Due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak many people are working from home, making face for face collaboration impossible. This can be especially difficult for a team who want multiple team members to collaborate on a document at the same time.

Google Drive allows you to create word processed documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing and online forms and quizzes which people can work on collaboratively, either at the same time (synchronously) or at different times (a-synchronously).

Each time a document is edited, it's previous version is saved so you can "roll back" to any previous iteration of the document.

Documents can be saved in Microsoft Office and PDF formats if you need to save them to a traditional network drive or email them to someone who is not at ease with using the web based system to review your files.

In short, Google Docs can help your business remain operational, allowing you to operate as normally as possible during this challenging time.

Key Features

• • Unlimited storage for all Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms and Drawings and photos.

  • 15GB space of free online storage for other files

  • Powerful search feature allows you to search for text within files, as well as the file details themselves (name, date created, format, author, last edited etc.)

  • Full version control on all documents created by the system with ability to roll back to every previous version

  • Files are automatically saved each time they are edited (no more lost work!)

  • Scan documents using the free Google Drive app on your tablet or phone

  • Work offline and re sync documents when you reconnect to the internet.

  • Deign and deliver presentations to anyone in the world

  • Easily embed Youtube videos into presentations

  • Upload an convert existing Microsoft Office documents into Google format for easy collaboration

  • Download Google format documents in MS Office and PDF format for easy sharing with others

  • Full access control on each document, or folders of documents.

If you want to start using Google Drive, you will need to create a free account.

If you already have an Android phone, a Gmail account or a Youtube account then you already have one, just log into Google drive using your existing login details.

The purpose of the live-stream and these notes is not to tell you which collaborative document writing tool is best for you, but rather make you aware of a free tool which you may consider using.

It's also worth noting that these are not the only options, there are many other tools which you might also wish to consider.

The best thing to do now would be to try some of these tools, see which ones work best for you, and then go from there.