Here at Viewpath, we took this opportunity to create a Gantt chart gadget. For those of you not familiar, a Gantt chart is a bar chart that illustrates a project schedule, and can be invaluable in managing large initiatives.

Our Gantt chart gadget displays timelines based on data entered in your spreadsheet. You can enter a few numbers, representing the progress in different areas of a project. Quickly and easily, our gadget displays it graphically in an easy-to-read chart that refreshes automatically whenever you change the data on your spreadsheet.

One of the clear advantages of hosting this chart in a Google spreadsheet, instead of in a separate document, is that you no longer need to elect one person to keep track of and update the chart. Instead, everyone working on the team can access the spreadsheet, enter progress as it happens, and have that progress displayed instantly for all to see. They can even add tasks, being confident that everyone on the team will see the most recent plan.

• Family name
• How many adults
• How many children
• Which meals will you be eating
• Choose a preferred meal to prepare (e.g. Saturday breakfast)
• Menu plan
• Special requirements
• Phone #

1. We were able to create and share the form within minutes.
2. Spreadsheet updates in real time allowed my friend and I - in different locations - to see the same data as it came in, in case we needed to adjust anything or track how things were going.
3. The ability to include the form in an email made it super easy for people to fill it out right away.
4. The ability to let everyone view the spreadsheet over the web in their browser allowed them to see what other families were doing, or get their phone number in case they needed to discuss how they were going to team up on a meal, for example.

This tutorial will show you how to use Google Docs word processor for blogging a live event – it could be a keynote address or a conference call with media or someone speaking at a local BarCamp in your city.

To get started you would need a laptop computer, a free Google account and few inches of free space to sit (or stand) in the conference room. OK, we are now ready to roll.

Create a new document in Google Docs and give it some descriptive name (like “Launch of Blue Widgets Version 2”) - this will later become the title of our blog post.

Write some placeholder text in the document (like “Stay Tuned, we’ll cover the event live here.”) and save (Ctrl+S).

Now you have two options here. You can either embed this Google document in your blog as an IFRAME or you can republish the contents of this document as a new blog post (better approach though it requires an additional step).

Embed a live document in your blog

From the Share Menu, select “Publish as Web Page” and “Publish Document.” Also check the setting that says “Automatically re-publish when changes are made.”

Go back to the document and select “View as Web Page” from the File menu. What you now see on the screen is a plain vanilla document without any toolbars and menus. To embed this in your blog, copy the URL from the browser bar and use an IFRAME tag (find an example tag linked here).

Republish the Google Document in your blog

From the Share Menu, select “Publish as Web Page” followed by “Post to Blog.”

Now there’s a small trick involved here. Without closing the existing window, open a new tab in the browser and load the same document.

When you add new content to your “live blog” document, switch to the previous window and hit “Republish Post” – Google Docs will overwrite the previous version of your blog post so you readers will always see the latest version. Continue the write –> save –> republish cycle until the even is over.

What are the advantages of using Google Docs for Live Blogging?

First and foremost - you are live-blogging on your own website and not on some third-party platform – that means you retain all the web traffic. Second, Google Docs offers a very rich blog editor so you get to include photos, hyperlinks, tables, etc in your blog post as per the need. And the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut is your best friend – you can save content without reloading the page.

To insert current date in a Google Document

Most live blogs carry a timestamp next to each update. While there’s no shortcut key to insert dates in Google Docs, you may use the Ctrl + M key that is normally used for inserting comments. It gives you the current date as well as that authors name which you may discard before publishing the blog.

1. I choose some places in the neighborhood that I think Tomashi would like visiting, and add their addresses along the first column of my spreadsheet.
2. In the next column, I enter the name of each place, and a short description.
3. I highlight all of the cells that contain information I'd like included in the map.
4. Along the top of the toolbar, I click, "Insert Gadget." In the menu that appears I select "Maps" from the list on the left, and choose, simply, the "Map" gadget.
5. Finally, I give the map a title, check the box next to "Last column as tooltip" and, as is my preference, choose to allow zoom using mouse wheel. When all's done, I click "Apply and close."
   

• House hunting (enter the addresses in one column, and any corresponding numbers, or information in the next)
  
• Road trip planning
  
• Charting restaurants, shops, or other places you'd like to visit
• Anything else where a map could flesh out a list of addresses :)

I was intrigued – could I actually use Google Docs on a computer with such a small screen? Turns out it works pretty well. Here are two pictures to show you how it looks (to get an idea of just how small the Eee PC is, I've put it on top of my Macbook Pro).

