Easily Sync Your Local Documents With Google Docs Using Super Flexible File Synchronizer

Super Flexible File Synchronizer is a cloud backup and synchronization tool that supports FTP, SSH, WebDAV, Amazon S3, and Google Docs. The application is cross-platform, but only the Linux version is free (though it's proprietary).

Super Flexible File Synchronizer uses ZIP compression and data encryption and comes with multiple synchronization modes, like Standard Copying, Exact Mirror, and SmartTracking.

Probably the most interesting thing about Super Flexible File Synchronizer is the Google Docs support which you can use to easily synchronize your documents from / to your computer, so any changes you make on Google Docs an be synced with your computer as well as the other way around. The application also supports synchronizing files between two Google Docs accounts, or between any of the supported services / protocols.

You can even can specify which file types to convert when uploading / downloading, by going to Profile Settings > Internet (for the Google Docs side) > Google Docs tab. But of course, the files you sync don't have to be documents and you can sync any file types.

The application also features a scheduler, but unfortunately, it's not yet working for the Linux version so for now, you must manually start the synchronization. And there's another feature that doesn't work properly under Linux: file versioning (at least, that was the case in my test). Without these, the application is basically just a simple sync tool, at least for Google Docs which was the only supported service / protocol I've tried, but it's still quite useful if you use Google Docs daily and need to sync files between your computer and Google's cloud documents service.

Using Super Flexible File Synchronizer

To get started with Super Flexible File Synchronizer, click the "+" icon to create a new profile, enter a name for your new profile and select the folders you want to synchronize by clicking "Browse" or, to select an online service like Google Docs, select "Internet" - do this both on the left and on the right. Then, simply select the protocol you want to use from the Protocol drop-down: FTP, SSH, WebDAV, Amazon S3 or Google Docs:

If you want to use a two-way sync, check the "Copy Right To Left" box too, because only the "Copy Left To Right" is checked by default. Also, make sure you select "SmartTracking" under "Sync Operation Mode.

When ready, click ok and that's about it. If you want to modify the profile, you can do so at any time by selecting it and clicking "Edit".

When you want to sync your newly created profile, simply select it and press the run button from the toolbar (also available via right click on the profile), and the file sync should start.


Download Super Flexible File Synchronizer for Linux (To run it on 32bit, extract the archive and run "SuperFlexibleSynchronizer". For 64bit, you'll find instructions on its Linux download page)

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ReText Gets Improved Google Docs Export, More

ReText is a text editor for MarkDown syntax that supports some popular formats such as PDF, ODT, HTML and plain text. It has tabs support, live previews, web pages generator, HTML syntax highlighting, KDE integration and more.

ReText keeps improving and since our last ReText post, it got many cool new features. For instance, ReText could export to Google Docs but only for new documents so you couldn't replace/update any existing documents. But the latest ReText got support for GData 3 API, meaning you can update the files you've previously exported to Google Docs.

However, you can't import files from Google Docs so the files need to be saved locally if you want to update them.

ReText now also supports reST (reStructuredText), with a GUI option to switch between Markdown and reST as well as a full-screen mode for distraction free writing.

Other new features:

• spell checker
• auto save
• global CSS file support
• text search
• splitter between edit and preview boxes
• support for opening several files via command-line
• WebKit-based engine

Also, the next ReText version will include features like table editing mode and synchronized scrolling thanks to a new developer who has joined the ReText development team this summer.

Install ReText

Arch Linux users will find ReText in AUR.

To install ReText in Ubuntu (PPA available for Oneiric, Natty, Maverick and Lucid), use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mitya57
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install retext

If you use the Gedit Gmate PPA, you may get an error similar to this:

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/retext_2.1.0-1~ppa1_all.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/share/mime/packages/x-markdown.xml', which is also in package gedit-gmate 0.9.20~uorppa0

As a work-around, you can use the following command:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/retext_2.1.0-1~ppa1_all.deb

This should be fixed soon.


