GOOGLE DOCUMENT WRITER HOW TO
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The sheet should have one header row and one row for each item (for example, each interviewee or each chapter).

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More recently, I’ve used this technique to track chapters going through a series of editing processes. Basically, this is a flexible and easy way to use a Google Sheet as a database.Įxamples: In the highly collaborative books I worked on at Forrester, we used Google Sheets to track all the case study people we were targeting. When to use it: On bigger projects, collaborators need to track a dynamically changing list of things, such as interviewees. When you’re done: Somebody has to take the whole collection of ideas, organize it, and write it up, which is pretty easy with everything assembled into one document. And no one should delete other people’s ideas.

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It’s useful for people to put their names with their ideas so others can see who contributed (some people color code their contributions). You can also organize them into group under subheads.Ĭaveats: This won’t work if everyone in your organization meets every deadline with 10 minutes to spare - it’s an organic process, even if it is asynchronous. In a shared meeting after the submission deadline, you can all look at the doc and rearrange/prioritize the ideas. It works even better if people who have contributed circle back later in the contribution process and see what others have contributed. Participants can not just type ideas in, but add comments on existing ideas.

GOOGLE DOCUMENT WRITER HOW TO

How to collaborate: In contrast to the brainstorm, in this case, all the ideas should be going into the doc ahead of time. Seed the doc with a few good ideas to start. Then send an email with a link telling people to put their ideas into the doc, with a deadline. How to prepare: Create a Google Doc and invite all participants to share it. I use this technique to gather them from authors and collaborators. When to use it: When you’re collecting a bunch of ideas that will end up in a document.Įxample: Every book proposal needs points of differentiation and lists of competing books. But the document remains as a record of everything you came up with and what you thought of it. When you’re done: At the end of the meeting, ideally, you’ll have the best idea or ideas at the top, or a settled version of the prose. If you’re writing paragraphs of actual prose, then group editing can devolve into chaos - it’s better if only one person is typing at a time, although everyone else can make suggestions. This brainstorming technique works best for short phrases (titles, brand names). Some people are more comfortable shouting out suggestions than typing, which is fine somebody else just has to type the shouted suggestions into the doc.Ĭaveats: It’s best if people don’t delete others’ suggestions. Anyone can also add comments, either right in the doc, or with the comment feature of Google Docs. Whoever is leading the meeting may want to rearrange entries to put the ones that seem to be the most popular at the top, but leave them all in there. Anyone can add suggestions anyone can make new suggestions inspired by what they see.

Now take suggestions and type them into the doc. (Even if people are in the same room with you, they can open the doc to contribute.) If several people are in a room, it’s useful to connect a machine in that room to a projector and project the Google Doc onto a wall or screen. At the start of the meeting, ask all remote participants to open the Google Doc on their computer, smartphone, or tablet. How to collaborate: This works whether everyone is in one room, or when some are remote. (In all these cases, each participant must have a Google account, and you’ll need the email of that account to invite them to participate.) They’ll receive invitations in their email. How to prepare: Ahead of your brainstorming session, open a Google Doc. Invite everyone working on it to share it, using the Share button at the top right of the document. When to use it: When a bunch of you need to come up with the best words for something.Įxample: I use this technique with authors and collaborators who are working on titles, subtitles, and marketing copy for books. Here are three great examples: The Brainstorm They key is that you can all work on a piece of content at the same time. Here’s why: the more collaborative the task, the better Google’s tools are. If you send a file in those formats to somebody, you know they can read it. Most of you work in organizations where Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel are standard. And if you’re collaborating, Google Docs and Google Sheets are indispensable tools. If you’re writing anything interesting, you’re collaborating.

Google document writer