Web Worker Daily

According to a post on the Google Docs Blog, Google Gears, a Firefox extension that enables users to create and edit files without an Internet connection, will bless Google Docs with offline access in the coming weeks. The rollout will begin today with a small number of users.

At first launch, word processing documents can be read and edited in offline mode, while spreadsheets will only be able to be read (but not edited). Support for Google Presentations is in the pipeline and will not be initially available. Naturally, collaboration on documents that have been created offline will not be available until the new document has been synced when the user comes back online. On a related note, it is currently unclear how smooth reconciliation of offline documents will be.

Google Documents has been in dire need of offline access in order to realistically compete other office suites including Microsoft Office and Zoho. Users of office productivity suites don’t always has connectivity to the Internet.

Currently, the only Google product to use Google Gears is Google Reader allowing for offline access to RSS news items. Google is not first in offering offline access of productivity apps through Google Gears, having been beaten to market by Zoho and Remember The Milk.

Google Gears for Google Docs will require Internet Explorer 6 and above or FireFox 1.6 and above (not including Firefox Beta 3) on Windows, Mac, and Linux. There is currently no support for other browsers including Safari, Flock, Opera, or the various mobile browsers.

When Google Presentations joined the rest of the Google Documents online application, many (including me) had high hopes for it. The expectation was that Google’s presentation app would be flashy and cool. It is, however, pretty bland and doesn’t command very much attention.

Enter SlideRocket, a new entrant into the online presentation arena. This rich internet application is said to resemble Apple’s Keynote in its use of transitions, reflections, and fonts.

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When you’re a web worker, time is money.  Here at Web Worker Daily, we’re all about helping you efficiently use your time.

In order to have some of the Word Processor features in my blog editor, I often compose my blog posts in Google Docs, then paste them into my blogging software.  Well as bavatuesdays has pointed out, Google Documents now features the ability to post directly to your blog software.

To use this quietly rolled out feature, type in your Google Doc as you normally would and hit the “Publish” button.  One of the options is to post to your blog.  You’re presented with the following screen:

As you can see, the window asks for your blog type, username, password, and blog name.  The support a large number of blog engines including WordPress, Blogger, Moveable Type, and more.

Once you’ve set up your blog information, you can easily post the Google Doc to your blog.  In my testing, the result was plain looking posts that appear just as they do inside Google Documents.