Automatically backing up documents in Google Docs

I was looking for a way to automatically backup my documents in Google Docs from my desktop. After a bit of googling, I found a great service called DocSyncer which worked exactly the same way I wanted it to work. So I thought of sharing the steps which I followed to back up my documents from desktop to Google Docs.

First sign up for the service from its home page.

DocSyncer

Then allow DocSyncer access to your Google Docs, by clicking “Grant Access” in the next screen

DocSyncer

After this download and install the DocSyncer program from the next screen

DocSyncer

By default DocSyncer syncs all documents which are present in your desktop and in your Documents folder. I wanted only a few documents to be synced, so I created a new folder called InSync in my Documents folder and selected only that folder and unchecked all the other folders. If you want to sync all the documents which are present in your Documents folder then you don’t need to edit anything.

DocSyncer

That’s it and now all the documents present in the folder that you have selected will be automatically synced. You can download the current version or the previous version of the document from the web interface.

DocSyncer

You can also directly download the document from the Google Docs page.

You can also associate document files (.doc, .ppt, .xls etc) with DocSyncer so that they are automatically opened in Google Docs instead of opening them from the local desktop. This can be done by changing the file association from the Account Setting tab of the web interface.

DocSyncer

I am using DocSyncer for the past one week and these are my findings based on my experience in the past week.

Pros

  • All previous versions of the file are stored.
  • You can directly open the file in Google Docs from any computer which has access to internet. You don’t need to have Microsoft Office suite installed.
  • Very clean interface and nice desktop Integration.
  • Connection through SSL (but you need to enable it in the Account Settings tab)

Cons

  • Can easily cluster your Google Docs page if the file is changed very frequently.
  • In the current beta version you cannot select any folder apart from the desktop and Documents folder.
  • It can upload only to Google Docs and not to Google Apps Docs. Update (2008-Feb-13): DocSyncer has added support for Google Apps account.

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