Do you use Google Docs? Wish you could get the paper in your office into Google Docs? Welcome to OfficeDrop scanning services – now linked with Google Docs.

Get Searchable PDFs to Google Docs

If you use OfficeDrop already, you know every document that goes into OfficeDrop becomes a text-searchable PDF file, and you are enjoying the benefits of using OfficeDrop’s mail-in scanning service. When you upload documents from OfficeDrop to Google Docs, they stay text-searchable – pretty handy since Google Docs can’t make documents text-searchable on it’s own. With OfficeDrop’s Google Docs link you can enjoy the versatility of Google Docs without sacrificing text search. It’s the easiest way to get paper into Google Docs as text-searchable PDFs. Follow this link to learn more and sign up: http://www.officedrop.com/google-docs-paper-management/, or visit our page in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Push OfficeDrop Folders to Google Docs

OfficeDrop just released a new application feature that lets you automatically push the contents in OfficeDrop folders to your Google Docs account. What that means is that all of the documents in a linked OfficeDrop folder are automatically uploaded to your Google Docs, and any documents you later put into that folder are automatically uploaded as well.

Send Individual Documents

No need to send an entire folder? No problem. The new Google Docs feature also lets you select individual documents to send to your Google Docs account. Just select the “More” dropdown menu from the snippet view and then you can “Send to Google Docs.” The OfficeDrop system will even let you pick which Google Docs folder you want the document sent to.

Here’s How to Do it:

Step One: Authorizing OfficeDrop for Google Docs

Before you can start linking OfficeDrop folders and sending documents to Google Docs, you must first enter your Google account information and authorize OfficeDrop for interaction with Google Docs.

• From your OfficeDrop account home screen, click the “tools” link at the topmost navigation bar. Once you’ve done that, click “Add-ons,” located at the top left of your screen.
• From the Add-ons page, locate the space reserved for Google Docs. In the space provided, enter your Google email account information and click “Authorize OfficeDrop.”
• From there, you’ll get a Google accounts message. Choose your appropriate Google account and click “continue.”
• From a second Google accounts window, click “Grant Access” and you will be brought back to the OfficeDrop Add-ons screen. A message should appear notifying you that your account was successfully linked to Google Docs.

Linking and Accessing Folders

Linking folders to Google Docs allows you to scan documents to OfficeDrop folders, and have them accessible from your Google Docs account. When a folder is linked, OfficeDrop documents are uploaded to Google Docs, but documents are never removed from the OfficeDrop system as a result of this link.

• To link a folder to Google Docs, move to your OfficeDrop folders menu and access the folder’s context menu by clicking the small arrow directly to the left of that folder.
• From the context menu, select “Link to Google Docs.”
• A new menu will appear, allowing you to choose which Google Docs folder you want to link with. Select a Google Docs folder from the dropdown list and then click “Create.”
• A confirmation message will inform you that the link was successful. Now that the OfficeDrop folder is linked to Google Docs, all of the documents in that OfficeDrop folder, along with any document moved or uploaded to that folder after linking, will be made available in the designated folder in your Google Docs account.

*Please Note: Though documents in OfficeDrop will be sent to Google Docs, the link does not work backwards and documents uploaded to linked Google Docs folders will not appear in OfficeDrop.

Sending Individual Documents to Google Docs

In addition to linking folders, you can also send specific documents to Google Docs one-by-one. As with folders, these documents are simply made accessible on Google Docs, and they are not removed from OfficeDrop.

• Sending an individual OfficeDrop document to Google Docs can either be done from the snippet list view, or from the individual document view.
• From the snippet view, click the “More” button (located bottom right of the document snippet), and from the dropdown menu select “Send to Google Docs.”
• From the individual document view, the same “Send to Google Docs” button as a right-hand navigation link toward the bottom of the screen.
• Once you have clicked “Send to Google Docs” from either view, you will be prompted to choose a Google Docs folder. Choose the Google Docs folder to send to and click “Send.”
• Wait a moment, and then a message will alert you that the document has successfully been sent.

Known Issues

We have noticed some issues in the way Google Docs recognizes the scans pushed into Google Docs. We believe that this is because some PDFs are approaching the limits of how Google Docs is able to handle files. Issues we have experienced:

• If you notice an error in Google Docs that says “Sorry, we are unable to retrieve the document for viewing” when you click on the document to preview it, do not be concerned – it in your Google Docs account. If you click on the document a few times Google the document will eventually appear as you’d expect.
• Some scanned PDFs are too large in size for Google to do virus checks, and you will get a message when you attempt to download the file. If the file is a PDF created by OfficeDrop, do not be concerned – there is no virus.
• Google Doc’s search index does not always completely index PDFs. You are able to download the PDF with all of text recognized; i.e. a program like Adobe Reader can find the word or text in the file but Google Docs search can not. OfficeDrop is pushing documents that have been OCR’ed and the text is in the document, it is just not being found by Google Doc’s search feature.

New Google Integration from OfficeDrop – ScanDrop Scanner Software

ScanDrop scanning software is OfficeDrop’s newest product and makes it easy to scan paper directly into Google Docs and other popular cloud services. Scan to Google Docs, scan to Evernote, Scan to Dropbox, scan to OfficeDrop, soon scan to gmail, scan to local disk – all without opening a browser. ScanDrop offers powerful PDF tools like preview, rotate, page reorder, delete, crop and more. When scanning to the cloud, add metadata like tags, labels, notebooks, and folders/collections.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Document Management, Google Docs Paper Management, Product, Product Announcements, Product Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.