Here are some screenshots to give you a feel for how it works: First, you upload the files to Pika, which natively stores the files in its database. This shows how the uploaded files display within the Pika user interface:

Second, well, that’s it. You’re done. Really.

Without any further user interaction required, Google Docs synchronizes with Pika and adds those same files to the individual Google Docs accounts of all the users associated with the client case record. The synchronization process adds the files to a client-specific subfolder, with the client’s last name and case number, residing below an upper level folder called “My Cases,” which is itself a special folder within the Google Docs “Collections shared with me.” For example, here are the same files synchronized to Google Docs to the folder labeled “Collections shared with me > My Cases > Forcast – 10-11-00004″ (to state the obvious, this is not a real client):

Once the Pika case-related documents are synchronized to Google Docs, the users can use the documents from within Google Docs as they would any other: navigate to it, search for it, view it, share it, download it, whatever. For example, here is how a Word file orginally uploaded to Pika and then synced to Google Docs looks in the view mode from within Google Docs:

So, imagine you get a Gmail or Google Chat message from another advocate, asking if you have a good example of a motion to quash a subpoena, and you know you have one in the “Forcast” case. Hey, you’re already in your Google Apps, so you just go to Google Docs, navigate or search for the case or document, and there it is. You go ahead and do a Google Docs share to the person who made the request. Done. Without ever having to even open up Pika.

That’s the name of that tune.

Other posts of possible interest...

• Integrating Gmail and Google Groups with the Pika CMS
• Screenshots of the Pika gadget integration with Google Calendar
• Google Calendar component of LSNC Google API Project posted
• The LSNC Google API Project

The file upload options for Google Docs improved dramatically last week, with what Google more than fairly characterizes as simpler file upload in Google Docs.

The problem with Google’s earlier file upload interface was, well, anything but that. It was not simple. While manageable, it was still a cumbersome UX design. To upload a file, one had to click several times to select, posit to a designated folder, select Google Docs conversion options, and then actually trigger the upload. The prior iteration did help by adding a big, fat drag-n-drop area to the upload interface, but that only minimally simplified the process. What it definitely was not was Dropbox dead simple.

And it still isn’t. Google Docs still lacks local file and folder synchronization, although Google Cloud Connect — a Google Docs must-have, now part of the LSNC desktop standard — gets users of Word, Excel and PowerPoint part of the way there.

That said, the new Google Docs upload functions offer more and better ways to upload files and folders to Google Docs. More sensibly, and vastly more intuitively, one can now simply drag-n-drop files into the Google Docs interface, both to a folder in the left-pane tree or, if viewing files within a Google docs folder, into the right-pane file list itself. (You know, like in an Explorer window.) The user is also now able to set default Google Docs conversion options and whether to be prompted about conversion each time one uploads a file.

It is fantastic that one can now upload entire folders directly to Google Docs, although this only works natively in Google Chrome. Although Google prompts the user to install a Folder Upload applet for other browsers, in my testing I could not install the applet successfully for Firefox 4. Your mileage may vary.

There is a new Google Docs help page that explains how uploading files and folders to Google Docs works.

Other posts of possible interest...

• Google Docs keyboard shortcuts
• How the Google Docs integration with Pika works
• Underlined links: Does real-world usability trump the canonical view?
• The Manymoon experience

A big, gaping hole in the Google Apps platform is, of course, the lack of desktop and device synchronization, single or mulitple. If only Google would adds this functionality so that it is native to the platform! What I want for Google Docs, not surprisingly, is something as simple, polished and bugless as Dropbox. Yes, there are differing options that get me almost there, but in every instance the implementation, the bugs or simply the cost are problematic.

A case in point is Insync, which is apparently still in private beta but now asserts bragging rights for really significant Google Apps integration and is available on a user-limited basis at the Google Apps Marketplace. Contrary to all the five-star reviews there, when we tried it out we found that it worked, yes, but synchronization was pretty sluggish, including inexplicably long delays in synchronizing locally created folders to Google Docs. And despite the attempts of multiple users, no one could successfully get Insync to change its default folder location for the local sync. (In fairness to Insync, the problems we experienced may be attributable to major changes Google recently made to the Google Docs UI.) And there is still no telling what this service will cost.

But I did learn one thing: Once I did an Insync synchronization to my desktop, I checked to see the volume of all my synchronized files. I had well over a half GB, which tells me I am waaaaaaay Cloud dependent at this point.

Other posts of possible interest...

