Friday, June 13, 2008 9:56 AM
Jen Mazzon, Product ManagerI spend a good chunk of time each week combing our Google Docs Help group, where users share questions and information with each other, and with me! (You'll see me as Google Guide Jenmazz in the group.) The questions people ask tell me how we need to clarify and simplify, and what we need to enhance and build in Google Docs.
Here's a common request:
"I'd like to use Google Docs to share information in PDFs for
discussion & for download, especially (though not exclusively)
with those who can edit PDFs."
discussion & for download, especially (though not exclusively)
with those who can edit PDFs."
"Hey Google! this is a serious setback. Why no PDF uploads?
Let's get on this already."
"If you're listening O Great Google Demi-Gods, we supplicate
thee for PDF storage!!"
And so... I'm very pleased to confirm that you can now upload, preview and share PDFs in Google Docs. (While you can't edit them yet, you can copy & paste text.) We eagerly await your feedback on this highly requested feature. Let's get on this already."
"If you're listening O Great Google Demi-Gods, we supplicate
thee for PDF storage!!"
To get started, click the Upload button in the Docs home toolbar, select a PDF file from your computer and off you go!

108 comments:
Great feature but it does not show up on the iphone google.
A Google feature that isn't searchable?
What is this?
I can upload a PDF, but my searches don't find results in them. What then is the point?
Thanks for this awesome feature !
No me pareció gracioso ni agradable el tercer ejemplo de las peticiones recibidas sobre la nueva función. Ahora, en cuanto a la nueva función de poder subir archivos PDF me parece genial. Se integra o se integrará este servicio con Gmail, en lugar del actual lector de PDF? ¡Saludos!
It would be nice if you could minimize the thumbnail taskpane in order to maximize the size of the PDF on the screen. Also, the zoom feature on an open PDF zooms in on both the PDF and the thumbnail taskpane; these two zooms should be separate. Thanks for the awesome and highly coveted addition!
Good feature I aprecciate it.
in reply to semifamous: i can search well my pdfs.
There is one thing I would like to see now, a "publish this" buton something to allow people see my pdf and maybe download them.
Grat work
Hurray!
After uploading my PDF, I cannot view the pages beyond page 100. Is this intentional?
Yeah, I noticed this a few days ago, but I must say, it seems a bit half-baked (of course, I forgive, seeing as this is brand-new).
I think that it would have been a better idea to, instead of making a new, slow viewer for Google Docs, to have just used the same viewer that is in Google Book Search. The Book Search program is fast, smooth, and you can drag the pages, search, clip, change page-view, and zoom in and out. It is in all ways superior.
If I were you, I would scrap this one, move in the Google Books program, add page previews on the side, and call it good.
I don't know if it is possible, but it would be neat to have support for PDF forms, but I wouldn't worry about that feature so much.
Finally
A few feature requests:
1) use google book viewer for pdfs to allow side by side pages and zoom.
2) provide permalinks to documents
3) bulk upload
I agree fully with DanielALevine
THANKS!
That's a great feature. It basically makes MS Office, iWork and other desktop productive tools useless for most of the users out there; those who don't need many features to get their jobs done. and, most important, you can view and edit your stuff everywhere in the world without even carrying your computer around.
Thank You guys at google.
I can upload PDFs from my computer to Google now but they won't open with my iphone. Is this something I'm going or an issue to be resolved?
I hope you make PDFs publishable, that would make it really useful for me.
This is great. I hope some of my professors start to take advantage of this.
Wonderful !
It was the only feature I was waiting for !!!
awesome! can't wait for them to be editable as well. thanks Google.
Great, but I would *love* to be able to at least select/copy from PDFs, to start with.
I concur with most of the suggestions above, also.
Thank you very much! I have long wanted this feature.
It is a neat feature, however, when we see the PDF and click "Share" it points to the Google Docs Help section. Also, it should make it available for public view, like we do in Google Docs or Spreadsheets.
Great feature. I've been waiting for this for a while.
The next thing I'd love is the ability to scan documents directly to Google Docs.
thanks. this is much appreciated. i asked for this about 9 months ago.
Being able to "publish" a PDF and allow people to download them would be amazing. My love for Google would go to the next level.
Sooo, will it be an option for attachments in gmail to download to docs, like docs and spreadsheets?
