docs

Do you have a workplace or have to communicate with one that is still using an older format of Microsoft Office from 1997-2003? Well, if you spend a lot of time writing, sharing, or collaborating on documents through Google Docs, you're probably aware that Google has discontinued support for these older formats.

You could try to encourage your workplace to upgrade its software, but that's probably not the most realistic or speedy option. Thankfully, there are a few options for dealing with this formatting change.

Save your documents in any format and use an online converter. … Read more

Enough with having separate Web programming tutorials from Google, Apple, Opera, Mozilla, and Microsoft.

These five major browser makers, along with Facebook, Adobe Systems, Nokia, and Hewlett Packard, have become stewards of a new effort to centralize developer resources at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This Web Platform Docs project will include not just help on to use a bewildering array of new Web technologies, but also will detail which ones are accepted standards, how well the various tools work across multiple browsers, and how stable the standards are.

"A key part of this project is that it … Read more

Printer-based freeware PDF utilities like Softland's doPDF Free are unobtrusive yet flexible and a great choice for the home office, small business, and individual user. You just have to click the Print command in any application, and then select the program from your list of installed printers. Instead of printing out your converted document, the program saves it as a PDF. You can set basic output options like document size and resolution, but doPDF is designed to be as simple and lightweight as possible.

Although doPDF works like a print driver, it installs normally like any Windows program. During … Read more

With Microsoft SkyDrive recently touching down on Google Drive's territory, it's only fitting we take a look at how the two cloud storage and file-syncing Android apps fare against one another. On the one hand, we have Google Drive: the incumbent and the darling of the Android platform. And on the other hand, we have SkyDrive: Microsoft's offering and somewhat unexpectedly, the new kid on the block. Each app has its strengths and weaknesses, and we take a look at how they compare.

Microsoft SkyDrive (free) Similar to Google Drive, Microsoft's SkyDrive lets you store files … Read more

The Google Drive app lets you view and store files, spreadsheets, and videos, with 5GB of storage space for free, and more if you're willing to pay a subscription fee. The app only requires that you log in to your Google account to quickly access files and media stored on your Google Drive.

Upon launch, the app gives you a list of items to let you quickly get to files on My Drive, files shared with you, files you have "starred," recently opened files, and those you have made available offline. In my testing I opened and … Read more

Quick question: do you use Gmail or Google Docs more frequently?

If you answered the former, this handy trick may be of interest. It allows you to add data to a spreadsheet in Google Docs from a form you can quickly access from your Gmail inbox. This form can even be accessed on your phone (at least in my case, using an iPhone 4S and both the native Mail app and the Gmail app).

Here are the steps needed to set it up:

1. Create a spreadsheet in Google Docs.

2. From the Tools menu, select Create a form.

3. … Read more

Wednesday's top headlines are served with a low-fat triple shot of mobile news:

You may wonder why it matters that Square partnered with Starbucks. Customers could already pay for coffee by using the Starbucks app and show their phone screen to the barista. And how much time does that really save compared to taking out your wallet?

This deal is all about awareness. Seeing the Square logo in stores will help people get more comfortable with the idea of phones being a wallet replacement. Apple will also be pushing this concept in iOS 6 with the Passbook app that … Read more

Google has added a new feature to its spreadsheet product that enables users to lock down particular sections.

According to Google, the feature, called Protected Ranges, is intended to stop cells being modified accidentally when several users are working on the same spreadsheet.

Protected Ranges creates designated sections of a spreadsheet that cannot be changed by users that don't have editing rights.

The feature works like this: highlight the cells you want to lock down, right-click to bring up the menu, and then choose "Named and protect range." Then, click "protect" and "done." … Read more

I use Google Drive every day. I'm using it right now, in fact, to write this post. Thanks to The Next Web, I found a handy way to preview all the files in a particular folder.

In the past, if I wanted to take a look at a number of documents, I could click on a folder to view a list of its documents. And from that list, I could click on the documents to open each in a new tab.

A more efficient method is to mouse over a folder, click on the arrow button that appears, and … Read more