Our link to Google Docs feature has been getting a lot of hype lately so we just wanted to remind you the two easy ways OfficeDrop lets you scan directly to Google Docs. Whether you want us to do it, or you want to do it yourself, OfficeDrop gets your paper out of those filing cabinets and into Google Docs.
Scan Directly to Google Docs (2 Ways)
1. Have Us Scan It
Hopefully you’ve heard that OfficeDrop provides mail-based scanning either in bulk, or with monthly scanvelope submission. When you have us scan, you have the option of automatic upload to our online digital filing system. Now that you can link your OfficeDrop account to Google Docs, you can configure your OfficeDrop account to automatically send every page we scan to your Google Docs account. Keep in mind that because you scanned with OfficeDrop, every document is converted to text-searchable PDF, ready to search on Google Docs.
2. Self Scan with ScanDrop
With our increasingly popular ScanDrop scanning software (free for download), you can turn your own personal scanner into a direct portal to Google Docs (*see below for compatible scanners). Configuring your scanner with ScanDrop allows you to view, edit, delete, reorder, and upload any scans right to Google Docs – all from the same intuitive application. You can even choose which Google Docs folder to upload to, and name your scans. However, keep in mind that documents sent directly to Google Docs through ScanDrop are not made text-searchable. See ScanDrop’s recent article on Life Hacker.
If you use Google Docs, then don’t miss out on these two simple and affordable ways to get all of your paper documents directly to Google Docs. Send to us or scan yourself and start putting your paper to work in Google Docs.
Good news for OfficeDrop and ScanDrop users alike – OfficeDrop’s free scanning software/ document management application, ScanDrop, now scans your paper documents directly to the OfficeDrop system.
It used to be that ScanDrop could only scan paper documents to Google Docs, excluding our own document management system. However, thanks to a recent upgrade, OfficeDrop users can now scan, edit, and upload their own paper documents right to their online OfficeDrop account.
OfficeDrop takes the hassle out of document scanning with our bulk and subscription scanning services, and now ScanDrop gives a third option: scanning from home with your own scanner.
Step 1: Choose which storage to upload to
You can now choose either OfficeDrop or Google Docs
Step 2: Sign into your OfficeDrop account
Sign into OfficeDrop right from ScanDrop
Step 3: Scan your paper, edit and upload with ScanDrop
From ScanDrop you can edit scans, delete pages, and can even apply your OfficeDrop labels and upload to folders
OfficeDrop is designed to save you time by doing the scanning and uploading for you, but if your preference is scanning solo, ScanDrop is the next best thing. With ScanDrop, you can use just about any personal scanner as a portal to scan paper to your OfficeDrop account. Just configure your scanner with ScanDrop and any scanned documents can be viewed, rotated, deleted, and uploaded to your OfficeDrop account.
As always, any paper you scan gets converted to a text-searchable PDF so you can search everything online from your handy OfficeDrop account.
Get the ScanDrop application for free and start searching your paper documents from the convenient OfficeDrop document management system. Download free from the OfficeDrop website or get it just as free from the Google Apps Marketplace.
With Microsoft’s new Office 2010 featuring all new cloud functionality, including hosted document creation and sharing options (sound familiar?), Microsoft fights back against Google and their poplar Google Docs.
“OfficeDrop Puts Pressure On Microsoft”
That was a header featured on CMSWire that reported on hot new Google Docs functionality, the Microsoft Office 2010 general release, and OfficeDrop’s new Google Docs integration.
Author, David Roe, discusses new features of Google Docs such as added formatting options, a dictionary, as well as helpful tweaks to spreadsheet creation, the timing of which improvements doubtlessly intended to bolster competition with the general release of Microsoft Office 2010.
It seems OfficeDrop has been caught in this clash of tech titans due to our new Google Docs integration. Roe notes how “users can send paper documents to OfficeDrop,” and “automatically get their paper scanned and into Google Docs.” Google Docs does not currently provide OCR for non text-rich documents but OfficeDrop does. We aren’t choosing sides, but with the convenient document scanning and management features of OfficeDrop and our Google Docs integration, we effectively add features to Google Docs, and give more incentive for customers to choose Google Docs over Microsoft Office.
Thank you to David Roe for including us in this interesting discussion and for spreading the word about our new Google Docs integration. We aren’t sure how much pressure Microsoft is feeling from us specifically, but we agree with David that “competition for Microsoft and Office 2010 is going to be stiff as other companies start getting in on the Google Docs act.”