Super start for a great feature
According to the help, there is a limit of 100 PDF files. Lame!
I agree with DanielALevine, especially about bulk upload. But this is still way cool! I have a HUGE MS Onenote file to share with someone without Onenote. I just printed it to PDF, used a PDF file splitter to put in in 5 MB chunks, and will upload. Very cool! But being able to select a range of docs and move them would be even better. Thanks!
Can DocListUploader-1.1.exe be updated to include .pdf docs?
Also there was a mention in the post that there were only 100 pdf documents allowed to be loaded is three a link to this information?
Finally! :-D
Thank you very much Google Team!
The functionality works great the rendering of the pdf documents is very fast - Great work GOOGLE TEAM!.
Would be great to also add the ability to assign labels or tags to pdf documents - folders are ok but a do not allow for cross filing.
Many thanks
Finally. My request has been fulfilled!
Is PDF uploading supported through the Gdata API?
only 100 can be uploaded.....
http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=37603&cbid=-18s54xmm9suie&src=cb&lev=index
Hopefully this limitation does not apply to Google Apps accounts:
PDFs: You can store up to 10MB per PDF from your computer and 2MB from the web in your Docs list, up to 100 PDFs.
I would assume that account available space would be the only limit per account. There is a lot of need for smaller .pdfs in greater number.
How does google docs deal with secured .pdf files (ie files with password to open etc)?
It would be great to upload multiple PDF's from the email-in address that is specific to each user. BTW...can you share a complete folder without having to share each individual file?
i.e. I would love to send all my band members the folder that contains all the PDF's to all the songs that we do.
Thanks!
Well done Team, this works well for us accross the pond. We have been waiting for this extension? for some time. Good work and keep it up, forget the neg's with some of these posts, what do they know!
A happy James
@Jim McNelis
Why wait, use:
http://www.pdfescape.com
View, edit, share, etc PDF files online.
Great feature!
@semifamous Same here: searching doesn't work for me. I hope this will come soon.
awesome! i was really hoping for this. thank you.
to chime in on feature requests:
* search PDFs
* publish PDFs
* integration with scanr.com so that you can scan documents right into your google docs
Thanks!
I hope you create a way to edit them and to upload files with password.
Cheers!
Hey Google, a 404 kicks me in the face if I try to view uploaded PDF's on the iPhone. Cheers
PS. I'm oh sooo close to being finally able to drop MS Office, keep the good stuff coming!
Great! And could you support visio documents?
This is a great feature, a total life saver!
The only thing now is that it would be nice to publish the G docs version of the .PDF, and to allow the "Invitations may be used by anyone" feature which is so helpful.
Thanks!
To search the PDF, don't use the browser search (ctrl+f) but instead use the search box in the upper right hand corner.
It will highlight the search results in your document :)
Might not be quite as convenient, but hope that helps.
Fantastic! This is the only thing I have been missing!
Some requests:
* search & publish PDFs
* use that PDF viewer (or be able to link to the Published document) in Google Sites, so users would not need to download a file each time they want to take a look at it (file cabinet type of Site).
Great work !!!
Great feature, but it seems it isn't possible to share pdf with non gmail accounts.
Best
I wonder if it would make more sense to automatically convert all uploaded pdfs to gDocs, then you would have all the capabilities of the Docs (edit, images, tables, etc). If you still had the export to pdf option available really their would be no difference other than the fact that it was an upload pdf that turned into a Google Doc.
Sara, right, what I was saying was that when you uploaded a pdf, perhaps gDocs could automatically convert them to a standard Document (or perhaps have the option to do it). Then with the converted pdf (now a full fledged Google Document), you could do all the normal editing we have come to love on gDocs. Then if you needed it to be a pdf again, simply save is at a pdf.
It just seems redundant to me to have them create editing tools for pdfs when we already have those tools for Documents, and have the ability to save them as pdfs again.
Thanks, guys. Your update is very timely.
One question: what's with the 'server error' I get when I try to share an uploaded pdf? (there's no problems with other document types)
Two improvement suggestion:
1. multi-upload or enable the email upload of PDFs
2. Support for the newly developed PDF Package by abobe.
THX!
Are you going to have an option to be able to view these pdf's on the iphone??
How can I link to this in a blog?
