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Edit MS Office Docs using MS Office from Google Drive

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Watch the Demo

Click on the image for the demo!

 

One of the hurdles many face when moving to Google Apps is how to deal with MS Office. Some users feel they cannot live without some of the advanced formatting and features; others are concerned that they receive and work on MS Office documents received from others.

Until now, in order to edit MS Office documents in their native format, users had to download or sync files to their local disk or use the limited editing capabilities of the Chrome browser extension.   Both are less than ideals.

Can you click on a Word doc saved in Drive, have it open in Microsoft Word, and have the file save to Drive?  … YES!  Yes, you can!

With AODocs File Server and the AODocs SmartBar Extension for Chrome, you can use Drive in your Chrome browser, select and edit MS Office files, and have them save directly within Drive.  You can effectively replace Windows Explorer with Drive + AODocs.

Click Here to see a quick demo with Word.  The solution works for Excel and Powerpoint files, too.

Want to know more? Contact Us for a 1:1 demo of the full AODocs File Server solution.
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3rd of 5: Leadership and Google Apps in Your District

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Google EDU Globe
At the NJ Google Apps for Education Summit this month, we had the opportunity to briefly present and discuss the role and impact of Google Apps in K-12 Education with administrators and leaders from several districts.  This post is the  3rd of 5 on Leadership and Google Apps in Your District.

Learn, Plan, Execute, Review, Repeat

As noted in the first post in this series, your Google Apps deployment gets you to the starting line.  The race, however, is a marathon and not a sprint.  Schools often set lofty goals and objectives with the intent of doing as much as possible as soon as possible.  While aggressive plans are fine, districts need to avoid overwhelming staff with initiatives that require new skills, tools, and methods.  While training and professional development is critical, rushing to pull it together to meet arbitrary deadlines creates stress and makes integration of Google Apps, devices, apps, and content more difficult.

Educators must be confident in their own ability to use and manage the technology and methods before they stand in front of their classes.  Allow teachers and staff to learn, incrementally, and to apply what they’ve learned before moving forward.

Some of the elements of a successful professional development program include:

  • Clear long-term goals and near-term objectives
  • Established tracks based on roles: administrator, teacher-centric, student-centric, etc.
  • Sufficient training on basic use of Google Apps — what it can do and the clicks you need to do it.
  • Use-case centric education on applying the features of Google Apps to classroom use.  Using suggested edits and comments to facilitate paperless homework and collaborative lesson planning are two examples.
  • Allow educators time to plan and use what they have learned before moving forward.  Holding a half day workshop every 3 months can be more effective than two full days of training in August.
  • Help faculty integrate the use of technology and the Google Apps ecosystem into lesson plans.
  • Provide a means for faculty to practice in front of peers, with feedback, before using new technology in front of students.

When it comes to integrating Google Apps, Chrome devices, tablets, and other technologies into the learning process, professional development must be more than a set of classes for continuing ed credits.  A sound curriculum and plan, that helps faculty and staff advance their capabilities of time, is a key to success.

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If you are interested in a professional development assessment covering Google Apps, Chromebooks, and/or Play for Education tablets, please contact us.

Chromebook SSO Eases Access Administration

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Single Sign-On (SSO) enables users to access multiple systems and applications with a single username and password, and a single login screen.  And while many schools and businesses use SSO for Google Apps and related solutions, Chrome devices have always required a separate login.

To easy access administration and simplify user logins, Google has launched SAML-based SSO login for Chrome devices.   Organizations running current versions of Chrome on devices registered via Chrome Management licenses can now extend their Google Apps SSO login to the registered Chrome devices.

Feel free to contact us if you would like more information or assistance with your setup.

 

More Office/Docs Integration with Suggested Edits

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Click to Enlarge; Opens in New Window.

 

Google recently added Suggested Edits to Google Docs as a way to make edits that can be accepted or rejected by the owner.   As many of us still work with people still using Microsoft Word, and some of us still use Word for some tasks, Google is extending Suggested Edits to further improve interoperability between Google Docs and Microsoft Word.

