February 25, 2011By Woody Leonhard
How much is good enough?
The product is a gussied-up version of DocVerse, a collaboration program Google bought in February 2010, and it doesn't bring anything new to the online collaboration ball game. But it's fast, easy, free to an extent -- more about that shortly -- and it offers a few unique capabilities you may find inviting.
Here's how it works. After you download and install Cloud Connect and restart Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, you're prompted to enter your Google credentials. Google asks for permission to allow Cloud Connect (Pavilion) access to your account. You can choose to save your documents to the Google Cloud automatically (every time you save in the application), or you can make the cloud sync manual (when you specifically click on the Sync button).
When the Office app comes up for air, it sprouts a new ribbon (yech). Although it takes up substantial screen real estate, it allows you to change the sync state between automatic and manual, and it holds the requisite Sync button. When you save a document in automatic mode or click the Sync button, a copy of the doc goes to your Google Docs account. As soon as the doc appears in Google Docs it's assigned an URL, which you can email to other people and thus invite collaboration.
The Cloud Connect plug-in is free. It works with Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 (but not Office for Mac, because Microsoft hasn't provided the APIs to the Mac version of Office needed for plug-ins to work). Google Docs is free. But if you want to sign up for the Connect service -- which lets your company stick Google Docs on your own servers, so synced copies aren't flying around the Web -- you need to get Google Apps for Business, which costs $50 per seat per year. Google Apps for Business adds all sorts of extra capabilities.
Google Cloud has one more trick up its sleeve: Files you put in your Google Docs account are immediately available inside other Google Apps. If you want to edit a document in both Word and Google Docs, it's much simpler using Cloud Connect.
I think the Google Cloud Connect Office App will not be so useful for students. If I understand correctly it is basically just a way to use GoogleDocs directly in Microsoft Office, requiring the download and installation of separate software.
ReplyDeleteThe main draw of the App is that you can edit documents/spreadsheets/powerpoints directly in Microsoft Office and so all the buttons and layouts will be familiar to the user.
However, most students are pretty tech savvy, and would probably just prefer to work on the GoogleDocs website itself. GoogleDocs can convert all Office files anyway AND (most importantly) Mac users can use GoogleDocs (many students have Macs).
I think this App will be good for small business users (who will share the same types of hardware i.e. a business giving employees a standard issue laptop and copy of microsoft office to ensure everyone's compatibility with the App), but this will mean the business will have to pay for the rights to store their information on their own servers (in effect leasing the Google Cloud/Docs software) as there will probably be privacy concerns because having sensitive company material on a public server can be dangerous. If they have to pay anyways, businesses will probably just invest in Office 365.