Live blogging with Docs

Wednesday, July 09, 2008 6:51 AM

Amit Agarwal, a professional technology blogger at Digital Inspiration and an exceptionally creative Docs user

We were first introduced to Amit Agarwal when he sent us a video, detailing how to use Docs as an RSS feed reader (check out the accompanying and instructive blog post, as well). We watched the video, read his blog post, and were completely impressed. So, we got in touch, and are now happy to have Amit as a guest blogger, showcasing his newest cool idea for using Docs.

This tutorial will show you how to use Google Docs word processor for blogging a live event – it could be a keynote address or a conference call with media or someone speaking at a local BarCamp in your city.

To get started you would need a laptop computer, a free Google account and few inches of free space to sit (or stand) in the conference room. OK, we are now ready to roll.

google-docs-template

Create a new document in Google Docs and give it some descriptive name (like “Launch of Blue Widgets Version 2”) - this will later become the title of our blog post.

Write some placeholder text in the document (like “Stay Tuned, we’ll cover the event live here.”) and save (Ctrl+S).

Now you have two options here. You can either embed this Google document in your blog as an IFRAME or you can republish the contents of this document as a new blog post (better approach though it requires an additional step).

Embed a live document in your blog

publish-document

From the Share Menu, select “Publish as Web Page” and “Publish Document.” Also check the setting that says “Automatically re-publish when changes are made.”

Go back to the document and select “View as Web Page” from the File menu. What you now see on the screen is a plain vanilla document without any toolbars and menus. To embed this in your blog, copy the URL from the browser bar and use an IFRAME tag (find an example tag linked here).

Now as soon as you write something in this Google document and hit save, the content will appear instantly on your blog. If someone is reading your live blog already, he may have to reload the page.

Republish the Google Document in your blog

google-blog

From the Share Menu, select “Publish as Web Page” followed by “Post to Blog.”


Now there’s a small trick involved here. Without closing the existing window, open a new tab in the browser and load the same document.

When you add new content to your “live blog” document, switch to the previous window and hit “Republish Post” – Google Docs will overwrite the previous version of your blog post so you readers will always see the latest version. Continue the write –> save –> republish cycle until the even is over.

What are the advantages of using Google Docs for Live Blogging?

First and foremost - you are live-blogging on your own website and not on some third-party platform – that means you retain all the web traffic. Second, Google Docs offers a very rich blog editor so you get to include photos, hyperlinks, tables, etc in your blog post as per the need. And the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut is your best friend – you can save content without reloading the page.

To insert current date in a Google Document

Most live blogs carry a timestamp next to each update. While there’s no shortcut key to insert dates in Google Docs, you may use the Ctrl + M key that is normally used for inserting comments. It gives you the current date as well as that authors name which you may discard before publishing the blog.

29 comments:

Ankit Duseja said...

Congrats Amit! So now you are a guest googler! :)

RanMan said...

Amazing!

This will come in handy, and I was just looking for a 3rd party platform to do something like this!

Thank you Amit!
I <3 Google Docs!

Santosh said...

I would try live blogging with Google docs for the next big event I attend. Tentative one is MCONN at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

Santosh said...

http://gyaanstation.blogspot.com/2008/07/google-docs-for-student-clubs.html

Marshall Kirkpatrick said...

Amit does it again, and on quite a stage! Love this idea. Keep the great ideas coming, Amit!

Meaning of friends said...

Really an impressive blog for blogger to do live blogging

$udhi said...

great work amit!
and amazing tip
not that I will use it quite often
but I am full with ideas on how to use GDocs now :)


~$udhi :)

ArpitNext said...

helpful tutorial ..... After learning this I can use Docs for all "word-processing" needs ! Till now , I had to depend upon other clients for composing posts !

Vishal Sharma said...

Good stuff Amit, looks like you Google doesn't know more about their product offerings. They should hire you mate :-).

Anmol Agarwal said...

Hi,
Great Tip...Helps a lot..

Ajay Pathak said...

please check this post
http://readerszone.com/tips/publish-blog-entries-using-google-docs.html

Ajay Pathak said...

i have written the same thing 2 months before this post
but don't know why google not find my post useful :(
anyways i will try to find some new ways to use Google docs.
Good Work amit

mystre said...