Can we not upload PDF of 20Megs instead of just 10megs?? PDF are not small files by nature. Or some how convert the PDF to a smaller file by compressing it.
A Google feature that isn't searchable?
What is this?
I can upload a PDF, but my searches don't find results in them. What then is the point?
Yes I have to take a pdf convert to html, then save as a gdoc, so I can search. It is a pain.
Also is there a way to default to HTTPS for gdocs. Yes I can go put in a httpS, but why can I not have https by default? Or set some option in my google gears to set https as default.
I am not able to share a pdf outside my domain. Why?
Please enable the "publish" option for PDFs in the same way as docs, spreadsheets, and presentations. We could then have pretty much one stop shopping for all of the important functions we use.
Thanks!!
M
My comment is not related to PDF's, but since I have your attention, there *are* some other features Google Docs could use, particularly in conjunction with Blogger.
I recently started writing my blog posts on Google Docs (far easier than doing it on the bug-prone Blogger itself) but have found two things I hate.
First, I noticed that document titles aren't "clickable"--that is, HTNL. When one composes a post in Blogger itself, clicking on the title will send you to the URL for that entry. As it is I have to go through a complicated series of maneuvers to add a "clickable" title, and really wish I could do it all from Docs.
Second, I wish that Google Docs had a separate place to store images, so that when one clicks on an image in a document, one can see a larger version of that image in a new window. That can be done in Blogger, of course, but adding images to a document is easier in Docs.
I'm concerned because since I started using Docs to compose my blog posts, the Google search engines are no longer picking up the images I use in them (that is, they don't show up in a Google Image search). That's cut traffic to my blog considerably, since a lot of referrals to the blog came through Google Images originally.
How can I share a pdf from docs in my blog? I would like to be able to somehow link to pdf documents. Is there anyway of getting pdf's in my blogger?
I am trying to find a "google" way to upload a PDF to google docs and then link it to my blog (BLOGGER).
Any ideas?
The ability to publish these as well would be very nice :)
I have not been able to add some users outside my domain. In particular, I can add one user for sharing a PDF that has the same domain but another user will not work? What gives here?
How do I share a pdf on my blog? The initations may be used by anyone box will not check. Every time I try to click it it registers a server error?
great feature, but could be made greater by allowing the pdf's to be published. Please, please please!!!
I cannot upload my .pdf document, I keep getting "page load error." I have tried this in both Explorer and in Mozilla Firefox. I want to share this document with others, but it is too large for me to email...help!
The share feature does not work ): !!!!!!!
This is totally useless in this case
I don't want to edit PDF per say, but I *do* want to convert my PDF into an ordinary Google Doc (so my tex-phobic collaborators can edit my documents)
Given google mail already does a great job of translating PDF to html in many cases, couldn't you do this easily?
Please comment on the question of not being able to open documents on an iPhone (i.e. "Not Found Error 404")
it's Jul 21 2008 and PDF on Google Docs doesn't work on iPhone.
very good if google can share pdf to every one !!!
Anybody knows of a firefox plugin which lets you save PDFs to gDocs while you view them in the browser?
Would be great:)
this feature is amazing. i am glad i found it, but i have run into a snag. i can't seem to share the pdf from my iphone. i can view it, but as soon as i go to share - my iphone can't seem to handle it.
this is such an amazing feature and i would love to utilize it while i am on the road - since the iphone won't store the pdf's i need to keep with me while traveling.
i have even tried (on the iphone) to view docs in the destktop mode and that also doesn't seem to work.
please help!
Anxiously waiting the ability to "share with everyone" so that I can link to the PDF, instead of having to invite individual viewers.
I have a couple PDF files which aren't that big (smaller than 400k) but are each about 200 pages long. Each time I upload them, I only get the first 100 pages. What up wif dat?
Great work! But I still missing the PDF publishing.
I upload pdf file and check it. ALL ITEMS is highlighted showing pdf. Then I CLICK on SHARE and email it to VIEWER. Viewer cannot see it. LINK goes to LOGIN page. What am I missing?
I absolutely love this new feature and it works great from Firefox on XP. Unfortunately, I get a 404 not found from my iPhone. Is this a limitation of mobileSafari, or an intentional move by Google?
