Google Docs or Microsoft Word: What do you use?

[MikeTheFronterizo]

Hi,

I am about to start writing a lengthy thesis (minimum 40 pages) and wondering which way to go. Google docs has been my go-to for a very long time but doesn't offer full Chicago style footnotes. I have encountered several formatting issues. For example, when the footnote is too long and goes to the next page, there is a large gap left between written text and the footnote line making it look like I am attempting to make the essay longer. I also get the same issue randomly even if the footnotes stay on the same page. Google docs also has a weird format to it when it prints. The margins always seem to huge and cut off the page numbers. Though I have found a fix for this but not the footnote situation. 

In Word, I never get formatting issues but requires me to have the program on my device. I have a Chromebook and while they do offer an online version of Word it is slow and just buggy at times. I have also never been fond of carrying my work by USB or even in  Microsoft cloud. Docs is simply more convenient than Word. Google docs works better for me because I prefer writing on public computers as opposed to my laptop at home so I can access my paper on any computer. But when I need to work at home, Docs is better. However, for the sake of formatting the paper and for future professional publications of papers, Word seems to be the way to go and I should get familiar with it?

What do you use? In your experience, and if you have ever sent a manuscript for publication, what is better for a long paper that requires heavy footnoting? 

[avflinsch]

MS Word - As much as I dislike the program, it seems to be the standard for sending documents between individuals and potential publishers.

Google Docs on the other hand is better for exactly what you describe - access from multiple computers, and it is easier to share documents when there are multiple people working on it.

 

[Neist]

I type the entire paper in Docs, notes included, and import it into Word and fix the errors. I then save a .docx copy of that paper in my Drive.

It's not ideal, but I much prefer working in Docs.

[Eigen]

Word with DropBox/Box is pretty good at version control/remote writing.

Be very careful of typing things you want intellectual ownership of in Google Docs- the terms of use are pretty slanted towards Google having pretty broad usage rights to what you put in there. 

I may be a bit paranoid about this, but some of the clauses in the TOS (i.e., maintaining use of things you upload even after you no longer use the service) worry me a bit given their track record at selling/using user data. 

[ShogunT]

I store my MSWord/LaTeX in a synchronized folder managed by Dropbox (there is a desktop app for it). The edition I make to the documents automatically get updated into the data server. I can easily retrieve the most updated version literally anywhere.

[rising_star]

I use Word or Kingsoft (a free Office-like program) with the files backed up to SugarSync, which then gives me access to them across multiple computers. It's not seamless with the Chromebook but I also don't do a lot of writing on my Chromebook since the screen is only 11 inches.

[fuzzylogician]

I use LaTeX + dropbox. Occasionally if I am forced, I will use Word. If you are worried about collaborations, find out what your potential collaborators are using. Otherwise, my instinct is that Docs is probably not a  good way to go for academic papers. There isn't a straightforward way to handle bibliographies or footnotes and then there is the ownership problem. Dropbox gives me access to my documents anywhere that I need them, although really I only work on papers either on my office computer or my laptop, so all I need is those two to be synced. 

[Neist]

Reading back through these, a few things popped up.

18 hours ago, Eigen said:

Word with DropBox/Box is pretty good at version control/remote writing.

Be very careful of typing things you want intellectual ownership of in Google Docs- the terms of use are pretty slanted towards Google having pretty broad usage rights to what you put in there. 

I may be a bit paranoid about this, but some of the clauses in the TOS (i.e., maintaining use of things you upload even after you no longer use the service) worry me a bit given their track record at selling/using user data. 

I'd never heard of this. I'm not sure if I care, to be honest, but I'll more strongly consider it in the future. Thanks!

7 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

I use LaTeX + dropbox. Occasionally if I am forced, I will use Word. If you are worried about collaborations, find out what your potential collaborators are using. Otherwise, my instinct is that Docs is probably not a  good way to go for academic papers. There isn't a straightforward way to handle bibliographies or footnotes and then there is the ownership problem. Dropbox gives me access to my documents anywhere that I need them, although really I only work on papers either on my office computer or my laptop, so all I need is those two to be synced. 

