Once in awhile we fin
d a product that might be outside the scope of our normal writing related to travel, but is such a great product that it still bears mentioning. In the course of our writing at Hidden Mesa, we find ourselves constantly trying find new and convenient ways to manage the workflow of our articles as we write them, edit them into something useable, and finally get them posted onto our site as something useful for you to see.
We’ve recently been drawn to using Google Docs for a lot of reasons, but mostly for its ability to allow us to collaborate our work.
There are two issues that pop up using Google Docs that are more or less deal breakers though, and Google has yet to introduce a product that fixes one of them. The problems are:
-
Using Google Docs offline
-
Using Google Docs with a Linux based computer
To be honest, Google Docs does indeed have an app that will allow the use of documents offline and there are actually two ways to do this.
The real problem is that, unless you’re online, there’s no way to work with the Google Docs using a Linux based machine. Actually, to be accurate, there’s no way to be able to “select” which files are available offline with a Linux machine. The only way to get at your Google Docs using native support from Google and a Linux computer is to use Chrome’s offline feature, and that requires that you sync ALL of your google files. If you have 12GB of storage in your Google Drive, that’s not going to be practical for a very long time.
There is one solution that seems to present a good fit to this problem. It’s called Insync, from a company called, well, Insync. They offer a solution that spans across several platforms, including Windows, Mac, linux, and Windows Phones. They have public beta versions for iPhone and Android too.
Insync gives you the ability to selectively sync all or some of your Google folders and even individual files (Google’s app syncs ALL files within your base directory plus selected folders) to your computer or device. When using insync, it present a clean GUI interface that is intuitive and easy to understand. The most relevant feature that is not present with the native Google Docs App, at least the app for computers, is that Insync allows you to sync from more than one Google gMail account at the same time.
The pricing structure for individuals is reasonable too. For the Pro version, you are allowed to download various versions of the app for your various devices. The price you pay is related to the number of gMail accounts you want to sync, not the number of devices you want to sync with. So, if you wanted to sync your files to a PC, and Linux machine, and an Android phone, and the price for the program was $9.99, your price would be $9.99 since you are only linking to only one account.
If you’re using Google Docs, or you think you might migrate over to Google Docs in the future, you should take a look at Insync. Having a single interface that works across all your devices in very similar ways makes life a bit easier.
