Picnik & Google Docs

Picnik

Picnik is fun!  I had played with it prior to this week’s Learning Module and was excited to have an excuse to play with it some more!  Picnik offers many great features, such as editing and creating, which are great for both personal and professional use.  Personally, Picnik is fun for adding graphics and text to photos for Web sites like facebook and MySpace.  Professionally, Picnik is ideal for diagrams or screen shots with text instructions.  Photos can be conveniently opened from Websites like Flickr and Picasa or uploaded from a computer.  As with most free Web sites, there are great features that are heavily advertised and able to be clicked, but are only available with Picnik Premium.  (Insert sad buzzer “wah wah” here.)  I would recommend Picnik to coworkers for both personal and professional use.  Picnik is easy to use and does all the basic editing and creating as expensive programs, like Photoshop Elements.

Overall rating: 4/5 stars

Google Docs

Google docs is a free alternative to Microsoft Office, but like other free software, it has limited features.  For someone experienced (and certified) in Microsoft Word, Google docs and free just doesn’t cut it.  Google docs is most notably inferior to Microsoft Office in terms of compatibility and formatting.   Many students use free software, like Google Docs, OpenOffice, and AbiWord on their home computers.  When the students open the documents on campus to print, either Microsoft Office does not recognize the file format and cannot open it, or if it can be opened in Microsoft Office, the formatting is skewed.  As for the collaboration feature of Google Docs, it is inferior to Wikis and other public work spaces.  I would not recommend Google docs to coworkers for either personal or professional use.  I recommend saving money and buying Microsoft Office when it is on sale at Best Buy or using a Wiki for collaboration.

Overall rating: 1/5 stars