Two requests:
1. Some PDFs are not searchable: "search unavailable", it says. These docs are searchable by offline readers, though.
2. "Search Docs" on the Docs home does not return results from PDFs. Is it because the indexing is not done daily ?
My company is trying to use Google Docs for collaborating and sharing docs. My collegue sent a mail with many links to different pdf.s but when I click on most of them I get the answer:
"Sorry, the page (or document) you have requested does not exist. Please check the address and try again."
She can see the documents in her user but I can't access them. I tried to find answeres on the web but noone seems to know. Please helt me with this issue!
Allow publishing of pdf docs please.
Just curious to know the technology behind this.How to make an image with searchable text.
Is this any propriterary technology from google?
I need to update several PDF files monthly. Until it can be done on-line, I am adding pages to current PDF files stored on my desktop and than uploading it as a new file. The result is that Google docs issues a new web address which I than have to copy and paste into the old PDF link. Not hard but a real pain. Does anyone know how to maintain the old web address link?
You still can't publish a pdf to the web though.
its great feature.... but is there any way i can get download link for my docs so that i can put that link in my blog and let others to download those docs from my blog... same like embeded link, is there any download link????
it would be nice if this feature is added...
I would like to be able to "publish" a pdf and also have a download link.
Great feature. I would also like to have a way to publish the .pdf file with a web link. thanks.
I would like to be able to rotate pages and be able to upload more than 100 PDF's
Has anyone come up with a way to upload mulitple pdf files instead of 1 at a time? I want to start using Google Doc's but this is taking waaaaaaaaay to long going one by one. If anyone has a solution please email keithfmt3@gmail.com
Thanks,
Every time I upload one it thinks its a document and converts it to ASCII Hex :(
Sounds great...but every time I try to upload a pdf I get a bunch of hex text.
I've tried couple files.
On first one I've got error message w/o any additional notice.
On a second one - Network error
Unfortunately this does not work. Every pdf upload is displayed as hexidecimal garbage and saved as a doc file. Using Firefox 3.03.
Nice feature but really need to be able to make the documents public
Yet another feature requests:
* SEARCH! Google webservice without search? Nonsense!
* PDF-Editing like http://www.pdfescape.com is not necessary, but REVIEW and commenting feature will be very useful. Use case — Reviewer sets some numerated mark on reviewed page, and writes a textual comment-footnote associated with this mark.
* Publishing will useful also, but I understand that this leads to many risks (copyrights, highloads, etc)…
P.S. By the way — why comments in this blogs have no publishing date (only publishing time)?
Nice feature, hope you implement the ability to publish a pdf document soon.
Great feature. Thank you Google team.
I assume you know this, but just in case:
As many have said about the iPhone, the pdf files do not show up on my Android phone either. (T-Mobile G1) :-(
Would be nice to be able to upload a new varsion of PDF document, and browse the revision history of PDF document, likewise spreadsheets do.
For storage and searching purposes, it would be nice to be able to tag the PDF files in the same way the mail is tagged in gmail because some PDFs cover various topics that don't fit easily into one folder.
Important and Essential Option(s):
* Please add rotate page view in the Google Docs PDF Viewer.
* Highlighting and commenting are quite handy in the office sharing enviroment.
* Thank You !
My PDF file is sideways. I searched for PDF rotate and this is the only page that came up. Can someone please help?
since i can't edit it online, why cant i edit the document on my computer and then upload an edited version?
then i don't have to re-invite everyone who views/uses this document every time i edit it (weekly).
I really don't understand this 'sharing' business.. why can't we publish the pdf like any other google docs? it'd be great for hosting pdfs for websites like facebook, where pdfs aren't allowed to be posted, and where people need to view them... but you don't have their emails to let them view it. This is the weakness of the 'sharing' feature. However, it's a great start, since before they didn't even have it so I can't complain as much.
good let me try first
My professor emailed us PDFs of our readings for the week and I was so excited to just be able to open it with Google.
But it was sideways.
And there's no way to rotate it.
Looks like I'll have to download them after all.
Please add a rotate page thing.
Pdf Size limits are pretty restrictive. And also as far as i understood we can only upload up to 100 PDFs. Is there a possibility to remove these restrictions as PDFs are frequently used and may possibly exceed the 100 limit.
Anyway, it is a great progress, thanks in advance.
ROTATE AND SEARCHABLITY!!!
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