Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs on columns, headers, and bullets - lupientorty1994

The battle of Son vs. Google Docs is commonly over before it begins, with the spoils awarded to Microsoft's venerable Logos central processing unit and its huge feature fix. Simply the sized of the tool chest isn't e'er the best measure of a program's usefulness, and so we put the two to a more practical test.

Forward 80 percent of mass use 20 percentage of a computer program's features, we tasked both programs with a universal real-world use slip: the creation of a simple sum up. This gave us the find to compare commonly used formatting tools such as headers, columns, and bullets, and level the fiel a act. Here's how each fared.

Google Docs: A few workarounds requisite

To really road test each program's more basic capabilities, we wanted to create a young resume from engrave without the consumption of templates. To make the test more challenging, and add a minuscule pizzazz to the final exam product, we decided on a two-column layout with the incision titles on the left side and section content on the right.

This was a multi-Page CV, which gave us a great opportunity to use a cope: We wanted to make a point our public figure and contact info were on the top of each one in instance the printed pages got separated by HR or the hiring director. Google Docs' header function is incredibly straightforward—just go to Put in > Heading and type your text in the box that appears at the top of the first page. The same information will automatically appear at the upper side of all succeeding pages.

If for any reason you privation different text on the number 1 page, click the jibe box labeled "Different first page header/footer" connected the lower nigh of the header box. That header text will be cleared so you can add new information. The headers of ensuant pages leave remain unchanged.

With the headers set, it was metre to dive into the meat of the resume. Google Docs doesn't support multi-newspaper column layouts. Eastern Samoa with many challenges with Google's productiveness suite, yet, there is a workaround. In this lawsuit, you can simulate columns past using a borderless table.

You can simulate a multicolumn papers in Google Docs exploitation the Tables features.

To do this, place the pointer where you require to start your "columns" and go to Table > Inset Table. In the fly-out menu, drag your cursor across the grid to produce the number of columns and rows you want. We welcome our resume tined into five sections—Summary, Skills, Experience, Education, and Awards—so we created a two-aside-five shelve. You can rightful drag the cells by their outside borders to resize them. And so type your text (Beaver State cut and paste it from an existing papers) into the befitting columns.

With the content in target, you'll following need to format it. Just satisfactory-dawn in the appropriate cell and pick out Table properties from the dada-up bill of fare. Under Cell vertical alignment, select Top, Center, or Rear end. The text will maintain whichever coalition you choose true if you resize the cell IT's in.

Docs postpone properties features are clean and intuitive.

From the Table properties menu, you posterior too set the dimensions and alignment for the tables and choose a background color for your cells, which we did for the left newspaper column to ADD a little pop.

From there it was a matter of choosing fonts, colors, and heading and heater styles. Docs had much enough options to experimentation with.

Lastly, we wanted to get eliminate the table's borders soh it'd feeling like a set of true columns. To do this, recover to Postpone properties and change the Hold over surround to 0 Pt.

IT won't win some design awards, but this two-column resume was a breeze to create in Google Docs.

Creating a summarize in Google Docs was shockingly easy—we banged it out in to a lesser degree an 60 minutes. Non lonesome did Docs have all the document formatting tools we needed, its simple user interface rescued us sentence because we didn't have to hunt finished multiple tabs and sub-menus to find them. If there's combined knock we can make along Google Docs, it's that it stillness doesn't support true columns. Though the tables workaround will produce multi-column documents when you privation to control distinct blocks of text, it won't be feasible when you deprivation to flow text from one column to the next.

Microsoft Word: It's complicated

Creating our resume in Wor, we ran into some frustration right out of the gate. Whereas Google Docs intuitively placed the Header feature under its Infix menu, Word treats headers and footers like they're already deliver in a dummy document. A quick help search reminded United States of America they can be revealed from the View computer menu: View > Header and Footer.

But then, Good Book gives you far more insure over headers, with an entire medal of tools that rent out you sum page Numbers, date and time, and pictures, and designate happening which pages it appears. IT symmetric offers around 20 header templates.

Microsoft Word's predesigned headers offering plenty of options to make your document digest knocked out.

Unlike Google Docs, Microsoft Word does have an real column feature, which buns be found under its Format menu. However, it's configured to flow paragraph-intemperate text edition from one newspaper column to the next, as you would in a newsletter for brochure. It's less than ideal for something ilk a resume, which intersperses short blocks of text and bulleted lists. Because of that, we opted again to use tables to give us better verify over the layout.

The first John Major remainder you'll notice from Google Docs is Word's head-spinning seven ways to make up Tables, including drawing them freehanded, and a couple up that are relevant merely if you're importing Excel information. The Graphic Grid is the most straightforward method acting and the well-nig similar to Google Docs tables subprogram. You just click the shelve icon under the Tables tab. In the drop-down grid, select the number of rows and columns you want.

Word offers seven different shipway to create tables, simply using the Graphic Grid is the simplest.

Once you've entered text into the appropriate cells, you can format the defer by right-clicking in a cell and selecting Table Properties. Where Google Docs contains properties like cell and column dimensions, alliance, and border to a single dialog box, News spreads its options across five ze-menus, plus a separate menu with submenus just for borders and shading.

Password's menus nested inside menus often cause it severe to find what you want.

This was a common radical as we continuing to initialize the survey: though the basic features we used to create our document in Word mirrored those we victimised in Docs, we spent well Thomas More clock determination them because they're dispersed over a number of tabs, flyouts, and dialog boxes. So in the end, we exploited exactly the same steps to create the re-start as we did in Docs, simply it took the States longer to do it.

The verdict: Less is more

Thither's no question Microsoft's steadfast word CPU would win a feature-aside-feature smackdown with Google Docs, but more tools doesn't necessarily translate into a better user experience. When IT comes to the staple format tools we use to create documents every day, we can't find an overwhelming reward over Docs. If anything, Google's word processing system has the edge when it comes to repose of apply, thanks to its plain, intuitive interface. So unless you'Ra a power drug user, this is a case where less is definitely more.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/422956/productivity-smackdown-we-pit-word-vs-docs-on-columns-headers-and-bullets.html

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