How to write a white paper with Google Docs
by Gordon Graham, That White Paper Guy
White papers are team projects.
So why do we all work on separate PCs on separate drafts and e-mail around separate comments?
Isn't that a little... old-fashioned?
I recently wrote my first white paper with the free cloud-based Google Docs.
It was a challenging document with many reviewers: a sure prescription for version-control headaches.
But with Google Docs, it was a smooth, sometimes exhilarating experience, one I'm sure I'll repeat in the future.
 |
If you haven't used Google Docs for a project, here are some observations and tips I learned. The biggest difference of all from using Word on a PC: You create an online version of a document that all reviewers can access... and that changes a lot. |
Waterfall to river
The traditional white paper process involves a series of deliverables: notes, draft summary, draft text, comments, and so on. In software, this is called the "waterfall" model.
Forget that: In Google Docs, there are no neat and tidy stages. That white paper went through an ongoing flow of refinements more like a river... or like the Agile method for developing software.
Comments to discussion
When a reviewer goes through a Google Doc, their comments show up in text boxes in the margin. You can answer comments in the same place. It doesn't seem like much work to review a doc online, so reviews tend to come in faster and be easier to handle.
And since everyone's comments appear in real-time, you can achieve a consensus faster than by e-mailing around multiple drafts.
Writer to collaborator
To stop all this openness from degenerating into a Wikipedia-style edit war, someone has to manage each document. In Google Docs, that tends to be the person who created the file and shared it with others.
My client is a very good writer, so we worked shoulder-to-shoulder on drafts and passed "ownership" of the document back and forth. With such close collaboration, the writing felt strangely light and effortless.
Paper to online
I generally print out drafts and save multiple file versions for backup. With Google Docs, you can print a PDF or download a file as text, Word, RTF, Open Office or HTML, which enables flexible backups on your desktop. But that old-fashioned approach soon seemed redundant.
Once I realized I could save an existing file under a new name, I just started keeping dated drafts in the cloud.
The right tool for the job
Google Docs is clearly modeled on the key features of MS-Office, so that most writers can use it with no learning curve. To find out more, there are online videos and a training center available right from the Help menu.
But it's not an all or nothing deal.
Nearly everyone in business has the desktop version of Microsoft Office, and now there's a free online version of Office. So it's really a matter of picking the right tool for the job: desktop or online.
So which is better: desktop or online?
That all depends on which stage of your white paper you're on. I think the ideal is to move back and forth between desktop and online to match the right tool to the job.
The table below sums up my view of which tools are faster or better for various tasks in producing a white paper.
Task |
Online |
Desktop |
Brainstorming |
BETTER |
|
Research |
BETTER |
|
Writing |
SAME |
SAME |
Reviewing |
BETTER |
|
Final |
BETTER |
|
Promoting |
BETTER |
As you can see, the only area where the clear advantage still lies with desktop software is in final formatting.
It's remarkable how the momentum has moved away from the desktop to the cloud so quickly.
By the way, I wrote this article in Google Docs...
can you tell?
Written by Gordon Graham, this article appeared in the
March 2011 edition of the WhitePaperSource Newsletter.
