Upload Word to Google Docs With Same Format
Our Verdict
Google Docs offers one of the best user-experiences in discussion processors right now with superior collaboration tools, support for a wide variety of formats as well as excellent ease of utilise.
For
- Unparalleled Collaboration Tools
- Broad format compatibility
- Fast, easy to navigate
- Simple but non dumbed down
Against
- No access to custom fonts
- Offline access requires Chrome Extension
Laptop Mag Verdict
Google Docs offers 1 of the all-time user-experiences in word processors right now with superior collaboration tools, back up for a broad variety of formats as well as excellent ease of employ.
Pros
- +
Unparalleled Collaboration Tools
- +
Broad format compatibility
- +
Fast, like shooting fish in a barrel to navigate
- +
Simple merely not dumbed down
Cons
- -
No access to custom fonts
- -
Offline admission requires Chrome Extension
In a recent survey, 2 of the three people I shouted questions to from my window concluding week had no idea what Google Docs was, while the other but told me to put some pants on. Ask any postal service-Gen Xer what Google Docs is, however, and you're likely to get a different response. While Google (the search engine) has amassed incredible popularity — claiming a marketplace share of over 85% and condign so synonymous with searching for things online that the make is now more commonly used every bit a verb than a substantive — many other services offered past the tech giants have a ways to go before attaining that aforementioned level of familiarity.
One of those services is Google Docs, a function of the free Google Docs Editor suite and premium Google Workspace suite of office and productivity tools. If you're not familiar with the name Google Workspace, y'all may have come across it previously equally G Suite, or even further back equally Google Apps. It'south this stream of indecisive rebranding that has potentially inhibited the adoption of Google's premium online suite by many, but in the high-octane, adrenaline-fueled earth of give-and-take processors, Google Docs is gaining more and more traction equally the prime competitor to market-dominating Microsoft Discussion.
With more than people adopting a work-from-home arroyo than ever before, Google Docs finds itself in prime number positioning to encounter its user base great. And so what are some of the standout features that showcase the growing popularity of Docs and highlight it as a real competitor and potentially better-suited app for you to consider?
I go a lot of mileage out of word processors then I decided to put Google Docs through its paces and permit it handle a few of my weekly ongoing tasks and projects to see how it fared.
Google Docs pricing and packages
If y'all have a personal Google account, you already accept admission to many of Google's productivity tools for free through the Google Docs Editor Suite. That means Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Cartoon, Sites, Drive and Keep are all bachelor to use at no cost. You tin also use the app versions of these tools without limitation. Personal Google accounts have a Google Drive storage space cap of 15GB, which is a sizable corporeality for storing part documents. Notwithstanding, if you need more storage, Google offers a premium service called Google Ane that can boost your storage to 100GB for as little as $2 a calendar month.
There's no existent drawback to using the gratis offerings from Google; you can reach a lot with Google'south free offerings. Still, if you're looking for something more suited for concern or to manage groups of people, there's e'er Google Workspace.
Google Workspace is the premium productivity suite offered by Google. Information technology includes Google Docs' suite of tools and one or ii more that are focused on communication, security and administration for managing employees or users. Prices start from $6 per user, per month and the subscription includes numerous perks similar custom email domains, digital whiteboarding, additional file type supports for Google Drive, chat messaging, and ameliorate phishing and spam protection. At that place'southward also sizable increases to your storage cap depending on which of Google Workspace's 4 premium packages you determine upon with 30GB, 2TB, 5TB options maxing out at a rather vague "As much as y'all need."
There are certainly reasons to go premium should yous need to micromanage a number of employees or want to ditch the Gmail domain from your email. Just the core office suite and its features are the chief draw, and are just every bit functional from within the complimentary Google Docs Editor suite.
Google design and interface
Google Docs retains the usual modern, flat, stylistic iconography that most Google products contain. While information technology looks not bad from a blueprint perspective and breathes modernity into the typical word processor interface, I can't help only feel there's a singled-out lack of personality about Docs' virtually sterile advent. This is, afterwards all, the same company that makes its interns wear propeller hats while expecting their staff to traverse its headquarters using a series of slides and firemen poles like a bunch of pocket-protector-wearing ninja warriors.
