A how-to guide on using Google Docs to manage school sign ups for parents, like party planning and field trip driving. Developed for my kids' school, but shared with the hope that other parents will have an easier time coordinating school activities. Additional resources like ready-made templates are available at http://bit.ly/googledocschoolsignups.

2. It’s flexible. Because it’s a spreadsheet, you can create any type of sign up that you need. Parties, field trip drivers, mom’s night out, fundraising projects, etc. can all be done.

3. It’s accessible. Anyone can access Google Docs through a browser or even on mobile devices like the iPhone.

5. To set one up, you should know how to use spreadsheets.

6. Permissions can be difficult to set.

7. Easiest way is to make the sign up public.

8. So you need to have rules in place to preserve confidentiality, eg. use only first names/last initial of kids.

10. Create the sign up.

11. Add information about the event.

12. Set up permissions and get the link to send to people.

14. 2 people to bring 1 dozen bagels each

15. 1 gallon of orange juice

16. 1 pound of ground coffee

17. 2 tubs of cream cheese

18. 2 fruit platters

19. 1 dozen baked goods

21. Select “New” and then “Spreadsheet”. OR skip down to #6 and copy an existing sign up. You can also upload a spreadsheet you create in Excel – see #8 below.

22. Next step is to rename the sign up and save it. Click on “File” then select “Rename…”

23. Rename the document. Pick a descriptive name like “Breakfast Sign Up for 2nd Grade”. Then click “OK”.

25. To copy an existing sign up, go to “File” and then “Make a copy”. Templates available:

26. Teacher breakfast sign up: http://bit.ly/teacherbreakfasttemplate

27. Field trip sign up: http://bit.ly/fieldtripsignuptemplate

28. You will be prompted to rename the sign up. Rename it and then click “OK”. Your new sign up will be ready to do, already set up for autosaving.

30. Here’s an example of what this section could look like if you are creating it from scratch:

31. Format and highlight the sign up any way you would like, using the formatting tools.

32. Add the sign up items.

33. Create a sign up item for anything someone would sign up for. Example: If 6 people are needed for set-up, then create 6 lines. Put the items in columns, and if needed, a place for the sign ups.

35. Put your cursor where you want the new row to go.

36. From the menu, select “Insert” then what you want to insert, e.g. “Row above” or “Column to the right”.

37. If you insert something in the wrong place, press Ctrl+Z, or click “Edit” and then “Undo” in the menu.

38. Deleting rows or columns. Similarly, if you want to delete a column or row, do this:

39. On the side margin or top margin lick on the row or column you want to delete. For example, click on the gray “13” to remove Row 13.

41. Click on the two boxes next to “Allow anyone with the link to view (no sign-in required)” AND “Also allow them to edit”.

42. Then select and copy the entire URL.

43. Click “Save & Close”. You may want to open up another browser window and paste that URL into it to make sure it works.

44. At this point, you can simply cut and paste the long URL into an email, but it tends to break. Here’s an example:

45. To avoid this, make sure that the link in your email is actually the entire address, and not chopped off. Depending on your email program, you can highlight text in the email and paste the URL manually.

47. Go to http://bit.ly. There is no “www” and no “.com” in the address. Paste the long URL, then click “Shorten”. Another URL shortening site that’s good is http://tinyurl.com.