When opening a Microsoft Word .docx file in Google Docs, “Tracked Changes” are now converted to “Suggested Edits”.

The biggest concern for most users about moving to Google Docs is the ability to work with those still using Word.  With this new feature, the gap continues to narrow.

 

2nd of 5: Leadership and Google Apps in Your District

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Google EDU Globe
At the NJ Google Apps for Education Summit this month, we had the opportunity to briefly present and discuss the role and impact of Google Apps in K-12 Education with administrators and leaders from several districts.  This post is the 2nd of 5 on Leadership and Google Apps in Your District.

Create an Equitable and Sustainable Ecosystem

Every district and school we work with for Google Apps, Chrome, and/or Play deployments has a population that spans some measure of socio-economic conditions. These socio-economic factors will play a part in funding technology.

As schools move to 1:1 programs, socio-economic differences across the student population can also weigh heavily on students and their families.  Depending on how a district structures its 1:1 program, the district can create an equitable resource for all students or can further exasperate the digital divides.  Poorly crafted 1:1 programs may also lack the financial stability to remain sustainable following the initial equipment purchase or first refresh cycle.

Schools can avoid these hazards with sound, long-term planning guided by a mandate for equitable opportunity and sustainability.

Here are few considerations.

  • 1:1 Programs with BYOD can create a systemic bias based on family wealth, unless the district is willing and able to ensure all students have access to a default device that is comparable in form, function, performance, and reliability to those brought from home.
  • 1:1 Programs in which families purchase specific devices are often a financial hardship for lower and middle-income families, particularly those with multiple children in the system.
  • Districts should consider policies covering if and when students may use applications and resources not provided by the district for school work.
  • Initial 1:1 program plans should look forward through at least 2 equipment refresh cycles, to ensure that funding is stable and equipment life cycles (reliability and usability) are consistent across classes and grades.
  • 1:1 program funding should be a recurring operating expense rather than a discretionary budget item.  Delaying purchases and refresh cycles reduces the effectiveness of the program across the student population and can result in higher overall costs.  Fair market value (FMV) leases help even out annual costs and maintain refresh cycles
  • 1:1 Programs with equipment and applications purchased by the district ensure all students have equal access to resources, but place the greatest potential financial burden on the district.
  • Districts should consider policies related to “Technology Fees” or “1:1 Program Fees” as a means of mitigating 1:1 program costs.  Districts should consider if and when to subsidize or waive fees based on financial need.
  • Professional development for faculty and staff should be an ongoing process that develops skills and sets expectations for technology integration into the learning process.
  • Districts should consider the ability to leverage technology in the classroom as a skill set on par with subject matter expertise and other teaching skills.

With a well-considered, long-term plan and a commitment to equity and sustainability, districts can design and execute 1:1 programs that provide all students with an equivalent learning environment. Schools will always need to deal with socio-economic differences across their populations, and it is impossible to ensure all things are equal.  Solid leadership as districts adopt technologies and methods, however, can ensure equitable access and opportunities to learn.

 

 

into available grants and other sources of funding,  these factors can also weigh heavily on the

1st of 5: Leadership and Google Apps in Your District

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Google EDU Globe
At the NJ Google Apps for Education Summit this month, we had the opportunity to briefly present and discuss the role and impact of Google Apps in K-12 Education with administrators and leaders from several districts.  This post is the 1st of 5 on Leadership and Google Apps in Your District.

Google Apps is a Platform, not a Solution

While this statement seems obvious, we work with many school districts that become so focused on the near term goal of getting Google Apps up and running, and their users and data moved over, that they neglect to consider what comes next.

If your moving to Google Apps simply for email and calendaring, then yes, for the moment, your deployment project is the end of your journey.  If, however, you expect to use Google Apps in the classroom to foster innovation and education results, than your Google Apps deployment is the prep work for your journey.

Yes, Google Apps provides a suite of apps and tools.  How you use these apps and tools is what makes the difference.

Google Apps is also the base of a managed ecosystem.  Through Google Apps for Education, you can manage access to applications, web sites, learning tools, educational content, and services.  You can manage devices — tablets and Chromebooks, with extensive control over the students’ user experience.

