OffiSync Now Lets You Co-Author Files With Most Versions Of Microsoft Office (And Google Docs)

Last Updated on Tuesday, 13 April 2010 06:28 Written by Daisy Harley Tuesday, 13 April 2010 06:28

Over the last year we’ve been tracking OffiSync, a plugin for Microsoft Office that serves as a bridge between Office and Google Docs. When it first launched, the app’s primary feature was to save Office documents to your Google account. It’s since integrated Google Image Serach into Office, and support for Google Sites. And today it’s getting another major upgrade: you’ll now be able to sync changes between the same document being edited simultaneously by multiple users using any modern version of Office and/or Google Docs.

That’s a big deal, because Microsoft has been heavily promoting real-time collaboration as one of the key features of Office 2010. With OffiSync, you wouldn’t necessarily need 2010 — you’d be able to coauthor a document using Microsoft 2003 and 2007 as well, and you won’t need SharePoint, either. The application allows you to do Office-to-Office collaboration, and you can also have users editing the same document from Google Docs’ online interface. Changes aren’t synced as you type in each character, but rather each time you hit the ’save’ button.

The new version of OffiSync adds support for the ‘any file upload‘ feature that Google Docs added in January. It also has better integration with Google Sites (it will automatically pull in your Google Sites file hierarchy within Office, and allows you to create a file on Sites from Office as well).

While OffiSync offers a free version of its product, most of these new upgrades (including coauthoring) are for premium users only. Premium seats cost $12 a year, or there’s an option for a $30 one-time fee. And, sorry Mac users — OffiSync is still only available for Windows.

OffiSync has been doing quite well lately — it’s currently the top rated app on the recently-launched Google Apps Marketplace, and has the third most installs on the Marketplace overall. CEO Oudi Antebi says that OffiSync now has over 300,000 users The company hasn’t disclosed its funding, but says that it closed a Series A round of over $1 million.

Article source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/13/offisync-now-lets-you-co-author-files-with-most-versions-of-microsoft-office-and-google-docs/

Google Docs Gets Major Collaboration Upgrade – Google Docs

Last Updated on Monday, 12 April 2010 02:28 Written by Daisy Harley Monday, 12 April 2010 02:28

Google Docs has gotten a major overhaul, with improvements that beef up collaboration across the board. That means real-time, character-by-character changes for up to 50 collaborators. And it’s not just for the document editor.

Spreadsheets have also gotten an upgrade, with a new autofill feature and the ability to drag-and-drop columns. Google’s also introducing a new Drawing editor, where you can draw and download images (again, with up to 50 collaborators) to copy and paste into various Google Docs or to publish or embed on the web.

There’s also a new chat feature across all of Google Docs that lets you discuss a document with your fellow collaborators in a small window on the right side of the screen.

As Microsoft moves more and more into the cloud, it’ll be interesting to see how Office and Google Docs converge. For now, though, Google’s new offerings are a pretty major step forwards. Especially if you’ve got 49 friends you love to draw with. [ via Mashable]

Article source: http://gizmodo.com/5515370/google-docs-gets-major-collaboration-upgrade

Google Docs Gets More Realtime; Adds Google Drawings To The Mix

Last Updated on Monday, 12 April 2010 11:28 Written by Daisy Harley Monday, 12 April 2010 11:28

Slowly but surely, Google keeps trying to chip away at Microsoft’s core Office productivity suite with Google Docs, its free online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Today, Google Drawing is being added to the mix and Google Docs and Spreadsheets is getting a major realtime update. Both are being announced at Google’s Atmosphere event.

Google Drawings is not really a drawing app, it’s more of an online whiteboard. The app is designed to help people visualize ideas through flow charts, diagrams, and stencils. There is a chat window where participants can chime in. Images can be imported and moved around. But sadly there is no freehand drawing option. Google Drawings requires an HTML5 browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE9). Google Docs will also be discontinuing offline access via Google Gears on May3, and will bring it back later via HTML5.

The real news, though, is that Google Docs and Spreadsheets is getting more realtime. There has always been a noticeable delay when new edits get saved and synced up, especially when more than one person is working on the same document. Google is addressing this delay with an entirely new architecture built from the ground up.

Instead of waiting a few seconds to see the new sentences or spreadsheet figures someone else entered onto the doc you are both working on, you will now be able to see each change in realtime as each character is typed in. Google’s engineers developed a new Javascript layout engine which sits on top of the browser and allows realtime editing, faster overall responsiveness, and new features such as the ability to drag-and-drop floating images through a document while the text rewraps itself around the image on the fly. “Working on documents should be as easy as having a conversation,” says Goggle Docs product manager Anil Sabharwal. Users will need to turn on the new features in settings in order to see them.

Google Docs still lags Microsoft Office in features, but tries to make up for that by being a better way to edit and share docs and spreadsheets collaboratively among co-workers or anyone else. The key is to make it feel as responsive as a desktop app, even though it is in the cloud. During a briefing, Sabharwal showed a slide comparing the two, with check marks next to all of Google Docs’ supposed advantages (realtime multi-user editing, IM, storage in the cloud, mobile web access, no patches or updates, free with Google Apps).

He also showed the slide below, which is more conceptual than anything else in that it is not based on any data. But it does illustrate how Google thinks about attacking Office from below and winning over time by becoming a better collaboration tool. What I love about the chart, though, is that it places Google Docs in 2010 at just below Office 2003 in terms of an individual authoring tool. Of course, Microsoft is also moving to the cloud with Office 2010, and I’m sure they can make marketing charts which look very different.

Article source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/12/google-docs-realtime-google-drawings/