Dustin's Tech Notes

I will start this post off by stating that the Google vs. Microsoft debate is one that you can’t win (I’ve tried). Every organization will choose a collaboration platform that best meets it’s needs based upon features and it’s own biases. With that being said I will continue to promote the Microsoft collaboration platform with passion. After using Google mail, docs, and wave, I am convinced without hesitation that they don’t stack up to Microsoft. There are hundreds of reasons one could argue why to choose one over the other. However it occurred to me – why not compare the two performing some day-to-day tasks. In the next few series of posts I will attempt to perform a normal, every day task using Google and Microsoft side by side. I will not only measure how easy or complicated it is to perform the task, but also how much time is spent reaching the end result. Finally, where applicable, I will compare the end results and grade them on presentation quality. I will be using Google apps and Office 2010 Technical Preview for my testing in this post. I will forewarn you, if you’re a Google fan you may not agree with my findings. However I’m stating my experience. Enough rambling..on with the showdown.

So why not start with the basics. Being an IT professional, I’m tasked with not only implementing and supporting new systems but also documenting them along the way. You can ask any IT pro, good documentation is critical. So let’s create a documentation.

Creating a New Document

I must admit, Google Docs is easy to access.  I logged on with my credentials and click the Create new button and choose document type. In my case I chose just create a new blank document. Pretty easy and just a few clicks

1. Open web browser.

2. Click favorites button to access Google docs. (assuming you have saved creds and don’t have to logon)

3. Click Create New –> Document

Total Time: ~ 30 seconds (Give or take a few depending on your web browser speed)

Next I started a new document using Microsoft Word

1. Click Start –> All Programs –> Microsoft Office –> Microsoft Word 2010 (I took the long way with Office. I could have easily had a desktop shortcut for quicker launch).

Total Time: ~15 seconds

Creating a Cover Page

Ok after I actually opened a document, I wanted to start editing. With any formal document I like to start off with a nice cover page. Easy enough right?

As I started to browse through Google docs, I didn’t really see that option. Hmm… I saw some neat templates, but no cover page.  Am I missing something here? Since I couldn’t find the option, I decided to create my own.

Total Time: ~45 seconds after spending 5 mins looking for the cover page option.

Next, I decided to try creating the cover page in Microsoft Word

1. Go to Insert tab.

2. Click Cover Page

3. Click on the cover page of my choosing

Pretty Professional – Total Time: ~30 seconds

Clearly Microsoft Word can create more professional looking cover pages with little effort.

Creating Headings

After completing my cover page, I decided to create my main headings.

Easy enough. I simply clicked on Styles and chose Heading 1.  Then I typed the text for my heading.

Next, I created a few subheadings.  I went through the same process I used to create my main headings. Nothing to it.

Total Time Creating Headings ~ 1 min

Next, I did the same with Microsoft Word. I simply clicked the Heading 1 option under the Home tab on the ribbon. Then typed the Heading 1 text.

To create my sub headings, I clicked the Heading 2 option and typed text for Heading 2. At this point you get the idea. Both Google and Microsoft make it pretty easy to create headings within my document.

Creating A Table of Contents

After I setup my headings, I decided I needed a table of contents.  The option was clearly visible under the Insert menu in Google Docs.

After choosing formatting for the Table of Contents, the below image was my result. It works but it sure ain’t pretty. 

Total Time: ~1 min

I then moved onto setting up a table of contents in my Word document. I accessed the Table of Contents option from the References tab. I next selected my preferred style on the fly and my table of contents was created.

The Microsoft Word table of contents looked much nicer than the Google Docs TOC.

Total Time: ~ 30 seconds

Ok so have I bored you enough with word processing 101? If not here is one final test. I personally work on documents that sometimes require lots of revisions from multiple people. Track Changes is a core feature of Word that I use on a very regular basis. Unfortunately I don’t see a track changes option in Google Docs. Feel free to leave comments if I’ve missed this feature.  I can’t imagine a modern day word processing application, not containing track changes.

So what did we wind up with here? Let’s take a look

Google Docs

Well….its a document

Microsoft Word

I used this blog post to take a quick look at a couple of common word processing features. It’s very clear to me that Google Docs is somewhat comparable in the ability to get things done, but it is very lacking in presentation quality and ease of creating a professional document. I should also note that I had a horrible time trying to insert images into a new Google doc application. Think I will be sticking to Word for a very long time.

Tags: Google, Microsoft Office, Word 2010