Google Apps For Dummies

Ryan Teeter, Karl Barksdale

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780470189580
• eBook ISBN: 9781118052402
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Desktop Applications
• Index: Computer Science

Your key to making this revolutionary new approach work for you and your organization Google Apps are Web-based, low-cost (or free!) office productivity tools that do everything those expensive applications do — and you can access them from any computer with an Internet connection. Google Apps For Dummies boosts your "app-titude" by giving you the low-down on choosing, setting up, and using these nifty and powerful gadgets for work or play.

Whether you're an individual who wants to take advantage of iGoogle or an organization looking for an enterprise-wide training solution for users at all levels, this comprehensive, practical guide brings you up to speed with all of the basic information and advanced tips and tricks you need to make good use of every Google Apps's tool and capability. Discover how to:

• Get productive fast with free or inexpensive Web-based apps
• Design your perfect Start Page layout
• Choose among the different editions
• Use Gmail and Google Talk
• Work with Google Docs and spreadsheet documents
• Create and collaborate on documents
• Import events into your calendar
• Build dazzling presentations
• Use Dashboard to create and manage user accounts
• Create a Web page with a unique domain setting

Google Apps are poised to shatter the primacy of the current way of working with PCs, saving businesses, schools, government agencies, and individuals big bucks on software, network infrastructure, and administration.

Part I

Up and Going with Google Apps

In this part . . .

Take a moment to get to know Google Apps, the perfect complement to your business, group, family, or organization. In this part, we take you on a quick tour of the Google Apps editions, and then we help you register a new domain or point your existing one to Google’s awesome services.

If your group or organization is using Google Apps already, or if you’re a casual Gmail user, we recommend that you skip ahead and start with Chapter 3.

Chapter 1

Introducing Google Apps

In This Chapter

Getting acquainted with Google Apps

Choosing the version of Google Apps that’s right for you

Discovering the pros and cons of using Google Apps

The Internet has evolved, and Google is leading the way. Google began as a small Internet search engine experiment, but when the folks at Google found they had a hit on their hands, they didn’t stop there. Today, you can keep track of everything, from e-mail to stock portfolios to photos, by using free services created by the ingenious Googlers (the bright engineers at Google who work behind the scenes to make the Internet cool and easy for everyone). Google is pushing forward into new territory with the innovative Google Apps and taking key functions, such as calendaring and word processing, into the Internet realm.

This chapter gives you a better understanding of how Google Apps works and helps you choose the version that’s best for your organization. You can also find out more about Google Apps by visiting www.google.com/a. If you’re interested in Google Apps for school or work teams, go to www.google.com/apps instead.

Meeting the Google Apps

With little fanfare, the Mountain View, California, behemoth known as Google has been building, buying, and beta-testing scores of online applications. And Google has been releasing them in a flurry, one right after another, to an unsuspecting world. The first 30 or 40 apps seemed random. It appeared that any cool idea any Googler could think of was turned into an app and tossed onto the Internet just for the fun of it. It was a blur. If you blinked, you missed something. It didn’t seem to have a pattern or a purpose.

With the creation of the Google Apps initiative, the strategy behind the software releases came into sharp focus: Google is building a radically different way of working that can shatter the primacy of the current methods and reduce the need for all the tired, old office productivity software on your hard drive. Oh, and Google provides most of the apps for free or at a fraction of the cost of traditional software.

Google Apps is a powerful set of tools that Google has bundled together to meet the needs of businesses, schools, government agencies, and other organizations of any size. You can use Google Apps as a powerful digital communications infrastructure for your business or school that Google maintains for you. (Very sweet.) The key Google Apps are

Gmail: An e-mail app based on Google’s popular Gmail platform. This version lets you use your organization’s domain, such as [email protected].

Calendar: A calendar and scheduling app that allows easy collaboration.

Talk: Instant messaging, available directly from within Gmail or as a standalone software application. Talk also allows voice calls, voice mail, and file sharing.

Docs: A simple, yet powerful, set of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation apps.

The Start Page: An app that you can personalize by adding gadgets to access any or all of the other Google Apps, as well as news, weather reports, entertainment information, and more from one place.

In addition to the apps themselves, Google provides some powerful tools for administrators in the Google Apps Dashboard. Features for administrators include

Web page creation tools

Domain settings

Advanced tools, including ad...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I : Up and Going with Google Apps
• Part II : Keeping in Touch and on Time: Gmail, Talk, and Calendar
• Part III : Getting to Work: Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations
• Part IV : Popping the Hood: Google Apps Administration
• Part V : The Part of Tens
• : Further Reading