You may have heard that OfficeDrop now links with Google Docs. You can see in our new snazzy video that it’s fast and easy to get text-searchable paper to Google Docs, or to link your digital files. Like what you see? Want to get step-by-step instruction how to do it? We’ve got you covered:
Learn Exactly How to Link Google Docs with our Tutorial Video
Now that you know how, you can sign on to OfficeDrop and start scanning paper to Google Docs as text-searchable PDFs.
Missed something? Sill confused?
For a full text explanation of the steps outlined in the video, click here.
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.
Going paperless can certainly make things easier for you and your employees, but you aren’t the only one who benefits from a paperless office. Just as your life becomes easier by reducing paper, so will the lives of your clients. Here are a few ways reducing paper and going digital will generate benefits that your clients will thank you for.
Faster Responses
When it comes to resolving client issues, there’s a negative correlation between customer mood and time taken for resolution. Oftentimes, the answers to client questions depend on the location of a paper document, and it used to be that clients had to wait while you rifled through filing cabinets for their answer. In the paperless office digital documents can be searched and retrieved instantly. Going paperless lets you locate documents quickly, and a faster reaction to client needs will always be appreciated.
They Get Anywhere Access
Clients like to stay informed; sharing a collection of digital documents with clients will build trust and make them feel valued. Digital documents can be hosted online, so they’re accessible anywhere your client can find a connection.
Less Clutter
It sounds obvious, but going paperless lets you maintain client relations without sending them stacks of physical documents. Doing business online will save your clients’ desks from excess clutter and make them grateful that they work with your paperless business.
They Feel Safe
Once you can boast the enhanced security features of online document storage, your clients will be reassured knowing that their information is backed up, firewalled, and securely guarded in state-of-the-art data facilities. Not only does this make you look good, but you and your client can sleep easy without nightmares of lost or destroyed paper documents.
They Become Environmentalists
The paperless office certainly has “green” values, and more and more people are becoming environmentally conscious. Knowing that they work with a paperless company will make clients feel good about working with you and good about themselves.
So do yourself and your clients a favor and send documents to us. We do all the scanning, leaving you and your associates to enjoy the security and convenience of reducing paper and managing documents online.
It’s easy to get your paper and digital documents into your OfficeDrop account but did you know it’s just as easy to get them out? Our goal is to help you interact with your documents easier than ever before, and we understand that sometimes that means getting them out of our system and into your own. Whether you are canceling your account or just need to get your documents out of our cloud and onto your desktop, there are 3 easy ways to move your files from OfficeDrop to your computer. As always, no matter how you download your documents, they will always retain their text-searchable PDF format.
1. Download the documents yourself
If you are just looking to download a few individual documents, you have the ability to do this yourself from within your OfficeDrop account. You can download documents one-by-one, or up to ten at once. To download an individual document, select the “More” drop-down menu from the snippet-view of the document and select “Download PDF.” If you would like to download more than one at a time, click the checkbox of each document to download, and then select “Download PDF” at the top of the snippet view screen. The selected files will then be packaged as a zip-file and downloaded directly to your desktop. Note that only ten documents at a time are shown in a snippet view and to “Select All” from the top of the page will prompt a download of only the documents on that page.
2. Request a DVD copy of your account
At any time, you may contact us and request that a DVD ($25.00 per 5,000 images) be created containing all the documents in your account. If you use folders or labels, we can re-create either your folder or label scheme, but not both. You may then request that your account be purged of all documents (all documents permanently deleted). Shipping of the DVD or flashdrive by UPS is included in the price.
3. Request a zip file link be created
Upon request, we are happy to create a secure zip file link that will be sent to you by e-mail. Once you access the link, you will be able to download, via zip file form, all documents currently contained in your account. For security purposes the zip file link will expire in 10 days and we use 256-bit encryption for added security. Note: Should you decide to cancel your OfficeDrop account, a zip file link will be automatically generated and sent to your e-mail on file so you may download and access your documents. After that time, your account will be purged for security purposes.
Right now these are the three easy ways to access your documents outside of OfficeDrop, but we will soon be releasing a new feature, so you can look forward to a fourth easy way to utilize your documents outside of our convenient document management system.
Don’t let your documents get trapped in boxes, or online. OfficeDrop document management lets you securely store your documents without imprisoning them.
Storing digital documents saves time and money, but it’s the sharing that really puts those documents to work. Your OfficeDrop “Share” button links all of your digital documents to employees, clients, and anyone else that needs secure access to your data. Sharing documents can be used for many different purposes. To get you started, here are three examples of how sharing can be used to turn digital documents into office solutions.
