Slashdot Mirror
Google Shifts Editing From Drive to Docs and Sheets In 'Confusing' Switch
GottaBeMobile offers a better explanation than many other reports of a recent Google upgrade (some users would say more of a lateral move) that makes offline document creation and editing a first-class option for users of Google's office apps, but removes editing capabilities from Google Drive per se. Instead of creating or editing documents directly through Drive, users will instead be able to do this (including offline) with a dedicated app called Docs and Sheets. The article explains a few ways in which the new configuration is confusing, including this one: "Splitting out the editing functionality from Google Drive into the new Apps certainly seems odd given that fundamentally there are no new or different editing features offered in the new Google Docs and Google Sheets standalone Apps. Some users won’t appreciate having to download the new stand alone Apps to replace previous functionality, especially limited functionality."
Google has a history of constantly tweaking their applications to the point of breaking them and/or making them less useful. There is a reason why the old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" exists. The only thing they seem to get right is search. Yeah, Maps and Earth work well, unless your using Linux or an Android smartphone. Maybe they should focus on fixing bugs instead of creating new ones.
Could someone not have mentioned that it was for iOS so I could have ignored it. Haven't used that since soon after I gave up on Windows. I'm sure there are several other Slashdotters still stuck on that, so it's fine to post such a story, but please make it clear for the majority of us who won't care.
I don't really use these apps, bit why would something called Google drive be the thing I use to edit Google docs? Small programs that do one thing well and integrate with others makes a heck of a lot more sense then what appears to have been a poorly named monolith.
I don't use these apps, but why would I use some called Google Drive to edit Google Docs? That doesn't really make much sense to me. Naming confusion aside, if I want to edit Docs, I shouldn't need to install Drive, I should just be able to install a Docs app. Apps should do one thing well, not many things poorly.
The main reason they have done this is a massive problem I deal with every single day. BIG documents. I have numerous spreadsheets that hold tends of thousands (or more) of rows. However a browser based spreadsheet where the data is stored on the server is NEVER going to be as capable as a local application. Imagine how frustrated I am when sorting or creating pivots... I pull my hair out daily. They just don't want to admit that WRT this issue - they just "moved laterally" to a model of editing that is virtually identical to Microsoft Office with cloud features ...
There is no offline mode. You can open a document, but if you try to edit it, the app will try to open the document in online mode. This is one of the most requested features, offline editing, so naturally Google ignores it.
It sounds like the code base has grown to the point that they realized it would make sense to separate the code for managing a collection of online files from the code for editing a particular file. So: Drive is the file manager, Docs is for word processing documents, and Sheets is for spreadsheets.
That sounds pretty reasonable, especially from a project-management perspective. De-coupling the code will probably allow the different teams to release updates as needed without having to be in perfect synch with each other's schedules. That is, they can submit a patch to Docs even if Sheets is in the middle of a major refactoring.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
Did Google take down the Beta tag on these logos yet? Remember, not all Beta projects make it to stable. A lot of people were using GMail before the Beta sign went down!
I think it makes sense if you consider that Microsoft and Google are starting to make peace with each other. Microsoft recently officially gave their blessing to using office.com on Chrome and ChromeOS. So, imagine now that maybe you'll be able to save and edit actual word docs in Drive using Office and that perhaps Microsoft will also be opening its own Skydrive (or whatever they're calling it now) up to other document types? I admit it's a stretch, but given the new focus on the cloud from Microsoft, it could happen. This also makes more sense from the "merging Android and Chrome" point of view as well as mobile tends to favor smaller, single purpose apps.
I started a small business recently and played with Google's suite and the office.com suite, and frankly Google's system leaves a lot to be desired. Sheets and Docs and their presentation software I found to be weak imitations of Excel, Word, and Powerpoint, even the online versions. So does anyone use Google's system over say office.com; is there something I'm missing? Just curious.
