Google Docs for Seniors: A Practical Guide to Cloud-Based Word Processing

Introduction

Like hundreds of millions of people, you probably lived your whole life using one-word processing tool: Microsoft Word.

It’s great software! Powerful software! Resourceful software! And…expensive software!

Google Docs is the Google equivalent of Microsoft Word, but it’s free. Free as in ad-supported, right? One paragraph in and you have to watch a 30 second video of some emoji game you would never play! Wrong! Free as in free. As in no ads. Nothing to pay later. Free!

Who wouldn’t want software like that? For the price of nothing you are getting something you used to pay for. And that nothing doesn’t get you second-rate software that doesn’t help you do the things you really want to do. It gets you cloud-based software that is on par with all the other word processing tools out there.

In many ways, it’s actually better then other tools.

If you are interesting in learning more about it, or you are ready to make the leap and become a free user, then this guide will show you the ropes and get you started as quick as possible.

Let’s get started!

Part 1: Google Drive

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The Google Drive Crash Course

Google Drive

Before talking about the star of this book (Google Docs), it’s worth spending a little bit of time with Google Drive.

Google Drive is the where all your beautiful Docs will be stored.

Google Drive Overview

Every computer has local storage, which is where all the stuff (files, photos, documents), is stored directly on the computer. Windows computers have File/System Explorer, Mac Computers have Finder, and Google has Google Drive—it’s the same concept you are accustomed to on your home computer, but it’s all online.

Google Drive is basically an online version of a file directory; whatever you create in Google is stored here—think of it like Google’s version of DropBox. In fact, you can also store files here—photos, videos, PDFs—whatever you want.

To get started, go to drive.google.com. If you are not signed in to a Google account, then you’ll be greeted by a lovely screen that looks a little like the one below:



Click that Go to Google Drive blue button and you’ll see an option that looks like the below:



While Google Docs is free to use, you do need a Google account to use it. So that’s the catch, right? Free to use, but you have to pay to get a Google account? Nope! A Google account is also free. If you use