Do you mean an automated way? Paperpile can generate footnotes/bibliographies, but I realize that it isn't free. 

On 5/16/2016 at 7:26 PM, MikeTheFronterizo said:

Google docs has been my go-to for a very long time but doesn't offer full Chicago style footnotes.

I'm confused re-reading this comment. What do you mean by full Chicago style footnotes? I use Chicago, and I've rarely had an issue. There's a few quirks, but I wasn't sure if you experienced specific issues.

[Concordia]

15 hours ago, rising_star said:

I use Word ... with the files backed up to SugarSync, which then gives me access to them across multiple computers.  

I'm hardly an expert on this, but that's what I do as well.  I am still behind many of the latest doo-dads for Word-- my latest problem is creating a single Word page from two pdfs and then dropping it into a bigger document.  I've made the Word page, and I can turn that into a pdf, but I may have to splice 'before', 'exhibit', and 'after' pdf pages together for the final pdf that gets submitted.  Also, I'm making my own footnotes, so these comments about Word doing Chicago make me confused.  Still, I shudder to think about learning another program and convincing the rest of the world to want to use it.  Maybe if I were doing a lot of group projects...

SugarSync had some kind of deal with Lenovo, which made it easier to install than some alternatives.  The only time I really almost regretted it was when I bought a new laptop and took it to England for 10 days.  It took FOREVER to sync up.  Now that we're all done the first time, updates are more or less trouble-free.  I've tried to figure out why the services at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft would be better and I haven't got there yet.  Some day, I may subscribe to another also just in case SugarSync crashes on the day my laptop is stolen.

 

 

Edited May 17, 2016 by Concordia

[fuzzylogician]

10 hours ago, Neist said:

Do you mean an automated way? Paperpile can generate footnotes/bibliographies, but I realize that it isn't free. 

 

I mean an automated way. As I said, I am a LaTeX user, and I can't imagine generating my own bibliographies. I'm in a less footnote-heavy field than (I think) you are, so I know less about that. LaTeX gives me more flexibility using footnotes than Word does, but I'm not entirely sure how Word compares to Docs there. Generally speaking, though, I'd worry about putting my work on a platform that says that anything I put on it is fair game for it to use. 

[nevermind]

I primarily use Google Docs because it automatically saves every couple of minutes. For regular papers for classes, it's fine. When I need to use something that is more user friendly for reference materials, I'll consider something else.

[Joan Callamezzo]

You can upload word documents into the google drive, and then open them as google docs from the drive. That way you can sort of toggle between formats. Worst case scenario you can always just manually type in your footnotes.. 

[dr. t]

On 5/18/2016 at 8:35 PM, fuzzylogician said:

 

I mean an automated way. As I said, I am a LaTeX user, and I can't imagine generating my own bibliographies. I'm in a less footnote-heavy field than (I think) you are, so I know less about that. LaTeX gives me more flexibility using footnotes than Word does, but I'm not entirely sure how Word compares to Docs there. Generally speaking, though, I'd worry about putting my work on a platform that says that anything I put on it is fair game for it to use. 

 

Half my text for any given piece of writing is in the footnotes, and I also use LaTeX, and the bibliographic abilities are fantastic. I use Zotero to generate my .bib files, and the whole system works very well. However, programs that convert (e.g. Pandoc) tex to word can't pull the citations when they do so, so if your publisher insists on word, it's a lot of work to convert.

[fuzzylogician]

1 hour ago, telkanuru said:

 

Half my text for any given piece of writing is in the footnotes, and I also use LaTeX, and the bibliographic abilities are fantastic. I use Zotero to generate my .bib files, and the whole system works very well. However, programs that convert (e.g. Pandoc) tex to word can't pull the citations when they do so, so if your publisher insists on word, it's a lot of work to convert.

I have once, when forced to use Word, created a LaTeX document filled only with \citep{blah} for each of my bib file references, generated the bibliography, then copy-pasted it into my Word document. Silly, but saved me a lot of time. 

[thedig13]

I use MS Word for anything that I'm planning to eventually show to others (e.g., dissertation chapters, prospectuses, course assignments).

