Synchronize OpenOffice.org with Google Docs

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#1

One of the features in Microsoft Office 2010 that effectively “leapfrogged” them over their 2 closest rivals; OpenOffice and Google Docs, was integrating the local (installed) version of Office with the live (cloud based) storage and Office.

Now it seems with the OpenOffice addon ooo2gd that “advantage” for Microsoft is being addressed!

From the Web Upd8 post Synchronize Your OpenOffice Documents With Google Docs, Zoho And WebDAV Servers Using Ooo2gd:

Ooo2gdis an OpenOffice addon which you can use to keep your documents synchronized with Google Docs, Zoho and WebDAV servers. You can either manually select to upload a file to Google Docs / Zoho when you’re done editing it or you can select to automatically synchronize it.

Besides keeping the local files you’re working on synchronized with these web services, the extension also allows you to import files which already exist on the server (Google Docs, Zoho, WebDAV) and either open them in a web browser or directly edit them via OpenOffice.

Considering Office is one of my “killer apps”, this is a welcomed advancement.

#2

I think the Office 2010 just integrates with Microsoft’s Cloud storage (may be wrong about that). A group of ex-Microsoft employees developed a plug-in for earlier versions of MS Office that worked with Google Docs. See DocVerse. They didn’t get much love from Microsoft and Google bought them out in March. There are indications that Google will expand this plug-in to OpenOffice (see here).

#3

See also:
Google Demos Editing of Google Docs in Microsoft Office
Android/iPad editing of Google Docs only weeks away

This is Google giving Microsoft a little of their own “Embrace, extend and extinguish” strategy I think.