Friday, December 19, 2008 12:38 PM
If you often work with Google Docs, you probably want more ways to access your docs quickly. A recent example is the handy Docs gadget in Gmail that shows a list of your recently accessed Google Docs right from within Gmail. Today, we'd like to introduce a desktop-based, better looking cousin.The Google Desktop team is pleased to release a Google Docs Gadget for Google Desktop. It allows you to search and open your Google documents right from your desktop. And as an added bonus, we've included drag-and-drop uploading for documents.
We all use Google Docs here at work, which shouldn't surprise anyone. Speaking personally (though with a slight bias), we think Google Docs works well in a fast-paced work environment because you can create and share documents freely without worrying about saving them to your machine, passing around email attachments, and of course, finding them later. However, there are times when we just need to bring up the same few documents continually throughout the day. Some examples are a data entry spreadsheet, a technical manual, or that steamy romance novel you've been secretly penning during work hours. You can instead bring up the gadget and, in an instant, search and open your Google documents (hint: pressing the shift key twice brings up all your hidden Desktop gadgets).
Another handy feature is drag-and-drop uploading of files. Let's say you have a dozen documents you'd like to upload and convert to Google Docs. We'll make the claim that it is easier and faster to drag the files onto the gadget, rather than uploading them one at a time.
If you like to look at actual code, the gadget has been open sourced and can serve as a basic demonstration of how to integrate desktop applications with Google Docs using the Google Documents List Data API.
The gadget works with Linux and Windows versions of Google Desktop Gadgets. For those who use Google Apps at work, the gadget supports your work accounts as well. We hope you'll enjoy and let us know what you think. Please also send us advance copies of any romance novels you happen to write (we are both big fans of the genre).
12 comments:
Does the drag and drop also work the other way around, so you can drag documents from Google Docs to your computer? Because that would really be nice!
I'm going to give desktop a try again.
At work where I don't have Google Desktop installed, I've created a bookmark on the toolbar in firefox to http://docs.google.com/API/IGoogle and then I've set it to open in the sidebar.
The result, is a quick and easy document list right in your browser.
This is a pretty good idea, though we really need a complete, affordable storage solution rather than all these disparate individual solutions.
Mac version? PLEASE?
Great gadget, nicely compliments the Google Docs experience. Don't forget the Linux version though ;-)
doesn't work with pdf files. is that coming?
Google Docs:
a) When I am editing a Google Doc that has images and would like to save an image to my desktop, that is not possible. When I select that image, and right-click mouse, options are to cut, copy, etc image, but not to save image to desktop. So I have to sign out of Google and then view the same doc link in non-editable mode, and then click on image and "Save to Desktop"
b) Copy and paste of Google Doc (containting bold face, italics, etc), onto the Blogger message posting (while creating Blogger message new post), does not work. It copies over text etc, but removes bold face, italics, etc.
c) I would like to embed a Google Spreadsheet within a website page, similar to embedding a presentation like Google Presentations/www.slideshare.net does; that way, people who look at a spreadsheet at the same website in the same window, can view the doc/presentation flip through it, in the same window, without opening another window. This is currently not possible, and new window needs to be opened for Google Spreadsheet or Doc.
From my blog http://people20.blogspot.com/2007/10/wrote-to-gmail-yahoomail-hotmail-to.html , http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dthcr25_155gbfdnd
Are you planning a Mac version?
Yep, no pdf support whatsoever. Not very useful to me w/o it. Does anyone know of an alternative upload app that supports pdf's where more than one file can be uploaded at a time?
Don't forget for the PDF's that you can always use the e-mail address sent to you to e-mail several documents at a time to Google Docs.
C'mon Google, do as Microsoft would in this case: If you want Google Docs to take off, make it wicked easy to migrate your existing docs to it. Google needs a nice little app, for all platforms (web app, of course!) that makes it stupid-simple to upload a single, or multiple, file to Google Docs. I'm planning on becoming a reseller, and this is one of my primary concerns... I want it for myself as well, but when I move someone, I want to move them, not some half-assed piecemeal BS that causes them to have to hunt for their files on their LAN *and* their GDocs account. Oh, and SUPPORT PDFs in the upload app!
As for downloading from GDocs, I really don't mind having to export... why would I want to leave my GDocs account? ;)
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