Most importantly, Google Apps provides a platform for innovation.  Be it flipped classroom, web-based learning, student portfolios, or self-directed learning, Google Apps provides the core tools, administrative platform, and security envelope you need.

Drive vs Docs = New Google URLs

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google drive
Google Drive and Google Docs are no longer the same thing.  As Google expanded the file service capabilities of Drive, Docs and Drive were separated to better reflect Docs as the office productivity tools and Drive as the secure file service.

Recently, Google made changes to ensure this distinction is evident in the URLs we use to access these services.

  • drive.google.com still points to Google Drive, and drive.google.com/a/<domain> still takes you to your Google Drive page
  • docs.google.com will soon point to a new Google Docs homepage that takes you directly to the Google Doc apps

We recommend updating your bookmarks as well as your custom URL mappings.

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If you need a hand with your custom URL mappings, please let us know.

Cloud Outages: Which Provider has 3 of the 10 biggest so far in 2014?

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crn-logo
CRN Magazine recently published a list of the 10 biggest and most impactful cloud service outages so far in 2010.  Outages happen.  Every vendor has, or will have, an outage at some point in time.  The severity of outages and how well a vendor communicates and recovers, however, point to underlying quality of service issues.

According to CRN, Microsoft’s Lync outage on June 23rd, Exchange outage on June 24th, and no-ip.com seizure outages starting June 30th represent 3 of the 10 biggest outages so far this calendar year.

See the full list of cloud outages.

 

 

Assessing Your Google Apps Security Threats

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The power of Google Apps comes from the variety and scope of its collaboration features.  Unfortunately, the same tools we use to share and to work more efficiently can be used against us. When users set permissions, they may accidentally (or intentionally) over-share, resulting in data leaks, disclosures, policy breaches, and regulatory violations.

With the easy to select and connect 3rd party mobile and web apps to your Google accounts in just a few click, employees can easily and unintentionally grant access to non-trustworthy apps.

How do you protect your users from threats they do not know exist?

Assessing and managing information security within Google Apps warrants a multi-faceted approach.

  1. Education. Make sure employees understand your organization’s privacy and security policies, and any regulations and laws you must follow.
  2. Education. Make sure your users understand the basics of how permissions work within Google Drive and Sites, and how to use settings to comply with policies.
  3. Education. Make sure employees know that 3rd party apps can be dangerous and cause problems.

Beyond Education, many organizations look to deploy data protection and security solutions that support policies, that monitor the Google Apps environment for risks and violations, and that can respond and remediate potential data sharing violations.

Before you invest, however, understand your risk.  By reviewing Drive content and permissions and analyzing the inventory of 3rd party apps accessing your Google Apps domain, you can best assess if and when additional security and administrative tools are warranted.  While this can be time-consuming, tools and services exist that can automate the process of gathering and analyzing Google Apps security threat information.

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Through September 30, 2014, Cumulus Global is partnering with CloudLock, the Google Apps collaboration security company, to offer a comprehensive Google Apps Security Health Check, which will analyze both Drive content and the risk from 3rd party mobile and web apps.  Normally a service costing $1,000 to $5,000, we are offering the assessment for $300 or less.

Click Here for more information and/or to speak with a Cloud Advisor.

 

Bonus: More Ways to Collaborate in Google Apps

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Google Apps is designed for secure sharing and collaborations.  Many users, however, still rely on the back-and-forth of email to get their work done.  Here is bonus (more than our 5th) other way to collaborate in Google Apps.

Suggested Edits in Google Docs

Even die-hard users of that “old school” office suite acknowledge that using Google Docs makes it easier to work in one place.  Sharing a document rather than emailing back and forth is more efficient, more effective, and way more cool.

Sometimes, you don’t want to give other full access to edit; you would rather have them make suggestions that you could accept, reject, or modify.  New to Google Docs, collaborators with “Comment” access to your Docs can now make Suggested Edits.  As the owner, you can then accept or reject the suggestions as part of your document review.

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Want to experience real-time collaboration first-hand?  Contact us and we will setup a solutions site just for you and your team.