David Flynn30 July 2009, 11:15 PM
Free plug-in for Microsoft Office goes beyond file syncing between your hard drive and the Google Docs cloud, with tricks like support for collaboration and Google Image Search.
Not everyone can live their life totally online, with an ever-present Internet connection to access Google Docs wherever they go. Nor does everyone want to remain beholden to Microsoft Office and PC-based document storage.
One of the nattier solutions for getting Microsoft Office and Google Docs working together is
OffiSync, a plug-in for Office 2003 and Office 2007 running on Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 7.
OffiSync goes beyond providing access to your Google Docs files directly from within Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Options on the ribbon-style toolbar include Office-style document collaboration (with automated email alerts to advise each user of document changes) and sifting through your Google Docs folders using Google Search.
Our favourite, though, is the integrated support for Google Image Search in place of Office’s anaemic clip-art library.
OffiSync lets you find and insert images from Google Image Search directly from within any Office document
This isn’t restricted to clip-art, of course – any image which Google Image Search finds can be downloaded and inserted into your document with just a click. Advanced options can fine-tune your search through options such as size and usage rights.
Although OffiSync is currently in beta, it’s planned to remain free for the ‘basic’ edition, with a paid-for ‘premium’ version aimed at businesses to follow. A version for Office for Mac is also in the works.