Docs maintains its minimalistic presentation by removing a lot of the clutter that can be plant in its contemporaries. Google's done this primarily by limiting Docs to one focused toolbar that covers the most common actions such as formatting, fonts, colors, alignments and inserts. Nearly users typically perform the majority of tasks from this master toolbar, which is great for productivity every bit everything feels readily available in one easy-to-attain place.
It's worth noting that, due to the nature of Google Docs being an online service, you will exist express to fonts within the Google Fonts library. There'southward currently no way of importing custom fonts, which can exist frustrating for those who may, from time to time, need a specialised mode for a projection they're working on. Withal, Google Fonts is fairly extensive so, with a piffling creativity combined with a decent number of bachelor add together-ons, you lot may detect this less of an issue.
Further formatting and tools are found in the dropdown menus neatly tucked into the header of the page. This brings a less distracting workspace that makes the most of whatever screen real-estate is available. However, due to Docs running through a web browser, Google's efforts only go as far equally the individual user setup allows, with bookmark bars, extensions or search bars limiting the vertical space available by default.
You can, however, recoup for this by minimising the Google Docs header, which will remove the drop-down menus and broader Google Workspace icons from view, and restore some amount of lost space to the folio. Docs then implements a handy search bar into your primary toolbar that allows you to expect for items otherwise located in the driblet-downward menus, significant you're never cut off from those tools should you lot need them.
The end result is more than than just pleasing to the center; the minimalist aesthetics brand the overall presentation announced clean and navigation is a uncomplicated thing. Docs maintains the traditional discussion processor layout while simplifying information technology wherever possible. It'southward a blueprint choice that is welcoming to new users without coming across like a stripped-down version of the competition.
Google Docs functioning and compatibility
Thanks to the lightweight design institute in the app and browser versions, Google Docs feels shine and responsive with files loading with no real delay. Both the browser and app performed impressively as I switched betwixt various documents to gauge their loading times. With most documents, you're usually ready to go within a 2d or two, though image-heavy files will tend to take a piddling longer (which is to exist expected). However, the entire process of opening files from Google Drive is otherwise quick and painless.
One of the great things about Google Docs is its cross-platform capabilities. There are no OS-specific file types to deal with when it comes to Docs. Instead, anyone with a device that can run Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Cyberspace Explorer, or Microsoft Border (or who has the Google Docs app installed on their mobile device) tin can create, read, edit, and interact with people without any problems. This means no longer having to worry well-nigh whether a file will open up on the platform of the person receiving your certificate. It'south but i less headache in a needlessly fragmented market place.
Receiving files from others made outside of Google's office suite is also much less of a headache equally Docs boasts compatibility with a varied selection of file formats. Docs can read and salvage to many popular formats like Microsoft Word, OpenDocument, RichText, PDF and Plain Text. Yous can fifty-fifty download your document as an EPUB if you're looking to distribute information technology. While you can't directly salve to the Apple Pages format, you tin can still load them into Google Docs and edit from there, though you will have to export information technology every bit a dissimilar format in one case you're washed. This level of compatibility is hard to argue with, fifty-fifty if some more complex formats like PDFs tend to lose formatting upon opening.
Google Docs features
Google Docs is primarily an online tool. It was designed to exist that way. As such, when it comes to working online with others, Docs shines so brightly it could direct aircraft through fog. Once you share a certificate via email or direct link, upward to 100 people can view, edit and annotate on that document simultaneously. That's one more than than Word's co-authoring limit of 99. Conspicuously Google is taking a Price Is Right arroyo to outdoing the competition. I don't know what kind of horrible mess yous'd have to birth in Docs that would actually require 100 people to gather around, poking and prodding it with suggestions and edits. But merely knowing yous can get such a large group shows the versatility of Google Docs' collaboration tools.
