4 ms·

More and more people are using Google docs instead of Ms office. How do you get away from having a Google account to edit a shared doc that another company or c

by mjrpes 8y ago

More and more people are using Google docs instead of Ms office. How do you get away from having a Google account to edit a shared doc that another company or consultant had shared with you? Keep a dummy account just for these instances?

Cthulhu_ 8y ago
> More and more people are using Google docs instead of Ms office. Source? I haven't heard much about this space in a long time now, and due to that I get the feeling that it's kinda meandering.
- mjrpes 8y ago
  Totally anecdotal. Should have been clearer on that. When we are working with a consultant or someone else in a sharing context, Google docs is practically assumed.
  - londons_explore 8y ago
    Google docs is the only semi-good real time-collaborative spreadsheet and word processor. It isn't even very good, or have many features, but still seems to be the best. In my opinion, the area is ripe for disruption, but I suspect nobody wants to spend their life re-reinventing the word processor in javascript.
mrmondo 8y ago
Personally I switched to a mix of LibreOffice and Pages/Keynote and have been very happy with them. Google docs offers some awesome feature but I don’t think the privacy and ethics of using Google products justified its use and as of MS Office - I personally think that the software quality is terrible (Yes I know excel is powerful but there’s probably a better product or system for most of a spreadsheets solutions (but not all I’m sure)).
- kowdermeister 8y ago
  So what do you do if you have to collaborate using a gDoc?
  - mrmondo 8y ago
    I’ve never been asked or needed to. If I did I guess I’d create a minimal google account with as little info as possible, ensure it’s security / privacy settings were set as restrictive as possible and then have to settle for using a Firefox container just for google sites (there’s a good pre-made on on the extensions site), you could go as far as also spoofing your user agent etc but that might just be more of a pain than it’s value.
deadbunny 8y ago
Another option is using your non Google provided email for a Google account. Given Google's huge reach I can certainly see the need for having a Google account for situations like you mention. With wildcard aliasing offered by most email providers you can have that email address be anything you like, like googlesucks@your.domain. It might kind of go against the whole de-googling depending on your outlook though.
ohiovr 8y ago
You might like Collabora Code. It is a online thin client of libreoffice hosted in a webpage with collaborative editing potential. It should be fine for small groups as the main limitation is memory consumption. OnlyOffice looks promising as the design goal is to work with msoffice formats natively. Onlyoffice is client side run so the server could have more Concurrent connections. OnlyOffice has a professional looking companion mobile app. The problem at this time is the challenge of getting either solution to host but at this time there may be services that do that for you. Hosting yourself could give you peace of mind that vital files are strictly in your custody. I have been working on a wizard installer for both with nextcloud but the release is still far off due to my quality concerns.

by mjrpes 8y ago

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

> More and more people are using Google docs instead of Ms office. Source? I haven't heard much about this space in a long time now, and due to that I get the feeling that it's kinda meandering.

mjrpes 8y ago
Totally anecdotal. Should have been clearer on that. When we are working with a consultant or someone else in a sharing context, Google docs is practically assumed.
- londons_explore 8y ago
  Google docs is the only semi-good real time-collaborative spreadsheet and word processor. It isn't even very good, or have many features, but still seems to be the best. In my opinion, the area is ripe for disruption, but I suspect nobody wants to spend their life re-reinventing the word processor in javascript.

mrmondo 8y ago

Personally I switched to a mix of LibreOffice and Pages/Keynote and have been very happy with them. Google docs offers some awesome feature but I don’t think the privacy and ethics of using Google products justified its use and as of MS Office - I personally think that the software quality is terrible (Yes I know excel is powerful but there’s probably a better product or system for most of a spreadsheets solutions (but not all I’m sure)).

kowdermeister 8y ago
So what do you do if you have to collaborate using a gDoc?
- mrmondo 8y ago
  I’ve never been asked or needed to. If I did I guess I’d create a minimal google account with as little info as possible, ensure it’s security / privacy settings were set as restrictive as possible and then have to settle for using a Firefox container just for google sites (there’s a good pre-made on on the extensions site), you could go as far as also spoofing your user agent etc but that might just be more of a pain than it’s value.

deadbunny 8y ago

Another option is using your non Google provided email for a Google account. Given Google's huge reach I can certainly see the need for having a Google account for situations like you mention. With wildcard aliasing offered by most email providers you can have that email address be anything you like, like googlesucks@your.domain. It might kind of go against the whole de-googling depending on your outlook though.

ohiovr 8y ago

You might like Collabora Code. It is a online thin client of libreoffice hosted in a webpage with collaborative editing potential. It should be fine for small groups as the main limitation is memory consumption. OnlyOffice looks promising as the design goal is to work with msoffice formats natively. Onlyoffice is client side run so the server could have more Concurrent connections. OnlyOffice has a professional looking companion mobile app. The problem at this time is the challenge of getting either solution to host but at this time there may be services that do that for you. Hosting yourself could give you peace of mind that vital files are strictly in your custody. I have been working on a wizard installer for both with nextcloud but the release is still far off due to my quality concerns.