Yahoo! Briefcase was a popular feature during the Internet's first boom (commonly referred to as Web 1.0). It allowed users to generate certain documents (photos, emails, letters, etc.) and store them in an account, or a virtual briefcase. Yahoo! has discontinued the service, but several alternatives have arisen with innovations and nuances that make them vastly superior to the old Yahoo! Briefcase technology.
Instructions
Using the alternatives
1. Alternatives to Yahoo! Briefcase use relatively new Web technology. So if you were still hanging on to your Briefcase account from 2001, you may have to upgrade your browser. It is best to have at least Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 1.07+, Mozilla 1.712, or Netscape 7.2. You must activate cookies and JavaScript.
2. Get a Google account. Google Mail offers e-mail services, instant-messaging services, a documents manager, and a plethora of smaller features called gadgets that are frequently under development and are tailored to users' personal wants and needs. (This also includes Picasa, Google's answer to photo-sharing web sites.)
A major advantage of a Google account is that it automatically saves everything you do and has a high storage capacity; the company founded its e-mail service on the premise that you should never have to delete anything.
3. Activate your Google account. Once you have signed up for a Google account, sign in to your email account, and activate Google documents. Here you will be able to generate word-processing documents and spreadsheets, among other things. Google has an easy-to-follow tutorial to get you started. If photos are your thing, you will also want to activate your Picasa account.
4. Share with other users: Another advantage of Google documents is that it acts as a mainframe computer system between you and your friends and collaborators. Select the people you want sharing and working on your documents, approve them as collaborators, and get working. For example, if you and a friend are working on a sales pitch, you can start it and save it, then send your friend a quick note to look it over and revise. That person can then read your work and tweak it, without you having to send the document via e-mail. (This prevents unneccessary copying and sending of files.) Also, if you wish to show someone something you've written but do not want them to forward it to other people or alter it, you can send it to them but protect the file so that they can only read it, not forward it or alter it.
5. Look for the alternatives. Google offers many options and features, but is by no means the only player in the game. While it has faithful users, many complain that the Google services are trying to do too much at one time, and that it is best to sign up for individual services specialized to a purpose, such as Photobucket or Flickr, for storing and accessing photographs. Photobucket and Flickr accounts are free.
Tags: Google account, Yahoo Briefcase, advantage Google, Google documents, Photobucket Flickr
