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Dropbox And Google Docs: The Best of Both Worlds
I've written before about Dropbox and its many competitors, which offer you some shared cloud-based storage and allow documents to be synchronized across multiple computers.
But here's something novel, in the name of a freeware Windows program called insync. Like Dropbox, it syncs your files across all your computers and also keeps them in the cloud. But unlike Dropbox, you don't have to sign up for another storage service. Instead, it uses your Google Docs file area.
There are a couple of advantages to doing things this way. First, your Google Docs storage space is larger than the free 2 GB that DropBox provides. Secondly, and much more importantly, Google Docs allows you to edit and view your files in your browser, whereas the standard Dropbox storage is, well, just storage.
With insync, you can now edit your files on your PC, on any other PC that has the insync app installed, or directly in your browser. Needless to say, any edits that you make to a file that's on a local PC will be uploaded back to Google instantly and automatically.
Insync is free, runs on Windows XP and above, and is an 8 MB download. You can get it from www.insynchq.com. I've check the installer with VirusTotal and it passes all the checks for viruses and spyware.
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Comments
You can just install 'Ubuntu one' for windows 5gb free and cross platform :)
What about non Office files like executables?
Is there a way to store them in Google Docs?
That would make this as versatile as Dropbox.
For me I don't like it because it create a duplicate copy in your pc so you have it double, Use Gmail drive and you get 8GB instead of 1GB.
I had a huge problem with duplicates and triplicates being made of my folders and all subs and files. Took me hours to get back to normal. DropBox is indeed overpriced. That said, I have to stick with it until Google Docs/Insync can come up with something better. I do know that the challenge is in the fact that GDs does not use folders, instead they use labels. This, I believe is the crux of the problem. I was so hopeful that Insync was going to work. I use Google Apps and I WANT GDs to work, but can only use it if it can sync with my desktop. Will have to keep waiting.
Are you by any chance Americans? I ask because it often appears that Americans have
great difficulty with understanding irony. I thought Skiddmarx's reply to Thumper was very droll. It just goes to show how careful we have to be when we aren't having a face to face conversation, that we are not misunderstood. Midnight Cowboy, I appreciate all of
your hard work and that of your other volunteers. Cheers!
Nope, can't blame the Americans for this one.:D I'm English born and bred but moved to Brazil six years ago. That in itself (after a previous year in Spain) was something of a culture shock, and in many ways remains so. I'm also conscious that my own sense of humor might not always be easy for others to appreciate, so no blame attached here other than my own failure to understand the true nature of the content. :)
Almost everyone has great difficulty with written irony because there is no textual indicator. It's even worse for many of our users who don't have English as their first language.
Skiddmarx should have left a cue such as a wink at the end.
I'm Antipodean.
KumoSync does the same thing and is also free:
http://www.fieldstonsoftware.com/software/kumosync/index.shtml
Sorry, but until there is a Linux installer, this is a no-show for me.
google has an 8 GB file allotment, per mail account, and google docs as in created with google docs is unlimited. At least that is what the situation was recently. It will be far more useful when you can sync any folder, but it is still a great app if it proves stable.
I had dropbox and dropped it when I found I could access the cloud from any pc. I didn't think I was limited in space with Google. I have created some spreadsheets and uploaded others without a problem. Am I missing some info?
Sounded good, I downloaded it, checked it with MSE and Malwarebytes, it was clean.
I clicked "Settings" in the nav bar and on the main body it says "Connecting to Google Docs". There's an antimated thing moving but nothing happens.
After clicking the other options on the nav bar I tried "Settings" again, apparently connected but there's no settings, just says I have 1.00GB left.
When I click "Files" it showed my one. Couldn't drag or drop and there's no upload button. I don't know how it was suppose to work but I can't get it to do anything but show the one document I already had there.
Doen's anyone ever try these things out before they're posted?
Nope, nothing is ever tested in advance. Links are just blindly posted and the user is left to solve any problems by themselves.
We all know that user error/misunderstanding is never an issue with any item posted on the site.
I find it interesting that you can speak so authoritatively for the people who run this site. You must have some insight that none of us others are allowed to enjoy. I tried everything I could think of to tell if they checked links and lo and behold; nothing worked! Maybe you will explain how you reached your conclusion.
What I can't understand is why, if you are so dissatisfied with the content of this site, are you still signed up to receive its offerings. Maybe you should find something else more to your liking.
What you are suggesting is an insult to the time, effort and dedication freely given by the volunteers here before presenting items they believe will be of interest. I've lost count of the hours I spend personally checking out software and website details on a daily basis, and our private forums are full of issues raised by editors prior to updating their reviews. Like everyone else, we are human and don't always get everything right in which case we are always grateful for appropriate feedback, but as we can only assume that the reason for this comment is malicious, anything else along similar lines will simply be deleted.
If it was my post being challenged midnight, I wasn't suggesting anything. It was a legitimate question, I'd like to know if anybody tried it before it was posted or was it just made up of what was read about it. Second one that didn't work right in the past week. There was no mention of testing it. I always test before I recommend anything or state that it's untested by me.
I like all Gizmo's stuff and the site, that's why I come here and try some of the things that are posted about. I know I take a chance trying anything from "Freeware News" but I thought these were tested here since it was emailed to me.
Everything is tested in as far as it is possible so to do. Quite naturally though it's impossible to replicate the conditions on everyone's PC. I have experience myself of the same software acting very differently during separate installs and mostly am not able to determine the cause. It's only natural, and I believe fair, that I would seek to support our editors because I know how much work in required to publish what you see here. Also, this isn't some "must have a new product" this week at any cost. Considering the amount of stuff that does arrive here, the failures are very few and far between, but when they do occur we would hope to learn from the circumstances. One such incident was instrumental in shaping the very procedure now being used for this category. Sometimes though, sorting the constructive criticism from the trolling whilst trying to make allowances for language and cultural differences is not so easy to achieve. :)
Hmm. I think SkiddMarx (insulting) comments were aimed the poster, Thump, not Gizmo's.
MidnightCowboy - You do know my comment was meant as a sarcastic reply to the previous comment? I am a huge supporter of the site, and I apologize if there was any misunderstanding.
In that case then I apologize too and redirect the content of my own post to where it should have gone. :) I'm usually pretty astute at picking these things out, but obviously on this occasion I failed. Thank you for your support and understanding.
Very handy indeed (i love google docs) but the app uses a lot more resources then dropbox
Thank you for this tip! I've been waiting for something to connect the two. :-)
I only have 1GB of storage of Google Docs.
"First, your Google Docs storage space is larger than the free 2 GB that DropBox provides."
Is this not supposed to be the case? I have had my Google account for a long while.
Actually, we're both right! You get 1 GB of space for uploading files into. But if you create the files within Google Docs, rather than creating them on a PC and uploading them, there's a 10 GB limit per file.
Though 10 GB is a heck of a long document!
The Google docs are already in the cloud, might be better to have them on a hard drive too, where they are editable offline, I use Backupify which backs up to both cloud and hard drive. Also a recommendation from Gizmo :-)
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