SkyDrive now lets users share individual files within a folder without having to first configure that folder’s permissions first.

The Sharing options have been simplified. Users now have three sharing options that are accessible with a click on Share in the SkyDrive info pane.

• Send Email – This option can be used to share documents and a message to recipients. Recipients receive an email address with links to view, and if selected, edit the document.
• Post to social networking sites – Users can now post their documents to sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
• Get a link – Grab a sharing link to share it manually with other users.

Sharing was not the only feature that the Windows Live developers improved in the update. The site makes use of HTML5 uploads now which make it possible to upload files to SkyDrive and navigate the site at the same time.

The service’s file management capabilities have been improved significantly as well. Basic operations like creating or renaming folders that were not optimized previously can now be completed almost instantly. Other improvements include right-click functionality on photos and documents, faster creation of new Office documents, and a rebuilt photo slideshow application.

Watch this video to see a feature overview.

SkyDrive still has a lont way to go to reach the functionality that is offered by Google Docs. The new features do make life for SkyDrive users a lot easier.

Have you tried Microsoft SkyDrive? You can read the official announcement over at the Microsoft website.

Before you begin

I am going to illustrate the collaboration process using the Abicollab collaboration service. This service is free, you only need to sign up, check your email, and then verify your account. You do not have to use Abiword to take advantage of Abicollab. But since Abiword has the feature built in, it only makes sense to take advantage of this collaboration server via Abiword. if you opt to do this with a different word processor you will have to manually upload and download the files. The ability to manually upload and download files is handy when your fellow collaborators are not using Abiword.

You will also notice, in your Abicollab account, you can add groups and friends. Take advantage of this because it will make the collaboration process even easier.

Once you have signed up for the service, you are ready to start collaborating. So let’s see just how this is done.

Connecting Abiword to Abicollab

Figure 1

When you open up Abiword click on Collaborate > Accounts. When this new window opens you will want to click the Add button to open the Add Account window (see Figure 1).  Remember that Abicollab account you created? This is where you add the credentials for it. Select the AbiCollab.net Collaboration Service from the dropdown list. Once you do that, enter your credentials, and finally select if you want to connect at startup.

After you have completed that you are ready to start collaborating.

Collaboration

Figure 2

This is actually quite simple. If you have yet to upload a document then fire up Abiword and start writing. When you are finished click Collaborate > Share Document. In the new window you can select which buddies or groups you want to share the document with and then click OK (see Figure 2). This will upload your file to your AbiCollab account. Anyone you have selected to collaborate on this document will be able to collaborate on that document.

You can also open shared documents. To do this click Collaboration > Open Shared Document and, from the resulting window, select the document you want to open for editing. This will automatically download the shared document and open it with Abiword.

The only issue I have seen with this system is there is no way to determine if a file is already opened by a user. This could cause some serious issues when one person makes an edit prior to another making a different edit on a previously saved file. AbiCollab needs to come up with some form of locking mecahanism before this is of any real value to serious collaborative users.

Final thoughts

Although not perfect, Abiwords ability to collaborate makes it a very unique tool in the world of word processors. I like where this is going, and once AbiCollab works out some means to lock files I will use it in earnest.

The new additions that have been added today include:

A better document editor

What Google says:

We’ve brought the responsive, real-time editing experience you’ve come to expect from our spreadsheets over to documents, which means you can now see character-by-character changes as other collaborators make edits. We also added another popular feature from spreadsheets: sidebar chat, so you can discuss documents as you work on them with colleagues.

The new technical foundation also helped us improve document formatting, which means better import/export fidelity, a revamped comment system, real margins and tab stops, and improved image layout within documents. These improvements have been highly requested, but previously impossible to create with the older documents editor on older browsers.

We were not able to test this feature yet as it has not been activated for our account. Google noted that the feature will be available to all users in the coming days. It is likely that a New Version link will appear on top to switch to the new editor, exactly as the new editor is accessed when viewing a spreadsheet in Google Docs.

