Have you ever spent hours, or hundreds of hours creating a precious document using ordinary word processing software only to lose it simply because your computer died or the power went off? Have you survived the inevitable computer computer hard drive crash or blue-screen, but lost valuable, newly-created file documents in the process? Perhaps those difficult situations can be avoided with the use of Google docs.

As a freelancer, aspiring novelist, playwright or business owner, security and safety of your written work and documentation is imperative. This review is an experimental test document created and stored on Google docs to evaluate Google's word processing software tool for writing articles that may be both stored and published on the web in various formats.

Many questions should be asked when web sites offer tools for the creation, storage, and security of data and creative work, and rightfully so. Creative work is difficult, if not impossible to reconstitute if lost --with only a single momentary failure of technology. Loss of business data or creative work can be stressful and heartbreaking, and loss of personal information may cause unpredictable and serious problems immediately or at some unknown time in the future.

Is adequate security offered for Google docs users ? In this changing world, sites considered secure on the web are always a tempting challenge and a prize for would-be hackers. What kind of assurance does any document creator have that a document, once written, cannot be hacked and deleted, altered, or directed anywhere in the world without the knowledge of the document owner? The sad fact is, in the world of the web, there is no absolute degree of security. The answers to questions of security are only as good as modern document encryption technology and site security features offered by the integrity of Google itself.

At the top of the document page is a "Private to only me" security icon. Clicking on that icon allows the document owner to easily add specific persons with whom the document may be shared, and clicking on the convenient "Share" icon on the top right corner allows the document owner to share it with others, using various settings and options including :
* emailing editors and viewers
* emailing as an attachment
* sending messages to collaborators
* previewing as a web page
* Publishing as a web page.
The Working Interface and Document Page

The interface of Google docs is a user-friendly word-processing format not unlike those in the most popular word-processing programs, Word Perfect and MS Word. Google docs offers a simple, easy-to-operate tool bar with Web clipboard, spell checker, and linking capability in addition to many other standard features to enable the creation of documents, tables, lists and spreadsheets.
A spell checker, a variety of fonts and font sizes are easily selectable. Standard test characteristics including Bold, Italics, Underlining, and text colour are offered. A selector for text background colour is also offered.

Mathematical equations are included, as is a most helpful feature, the capability of inserting a large variety of special characters. The insert tab allows access to subscript, superscript, arrows of all designs, Latin, braille, and numerous other devices. Translation features allow translation into a large selection of languages. Photographs can be easily imported and included in the document.
Saving Work and Storage

Saving work and storage
Written text is saved automatically and regularly as it is written, with the exact time of saving being recorded, but the document may be saved at any time using the icon provided. A free default storage capacity of 1024 MB is offered that can be upgraded. Documents are easily retrieved by logging in to Google docs.

Summary

Most features and performance characteristics of Google docs are standardized and the average user should quickly become comfortable using Google docs for written documents, tables and spreadsheets if the most popular word-processing programs have been used regularly