That is a cool feature. It would be nice if the "timestamp" could be managed with a single click, and we had the option to place "publish to blog" in the document tool bar.

jjray said...

Very cool trick. I like the iframe feature.

Wa2n said...

Great but how to write label ?

Bhagwat said...

Great work Amit, I will start using google docs.
thanks

http://myammabhagvan.blogspot.com/

thanks

Willem Karssenberg said...

I described exactly the same method in a post on january this year, unfortunately only in Dutch: http://www.karssenberg.nl/weblog/2008/01/live-bloggen-vanaf-een-conferentie.html
At the top of the document I added a link to refresh the page and another one to open the page in a new frame.
I was inspired by a tool called: cover it live: http://www.coveritlive.com/ and thougt this could be done as well with Google Docs or even with Google Pages. What you see on my blog is done with Google Pages.

Ravi.MK said...

Great work Amit,

very helpful,

I will start using google docs.

Thanks

Ravi.mk

digitally4all.blogspot.com

Ravi.MK said...

Great work Amit,

very helpful,

I will start using google docs.

Thanks

Ravi.mk

digitally4all.blogspot.com
digitallyforall.blogspot.com

Wayne Smallman said...

For those using WordPress, it would make sense to create a Page and embed the iframe code in there, which they could then share with everyone at the time of the event...

H Songhai said...

Thanks for the tip. It took me a minute to figure out the IFrame step, until I googled it and got an example of the syntax from wikipedia. It worked perfectly after that!

I have been using Google Presentation and ZOHO Show in the same capacity with my students. Glad to know now that I can do the same thing with Google Docs. Awesome!

Thanks again.

praveenboss said...

good work.. great going.. visit mine…. link1

Blogger Dai said...

can we also have rss feed and archive too?

Serapis Murillo said...

Ooops! I accidentally hit the report abuse button in your iframe doc. Hope you don´t get penalized. Google should ask for verification as to why we think it is abuse before the submit process. Sorry again.

Steve Jones said...

Is there a way to do this so that the Google Docs footer doesn't display in the iframe?

水雞 said...

情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣用品,打卡鐘,跳蛋,持久液,成人網站,成人網站,成人網站,成人網站,色情網站,色情網站,色情網站,色情網站,av女優,av女優,av女優,av女優,色情,色情,色情,色情,h漫,h漫,h漫,h漫,sex,sex,sex,sex,成人影片,成人影片,成人影片,成人影片,成人電影,成人電影,成人電影,成人電影,av女優,a片,a片,a片,a片,成人網站,成人網站,成人網站,成人網站,成人影片,成人影片,成人影片,成人影片,av女優,av女優,av女優,av女優,色情,色情,色情,色情,h漫,h漫,h漫,h漫,sex,sex,sex,sex,情色,情色,情色,情色,黃金回收,黃金回收,黃金回收,黃金回收,借錢,借錢,借錢,借錢,植牙,植牙,植牙,牙醫,牙醫,牙醫,a片,a片,a片,a片,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣用品,成人網站,成人網站,成人網站,成人網站,成人影片,成人影片,成人影片,成人影片,av女優,av女優,av女優,av女優,色情,色情,色情,色情,h漫,h漫,h漫,h漫,sex,sex,sex,sex,情色,情色,情色,情色,黃金,黃金,黃金,黃金,黃金價格,黃金價格,黃金價格,黃金價格,黃金買賣,黃金買賣,黃金買賣,黃金買賣,當舖,當舖,當舖,當舖,鑽石價格,鑽石價格,鑽石價格,鑽石價格,鑽石回收,鑽石回收,鑽石回收,鑽石回收,鑽石買賣,鑽石買賣,鑽石買賣,鑽石買賣,黃金存摺,黃金存摺,黃金存摺,黃金存摺,辣妹視訊,辣妹視訊,辣妹視訊,辣妹視訊,080視訊聊天室,080視訊聊天室,080視訊聊天室,080視訊聊天室,美女交友,美女交友,美女交友,美女交友,情色視訊,情色視訊,情色視訊,情色視訊,哈啦聊天室,哈啦聊天室,哈啦聊天室,哈啦聊天室,ut聊天室,ut聊天室,ut聊天室,ut聊天室,聊天室,聊天室,聊天室,打卡鐘,火鍋吃到飽,創業加盟,賺錢,吃到飽麻辣鍋

r5g7m1l8o1 said...