A faster spreadsheet editor

What Google says:

With the new spreadsheets editor, you’ll see significant speed and performance improvements — spreadsheets load faster, are more responsive and scroll more seamlessly. We’ve also added a host of often requested features, like a formula bar for cell editing, auto-complete, drag and drop columns, and simpler navigation between sheets. And as always, real-time collaboration in spreadsheets is easy with sidebar chat and the ability to see which cell each person is editing.

The new spreadsheet editor is not enabled by default. Google Docs users should see a New Version link after opening a spreadsheet in Google Docs.

Clicking the New Version link will open a notification with a button to try the new version. Pressing the button loads the new spreadsheet editor, and Google Docs will automatically load all spreadsheets in the new spreadsheet editor instead of the old one. There is an Old Version link in the top header navigation, allowing users to switch between the new and old versions of the editor as needed.

Performance has been increased by Google including initial spreadsheet loading time, scrolling and edits from collaborators. The new additions to the editor all make sense. Prominent new features include the Formula Bar, a long requested feature, as well as autofill and column dragging and sorting

A new collaborative drawing editor

What Google says:

In the year since we launched the Insert drawing tool, we’ve received many requests for the ability to collaborate on drawings and make them accessible directly from the docs list. The new standalone drawings editor lets you collaborate in real time on flow charts, designs, diagrams and other fun or business graphics. Copy these drawings into documents, spreadsheets and presentations using the web clipboard, or share and publish drawings just like other Google Docs.

Drawings look a lot like presentations, with the main difference seeming to be that drawings are limited to a single page. Drawings can also be added to spreadsheets, presentations and documents.The drawings can be created in collaboration and are then accessible directly from the list of available documents and files.

Take a look at the video that has been created by the Google Docs team that showcases the new features.

Currently only the drawings and spreadsheet editor have been enabled for Google Docs users. The new documents editor will be enabled in the coming days. Google Gears users should note that these new editors are currently not compatible with the technology that powers the offline access, however Google promised to add support for these new editors in future versions.

Google has concentrated their development efforts on performance and collaboration in this new Google Docs release. The lack of offline editing capabilities could prove to be problematic, but it should still be possible to use the old editors for that.

One thing however that bothers me a little bit is that there does not seem to be a way to integrate Google Docs in Windows Explorer natively. Natively meaning without a software or application running in the background that provides that functionality.

I have discovered several programs that can be used to send documents from Windows Explorer to Google Docs. These include Quick Tools for Google Apps or Google Docs Uploader but their functionality is only available for as long as the programs are running.

I’m more looking for a solution that integrates the upload into Windows Explorer without a software running in the background all the time. Much like the Virus Total Uploader is offering. The program only starts up if the user selects the option to send the selected files to Virus Total.

The question is: Is there a way to integrate Google Docs into Windows Explorer without a permanent process in the background that is providing that functionality?

Document management on the other hand should provide additional features such as advanced search options and filters, categorizations, conversions, distribution options and more.

Benubird PDF is a document management software that unlike its name would suggest supports not only pdf documents but also other document formats such as text, Microsoft Word, Excel and image formats.

New documents can be easily added to the software program by either handpicking them or selecting folders that should be imported. Filters aid the user in importing documents from folders, it is for instance possible to only import specific file types from that folders in the program.

Each document and file that is loaded into the program is automatically added to the library which contains filters to view all or only specific file types such as spreadsheets, presentations or videos.

Collections can be created as well which provide another option to sort documents. It is for example possible to create collections that contain financial or work related documents.

The properties of each document can be edited to contain a title, author, subject and tags, some of which are automatically imported if meta tags exist.

A search is offered that makes use of the meta data of the documents. Another interesting option of the document management software is the ability to watch folders. New documents of those folders will be automatically added in the document management software.

Benubird PDF is a interesting document management software for the Windows operating system. The program is freely available for download at the developer’s website. It is compatible with most 32-bit and 64-bit Windows operating systems.

