Need Microsoft Word? Lost Your Old MS Word?

Have you purchased and used Microsoft Word for years, just to find that you've lost your original software after a hard disk crash? No fun. Been there. Done that. I think I've paid for MS Word and/or MS Office a-half-a-dozen times over the years, very expensive.

Did you know you can drag/drop Microsoft Word (MS Word) Documents to a Google Docs browser page, and the document will be imported automatically for your editing and use? It works like magic - - most of the time. =) I'm sure this is true of other file types as well. This is the only one I have tested.

Instructions How To Import Microsoft Word Document into Google Docs:

• Open your File Explorer, where you can find the MS Word File.
• Open your browser to http://docs.google.com/
• If you haven't created an account, do. It's a great document sharing service. You will need a gmail account. Go here to get started: http://docs.google.com
• After you go to Google Docs, make sure you sign-in.
• Re-size the Windows Explorer or Mac Explorer Screen - - where you see all of your files. Make the window about half of your screen width.
• Do the same for your Browser Screen where you have Google Docs open.
• Find your MS Word Document File in your File Explorer.
• Drag/Drop to your Google Docs Browser Window, and Google Docs will help you from there.
• BTW, the real beauty of Google Docs is not necessarily saving you from not having MS Word; but the fact that you can share your documents for "shared viewing" and "shared editing". It's a great tool for Team editing.

• WARNINGS ON DRAG/DROP TECHNIQUE:
• • If you do not drag/drop into the area for the document list on Google Docs, it will not work.
  • Sometimes if you don't hold your mouth just right, again, it won't work. =)
  • I have found that I have much better success using FireFox as my Browser.
  • It's worth the trouble though, very nice when it's a success. And it could be that I'm missing a step to make it work better. I looked for an Import command from Google Docs and didn't find it. It could be I missed it.
  • If you do not see the following screen, it's not working:

• 
• Done!
• If a screencast is needed, I'll try to do this in the future.

Enjoy,

Jen