For a reason (three, actually)

If you’re not familiar with the phrase “Google Docs it!” (“GD it!” for short) you should be.  It means uploading whatever document you’re working on to Google Docs.  And that’s where you should keep it.  Why?

1. Live updating and sharing.  Team collaboration can be made easy when real-time edits are displayed for everyone who is accessing the document.  Great for client dashboards.
2. Access it 24/7 from anywhere…including your iPhone.
3. Keep your team on task: a task list on Google Docs can keep everyone aware of what everyone is working on in real-time.

This is not meant to be a review, however I have experienced the good (above) with the bad.  The following are my top three complains that should be addressed before Google Docs exits Beta.

1. Importing/Exporting.  Simple formatting is lost or gets messed up pretty frequently.  Images and analysis is often lost as well.
2. Copy or merge spreadsheet tabs between spreadsheets on Google Docs.  There is no functionality for this.  In addition, allow for importing INTO an existing spreadsheet as opposed to creating a new spreadsheet.  This helps when you need to copy data to a tab (or “sheet” as it’s called in Excel) in an existing spreadsheet in Google Docs from another spreadsheet (either on Google Docs or local).
3. 1mb file size limit.  My Gmail account has some 7 gigs of space available.  Why do I have to trim a large Excel spreadsheet down to less than 1mb to upload it?

Overall, it’s a great tool that I will continue to learn and explore.  I hope to see it become even more robust!