Gaming with Google Docs, Part 1

Google Docs is a flexible suite of online Office-like applications. Its list of applications includes spreadsheets, documents (including PDFs), presentations, and forms. Not only can you create original files in Google Docs, but you can also import files created in your favorite office application including OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office (including 2007).

Google Docs also grants you the ability to save documents to a file on disk and includes formats such as HTML, DOC, PDF, and more. In this article, we discuss some of the basic uses for Google Docs and how they can apply to your RPG campaign.

By the way, have you noticed how I've stopped providing links to Google's services? My reason: You can "Google" them.

Use Cases

By this point you're probably wanting me to get to the part about the use cases for Google Docs with RPGs and how can it save you time. So without further delay, here's the rundown.

• Take notes for your campaign anywhere without having to save a local file, back it up, etc.
• Co-GMing? Share that file easily with anyone you'd like, and ensure you both have the most recent version of the document (see Sharing Files below). You can even compare versions and roll back to a previous version.
• Collaborate between players and GMs on writing character backgrounds, including commenting capabilities.
• Develop your campaign guide or player's cheat sheet without having to manage different versions and copies of files.
• Record player or GM notes during a session or between sessions.
• Collaboratively write sessions summaries in a shared document.
• Keep in-character journals.
• Post any of the above documents to a blog (see Sharing Files below) or embed them into your group's Google Site (to be covered in a future article).
• Tip: Google Docs also supports sharing of PDF files such as character sheets, free PDFs, etc. Simply click the checkbox next to the name of the PDF in your list of documents, and click the Share button at the top. The rest is pretty self explanatory.
  Create a campaign intro presentation, publish it as a web page or as an embedded slideshow on your existing page such as a Google Site (like I said, we'll get to that in a future article.
• Use drawing tools to create basic illustrations or handouts that have symbols, runes, sigils, or other strange writings.
• Search all of your documents, presentations, spreadsheets with Google's super searching powers.
• Save a document as a PDF for distribution and printing.
• Save a document in HTML format and copy the HTML into your web site.

Just by these examples alone, it's obvious that the type of documents are not only versatile, but they utility and features they provide is, too.

Sharing Files

Note: The invitation form can pull in contacts or offer suggestions from your Google Contacts which we set up in the first article Gaming with Google Groups. See? I told you that would be handy.

Update 8/18/2009: Google has added a new feature to it's sharing capabilities that allows you to share a file with a Google Group via the group email address. Any members leaving or joining will automatically lose and gain access to the file respectively. You may also send invitations to the entire Google Group rather than distinct individual email addresses.

Update 10/13/2009: Google Docs now allows you to share entire folders.

The real strength of Google Docs is in its ability to share content from within the service itself, accessible from either the main Google Docs list or directly in a document. In either case, the "Share" option is what you are looking for.

Google Docs allows you to share a document, for example, with anyone by inviting them as a collaborator (editing permissions) or a viewer (read-only permissions). You can also allow invited collaborators to share the document with others and/or set the invitation to be used by anyone; the latter is particularly good if you are sending the invitation to a mailing list such as your Google Group.

The third and fourth options for sharing the document is to email a copy as an attachment or to publish it as a Web page. The Web page is an excellent option if you are sharing your document with the world.

Sharp observers will notice a fifth option for publishing the document to a blog (such as Blogger), which is exactly how I published this particular article. Simply click the Share button, select "Publish to Web page...", and enter the information for posting to your blog. We'll discuss uses for blogging more when we get to into Gaming with Blogger.

Folders/Tagging

Tip: If you are using Google Docs to write and post to a blog, tags applied to your document will also be applied to your post.

This is important if you care about organizing your files. You can use "folders" (tags, really) to label your documents. The flexibility in this feature is pretty impressive. You can easily create new folders, as well as subfolders, and applying these tags to to a document is as easy as dragging and dropping the document to the folder. You can also place a the same document in multiple folders which is the same as giving it multiple tags.

Mobile Access

You can read your Google Docs via your mobile device if you have data service and can browse the Web. to read any of your documents or spreadsheets on the go. This is great if you want to review your campaign notes while taking the train to work or in a boring meeting.

That ends the first part of Gaming with Google Docs. What are some of the ways you think you might be able to use Google Docs with your gaming group?

Next: Gaming with Google Docs, Part 2

Discover the power of Google Docs' spreadsheets, forms, presentations and offline access.