Why Internet Workers Need Google Notebook

Save Time Everyday when Writing, Organizing, or Collaborating

Jul 11, 2008 Nathan Hawks

Work faster and smarter by learning how to use Google's Notebook application. Drag and drop, make clippings quickly, and export to Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

After just two days with Google Notebook, workers in intellectual skill sets can revolutionize their work flow and shave hours per day off of their daily work load.

Features

The features of Google Notebook are near-complete. Coupled with the official Firefox add-on, users can multitask within Notebook without unnecessarily changing tabs.

To clip and save page content, there are many options:

• Right-click a selection and "Note This" with the context menu
• Drag and drop a selection (even on Linux!) to the Firefox addon in the footer bar
• Click inside the Notebook addon for Firefox whereever the new note should be filed, and then click "clipping" in the quick-add form to grab an instant excerpt of the current tab
• Type any note directly, using hotkey formatting to bold, italicize, etc
• Paste HTML-formatted text and images copied from wherever, including desktop-based word processors or anything that allows copying of rich text.

When a user finds information, they can snag relevant excerpts with an automatic links to the source. This can be done either quickly or surgically at whim, and sorted later via drag'n'drop. The drag and drop works whether moving to a notebook, a section header, or just for reordering.

It has a trash can. It has sharing / groupware functions. It exports a whole notebook to Google Docs with a single click. It's typical Google ajax.

Benefits

Enough of the features - what are the benefits? At a glance, it rids the need of a notepad-type application altogether. Away with that goes the related need for a tedious-to-maintain filing system for temporary digital scraps.

For users whose note-taking work is synonymous with their other types of web work, Google Notebook increases usability via the Firefox addon by putting read, write, and browse access right into the Firefox status bar. The addon has nearly all features of the full-page version of Notebook, meaning users can overlay a widget on top of the content being clipped and work without changing windows or tabs so often for a single task. Like any Google UI, Notebook and its addon are thin and advanced, with pane-hide features and tiny tools everywhere. All the space used is used productively.

The benefit for businesses is that it's free groupware. It provides a place to share documents and store works in progress. A notebook can be shared with any Google contact, and further collaboration is a one-click export away via Writely (Google Docs).

Some Missing Features

Notebook does lack the usage tips found in other Google applications, and there is no mention of keyboard shortcuts for creating, navigating, and deleting records. Some functions do take one-too-many clicks. Still, it is one of Google's newer applications (announced in 2006 via a press release).

How to Start

Anyone with a Google account can take Notebook for a spin by either going directly to the Notebook application and logging in, or by clicking the "Note this" link on Google search results after logging in to any of their services.

The copyright of the article Why Internet Workers Need Google Notebook in Internet is owned by Nathan Hawks. Permission to republish Why Internet Workers Need Google Notebook in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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