Share an Expense Report
Going on business trips and buying company equipment/ supplies generates a lot of records that need to be organized if you want to be compensated for things paid for out of your own pocket. With an OfficeDrop account, you can consolidate all of those records online as digital documents, and then email a link to the boss. Expenses are viewed instantly, nothing gets lost, and you get reimbursed in full.
Get Multiple Signatures
Some documents require multiple signatures from people that might not be in the same room…or the same state. Scanning and sharing documents that need authorization can save a lot of time and risk mailing one document from office to office to get the necessary signatures. With OfficeDrop, just sign, scan and share. All the second signer has to do is print and add his or her signature. *check to see if this is legally binding in your area.
Keep Everyone on the Same Page
Anytime you need to share information across the office, sharing with OfficeDrop is a quick, secure solution. Whether it’s client information, or procedural instructions, the share option will instantly deliver the data to those who need it. Don’t deny employees information because it’s stuck on paper, scan and share to grant everyone secure access.
Those are just a few ways that sharing documents will make your life easier. With so many different kinds of documents, and so many workflows, the reasons for sharing documents are infinite. Whatever your reason, be sure that you’re using OfficeDrop’s share feature to expand document access, and make your business more productive.
Storing documents online with OfficeDrop is a great way to manage your information. Not only can you view and search your digital and converted paper documents, but you can organize them, adding context and making them even more productive.
One of the best and easiest ways to do this is by applying labels. A label, usually a word or description relevant to a document, is much like a tag and shows up in the gray area under a document in list view or on the right in the individual document view. Once created, you can filter documents by label and quickly see all documents that share a label you’ve created.
If you don’t already use labels, or aren’t sure how, here are some example uses for labels that we’ve found especially useful.
1. Document Type
Contracts, bills, invoices, receipts, forms, deposits, articles, and anything else that might be in your account should be classified by applying labels. If you aren’t sure how to organize a document, applying a label classifying the document type is always a good start. That way, if you need to find a receipt, you can at least click your “receipts” label and all receipts are listed instantly.
2. Paid/Unpaid
If you’re storing bills and invoices on your OfficeDrop account, labels are a quick way to indicate the status of that document. Now, if you want to view all the bills you have yet to pay, all you have to do is click your “Unpaid” label, and you have them all right there to review. The same can be done to review paid documents, and payment notes can also be added as annotations.
3. Client Names
For use with documents when it isn’t clear who sent it or who it has to do with. Punching in a quick label will forever prevent questions like “who the heck sent me this?” and “why didn’t I just add a name label?” Once labeled, just click the name to see all the documents related to that person.
So if you find yourself staring at documents thinking “this is that…thing, from Bill…someone, that I…paid?” then labels are your new best friend. Take just a couple seconds to add the power of context with labels and you’re instantly informed of the who, where, what, and why for all of your documents.
Did you know that you can use OfficeDrop to embed your documents on a webpage? It’s simple.
If there’s a document you want to share via a webpage, you can just paste some code into the HTML and you’ve got a webpage with an embedded OfficeDrop PDF document – just like this one here (how-to below):
Pretty cool, huh? Just another new feature we’ve provided to help you get the most out of your documents. (Don’t worry, the size is only restricted so you can see our handy Blog navigation on the right).
How did you do that?
If you’ve ever embeded a Youtube video, you’ll be familiar with the process.
To embed an OfficeDrop document’s URL on your site, find the document you want to publish, and from the list view click the “More” dropdown menu and then select “Embed URL” (you can also select this button from the individual document view).
Then, agree to the disclaimer, and click “Publish.” After that, OfficeDrop will provide you with a widget code that you can paste into your site’s HTML.
Be sure to change the height and width of the image to your preference before copying the code.
All that’s left is to copy paste into your site’s code, and your document will be on display.
For help embedding OfficeDrop documents on your blog, see the Youtube embedding instructions here. Just paste the OfficeDrop generated code where the Youtube code would go.
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OfficeDrop’s Online Cloud Storage and Document Management Blog
OfficeDrop, formerly Pixily, helps small businesses and home offices go paperless and manage their paper and digital documents online. OfficeDrop provides an award-winning online digital filing system & Mac scanner software. In this blog, we’ll discuss cool ways customers are using our service to tame their paper problem and get organized. We hope to share tips and tricks we are learning as we help our clients scan, sync, search and share documents. We’ll also highlight new features in our digital filing system, let you know what the press is saying about us and keep you up to speed with the goings-on at OfficeDrop! Paper. Digital. Anywhere.
