Google® Business Solutions All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 1. Adding Google Documents to Your Web Site

In This Chapter

• Inserting Google documents

• Using Google Calendar on your site

• Using Google Presentations on your site

• Using Google Spreadsheets on your site

• Embedding Google spreadsheet forms on your site

One of the key advantages of Google documents — really Google Docs documents, but let's use the shorter version — is that you can host them on your Web site.

Google Documents are described in Book I, Chapter 4, and at length in the book, Google Apps For Dummies by Ryan Teeter and Karl Barksdale (Wiley, 2008). They have many advantages, a few of which are highlighted in the following chapter.

To open diverse types of documents, the user often has to have the same software as was used to create the document — in a recent-enough version. The user also has to be careful to save and send the document in the right version for others to use it — and someone has to manage all this, avoiding "versionitis" problems.

These problems have been exacerbated in the last few years with the arrival of Windows Vista. Corporations have tended to stay with Windows XP and Office 2003; consumers have received Windows Vista and, where they've purchased Office, Office 2007 on their new PCs. So "versionitis" problems have multiplied, with the so-called amateurs — consumers — ahead of the pros working in large organizations.

With a Google document, the live document actually "lives" on the Web site. People can review and edit it, using permissions set by the owner. ...