may, unfortunately, never actually read it. Or the words in your document may have lasting value to your organisations and be found over and over again as more and more people share it.

How do you know which applies to your masterpiece?

If, like me, you use Google Docs (within Google Apps) as the place to store your words you’ll know that not only can you create your document but you can also collaborate (in real time) and share your documents with anyone connected to the Web. And because this is the “web” you can now do things that were initially only avaialble for web sites - track usage.

Today Google has announced:

Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators can link their Google Analytics accounts to Google Apps through the Google Apps administrative control panel. Just go to the ‘Advanced Tools’ tab, click ‘Setup Google Analytics’ and enter the profile ID number from your Google Analytics account to begin collecting usage data.

Google Docs, not only can you create and share your words you can see how those all important readers are using them.

Interested in more about Google Docs then check out the RoSSCo hosted Engage Your Community Conference in Rotorua on Friday 28th November - full details in the programme (pdf).

Also, these articles will help you discover more about Google Docs:

• Google Docs
• Video: Google Docs in Plain English
• Google Docs Help
• Google Docs … so what - the ONE reason why you should care

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