• How the Google Docs integration with Pika works
• Using Google Docs shares to propagate tech help
• Google Apps Redux
• Being about the newest tweaks for Google Apps

Oddly, one thing the Google posts fail to mention is that you can also “convert, zip and download” one or all of your Google Docs folders, not just the individual files in them. Just select “My folders” in the left-hand tree pane, and in the right pane select the folders you want to download. Then select “More actions > Export” and have at it. If you export your Google Docs folders, you will be pleased to discover that the zip file you download preserves the same folder structure.

Other posts of possible interest...

• How the Google Docs integration with Pika works
• Google Docs file uploads: Major improvements but still lacks local synchronization
• My Google Docs screen
• Using Google Docs shares to propagate tech help

Today we felt it was time to let our more ambitious users know how to do a bulk export of their Google Docs to their desktop or other location of choice. So we used Google Docs to create instructions on how to bulk export your Google Docs, with links to the applicable Firefox add-ons and a few basic screen captures to illustrate particular steps. The version of the document linked in this post is shared as a public web page, for illustrative purposes here, but internally what we actually do is simply make the document viewable by all within our domain, and then add a link to it to our endlessly exciting “Team Gizmo Updates” announcement page in Google Sites, plus link it to a special “Google Tools” page, also part of our Google Sites content.

All within our domain can now search for and/or navigate to the solution at our Google Sites. Fewer tech calls on this question. Everyone is happier.

Other posts of possible interest...

• Google Apps Redux
• How the Google Docs integration with Pika works
• My Google Docs screen
• Google Sites: A few features flying below your radar

As a modest coda, without any accompanying audio but perhaps of interest as an example how easily one can create a presentation using Google Docs and then publish it to the Web, here are the slides I used during the presentation: Google Apps = Google Sites = Intranet. The slide presentation was created entirely within Google Docs. You should see options at the bottom of the viewport for viewing particular slides, and others options for printing the presentation as a PDF or a PPT, the latter being usable in PowerPoint if that is your druthers. Another useful action is the option to create a copy to Google Docs of the slide presentation, a feature that works in both your domain’s Google Apps or your personal Google account.

What are other ways might one use Google Apps? Among current examples I can think of within our organization, staff use Google Apps to do the following:

• The forms feature in Google Docs is used by the executive office to track compliance by local offices when conducting California State Bar approved MCLE events.
• Very commonly, individual staff use folders in Google Docs to maintain personal document collections on non-case projects, including originals created or shared within LSNC in Google Docs, as well as imported Word and PDF files from those outside LSNC.
• Google Docs and Google Sites were used in combination by one office to create individual “workplan” spreadsheets which were then embedded in a Google Site used as the office’s work plan site. As staff updated their individual workplans, changes were displayed in real time at the shared Google Site.
• Tech staff archive and share among themselves select pieces of reusable code for specific projects, e.g., the custom CSS code used for LSNC’s Secured Private Network site, Google Search Appliance configuration sets and parameters being used for The Findability Project, jQuery and other JavaScript code blocks being used for various LSNC web projects, and so on.
• Vetting of proposed policies and protocols by doing Google Docs shares rather than using email attachment loops.
• While LSNC still relies on the superb Basecamp platform for management of large-scale litigation and advocacy projects, advocates are being encouraged and have begun to create individual project management sites using Google Sites, even for projects with outside participants. For example, LSNC’s Race Equity Project has assembled an editorial team using Google Sites to co-ordinate the drafting of an upcoming Clearinghouse Review article on “framing” issues. The site is also used to archive notes and documents for the meetings and presentations that have been conducted as part of that drafting process.
• Twenty five LSNC staffers, with representatives from all offices, formed their own “LSNC Greening Project.” How do they communicate and share information? They use Google Sites as their home base, in combo with Google Docs to share documents and a private Google Discussion Group to thrash things out. (They could simplify things by using the announcement page feature in Google Sites to conduct discussions, but that’s their call.)
• Office managers use the forms feature in Google Docs to report changes to IT staff about required changes for personnel listings, Gmail changes, and additions and removals from discussion groups.
• A pro bono component in one office has created an internal Google Site with multiple list pages for tracking case vignettes, available attorneys, cases assignments, contact information, dates assigned and completed, and so on. Everyone in the office working in support of pro bono cases has access to the site.

Just a few ideas among many in current use at LSNC. If you move to Google Apps, you’ll pretty quickly discover even more uses.

Other posts of possible interest...

• Using Google Docs shares to propagate tech help
• How the Google Docs integration with Pika works
• My Google Docs screen
• Google Sites: A few features flying below your radar