One such solution is Kraft. Kraft is a software designed to help you write and manage the documents you use to run your business. It works with a MySQL backend, is designed for the KDE desktop (but will run in GNOME once all dependencies are met), and can even handle some calculations for you. In this tutorial I will show you how to install and use Kraft. NOTE: As of this writing Kraft can only create Offers, Acceptance of Offers, and Invoices. Hopefully in the future a document-type creator wizard will be added.

Installing

Currently Kraft has binarys for Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuSE, SuSE Enterprise Linux, and Debian. These can all be found in the Kraft download page. You will have to download various files from here (depending upon your distribution) and then install one more package from your package manager. For example, when installing on Ubuntu I have to download:

• kraft_0.32_i386.deb
• libctemplate-dev_0.93-1_i386.deb
• libctemplate0_0.93-1_i386.deb

Download those and then open up your package manager to install one more package. The package you need to install is libqt3-mt-mysql. Search for that package, select it for installation, and apply the changes to install. If you do not install that final package Kraft will not be able to connect to your MySQL database. Now go to the directory you downloaded the packages for your installation and install them. For our Ubuntu example I would issue the command:

sudo dpkg -i *deb (assuming the three deb packages above are the only in the directory).

Creating the database

Before you start Kraft you need to create the database. To do this go back to your terminal window and issue the command:

mysql -u root -p

Hit the Enter key and then type your MySQL administrator password. You will now be at the MySQL prompt. Issue the following command to create your database:

CREATE DATABASE kraft;

Hit the Enter key and then type quit and hit the Enter key to exit the MySQL prompt. You are now read to fire up Kraft and begin creating documents.

Using Kraft

Figure 1

The first time you fire up Kraft you will be prompted to configure your database. Figure 1 shows how this is done. Once you fill out the details, hit the Check Connection. When you see the Connection State listed as Good you can OK these changes and then restart Kraft to ensure the connection is made.

When you restart Kraft you may be warned that your database will be over written. This is okay because you have not inserted any data into the database yet.

Figure 2

When Kraft finally opens you will see a very simple user interface (see Figure 2). Don’t let the simplicity of the interface fool you, Kraft is a powerful, useful tool.

To create a new document click the Create Document button to begin the Document Wizard. One of the first things you will notice is the warning that “Customer: Not yet selected”. This should indicate to you that you will be able to build a customer database with Kraft. Brilliant.

The wizard is very simple. The steps are:

1. Select the document type, add a date, and add any Whiteboard content to the document.
2. Select a customer (if none exist you can create one here).
3. Add items to the document.
4. Save the document.

Once the document is saved it will be listed in the Main window where you can right click it and handle numerous actions (such as Print, Edit, and Email).

One thing of note. You will want to go to the Settings > Configure Kraft window and configure your taxes. By default they are set at:

• Full – 19.0 %
• Reduced – 7.0 %

Make sure you adjust these to reflect your locations tax.

Final thoughts

I hope the developers of Kraft continue working on this tool and even make it more versatile so that more document types can be created. But even as it stands, Kraft is a very useful tool that will allow you to create outstanding invoices, offers, and acceptance of offer documents.

There are two options on how to use Google Docs Viewer:

The first option is to visit the Google Docs Viewer website. All it takes to view a document online is to paste its url into the web form at the page.

This will then display three links that can be pasted and embedded into websites. Probably the most interesting option is to view the document directly online.

This will open the document on a new page.

The second option is even simpler than that. All it takes is to append the url of the document to the basic Google Docs Viewer url:

http://docs.google.com/gview?url=

This will only display the document on a new page. The links to embed the document are not displayed with this method. Google Docs Viewer offers an interesting option to uses who want to quickly view a document without having to download it. It can also be helpful if no viewer for the document type is available on the local computer system.

Google plans to index all published documents from Google Docs users if the documents are linked from a public (that means crawled by Google Bot) website. What this means is that Google Docs users might find their documents in the Google index even if they never had the intention for this.

