Word Processor Review: Google Docs

Overview

Google Documents (also called Google Docs, or gdocs) is a free word processor that comes with having a gmail account. There are multiple benefits to having a Google account, and this is one of them.

The Pros

One of the biggest advantages that Google Docs provides is the fact that you can share them with other other people who have a Google account. All you have to do is send an invitation to view, comment, or edit, through email. 

Google Docs has a word counter that can active count your words, up until you hit 3,000. Then you have to open up the word counter manually.

There are multiple extensions that you can get to make you writing experience more unique. 

You can enable off-line access in case you don't have internet access.

There is a nearly unlimited amount of fonts.

The Cons

Many invitations that are sent end up in the recipient's spam inbox, and may be overlooked or assumed to be a virus.

The dark mode extension that I tried merely reversed all the colors. It does not come with a dark mode so you'll have to add an extension.

The word counter can only count up to 3,000 words.

Not all of the extensions work properly. I tried an extension for a word counter, and it only worked for me once or twice despite my many many efforts to fix it.

After the document hits around 40,000+ words, it takes it a little time to load everything. And once you hit a certain amoutn above that (probably 60,000+) it start to get glitchy.

With off-line acces, you can't go into Chrome and Google 'google docs' and be able to use it from there. You have to put in the specific URL for it to work.

Conclusion

While Google Docs, there are many benefits, but also many downsides. It's great for planning and outlining drafts, but if you're writing a full-length novel, you may want to consider another program. Especially since it's opened through an internet browser, and that can invite distractions. However, it does make it really easy to share with writing friends/groups and beta readers or editors since you don't have to upload a file to an email. 

I recommend this word processor for outlining and planning novels, or working on co-op projects. But for personal projects still in the first draft stage, however, another program is probably a better option.