Your Last Microsoft Word Document 2

This entry was posted in Skills and tagged Digital Work Google Drive MS Word by

I know Microsoft Word was installed on your very first computer and this resilient app perhaps outlasted all your pets. However, if you’ve attached a Word document to an email recently, you probably made the wrong move. It’s time you make this your last Microsoft Word document. Here’s why.

The iconic word processor is losing a lot of traction in both the education and business worlds. According to the much-quoted Sundar Pichai (Google’s Number 2):

  1. 67 of the top 100 startups,
  2. 58% of the Fortune 500 companies, and
  3. 72 or the top 100 universities,

are now using Google Drive. Preparing our students for the next educational and professional stages of their lives means teaching and modeling for them work in the digital age. Google Drive was built around online collaboration and this unique characteristic makes it the epitome of 21st century tools.

Microsoft Word belongs to the Print Shop

Microsoft Word belongs to the Print Shop

Should you uninstall Microsoft Word? I don’t think so. I do keep a word processor on my computer for one sole usage: desktop publishing. Exactly what Word was built to do. But when it comes to daily work and collaboration with my team, Google Drive is our go-to.

Checklist: When To Use Microsoft Word vs Google Drive

  • Writing any document you plan to keep on your computer or share: use Google Drive. This should represent 95% of your documents
  • Writing something destined to be published on paper, you might still launch Microsoft Word IF
    • you need different headers and footers,
    • you require complex mathematical equations or l
    • you lay your content across columns.

The two are not exclusive either. You can upload a Word document to Google Drive, but you won’t be able to easily edit it online. If you have other uses for Microsoft Word or other word processors, let me know in a comment below.

[icon name="fa-cloud-upload"] STANDARD 3: model digital age work and learning

 

 

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What do you think about this?

2 thoughts on “Your Last Microsoft Word Document”

  • Reply ↓
    Gene Marie Chagaris

    I’m hoping that Google Docs could add a few useful features soon. I know tables could be used as columns, but sometimes I find the need to use columns and I wish Google Docs had that. Also, I find that the spell check and grammar check functions in Google Docs could be better. I use Grammarly, but it doesn’t show up in the Google Docs – just when I’m typing emails, or blog posts, or Twitter, etc.

    Nice article – always interesting and helpful!

    • Reply ↓
      Victor Boulanger Post author

      Hi Gene,

      I agree with your thoughtful comment regarding features in Google Docs. I do believe it has come a long way from the simplistic text editor, but it could still benefit from some additions in the formatting department. I agree with the columns. Here are a few tricks that I use when I need to get around the column. The first one you know already: tables. Tables lay things out rather nicely. But if you need more, you can also add a Google Drawing to your document and lay out anything you want which ever way you want it to be inside the drawing. And if none of that works, I actually switch over to Google Slides, switch the page layout to A4 portrait and now I have a blank page to create really stunning documents!

      Thank you for the comment! See you soon on Tekiota.