Google has done for word processing and spreadsheets what Apple has done for music and photos: they’ve abstracted away the file system. I want to see this sort of functionality integrated into Pages and Numbers: pull down the File menu and save to, or open from, Google.

IMAP lets me check my email from my phone, my desktop, or the web… why can’t I do this for my spreadsheets?

i just re-upped the 108.20 USD for the 5th time for my yet-to-appreciate .mac account. at this point, i consider it an investment in what will eventually turn into something. and it becomes clearer that the something it’ll eventually turn into will feel a lot like gDocs. here’s to a happy marriage of Google’s subsidized and Apple’s subscription-based central storage. long may they live in ubiquitous connectivity! may all my 108.20s build a vast and unfailing hard drive, where the world can come together as one and peek at my crap!

I use collaborative documents in my (very small) company. I can see the value of having a central doc rather than the multiple copies - I’ve certainly had occasion where I’m having to double and triple check that the copy I think is final is the “real” final copy.

However, we use a pre-formatted report, and the initial work-up gets done on that. The google docs don’t seem to support that option - or at least not very easily. I suppose that I could do the text first, and then plug it into the template, but that seems more like different work rather than less work.

Am I missing something on this that would make it more wonderful for me? Also - how secure are these docs? I work with confidential materials…

For confidential materials, maybe it’s more advisable to use less-known applications (and less criticized for privacy leakings) such as Versionate or Zoho, or 37 Signals’ Writeboard. But for my personal and collective needs (even in «confidential mode»), GoogleDocs has proved more than enough. One example: as teachers, me and 3 colleagues had to grade an admission exam where candidates could chose 2 out of 4 questions. Each of us was assigned a question and each had only his part of the response. I simply set up a private G. Spreadsheet (formulas included), invited them, and bang! — no hassle having all the grades.

PS: Great revamping of 43F!

When I work on group projects in my school, I just dish out Google Docs invites. It’s really handy to have everyone work on stuff at the same time. They add content, and I corrected their awful grammar.

When we’re done adding content together, I save out as a .doc and fix up the formatting and margins in MS Word or Pages, depending on the environment I’m in. I can’t wait to see where Google takes this project.

Why not have IWork compatibility? One of the biggest reasons (imho) the IPhone can’t be called a pda is the inability to manipulate spreadsheets and documents. Given Apple’s huge upgrade to the IWork suite and the fact that the IPhone runs the Mac OS, wouldn’t it make sense to port IWork to the IPhone and have compatibility with Google docs? This would create a “Docs to Go” type of app with an added bang.

especially as its support for Safari has improved

Um, what Safari support? Even forcing it to load in Safari 2.x, I still can’t so much as see a document list.

So how does your iPhone mojinate with GrandCentral? Inquiring minds want to know…

May I recommend Zoho. Larger file size limits and plays nicer with Safari.

I’ve been using Google Docs for the same reasons you have - to keep to-do lists between myself and my other half while both of us are working in offices on various sides of the country.

The one thing I have found in the UK is most big companies ban the use of Google applications such as Docs because they term them “network storage applications” - dumb, but true.

Thankfully I scrape my way onto the internet at large via my personal mobile phone and Macbook.

I've been riffing on this connection for some time, most recently in June (see this post: http://www.iconnectdots.com/ctd/2007/06/will_apples_saf.html).

This one paragraph in the post about sums up why I think you're right-on Merlin: "Google is a left-brain company that designs like a blind man with no arms. Apple is without peer in its approach to elegance, beauty, industrial design and understanding the interface between people and technology. They're simply better than any other company on the planet."

When Google released Google Pages I was stunned. When iWeb released a drag-n-drop connection to Google it made even more sense (yet another post: http://www.iconnectdots.com/ctd/2007/08/iweb-was-today-.html).

Bottom line? This Google-Apple connection goes beyond Google Docs, the iPhone connection or even Safari as a "container" for rich, internet applications and the signs will keep pointing toward confirming your suspicions.

You can edit your gdocs on your iphone, Merlin? I can’t edit a thing. I can view documents, and spreadsheets get cut off at the bottom.