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Wrace's avatar
Wrace
Explorer
Mar 24, 2015

Sharing a word or excel file from drop box or google docs?

I have a word document that I want to make available to my wife to use as well. This is a dynamic working document that we both will access at various times to add/delete items from the document.

We both have office 2010 on our local computers and our tablets as well if I remember correctly. I would like to be able to open word and retrieve the internet stored file/document from within word, just like I can do from the local drive.

What I'd like to avoid is having to access the cloud drive with some sort of file manager and copy the file from that drive to my local drive before I can open it with word. I'd like to avoid having multiple copies of whatever version stored all over the place. I'm just trying to minimize the amount of file manipulation just to get it open in Word. Ideally I'd like to be able to open the cloud stored file directly from within word.

I do have a drop box account but the interface seems a little clunky.

We both have gmail accounts and I wonder if google docs would be more user friendly than drop box?

Hope some of that made sense.

Thanks

8 Replies

  • And I didn't point out, if it is your wife you are sharing with and you are using the same Dropbox account, all files are always shared and you don't have to use the "sharing" option to make it shared. Maybe that part of Dropbox is what you consider clunky.
  • I use both Google Drive and Dropbox. Dropbox is simpler as on a PC with Dropbox installed and running you just start it and anything that you save to the folder on your PC designated Dropbox will go to the cloud and be there to retrieve on another computer with the Dropbox software installed and running signed into that account or with a Dropbox app on a phone or tablet. Dropbox is better for opening with your own software like Word. You also have the ability to just sign into the Dropbox website and see your files.

    Google Drive has evolved into a pain. Google Drive now wants to open everything in its own cloud-based MS compatible software.

    Both are free - try both and see which works best for you.
  • I use both Dropbox and Google Drive for sharing documents. I prefer Dropbox for documents like a Word document although I never use Word and prefer Google Docs for "Word" type documents.

    There is nothing clunky about the Dropbox interface. You can put the Dropbox folder anywhere and access it like any other folder on your hard drive. I put mine on the C: drive root directory and it is easy to find. If you don't know how to do this, send me a PM. It's the perfect solution for what you want to do.
  • RoadAbode wrote:
    Google Docs will do this for you and if you want - will auto sync the doc from your computer - to the cloud - to your wife's.
    Or if you work on the doc online in Google Drive together - you can watch each other make changes live.
    Install Google Drive on Mac or PC
    How to Share a file


    Agree - Yes, this is the way, you have to convert the file to native Google format.

    If you just share and sync it with Drive, you'll end up with a conflict sooner or later (both of you made changes before a sync). Then you'll end up with Document.docx and Document (1).docx

    However, if you work on the document inside Google, as a native Google document, there will be no conflicts.

    I believe you can work on Google documents now offline, that is, without an Internet connection.

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