Google Apps: The Missing Manual: The Missing Manual

by Nancy Conner

Among its many amazing applications, Google now has web-based alternatives to many of the applications in Microsoft Office. This comprehensive and easy-to-follow new book enables you to explore Google's new office applications in detail. Once you do, you'll be in good company -- more than 100,000 small businesses and some corporations are already looking to take advantage of these free Google offerings.Google Apps: The Missing Manual teaches you how to use three relatively new applications from Google: "Docs and Spreadsheets," which provide many of the same core tools that you find in Word and Excel; and Google Calendar and Gmail, the applications that offer an alternative to Outlook. This book demonstrates how these applications together can ease your ability to collaborate with others, and allow you access to your documents, mail and appointments from any computer at any location. Of course, as remarkable as these applications are, Google's office suite is definitely a work-in-progress. Navigating what you can and can't do and -- more importantly -- understanding how to do it isn't always easy. And good luck finding enough help online. Google Apps: The Missing Manual is the one book you need to get the most out of this increasingly useful part of the Google empire. This book: Explains how to create, save and share each of Google's web-based office applications Offers separate sections for Docs and Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, and Gmail Demonstrates how to use these applications in conjunction with one another Gives you crystal-clear and jargon-free explanations that will satisfy users of all technical levels Many of you already use Gmail, but do you know its full potential? Do you know how you can increase its power by using Gmail with Doc and Spreadsheets and Google Calendar? You'll find out with Google Apps: The Missing Manual. You'll also come to understand why large corporations such as General Electric and Proctor & Gamble are taking a long, hard look at these applications.

Genres: Nonfiction

740 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Nancy Conner has been fascinated by coastal California horticulture since she arrived here in the early 1960s. A graduate of Wellesley College and Stanford University, she was a docent at Strybing Arboretum in the late 1970s. She cofounded the San Francisco Landscape Garden Show and was instrumental in its organization for the twelve years it was managed by Friends of Recreation and Parks in San Francisco. She has long been active in the cause for parks, serving on the boards of both the San Francisco Parks Alliance and the Presidio Trust. Her pet park projects include restoring the Conservatory of Flowers and building the underground garage in Golden Gate Park. She gardens in Inverness.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For work...

Edited 7/24/11: At the end, everyone dies. I was really surprised. A great book about Google Apps for enterprise as long as you don't get too emotionally involved with the protagonists.

Seriously: I thought there was going to be more about Google Apps admin console, but when is that information ever in paper format?

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Google Office: The Missing Manual has the goal of documenting every feature available in the Google apps suite. It achieves that goal, as far as I can tell, and does so in a readable way. If clarity and completeness were the only criteria I would give this book 5 stars.

But I question the usefulness of a full-blown, menu-by-menu, option-by-option reference manual for Google apps. Most features in the Google apps suites are easy to use and easy to find. Most, but not all. I would have much preferred to see a book that was task-oriented - maybe a recipe / cookbook format. And above all, a book that is much smaller. This book is too large to lay flat, so it can't really be used as a reference manual - a failing of most computer-related books in this age of 1000 page monstrosities vying for space on the shelves at B&N.

I also read Google Apps for Dummies, a much smaller book with less comprehensive coverage, and found it to be more useful. It gives greater emphasis to some of the more difficult tasks and completely skips over obvious menu-driven tasks that you would easily figure out on your own. The very comprehensivenes of The Missing Manual prevents it from glossing over anything, so the most trivial operations are given nearly equal space with the most complex.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough look at Google Apps that is still relative in 2011. I did learn some things about how it works that I had not figured out on my own. Does anyone really use Google Talk?

[Wenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Resource