Hack 3. Make a Desktop Icon to Create a New Document

You launch desktop programs from the desktop. Why not launch Google programs from the desktop, too?

If you want to open up Google Spreadsheets to create a new file, you can point your browser to http://www.google.com and choose "Documents" from the "more" menu on top, then click NewSpreadsheet. A quicker way to do this is to use a bookmark, but Motti Strom, Mobile Software Engineer at Google UK, suggests an even better way: create a desktop icon to launch Google documents, spreadsheets, or presentations.

Windows

Start by right-clicking any free spot on your Windows desktop and selecting NewShortcut from the context menu, as shown in Figure 1-12. Type the following address for the shortcut:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?new

Save your shortcut, and name it "New Google Spreadsheet."