The main problem with the procedure is the following: Google Docs users cannot explicitly block their documents from being indexed. Even worse is the fact that there is not an option to see if their documents have been publicly linked.

Only documents that have been explicitly published by selecting the ‘Publish as web page’ or ‘Publish/embed’ option and are linked from a public accessible website will be indexed by Google Search. The only option at this point in time is to undo this from the same menu.

A click on the Stop Publishing button will prevent that the document will be indexed in Google Search. It will also mean on the other hand that the document will no longer be accessible if it has been linked from a website.

The free Java application Google Docs Upload solves this for some by offering a command line driven option to upload as many documents as needed in one go to the Google documents website. The only requirement is that the Java Runtime Environment is installed on the computer system that is being used to upload the documents to Google Docs.

Usage itself is pretty straightforward. The command

java -jar google-docs-upload-1.0.jar --username --password

for example will upload all documents to Google Docs that are located in the specified path. Several parameters are available like the recursive command that will include documents that are located in subfolders in the upload to the Google documents website. One advantage of a command line driven tool is the ability to use it in scripts or programs to automate the uploading process to Google Docs. It is probably not a tool for the average Google Docs user but could be very handy for businesses who use the service. via Google Operating System

The document management software DocShield has been designed to protect the most important documents from these kind of errors. It looks like a backup software on first glance but it is actually more than that. DocShield can monitor document file types like doc, xls or txt in multiple directories that are available on a specific computer system. It is highly flexible and offers the possibility to add file extensions that should be monitored to the interface. The main window offers the additional option to add single documents or groups of documents from a folder to the document management program.

These directories are monitored in intervals and document snapshots are created whenever the document change. These snapshots can be stored in multiple locations and packed to save storage space. A password can be assigned to secure the document archives.

The number of snapshots and a maximum file size per document archive with options to prompt for action if the limits are reached can be defined in the settings of Doc Shield as well. Event notifications either come in the form of a message box or email if a SMTP server is configured by the user. One interesting option is to automatically copy these document backups to a ftp server. Data can be moved manually to an USB device which will not only copy the documents but also a portable viewer that can be used to view archive contents and open documents.

The document management system offers an extensive log and overview of all the documents that have been backed up in the past. These documents can be opened or extracted to the local computer system.

DocShield can protect documents. The option to automatically move the backups to a server and the USB viewer make it an excellent tool for many occasions. The document management software is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems including Windows XP and Windows Vista. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 and is free for personal use.

The new option to translate a document becomes available after clicking on Tools > Translate Document in the header menu while viewing a single document in Google Docs.

Available is the usual assortment of languages that is offered by the Google Translate service. Selecting one of the languages in the menu will open a new window that displays the translated text after a short time. It is then possible to create a new document based on the translated document or replace the existing document with the translation.

The document cannot be edited in this window though. This option becomes available after selecting one of the two options described above. It would have been nice if Google Docs offered at least some form of export and editing capabilities right away so that users who want a quick translation of a document can process it further without having to save it first before they can do so.

Another option that is currently missing are partial translations of documents. It’s currently either all or nothing.

source official Google Docs Blog

The software program will display the personal documents upon startup. Personal documents are those found in the user’s My Documents folder of the Windows operating system. It will list all documents with their names, modification dates, owners and directories they are stored in.

The documents can be sorted by the same parameters and opened by double-clicking them. A search form on top makes it possible to search for documents containing the search term in their title. It is currently not possible to search the document’s contents as well.

A click on the context pulldown menu makes it possible to change the view to display everyone’s documents, program files or the internet cache instead. The same options apply to these selections as well. Doc Update is available in an early version which might be the reason for the lack of information. The program does take relatively long to display the documents in the table as well. The program might already be useful for some users who need to keep track of document updates made by co-workers.

The free OCR scanning service supports PDF, JPG, GIF, TIFF or BMP files with a maximum file size of two Megabytes. The OCR currently supports the six languages English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch.

