Tip of the Week: Syncing files between Microsoft Office and Google Docs

One popular feature of Syncplicity is the ability to sync Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with Google Docs. By linking Syncplicity to your Google Docs account (either a gmail account or a Google Apps account) you can specify a folder (and sub folders) in Google Docs that will automatically sync with a folder (and sub folders) on your computer.

You can edit the documents in either Microsoft Office or within Google Docs. And your files will automatically sync to all of your computers and will be accessible on your mobile devices and other cloud apps like Salesforce.  

How does it work? Syncplicity automatically synchronizes and converts Micorosft Office documents (.doc, .txt, .ppt, .xls) from a folder on your local computer and publishes them to Google Docs in Google's native file formats, and visa versa.

For example, if you save a presentation in Google Docs, that presentation will be synced to your computer as a Microsoft Powerpoint document. If you create a spreadhseet on your computer using Microsoft Excel that document will be synced to Google Docs as a spreadsheet.

Some of the ways this is being used by our customers:

• It gives them access to Google Docs (documents, spreadsheets and presentations) when they are offline. They can edit them on a plane and sync them back to Google when they are back online.
• It gives them an easy way to use Microsoft Office to create documents but then allow others to access, share, modify and collaborate on those documents in the cloud using Google Docs, even if they do not have Microsoft Office or Syncplicity installed.
• It allows them to create documents, spreadhseets and presentations in Google Docs that are then automatically accessible from their mobile devices (iPhone, iPad and Android) as well as other cloud-based applications like Salesforce.

Here's how you set it up:

1. If you are linking with a Google Apps account you will need to log in to your account at least once through your browser and select “Stay signed in.”
2. Login to the Syncplicity user account at https://my.syncplicity.com
3. Click on the Google Docs tab
4. Click on Link to Google Docs button
5. Grant access to allow Syncplicity to access and synchronize with your Google Docs account
6. Choose a folder in your Syncplicity Account to synchronize with Google Docs. The content of this folder and its sub folders will be uploaded to Google Docs and content from Google Docs will be synchronized to this folder and sub folders. The default setting is My Documents but many users create a new folder to give themselves more control over what is synced.
7. Select your conversion options. You have a choice of file formats for each file type. When you create a new file within Google Docs, this setting determines what type of file Google Docs will save the new document as on your computer. Existing files and files created in any Google Docs supported file format, such as .DOC, .RTF, and .TXT, on your computer that are modified in Google Docs will always synchronize to and from your computer as their original file type as long as the type is supported. Recommended settings for each file type are the Microsoft Office file types.
8. Click Finish.

Here are some additional hints:

• Syncplicity will sync a single folder and its sub-folders on your desktop to a single folder (and sub folders) in Google Docs. When setting up Syncplicity for Google Docs you should link a single folder on your desktop to a single folder on Google Docs. You can then create sub folders under that root folder which will then sync automatically.
• If you have a Google Apps Premier account, you can also choose to not convert your files. Your files will be synced but not converted by Google Docs. You will be able to view files created using Microsoft Office but not edit them within Google Docs. New files created within Google Docs will not sync back to your Syncplicity account.

Interested in learning more? Watch a demo

Are you using Syncplicity to sync between your computers and Google Docs? How are you using it???

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