Google’s document hosting service Google Docs was recently upgraded with an option to export all selected documents in the compressed zip format. This document backup solution can be used to backup all documents that are hosted at Google Docs regularly to be prepared if data gets damaged, deleted or inaccessible there.

The easiest way to backup all Google Docs documents is to switch to the All Items view in the left sidebar. This will display all documents hosted at Google Docs. A click in the checkmark button and the selection of “select all visible” from the sub-menu will mark all documents that are currently displayed. Another click on More Actions and the selection of Export will open a new window that looks similar to the one above.

Google Docs users can now convert, zip and download all the selected documents at once. The window will list the number of selected documents and display the conversion option for the different document types. Spreadsheets can for instance be converted to Microsoft Excel, Open Office or Adobe PDF formats before they are downloaded. It seems that the selection of a default document type is mandatory. Documents are then zipped and a download dialog window is displayed in the end. Users with many large documents can make use of the email notification option to be informed when the files are available for download.