on Oct 26, 2009

With the massive increase in cloud computing, a lot of us have started to use Google’s online document service on a regular basis. Personally, I use it as my primary location for word-processing, and I really appreciate the sharing abilities, the comfortable interface, and the auto-saving features. The only characteristic that held me back from using Google was that if Google lost my information, then I would be left with nothing. So, every week, I would find myself boringly trying to back up the files I primarily use through the export feature. However, doing that one by one becomes quite boring and I never could seem to get to it on a regular basis.

So, I must say that I was a little surprised when I went to my familiar window and discovered that Google Documents is now able to export in bulk! This allows for me to finally back everything up on a regular basis and get to using my cloud information without a nagging worry.

There are a large amount of options available in the export process. You can choose to export one, a few, or even all documents into either Open-office, Microsoft Office, or PDF formats. Google will then compress your files into a ZIP file for an easy download. If you have a long time to wait for all your documents to be converted, then Google offers you the option to email you with a link when they are ready for download. Very nice features, and very attuned to what the standard user is looking for.

The process is very simple, and here are some simple steps that I made while doing my first batch export.

1. When you are in the “All items” window of your Google Docs; you can place a check-mark next to the documents you wish to export. If you want to select all your documents, then look for a check-mark in the upper left corner of the document pane. Clicking on it offers you the option to “Select all Visible”

2. After selecting all your files (or only some of them), right-click and choose “export”. A dialog lets you choose the download format for each kind of file: Microsoft Office formats, Open-office formats, PDF or some other formats.

3. Google starts to compress your files and create an archive. If you have a lot of documents, Google can send you an email when the files are zipped.

It is really that easy to keep a full backup of all your Google-doc files. By doing this once a week, you can save yourself from a headache from a Google data outage or even an accidental deletion.