Although the toolbar and white space take up a lot of room, spreadsheets is still usable on this subnotebook.

However, if you freeze too many rows, the vertical scrollbar will disappear. Not good at all.If you've tried Docs on the Eee PC, leave us a note in the comments below.

What could we change in Docs to make the experience better on the smaller screen? Let us know by leaving a comment.

1. Start with the Phoenix Mars Lander section of the JPL site. NASA has more here.
   
   
2. Have your students form small groups to compile information onto a Docs presentation, embedding images and videos, and linking to the interactive exercises.
   A great way to get your students engaged it to have them to have them write up reports covering the mission's progress, from beginning to end. By having each group set up Google alert, set to search for the words Phoenix Mars Lander, a wealth of topical information will be at their fingertips.
   
   
3. When complete, the students can publish their projects, and send you the link through a very simple Google docs form, something like this:
   

Docs user Bob Yang picked up on this new feature and created an effective and dead simple video, showing the steps to setting up notification emails for your spreadsheet.

So sit back and enjoy Bob's great contribution - you're one step closer to omniscience :)

Have a Docs-related video you'd like to submit to the Community Channel? Let us know.

• Collaborating on the family grocery shopping list with my husband
• Keeping a running tab of all the books and educational DVDs I'd like to get my toddler, then sharing with friends and family since her birthday is coming up
• Keeping a list of anything that I tend to forget. I do have a spiral notebook with my To-Do lists but can I tell you how often I forget to bring it with me every day!
• Making notes that are way too short for a document, but you really want to be able to access that information later. I sometimes use my computer's Stickies program, but my desktop is starting to get cluttered. On Google Docs, no clutter and access from anywhere.

Ever since I discovered Google Docs' forms, I must confess that I’m obsessed. I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about all I can do with forms: grading and testing and quizzing and polls and information collection and books-read-this-month and surveys and sign-ups. . . . It goes on and on until I fear my head may split.

To put an end to the madness, I picked one option, put fingertips to keyboard and came up with a simple quiz on rhetoric:

• I'm terrified to try something that I don't need yet. I use just what I need when I use it.
• Did I mention that I hate to read instructions of any kind?
• But, each time I discover a useful new feature, it is like Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa and all the other sparkly holidays in one.

Currently, our students are using Google Spreadsheets to enter data collected from water samples from a nearby stream, measuring the pH level in the water and also looking at different types of chemicals present. They then use Google Documents to chart the data they find, and share it with each other. This keeps them all on track, and means that they can learn from each other and draw on a much larger pool of data than if they were simply keeping notebooks, not shared until the project's end, if ever.

We love Stephen's brief account of using Docs to facilitate science learning, and it got us wondering, who else is using Google Docs for science? Are you? Ornithologists, paleontologists, astronomers and armchair biochemists...we want to know how using Google Docs has helped your scientific pursuits.

Write us a note and let us know what you're up to, or submit a video, showing us how you use Google Docs for your science projects.

Besides hating to read instructions to anything, I tend to always zero in on just a few capabilities of any Web-based application because I often feel overwhelmed by the options and possibilities. First, I test out an application at the moment I'm in desperate need of a viable solution. Then if it isn't easy to use without a manual, I continue to use it until the crisis is over. If it really makes my life and work easier, then it becomes second nature to me.

I gave in to my Docs resistance, the dark clouds parted, the sun shone through, and suddenly, there was order in the chaos.

We're thrilled to have Gill as a guest blogger. Through the evolution of Google Docs, she has been one of the most courteous and helpful members of the Google Docs Help Group, assisting users with all manner of questions.

• I can enter the records from home, from work or from a friend’s computer; this means I don't have to remember what I saw at lunchtime till I get home.
• The records are safe on Google’s servers
• Friends and family can enter species they have seen, after I invited them to collaborate
• Other members of the Society can see the sheet, as viewers
  
• The results can be made available, in real time, on the website, by publishing the sheet (click on the link to Current year’s records, in progress)
  

1. We create a separate document for each member of the team.
2. Each document is shared with all other members.
   
3. At the top of each document, we enter the week-ending date, along with the categories Achieved, Not Achieved, and Priorities.
4. We updated our progress in these three categories throughout the week.
5. At the end of the week, we each just add a horizontal line (page separator) to the top of the document and start over, again entering the week-ending date, and the three categories.
   
6. Repeat, repeat and repeat :)

• Your running time?
  
• The length of your daily train ride?
  
• The monthly stats from your global sales team?