All edits take place in real-time, with each unique user tracked down in the document with a randomly assigned colour and cursor. Their edits and suggestions are marked by assigned colors and hover to the correct of the page, awaiting your feedback. If you choose to take these suggestions, changes are made to the certificate automatically. Comments made past editors most specific sections are highlighted in yellow, and clicking on that section will highlight the feedback for your acknowledgment.
It'southward easy for documents to become chaotic and hard to read amid the collaboration process. Thankfully, Google Docs' focus on a simplified piece of work area means you lot shouldn't find yourself lost amid a ocean of corrections that are hard to read or process. You'll fifty-fifty have admission to your unabridged edit history should yous make changes you after second-guess.
Google Docs, at its core, is a fairly robust word processor. What elevates information technology to a true competitor are all the Google bells and whistles it brings along. Inserting charts, images or files within your certificate draws upon the wider Google Workspace and Google Drive services. You can translate your document to every available Google Translate language without likewise much fuss. Y'all can as well use your voice to type, making use of Google'south impressive Speech-to-Text technology. Docs tin automatically right whatsoever spellings and brand grammer suggestions in real-time thanks to Google's automobile learning and dictionary. There'due south also the Google Workspace Marketplace which affords numerous add-ons to further aggrandize the features available.
In that location are also some interesting built-in tools that farther boost Docs' productivity, namely the outliner and explore tab. The outliner is a sliding sidebar bill of fare that automatically keeps track of your headers and titles, so presents them as an interactive list that acts as an index of sorts so you tin can moving-picture show through larger documents much easier. Near the base of the page is a floating push that directs yous to the explore tab, allowing yous to quickly search for citations, images and Google Bulldoze contents.
Google Docs autosave
One of Docs' well-nigh valuable features is its auto-save. You'll notice a distinct lack of a save button within Google Docs; this is because saving is a continuous process performed automatically with each keystroke and click (and then long every bit y'all accept a stable internet connexion). It'due south invaluable if you're the type of person who oftentimes saves as an afterthought rather than a habit.
Should your computer lock up — or you leave your device unattended briefly and that Windows Update y'all've been delaying for a week finally decides to push button itself through — you won't be left every bit a potential r/WatchPeopleDieInside candidate. In fact, should that happen, you lot could avoid any wasted time and load upwardly the same document on some other device and seamlessly continue your work from the moment yous left off. And once you lot accept admission to your chief device over again, simply switch dorsum with all your up-to-date piece of work waiting.
Thanks to spotty internet, there were a few times I lost connection while using Google Docs. In those moments, I connected writing and the document instantly began its saving routines once a connexion was re-established. There is an offline version of Google Docs bachelor, but it'south only obtainable through a Google Chrome extension. For an app that does so much to promote compatibility across numerous platforms and browsers, it's a shame Google decided to lock offline access in such a specific fashion.
Lesser line
When it comes to choosing your word processor or office suite, we all know that Microsoft is the rex of the hill in many optics. With near four decades of evolution, it isn't easy for another tool or suite to come up forth and catch upwards. And while information technology can be said that Google Docs doesn't quite have the aforementioned level of features as Word, is it really missing $70 worth of features? In my view, no. Nearly of what Docs is missing can be found as add-ons, and the tools information technology does offering for free should make you second gauge paying so much for a Microsoft 365 subscription.
There's a freshness to what Google is offer with Docs; it looks modern, feels modern and is fabricated with modern net-focused collaboration in mind. What it does, it does very well. What it doesn't do won't be important to most users.
Docs outshines the contest in collaboration, portability, compatibility, and fifty-fifty in potential customization through the Google Workspace Market. It'due south piece of cake to get the hang of, at that place'south less clutter, and the overall experience is smooth and intuitive. Oh, and it's gratis.
To anybody subscribed to the competition, Google Docs is at the very least worth giving a shot because you may be paying for a suite of tools that is already available to yous for complimentary.
Google Docs, either through Google Docs Editor suite or Google Workspace is a definitive challenger in the office and productivity suite market. It may even exist the hereafter of it.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/uk/reviews/google-docs