Saturday, February 26, 2011

Google Docs, Forms and Surveys Web 2.0


Among the many activities I keep busy with in my life, I manage properties exclusively for military and government personnel that travel or are permanently assigned to other areas that don’t allow them to effectively rent and manage day to day activities for their home. I utilize many electronic methods for managing a client’s property. Most administrative items are accomplished online to include money disbursements and billing activity which is delivered to my customers on the Google Documents area of my Gmail account.
Google Docs is a web-based service where you can create, store and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations.  You can work on your own or collaboratively.  You can also import docs from MS Office and Open Office. The presentation tool also has a chat feature built in that allows me to collaborate with my clients if they have questions or concerns.
I deliver all of my client’s monthly statements and scan in expenses, receipts and bank deposits directly to the Google Docs forum and then choose the sharing settings so that clients can only view or download their activity specific to their property.
Because I do this all on line, I save money and time on mailing and postage. Customers love it because they have instant access to current and historical data such as contracts and agreements related to their property. Some have requested that I provide access to their accountant so that they can streamline their tax preparation. When you are stationed overseas, this is a great method for collaboration.
Other Google Docs tools include Google Forms and Google Surveys.
A great educational tool called Google Forms, allow students to administer surveys electronically and receive instant results. Students can take interest or opinion surveys such a listing their top ten favorite websites. The form tool enables you to create forms that are posted on the web. As users enter the data, it appears immediately in your spreadsheet.
This survey from Google has several advantages over other free survey programs: You can create “unlimited” questions; most free programs limit the questions to ten. In addition, an unlimited number of people can respond to this survey; on the other hand, free survey programs limit the response to a hundred people. Perhaps the biggest advantage is that the results are always available; meanwhile, for other free survey programs the results are not available after ten days unless the author subscribes to the expensive service.  
See more on this technology at:


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