GoggleDocs - the collaborative awesome awaits!

Last semester, I had a group project assignment where each individual was assigned their own unique question/aspect to research for an overall research paper.  We had to follow this up with a class presentation, which also had to include a powerpoint style element.  Since my partner and I didn't live close by each other, and had weird schedules outside of the 3 classes we had together, we chose to use GoogleDocs to collaborate our work.

What we both loved about the process was we could each access the document at the same time, and chat through the comment option in real time - no need to text, or IM in a separate window or program.  We could each add in our paragraphs and works cited, chat about transition sentences and even leave links for each other we found that helped the other with their part of the research.  I haven't used the discussion feature of a wiki yet (though I may tonight) but I imagine it functions similarly.

The presentation tool was also useful for us each creating slides before we were able to meet up and finalize it.  The downside to the GoogleDocs is that the options for finalizing and polishing are limited compared to Microsoft Office, or OpenOffice.  I chose to copy our paper into an OpenOffice document, and finish the APA format tweaks, namely the header and pagination styles.

Have you used GoogleDocs to collaborate?  What was your impression?