Document MIA
To the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”
Documents, spreadsheets, powerpoint slides
Google drive, Drop box, computer hard drives
We cannot find our files...they were once in in folders
Now they’re ones and zeros…
We are getting our townhouse ready to sell and so one of my tasks is to make a list of all its nifty features to give to the real estate agent. I had a great document going, which I was positive I did in Google docs but alas, I cannot find it anywhere. Not in my personal Google drive, nor in my Executive Words drive. Poof! Gone. I’ll have to recreate it.
Adding to my frustration in this area: every client is on a different technology stack. One client used to work for Google and so naturally we work on a shared Google document. Except Gdocs doesn’t have the ability to do end notes so I just had to pull a business case I was working on into MS Word, which we’ll now have to pass back and forth over email until it’s complete, which will annoy him. Get it together, Google!
Another client is in an Microsoft Office365 environment and stores everything on Dropbox. (Dropbox—don’t get me started.) He resists using Google documents and if I create something there I end up downloading it to Microsoft Word and sending him a copy for his files.
It’s like that ancient kid’s game “Crack the Whip” for documents. (Cue the scary flashbacks from first grade. You, too?)
If I had time to create metadata for each document and file it in one central repository, I would not have to complain about this. It would just be part of the deal. Or, if I had a trusty virtual assistant I could lean on who lived to wrangle documents and name files…
Alas, I feel like Lucy Ricardo at the candy factory.
Imagine if we all had one system to create documents and one secure place to store them. And we could all agree on how to title the files. Imagine if there were a Dewey Decimal System for file naming.
I’m dreaming, I know. The trend is toward more individual choice, not less. I just wonder what we’re losing in the long term by having to do things our own way.
I used GDocs in my previous lives and still cannot stand it for retaining a "complete" version of anything. My own personal preference is to stay in the Apple ecosystem so if I am the final contributor or sole author it goes into Pages/Numbers/Keynote and then a .pdf if needed. For collaborating on lists/schedules I stay with Smartsheet (fantastic project management features and robust permissioning). Excel only if more advanced features are needed that Numbers doesn't support.
I also make sure I only put _copies_ of things into Dropbox after a big burn by a collaborator (my husband, no less) who improved a document by deleting most of its content. Gone. For. Ever.
I am my own digital captain and MacOS/iCloud hasn't let me down yet (knock wood!).