I use Google Drive to keep notes on everything I read in graduate school (e.g., archival materials, book-reading notes).

[ctg7w6]

For longer papers (anything over 20 pages), I use Scrivener to write it. Then, I convert it to MS Word and do final formatting.

This was for two reasons... Scrivener easily breaks things down into more manageable chunks (essential when I wrote my 120 page MA thesis). Second, MS Word on Mac, while it has become really good in the last year or so, it still has problems with larger documents. For me, that is usually that pages literally won't load on the screen sometimes, or there is a delay of 2-5 seconds before a page will appear. Happens somewhat randomly. Brand new Macbook Air, but it does it, so I blame Word.

But, you pretty much have to use Word if you want to absolutely ensure compatibility. Ergo, I use it as the last step to touch up the document and get formatting perfect.

[dr. t]

On 5/22/2016 at 1:21 PM, fuzzylogician said:

I have once, when forced to use Word, created a LaTeX document filled only with \citep{blah} for each of my bib file references, generated the bibliography, then copy-pasted it into my Word document. Silly, but saved me a lot of time. 

This doesn't work fantastically for Chicago Notes & Bib, sad to say. 

There's actually ways to get Zotero to "scan" your document looking for citation keys, too.

Edited May 31, 2016 by telkanuru

[Calgacus]

18 hours ago, ctg7w6 said:

For longer papers (anything over 20 pages), I use Scrivener to write it. Then, I convert it to MS Word and do final formatting.

This was for two reasons... Scrivener easily breaks things down into more manageable chunks (essential when I wrote my 120 page MA thesis).

I used Scrivener for my 150-page MA thesis as well! You're right, it really helps make writing a big project so much more manageable. Plus having all my PDF'ed primary sources in it and being able to split-screen them with my writing was so helpful. I just found Scrivener so helpful in keeping the project organized and feeling more accomplished by knocking out small chunks at a time. Glad to see I'm not alone on this!

[AP]

On 5/15/2016 at 8:26 PM, MikeTheFronterizo said:

Hi,

I am about to start writing a lengthy thesis (minimum 40 pages) and wondering which way to go. Google docs has been my go-to for a very long time but doesn't offer full Chicago style footnotes. I have encountered several formatting issues. For example, when the footnote is too long and goes to the next page, there is a large gap left between written text and the footnote line making it look like I am attempting to make the essay longer. I also get the same issue randomly even if the footnotes stay on the same page. Google docs also has a weird format to it when it prints. The margins always seem to huge and cut off the page numbers. Though I have found a fix for this but not the footnote situation. 

In Word, I never get formatting issues but requires me to have the program on my device. I have a Chromebook and while they do offer an online version of Word it is slow and just buggy at times. I have also never been fond of carrying my work by USB or even in  Microsoft cloud. Docs is simply more convenient than Word. Google docs works better for me because I prefer writing on public computers as opposed to my laptop at home so I can access my paper on any computer. But when I need to work at home, Docs is better. However, for the sake of formatting the paper and for future professional publications of papers, Word seems to be the way to go and I should get familiar with it?

What do you use? In your experience, and if you have ever sent a manuscript for publication, what is better for a long paper that requires heavy footnoting? 

For long stuff I use Scrivener. I started using it for my dissertation prospectus. Yet, the citations are a problem there. Before the prospectus I used Word. I am a Zotero freak so Word works wonders with citation management. There was a problem with my version of Word and for several grant applications I had to use Google docs because Word would simply not work in my professors' computers. 

I would use what you find safer and deal with the fact of formatting (I am doing that for my dissertation, it hurts but not so much).

[ninawilliam89]

I find Google Docs easier to use Microsoft Word, and it can be stored online

[Chiqui74]

I use Word.  My undergrad institution allowed every student to download one free copy for PS and one for Mac of the MS Suite as well as subsequent updates. So both my computers have Word, but when I upgrade my computers, I will likely lose the software since I have no idea where the installer is.  My grad institution, for being as rich as they are, does not offer free MS Suite to students and I certainly can't afford to buy it for myself. I don't know what I'll do then.