小弟弟貼影片區小弟弟貼影片區小弟弟貼影片區小弟弟貼影片區小弟弟貼影片區小弟弟貼影片區小弟弟貼影片區小弟弟貼影片區小弟弟貼影片區小弟弟貼影片區洪爺sex520貼片洪爺sex520貼片洪爺sex520貼片洪爺sex520貼片洪爺sex520貼片洪爺sex520貼片洪爺sex520貼片洪爺sex520貼片洪爺sex520貼片洪爺sex520貼片免費漫畫帝國免費漫畫帝國免費漫畫帝國免費漫畫帝國免費漫畫帝國免費漫畫帝國免費漫畫帝國免費漫畫帝國免費漫畫帝國免費漫畫帝國kk69視訊俱樂部kk69視訊俱樂部kk69視訊俱樂部kk69視訊俱樂部kk69視訊俱樂部kk69視訊俱樂部kk69視訊俱樂部kk69視訊俱樂部kk69視訊俱樂部kk69視訊俱樂部台灣情色咆嘯論壇台灣情色咆嘯論壇台灣情色咆嘯論壇台灣情色咆嘯論壇台灣情色咆嘯論壇台灣情色咆嘯論壇台灣情色咆嘯論壇台灣情色咆嘯論壇台灣情色咆嘯論壇台灣情色咆嘯論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇亞洲情色風暴論壇櫻桃不夜城櫻桃不夜城櫻桃不夜城櫻桃不夜城櫻桃不夜城櫻桃不夜城櫻桃不夜城櫻桃不夜城櫻桃不夜城櫻桃不夜城震撼情色論壇震撼情色論壇震撼情色論壇震撼情色論壇震撼情色論壇震撼情色論壇震撼情色論壇震撼情色論壇震撼情色論壇震撼情色論壇小老鼠米克情色網小老鼠米克情色網小老鼠米克情色網小老鼠米克情色網小老鼠米克情色網小老鼠米克情色網小老鼠米克情色網小老鼠米克情色網小老鼠米克情色網小老鼠米克情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網綜合論壇台灣情色網激凸成人論壇激凸成人論壇激凸成人論壇激凸成人論壇激凸成人論壇激凸成人論壇激凸成人論壇激凸成人論壇激凸成人論壇激凸成人論壇aa 片試看aa 片試看aa 片試看aa 片試看aa 片試看aa 片試看aa 片試看aa 片試看aa 片試看aa 片試看

jkl338801 said...

酒店喝酒,禮服店,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,制服店,便服店,鋼琴酒吧,兼差,酒店兼差,酒店打工,伴唱小姐,暑假打工,金錢豹,日式酒店,舞廳,ktv酒店,卡奴,酒店公關,酒店小姐,理容院,日領,龍亨,學生兼差,酒店經紀,酒店小姐,酒店公關,酒店打工,酒店領檯,酒店小姐,假日打工,酒店經紀,伴唱小姐,八大行業,假日打工,酒店經紀,禮服店,酒店上班酒店經紀,酒店兼差,酒店上班,酒店經紀,酒店打工,,酒店兼差,童裝,童裝拍賣,童裝大盤,童裝寄賣,童裝批貨,童裝特賣,童裝拍賣會,童裝切貨,童裝工廠,童裝暢貨中心,酒店經紀,酒店經紀,酒店上班,酒店兼差,暑假打工,酒店經紀,酒店上班,酒店兼差,暑假打工,酒店經紀,酒店小姐,酒店打工,酒店兼差,酒店經紀人,伴唱小姐,伴唱小姐,酒店上班,酒店經紀,酒店經紀,酒店上班,酒店兼差,制服店,暑假打工,寒假打工,假日打工,酒店上班,酒店經紀,酒店打工,童裝批發,酒店,酒店兼差,寒假打工,假日打工

商標打人 said...

專利商標存證信函當舖問題都歡迎討論。
關鍵字:專利專利借錢商標商標融資