Google’s Gmail and Online Documents Saved Me From Disaster
June 16th, 2007
About 6 months ago I switched from using Outlook to using Gmail. I also moved many of the files that I use for maintaining this blog to Gmail documents which allows one to keep online versions of spreadsheets and Word like documents. In particular I keep the Real Estate Photographer Directory as a online Google spreadsheet. This allows me to update the directory much faster. I also keep several of the articles (the articles under the “Basics” title at the right side of the blog) that I’ve written with Word on google documents. I’ve been very pleased with how the online documents and Gmail work. Google keeps history so you can drop back to previous versions.
Yesterday when the hard disk on my old laptop died while traveling I was particularly pleased with how I was able to keep going with updates to the RE Photographer directory and keep communicating smoothly without a glitch despite the fact that my laptop is inoperable. I’m currently using a browser on my wife’s laptop or I could do the same with any machine anywhere that has Internet access. Of coarse I have to live without Lightroom and Photoshop until I get back home and keep all my photos on memory cards. Fortunately or unfortunately, I’m working on a rental house so I’m not doing much shooting so photo storage is not a problem.
I’m really glad I moved to Gmail!
8 Responses to “Google’s Gmail and Online Documents Saved Me From Disaster”
Gary Weinheimer June 17th, 2007 at 10:37 am #
I use idisk for similar reasons. these kind of things are good when you have a group of files that you can’t live without…
Peace, and rock on.
Susanne Hayek June 17th, 2007 at 1:55 pm #
Can you import your address book?
Michael Martin June 17th, 2007 at 7:20 pm #
I don’t know why this isn’t more advertised. One cool feature is that I can save any upload doc or spreadsheet file as a pdf. Its nice to have a converter to pdf at no charge.
Mike
Gary Weinheimer June 17th, 2007 at 7:42 pm #
I save my address book to it. I also use a Palm Treo to which I back up my address book.
Adam Maurer June 18th, 2007 at 4:06 am #
Three golden rules when it comes to computers and your data;
1) Backup
2) Backup
3) Backup!
I find it quick and easy to periodically copy everything to the second harddrive in case my c: crashes.
Cherie Irwin June 18th, 2007 at 1:35 pm #
I think there’s a rap song that says something like that…Back, back, back it up! But somehow I don’t think they are referring to the same thing. However, I use that line all the time when I host a training class for new real estate agents.
larrylohrman June 19th, 2007 at 9:33 am #
Susanne,
Yes, you can import your address book into Gmail.
Luckily I’d backed up all the important files from my laptop to my desktop and to an external drive. There’s nothing like a hard disk going bad to give new focus on having good backup.
Michael Martin June 21st, 2007 at 3:13 pm #
Thanks to Adam’s comment above, I finally purchased an external hard drive to back up my files. I purchased a WD Passport portable hard drive (160GB) at Costco. I love it. This thing fits in my shirt pocket. It doesn’t need any power source other than a USB connector. It worked the first time and at great speed. Now maybe I can sleep better knowing my data is pretty safe.
PS. This product is listed in the current Costco member passport coupon book. It will be $20 off between July 30 - Aug 5. I think I’ll get another for my wife’s computer.