Google and ADrive

Yesterday I did some clean up.

I had documents on the server, on my local account, and in different places. Although they are all quite neatly arranged in folders (work, personal, to read, etc.), I wanted a single repository I could access from anywhere. Sure, we have controlled access to our resources internally and externally through our 'portal' - a PC running SSL-Explorer, which is a very useful piece of software. But, I was not satisfied because, unless you implement a solution which costs more than I was prepared to pay, there are many points of failure along the way: your router, the SSL-Explorer PC, your server, etc.

So, once I had shrunk my document system to a single copy on the server, I copied everything on Google Docs and ADrive.

Now, I didn't know about ADrive until I wanted to upload my PDF documents to Google Docs, which, of course is not possible. I was very surprised to read a help response from a Google technician who recommended ADrive. How professional and helpful! So I went to the ADrive web site and was amazed to see that you can store up to 50GB of documents for free.

Google Docs

In typical Google fashion, Google Docs look neat, tidy, and unobtrusive. You can, of course, search documents, and have access to all the other Google applications. I instantly took a liking to it.

Uploading a document in Google Docs is very easy and you can do it in batch mode by sending an email to a personal address with your documents attached. Google Docs swallowed all my Word, Excel, Powerpoint, text, and RTF files. I then created folders to reflect my previous filing system and then 'moved' the files to the folder. I don't think the files are actually moved anywhere but tagged, very much like you tag an email in GMail, but the end result is the same, as when you go to the tag/folder you only see the relevant documents.

Click on a document it will be displayed in a new window/tab with all the options for an update.

If you choose to check the box placed before the document name instead, you have a choice of options: Share, Move, Publish, Hide, Delete, Rename, and... More Actions.

More Actions is very neat. It gives the possibility of saving a document in different format. The new format is PDF, and this alone is a great feature, as it is a fast and cheap way to convert a document to PDF if you don't have a Mac.

ADrive

Registering to ADrive is very easy: just fill in a few details, wait for an email registration detail, and when clicking on it, you're good to go straight away.

ADrive's interface is more cluttered than Google's, with more adverts and a smaller main window (as in many 'modern' web sites), but it is functional.

Uploading documents is performed via the browser only, but it is so easy to use that it's not a downside. In fact, if you select a folder instead of a file, the folder is uploaded with all the documents inside it. Extremely neat and fast! Although you can upload more than one folder/document at a time, which is a great time saver. It looks as if folders are real folders, and that documents are actually moved between folders, instead of the tag paradigm, but it may be that it is more an interface thing, I can't tell.

Click on a document, and the browser will download it to be used with a local application (Preview/PDF-Reader, Word, Excel, OpenOffice, etc.). You can choose instead to click on the EDIT button situated in line with the document name, and the document - if editable (PDFs are not) - will be opened in the same Window using a Zoho app.

For actions on an individual document, you click on a button situated in line with its name: Download, Edit, Share, Rename, Move, Delete. If you want to apply an action to a group of documents, you click on the Select button, which took me a little while to grasp, as I am so used to check-marks... For multiple documents, your options are to Clear (your selection), Delete, Move, and Share.

Overall comment

Rather than focusing on ADrive's shortcomings, compared to Google Docs, Zoho, or Xcellery, I am very comfortable with the product, because it is, to me, the perfect respository for documents of all sorts. It is an amazingly cheap backup facility, and more. It may be functional and no-frills, but it works, ad works well. I like it.

Some could complain that the Google Docs applications may not be as sleek and powerful as Xcellery's or Zoho's, but I don't mind. First, because it is part of Google apps: GMail, Google Calendar, and others are easily reachable from the links at the top of the page. Second, I love the Save As capability and how easy it is to use it. And finally, I find the apps enough for my needs, I like the simple interface. This is why Google Docs has now become my number one 'live' document system, coupled with ADrive which I use as a repository of all tings documents and and for archiving.

Notes

ADrive has a useful time-out facility, in case I forget to close my browser. Google Calendar flawlessly imported my ICal file and is now becoming my default calendar - even for work items, as I can finegrain my publishing options.

I welcome all comments