GWoffice: integrating Google Docs in Ubuntu

If you are a regular user of the office suitea in the cloud of Google and you are still waiting for the Google Drive client native for Linux, you should probably keep an eye on the progress of this project, which promise to transform Google Docs in an application that is capable of running directly on the desktop, integrating with Ubuntu wonderfully well. 


The integration of GWoffice with the operating system has several interesting details. On the one hand, it makes use of the global Unity menu bar, which also allows the application to be controlled via HUD in Ubuntu 12.04. It also includes quicklists in the icon that we can incorporate into the Unity sidebar. Something like this has been crying out for OpenOffice / LibreOffice users for a long time.

On the other hand, GWoffice allows you to synchronize the documents with a folder on your PC: it downloads a copy of all the documents in the format we choose (by default PDF) to the gwoffice folder that it will create on our home page. For now, this synchronization is not bi-directional: if we make changes to those files locally, as soon as we open the application again those changes will disappear in favor of those from the cloud.

Installation

On Ubuntu 12.04 / 12.10

Open a terminal and run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: tombeckmann / ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gwoffice

This software is only two weeks old, so it may be unstable. If you prefer to wait for a more stable version, within a week GWoffice and all other participating Ubuntu App Showdown applications will be added to the Software Center.


7 comments, leave yours

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  1.   Carlos Avila said

    And how goes with the compatibility with office? that's a chill

  2.   kasymaru said

    I have tried this app and it seemed like a great idea to me, it hurts that it is with google docs and not with another (libreoffice online we already need you), but what I liked the most about the app is the great interface that is very simple , intuitive and elegant, without a doubt the elementary guys (tom beckmann is an elementary developer) do know how to play with the UI.

  3.   Daniel Soster said

    although it is true you don't have to be an extremist either. It is a very good tool for group work. I spend in the faculty.

  4.   Let's use Linux said

    Haha!

  5.   clown said

    MMM…
    … I don't like the idea, I see that when saving it gives you a message saying «you. to saved a document, google left a copy with his personal data »

  6.   Jorge Luis said

    E: Some index files could not be downloaded, they were skipped, or old ones were used instead.
    jorge @ TheMatrix-L: ~ $ sudo apt-get install gwoffice
    Reading package list ... Done
    Creating dependency tree
    Reading the status information ... Done
    E: The gwoffice package could not be located

    this is the result

    1.    let's use linux said

      It happens that this article is already very old and it is likely that the PPA does not have packages for the version of Ubuntu you are using ... it should only have packages for older versions. I'm sorry! That's why the notice at the beginning of the post! Hug!