Klippboken
Symmetri's Handy Hints -- Folders in Google Docs
2010-06-15
Google Docs have developed quite a lot, not to mention some pretty advanced things that have happened under the hood, lately. At Symmetri, we use Google Docs a lot, actually.
One function is the use of ‘Folders’, for sorting your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and drawings. I often use the term ‘tag’ rather than ‘folder’, since traditionally, you can only put a document in one folder, but designate several tags to it. In Google Docs, even if they use the name Folders, you can put a document in several at once. Of course I also use the colour coding, for even easier reference.
Apart from project specific tags for my documents in GoogleDocs, I have three “meta tags”, that I use for special purposes:
@Desk - These docs are on my desk right now. As in “really currently working on”-right now. I have no problem taking away this tag if it's something I will not work on for a week or so, nor re-adding it later on again. I click this folder, and I get a list that only contains the docs relevant today.
@Office - This is my shared folder/tag. Everything I label @Office gets automatically shared with my colleagues. We're not that big a company, so not too much spam there. Besides, if I share a document actively, i.e. is using GDocs share function, it usually ends up with me sending them a mail, notifying that they have been invited to that particular document. Using the 'Share' function for a folder just makes the document appear on their list, with the title in bold and a small mark, saying 'New!'. GDocs can create sub-folders, so you can have e.g. a top @Office folder that shares with everyone in the office, and sub-folders for your various project teams.
@Offline - Sometimes, I'm going to not be online for a while and want to bring the documents with me, either for reference or to work with. Google Docs enables you to simply download multiple documents at once -- up to 2 GB -- and by tagging them this way, I click on the folder, choose the option to mark all boxes and download them in a zipped file. Easy to take with you, on your netbook or, if you’re so inclined, USB thumb drive (together with Portable OpenOffice, for example).
These are the ones I personally use. I don't want too many, since they are supposed to make my work more efficient and simplifying it, not clutter up my list with more options than I need.
Even if these particular choices may not be the ones you pick -- as an owner of an Android phone, maybe you don't need an Offline folder -- they could perhaps give you ideas on meta folders/tags that make your job a little simpler.
