Edudemic

Topics: docs, featured, google, microsoft, office, word

• Tweet
• 

• Tweet
• 

Ever worked on a Microsoft Word doc that you hadn’t saved in a few minutes and then ZAP the power goes out? This can be a very tough time for anyone who just lost a big chunk of hard work. Never fear, Google (as usual) to the rescue!

Google is now beta-testing the ability to automatically sync your Word docs with Google Docs. It’s called Google Cloud Connect and is an add-on for Microsoft Office and it would put an end to those panic-filled times of power-outage-nausea. The best part? It gives you a unique URL for each doc so you can check up on the doc with little effort.

The technology behind Google Cloud Connect derives from DocVerse, a productivity tool that Google acquired earlier this year that lets multiple users collaborate and edit Microsoft Office documents.

Originally, DocVerse was just focused on syncing Word docs with each other so that users could collaborate. Here’s what we originally wrote when we first reviewed it:

“This sidebar is where all of DocVerse’s magic happens. You can invite friends and colleagues to collaborate on any documents. As you and others make edits, those changes are synced to the cloud. In addition to a hard copy, the plug-in automatically saves a web-based version of the doc that others can see to make collaboration easy.”

Cloud Connect doesn’t take away any of that collaboration functionality while adding Google Docs to the mix. A business team can edit a document from either Microsoft Office or Google Docs simultaneously. Google Docs also saves all of the revisions, so if someone messes up someone else’s edits, it’s easy to revert them.

Today’s launch is all about getting Office users to slowly switch to Google Docs. The search giant wants people to switch from Office to the cloud, which eventually leads to Google. By dipping their toes into the waters of Google Docs via their business colleagues and friends, loyal Office users will get used to Google’s offering and eventually discard Microsoft’s productivity suite for good. At least, that’s what Google hopes.

The catch? Right now it only works for Office on Windows, because the APIs aren’t there for Office on Mac.

Source: Mashable