Google Apps: quick tour and practical tips

Drive Store and access your files anywhere -- on the web, on your hard drive, or on mobile devices.. Get started with Google Drive Documents Create and share your project documents with collaborators in different parts of the world. Get started with Google Docs Presentations Create, share, edit and publish presentations online. Get started with Google Presentations Spreadsheets Create, share and edit your project spreadsheets with collaborators. Get started with Google Spreadsheets Calendar Share calendars and events with a small team or the world, publish a public calendar on your website Get started with Google Calendar Sites Create a team website or a wiki in minutes, and share it with a small team or the world.  Get started with Google Sites Forms Create questionnaires, publish them online and collect the data all in one place. Get started with Google Forms Hangouts Instant messaging, chat, video and voice conference with cgxchange.org users and more Get started with Hangouts How to share and collaborate on CGX 2.0 Once you have created a document, a site or a calendar, you can: keep it private: you are the owner and the only viewer; share a document collection with a team of collaborators  share a Site with collaborators and non-cgxchange.org users share it with the world, i.e. publish on the Internet. Learn more on sharing with partners with a GMail or Google account. Practical tips and recommendations Docs, Presentations and Spreadsheets are great for sharing and collaboration, e.g. editing content together, filling out a table when several people are involved in collecting the information, etc.  We recommend you use Docs primarily for editing and sharing. Do not use as permanent storage of important information, or documents that are closely related to your work. Refer to the guidelines for permanent storage with the IT/IM Department of your Center or Program. Don't expect sophisticated formatting, computing power, or fancy animation tools. While Docs, Presentations and Spreadsheets work well, they still do not compare with the MS Office package. We recommend you create and share files on which you want to collect feedback and contribution. Preparing docs or presentation for public dissemination requires more sophisticated software. Sites are quick and easy to build, because they give you a template and allow a number of custom features (like your own logo); pre-built pages and gadgets (e.g. including a YouTube video is super easy!) that match most of your needs to share and publish information with very low effort. What's more, Sites function like wikis, so you can share them with collaborators who have the permission to create pages, edit and update content, etc. Comments and attachments can be enabled for each page. We recommend you consider building a Google Site on CGX 2.0 for time-bound initiatives and when you do not have resources for a custom solution. For example, if you're organising a meeting or a training programme, you can build a Google Site on CGX 2.0 to share logistical information, agendas, pre- and post-meeting materials with a restricted group of people, or with the whole world.  Calendars can be private, shared with a small group of people or made public access. Regardless of what calendar software other may have on their computer, you can maintain an online calendar and decide who you want to grant access to. Synchronization with Outlook Calendar is possible by installing a software program that will, however, keep only your primary calendar at cgxchange.org and your default Outlook calendar synchronized. We recommend you use Calendars when you need to involve people across different organizations and offices, when you need to publish a calendar on a website.  Mail is based on Gmail (you may have recognised it if you have a Gmail account). It is enabled on CGX 2.0 and serves the purposes of  1. receiving notifications of shared files and sites;  2. acting as your ID on cgxchange.org.  It does NOT replace or competes with your cgiar.org email account.  Set up mail forwarding to your cgiar.org account: so you can receive notifications. Learn more: check the Frequently Asked Questions.