It used to be Google Docs, right? Then they decided it was a cloud storage product and renamed the whole thing (including the editors) Drive. This confused a lot of people who didn't understand why you had to download Google Drive to edit a spreadsheet. So now they have seperate products and people are complaining about that too?
I give up. I mean I'm broadly sympathetic to change aversion, but this isn't even that. It's just breaking out functionality into more rational chunks, and people complaining about it.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
Why use stuff from Google when you can instead use Open Office ?
Google no doubt has paid shills writing comments in this thread, so
any replies to my post with be taken with a grain of sale and a bullshit detector.
They remove the feature which kept me from using google docs and sheets...
Because the people of Slashdot are fucking stupid. Say I don't do editting or I just use drive as storage I don't need the added functionality, so why have it in the app. Say I'd like to open a document and spreadsheet I now can since before you couldn't with a single app.
This. Having a separate app for editing makes sense.
This is going to totally confuse users. They're moving document creation from the storage service "Drive" to the document service "Docs".
Docs and Sheets definitely doesn't sound like a store you would find between Staples and Linens & Things.
sic transit gloria mundi
Dear Google --
You are your worst enemy.
Please, just stop.
First, a purported Microsoft Office-killer. Then, you lost space to Evernote. Oh. My. God. How can it be that small software houses beat you to the online document race?
You periodically either shoot yourself on the foot, or you pull features and leave your user/programmers feeling you're not reliable. Because you're not.
You have a serious lack of direction. Reconsider your ways.
Nothing you do outside search works. Or barely works.
And nobody uses Google+. Face it.
Please, just stop.
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
I say cut out the sushi chefs out there on the GOOG's dependencies.
Make mutherfuckers eat pizza!
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
Try again - it's CONFIDANTE
Maybe this is just a way to pump up the apps in the App Store after recent release of Office 365 on iOS?
-- "You dont win a war by dying for your country. You win a war by making the other son-of-a-bitch die for his!" - G
But this was just for iOS7? Or is it for Android devices too?
No! It's a *SIG*. Keep the Special Interest Groups away! (Con joke!)
It's why I'm still using my Symbian Nokia, the offline mapping is great. Google maps no longer works on any platform. I now use mapquest.
Used to use GoogleDocs, great for parking files for customers and coworkers. Even that is broken. Printing is a laugh, print to a mutant pdf, then hope that actually prints.
What is it with UI design these days? We're preparing to dump gmail, it's an even bigger mess than yahoo mail.
using the google suite? Not that I know of. It looks like the idiots who designed it were given the responsibility of overhauling mail and docs. They should be fired. No wonder mapping doesn't work.
Google can't be trusted with important stuff.
The two new apps are also for android. For now it they have kept the drive app functionality intact, but I think they will remove it on the next update
Look I broadly agree with you that Google today is no longer as good as they used to be, both in terms of their product and their "don't be evil" mentality/mantra/outlook.
But really, dissing their employees is a new low. Most of them have no say in the decision making process and are just working to make a living, like the rest of us.
And I had a look at your posting history. Do you realise that 9 out of your last 10 posts are nothing more than variations of "F*** Google"? And all in this same thread?
Tone it down a bit, chump. You are starting to look like a "Scroogled" fanboy.
This is why I love the DropBox concept : it is just a local folder on my machine and I can use any application I want to edit the files stored in there.
And if one day DropBox becomes too evil or too expensive, I can transparently switch to an other solution to sync my documents without changing the way I edit them.
Considering that the functionalities where originally separate to begin with... Is this switch more confusing or just par for the course. Personally, I felt they made more since as sperate entities. One for storage and one for creating/editing. Especially when you consider that drive does so much more than just host Google Docs and Sheets.
I mean, if you really need to use spreadsheets and all that, chances are you have a real Office application from Microsoft or Apple. Otherwise you can use Open Office and you don't have to deal with the program being fucked with constantly.
Google is so huge now, they are not even being very careful about failing or avoiding public ire.