Best results are achieved if the images have a dpi setting of at least 150. That’s problematic when taking screenshots as these usually are taken at a lower value.

Results range from impressive to workable and it is a good idea to check the recognized text and correct any errors made during the OCR scan. Free OCR has a few additional limitations that are mentioned in the faq on the website. Probably the two biggest restrictions are a one page limitation when scanning pdf documents and that it will not recognize document layouts which means that a two column layout will be processed as a single column layout.

The developers of Free OCR promised to update their service in the near future to remove these restrictions and limitations. Thanks go to JoJo for sending in the tip.

The reason for this is that many users believe that the data is safe on Internet servers. A lot can happen that can put the data on those servers at risk. This ranges from hacking attempts, hardware failures that cause data loss or bankruptcy. It is therefor essential to make sure that data that is stored online is backed up regularly.

We have already mentioned how to backup Gmail before should be essential for every Gmail user. While it is unlikely that Gmail will be discontinued there have been times where the service was not accessible. Having a backup of the data would make it possible to access the emails anyway.

Google Docs Backup is another Windows backup software that can be used to backup one of the popular Google services. Users can use it to backup all documents on their local computer system that they have uploaded to Google Docs. Usage of the backup software has been simplified. All that needs to be done is to enter the username and password of the Google Docs account and to select a directory on the local computer where the data should be downloaded to.

A few optional settings are available. It is for example possible to select the output format for each document type and to route the traffic through a proxy server. A click on the Exec button will initiate the data backup which can take some time depending on the size of the data stored at Google Docs and the connection speed.

Gdoc Backup (via To The PC) is a free software program for the Windows operating system.

Another difference between DocFetcher and other desktop search engines is that the former was designed to index document folders only and not an entire hard drive. This means that the initial setup of the document search engine is more time consuming as the user has to point the application to specific folders on the computer’s hard drive that contain the documents that should be indexed by the program.

The advantage of this method is that the program uses less system resources and is able to offer a better result quality. A few options are available to filter the result list. It is possible to specify a minimum and maximum file size, select some or all of the supported file types and locations that have been indexed by the desktop search tool.

Search results are displayed in the same interface with their title, size, filename, type, path, author, modification date and score that is computed by DocFetcher. A left-click on any document will load a preview of the document’s contents in a preview area in the interface which is great for accessing information of documents quickly as the search term is highlighted in the preview of the document.

DocFetcher (via Essential Freebies) comes as an installer or portable version for the Windows and Linux operating systems. It requires Java to be installed on the computer system.

Universal Viewer is another application that will suite many more needs. It has not only been designed to open document formats but also other formats like images and photos, multimedia files like videos or audio and Internet files like htm or xml. The program is driven by plugins that add support for various file types. The plugins are the same that are used by Total Commander which ensures the availability of many plugins for various file formats.

Universal Viewer is a viewer that displays the information in a basic but highly accessible fashion. Only the main information are shown without additional formatting. Take a look at a comparison between the same document in Microsoft Word 2007 and Universal Viewer:

Universal Viewer is therefor a basic viewer that can display pretty much any format that can be displayed visually. It comes with the following feature set:

• Full support for Unicode filenames
• Built-in functions of several popular plugins: images, multimedia, webpages view
• Support for multiple codepages: ANSI, OEM, EBCDIC, ISO, KOI8, Mac etc.
• Toolbar, status bar, other interface improvements
• Auto-reloading of file on changing, “Follow tail” option
• Displaying of line numbers
• Displaying of non-printable characters
• Combined Unicode/Hex mode (call Unicode mode twice)
• More modern RegEx search library
• Print preview
• EXIF viewer

Some of the more commonly used plugins, for example to display Microsoft Office 2007 documents are linked from the developers homepage directly while others can be found on Total Commander plugin websites which are also linked there. Plugins can be added directly from within Universal Viewer.

Universal Viewer itself can be downloaded as a portable version or installer. The developer offers a Pro version of the viewer as well which adds several new features to the application.

