View and Download Google’s Help Files As PDFs

Google is almost our de facto information manager. From Google Search to Google Reader to Gmail and Google Docs, it has a finger in almost every pie… and sometimes a whole fist. Google is fairly intuitive; it doesn’t take much to grasp the ‘what’s what’ and ‘how-to’s’ for most Google applications.

With the number of Google applications on the rise and proportionately, their complexity; it is always good to know that there’s help at hand. Like all web services worth its salt, Google also offers comprehensive support.

The first port of call is the Google Support page. It is a good landing spot for all your troubleshooting queries. For any sign-up problems or how-to’s, check out the Google Accounts Help Center.

The Google Support page is not only a Dr. Fix-it-all but also a hidden drawer with some priceless tips and tricks.

For instance, I clicked on the YouTube Help link to reach its dedicated help page. Under the Advanced section is a mention of YouTube’s TestTube service which is similar to Gmail Lab’s subset of features. Within a few clicks, I found that with TestTube I, could play around with some exciting experimental features. It was fun and I didn’t singe my fingers in case the test tube broke!

More Google Help centers can be reached through the Browse more Help Centers link. Also, when you are on the support page, flick an eye on the Google Tips sidebar. It’s a random cycle of helpful suggestions.

Download Google’s Help files for offline use

Switching on your net connection and browsing for help is one part of the story. What if you wanted an offline manual? With more elaborate services like Google Docs (for me personally, even AdSense is a bit woolly!) it helps to have some reference at the ready.

Thanks to the Google Operating System, an unofficial blog on Google, I learnt the workaround to have my own copy of the help files.

The usual Google help page is arranged in an inter-linking HTML way, with cross-links and topic hierarchies. It is appropriate for online search and access. Not so for offline access. Here is a snapshot of the Google Docs support page:

The help page can be arranged in an unbroken linear fashion by affixing ?fulldump=1 to the URL of the opening help page. Tacking this to the end of the URL in the address bar works for most of the pages. (Though, I couldn’t make it work for Google Web Search Help but surprisingly Custom Search Help worked out fine)

Here’s how the address bar looks –

Here’s how some of the URLs look like –

Gmail – http://mail.google.com/support/?fulldump=1
Google Docs Help – http://docs.google.com/support/?fulldump=1
Google AdSense Help: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/?fulldump=1
Google Desktop Help: http://desktop.google.com/support/?fulldump=1

Editor’s note: When viewed with the “?fulldump=1″ appendage, the GMail help page automatically leaps forward to this page. Also, since the entire knowledge base is loaded at once, most of the YouTube help videos will play automatically.

Convert the HTML to PDF to create your offline manuals

This is the easiest part. Here at MakeUseOf we have covered quite a few HTML to PDF document converters. Maybe you have a favorite one of your own. I used doPDF to convert some of the help files to PDF. And they are quite bulky – the Google Docs Help file ended up as a 253 paged 12MB chunk! That’s a lot of reading.

The two disadvantages:

• The links don’t work, so searching for information becomes a bit tedious… though the linearly arranged information helps.
• Many of the support pages have tutoring videos which obviously get lost in a PDF document.

These two handicaps don’t take much away from the offline use of the help files. And right now, I am using these very files on the road to bump up my knowledge of Google AdSense.

Even if you aren’t much of a help info buff, you might find this handy and it will almost always come in convenient. Let us know if this helped you.