For other Linux distributions, download ReText via SourceForge.

Thanks to Dmitry for the tip!

Also see: LibreOffice Google Docs Sync Addon "Ooo2gd" Now Lets You Upload Files Without Converting

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Unity Google Docs Lens For Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

Unity developer Neil J. Patel has created a cool Google Docs Unity lens for his Ubuntu App Developer Week session. And even though this was just to show how to develop Unity lenses, Gdocs Unity Lens is functional and Neil will develop it further.

The Gdocs Unity Lens can be used to search in all your Google Docs files, open them in a browser and sort your documents by various criteria such as file type or ownership.

Unfortunately, Google Docs Unity Lens doesn't yet support a secure way of soring your password so for now the password must be stored in  plain text. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

Install Unity Google Docs Lens In Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

To make it easier to install, I've uploaded Google Docs Unity Lens to the WebUpd8 PPA so Ubuntu 11.10 users can install it using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-gdocs

Alternatively, you can download the .deb from HERE.

Once installed, you must enter your password in the "unity-gdocs-lens.py" so open it using the following command in a terminal:

gksu gedit /usr/bin/unity-lens-gdocs.py

And in this file, replace GDOC_USERNAME with your Google username and GDOC_PASSWORD with your Google password (you should find them on lines 124 and 125).

Now, run Unity Gdocs Lens using the following commands:

unity-lens-gdocs.py
setsid unity

The newly installed Unity Gdocs Lens is automatically added to your startup applications list so you're done!

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LibreOffice Google Docs Sync Addon "Ooo2gd" Now Lets You Upload Files Without Converting

A while back we wrote about an OpenOffice addon called "Ooo2gd" which lets you synchronize your documents with Google Docs, Zoho and WebDav servers (either manually - when you're done editing the file, or automatic sync; you can also import files that are already available on the server).

Well, you'll be glad to know that Ooo2gd works with LibreOffice too. Also, the latest Ooo2gd version (3.0.0), released earlier this month comes an option to upload to Google Docs without converting the files (so you can keep the original file format).

Note: Because Google Docs (and its API) is still in beta, sometimes you may not be able to log in to your account. Usually, this happens with Google Apps accounts and it doesn't seep to happen with regular Google accounts but still, if you're getting a login error, most probably this is the case.

Install LibreOffice / OpenOffice.org Google Docs sync addon "Ooo2gd"

Before proceeding, please note that I've tested the instructions below with LibreOffice from the Ubuntu repositories / the LibreOffice PPA so the instructions may not work if you've manually installed the LibreOffice .deb files downloaded from the LibreOffice website!

To use Ooo2gd with LibreOffice or OpenOffice.org in Ubuntu, follow the steps below:

1. You need to install Sun Java from your Linux distributions repositories.

In Ubuntu, enable the partner repository and then search for "sun java6" in Ubuntu Software Center or Synaptic or use the command below to install it:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

2. For LibreOffice, install "libreoffice-java-common":

sudo apt-get install libreoffice-java-common

For OpenOffice.org, run the command below:

sudo apt-get install openoffice.org-java-common

3. Close LibreOffice / OpenOffice, download the latest ooo2gd in your home folder (~/) and run the following command in a terminal:

unopkg add ~/ooo2gd_3.0.0.oxt

Once installed, open Libreoffice Calc, Writer, etc. and you should see a new floating toolbar which you can use to upload your documents to Google Docs, Zoho or a WebDav server.

I recommend using your full email address as the username for Google Docs because in my tests, using the username only sometimes fails.

Now use the new toolbar (which you can drag to your main toolbar) to sync files with Google Docs or Zoho - once you click the "upload" button, a dialog will pop-up and you'll have to enter your username and password. There are also some options available here, like keeping the files in sync (automatically), convert to Google Docs format, etc.

If you're not seeing the floating toolbar or you've encountered some other issue when installing Ooo2gd, check out the known issues page.

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