Verdict:

Universal Viewer is a fast and lightweight document viewer that can be used to quickly look at the contents of virtually any files on the computer system.

The document viewer only supports the new docx file format at this point but as this is the most commonly encountered format it should suffice for the moment. The web browser add-on is available for both the Windows and Linux operating system and supplied as a xpi file which can be loaded and installed easily. Another version for the command line of both operating systems is provided as well.

The web browser plugin works by simply dragging and dropping docx documents into a Firefox tab or window. The add-on will automatically process the document and display it in the web browser. There is currently no direct way to open docx files that are linked from websites but it is possible to associate the Firefox web browser with the docx format in the operating system to either open the documents automatically or on right-click and selection with it.

The next installment of the Open XML Document Viewer is slated for a April 2009 release which will add support for the Opera and Internet Explorer web browser, server side support, document themes and drawing shapes.

Doc Shots tries to bring in more control to the webmaster by allowing them to present documents on their websites easily. The visitor is able to view a selected document right on the website in an overlay with basic controls, such as downloading, printing, searching and zooming. It feels like a document viewer on the web and resembles desktop document viewers enough to make it easy for visitors to use it.

Webmasters have to be registered users of the service before they can configure Doc Shots for their website. Registration is free on the other hand and not problematic or time consuming at all. The configuration of the document presentation script can be customized by setting the width and height of the overlay window. Other options include the display of related items and document storing policies.

Webmasters receive a JavaScript code in the end that they have to embed in the source code of their website to make use of the document presentation engine. The script will automatically recognize popular document formats such as .doc, .pdf, .ppt, .xls. Hoovering over document links or clicking on the documents will open the document presentation overlay on the same website.

The first viewer will experience a small delay while opening the document as the conversion is initiated at that time. It is therefor a good idea to be the first viewer so that regular visitors do not experience the delay. Visitors can still right-click the document and save it to their computer system directly.

Update: The service does not seem to be available any longer.

Disabling sessions from Notepad++ should not have any impact on other software features like the tabbed interface. The option to disable sessions in Notepad++ can be found in the options of the software program.

A user opening Notepad++ can open the program’s options by selecting Settings from the main menu and Preferences from the submenu. The Preferences window is opening which is displaying several tabs and lots of options.

Locate the Misc tab of the Preferences menu and uncheck the “Remember the current session for next launch” box to disable the session feature in Notepad++.The user will only see the current document the next time Notepad++ is opened. New documents are still added in tabs during a session but once Notepad++ gets closed the information are erased.

The most common file names are .odf for word processing documents and .ods for spreadsheets. If you encounter such a file and want to open it in the Microsoft Office Suite you will notice that it is not possible. Instead of downloading another Office suite you could instead install the ODF addins for the Microsoft Office Suite which add support for the office software programs Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Powerpoint. This means support for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, and the file formats .odt (documents), .ods (spreadsheets) and .odp (presentations).

After installing the Open XML / ODF Translator addins in the Microsoft Office Suite users can not only open but also save Open Document Formats. Supported are the Microsoft Office Suites Office 2007, Office 2003 and Office XP.

Update: The Open XML / ODF Translator Add-ins for Office have been updated recently. The biggest change is support for Microsoft Office 2010 which previously was not supported by the add-ins. It basically means that Office 2010 users can download and install the add-ins for their program to open ODF file types with it.

Other changes include a series of fixes and improvements for specific features and their transition. Installation should be straightforward. Just download the ODF add-in from the Sourceforge website and execute it on the computer that you want to use it on.

If installation is successful, you should be able to open an “.ODF” file from Microsoft Office (see menu”File>ODF…->Open ODF”). Also, when right-clicking on a “.ODF” file in explorer, you should have the option to open the document in Microsoft Office (menu “Open with Microsoft Office”).

The program adds capabilities both to the file menus in Microsoft Office and to Windows Explorer’s Open dialog.