I started sharing documents using Google Docs before I set up Google Apps. A while ago I used Google Docs to store all my travel documents when I was travelling to Europe and Asia just in case my notebook gets lost. I also shared a shopping list with my wife in Chile and my farther in Germany. Instead of sending a few emails back and forth, the third saying ‘oh by the way, could you also get us 500g of Coffee in grains'- You just can’t get a decent coffee in Chile - we managed this process using a Google Doc.
I later started using it for internal business purposes (Action Lists, Financial Planning, Sales Pipeline, etc.). We then also included our clients as we developed mutual action plans on Google Docs. During Skype conferences we agreed the ‘who’ ‘what’ and ‘when’ on the spot and there was only one version available.
You can grant different levels of access: view only or collaborators. The really cool thing using the Spreadsheet is that 2 or more people can work on the same document at the same time. Only the cell that one person is editing is blocked for the others.
I just recall a situation about a year ago when we were developing flash animations for a group of dentists in Europe. Very detailed instructions for every single frame were entered and commented in an xls spreadsheet which was sent back and forth by email. So it happened that after version 5 was already agreed upon, we still received comments on version 3 and so on. Had I known Google Docs Spreadsheet at the time, it would have been less stressful.
You can create Text Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets and Forms. You can also upload files (.doc, .txt,.xls, .pdf, .ppt, etc) that are then converted into an online version Later you can save it into an offline version, again. A new feature also allows you work offline on your Google Docs. Are the days of MS Office counted?
Watch this video to learn how it works:
