With the free availability of Apple's iWork suite, and its robust collaboration tools, you may not need to use Google's suite. But if you're a user of Google Docs, you'll be happy to know that on Wednesday Google released Google Docs (free) for word processing and Google Sheets (free) for doing spreadsheets. Plus, they'll soon be releasing a free Google Slides app for creating presentations. Google Docs and Google Sheets let you create new documents and edit existing documents. They also let you work offline. Whether you're working online or offline, all your changes are immediately saved. In addition to collaboration and sharing features, you can also read and respond to comments from your collaborators. Google Sheets lets you format cells, enter/sort data, perform various sheet operations, and more.
Whether you use iWork or Google's suite, these online suites and others have become virtually essential. Your documents live in the cloud. Any changes you make from any device are immediately registered in the online document. That means you never risk losing your work because your computer crashes. And you can edit your documents from any device, including your iPhone and iPad. This is really the only way to create, edit, and store documents. And the collaboration and sharing features mean that groups can work on a single document simultaneously, and that you can share documents, including in view-only mode, with other users.
According to an announcement about the new apps on the Official Google Blog, the new apps make it easier to "quickly find, edit and create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on the go." When you open the apps, you'll automatically see your most recently edited apps, saving you time. Also available is Google Drive (free, with 15GB of free storage), which you can use to view and organize all of your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, photos, and more.
