When working with Google Docs it is important to use the correct terminology. It will also help with understanding my blog and the help center. So here goes...
Google Docs - This is the term used in general for the suite of applications
Google Documents - the text editor from the Google Docs suite
Google Drawings - used to create drawings or diagrams for insertion into other Docs suites applications or publishing online
Google Spreadsheets - the spreadsheet editor from the Google Docs suite
Google Presentations - the presentation editor from the Google Docs suite
Sheet - a single spreadsheet/tab/worksheet
Spreadsheet - might be used interchangeably with workbook (note the difference between spreadsheet and sheet)
Often Sheet and Spreadsheet are used interchangeably as well. I do my best to differentiate the two.
I try to use these terms on this blog and the help forum community also tends to identify with these terms. You will often see questions by other TCs or power users asking to clarify so that we all understand how to help correctly. If you are posting on the forums (especially for help with a Google Spreadsheet) it will help to be consistent with these terms.
Note: Be careful when using the terms "Google Doc" and "Google Document." "Document" will always refer to the text editor while a "Google Doc" could be any of the four. Most often you will hear, "Have you heard of Google Docs?" This question is directed towards the whole Docs suite and not just a Google Document (text editor).
Have I confused you enough?
Cheers!
P.S. Thanks ahab for your comments!
Google Documents sound a bit ambiguous when the entire product is called Google Docs. For clarity you may want to decide to call the text editor just that: Google Text Editor.
ReplyDeleteThere are less similarities between MS-Office and Google Docs than one would hope for. In many respects Google Docs is more like MS-Works. So be careful comparing the text editor to Word, the spreadsheet to Excel and the presentation editor to Powerpoint.
Note that which you call a (Spreadsheet) Tab is often (in the documentation) called a Sheet (that's also the default name a new sheet gets, which shows on the tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet). The term workbook and spreadsheet are both being used in the Google Docs documentation - which can be a bit confusing, especially when you look for documentation using one keyword where you should have used the other ;).
Thanks ahab. I've amended the post a little bit. I hope that is more clear. I'd like to use the term Google Document when talking about the text editor to keep in line with the product. However, I do agree with you that it is all very confusing.
ReplyDeleteHi Ted:
ReplyDeleteGreat Job ... Google Docs for Life ... that indeed is intriguing.
I am going to see if I can put a link to googledocsforlife.blogspot.com in my blog.
Cheers!
Yogi Anand
of Blog on
Cloud Computing -- Google Docs Way
yogi--anand-consulting.blogspot.com
Thanks Yogi. I'll also see if I can get a link to your Blog on mine as well!
ReplyDeleteUsing API, you can create a "Table", but I haven't seen anything like that from the UI. Does anyone know where this concept comes from and how I can read more about it?
ReplyDelete+Hari,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what you mean by "Using API." Can you clarify more about what you are talking about? If you are talking about the Spreadsheets API you should check out this link : http://code.google.com/apis/spreadsheets/
Yes, I am talking about the gdata API for spreadsheets. I am aware of the link you provided. Interestingly though, the section that talks about tables is now marked as deprecated (I am pretty sure it wasn't the last time I checked). I also found some explanation of what the table is which I guess I missed to see before, but in any case, since it is deprecated, it doesn't matter. Thanks for referring the link, it helped.
ReplyDelete