Google Docs on Blackberry

**mzman** · 05-20-2012, 04:26 PM

I figure there's a fair number of Google Docs users here. I have searched am a bit amazed there's no discussion on this....

Google Docs allows you to upload any file type to the service. Through the mobile site, I can view these on my Blackberry. However, I can't figure out how to upload a file to Google Docs from my Blackberry! The mobile site doesn't seem to have that option. Google used to allow uploads via email, but it seems they discontinued that option.

There is an app called GDocs which seems to allow it. It's pretty new though, and I hesitate to provide my Google credentials to an app with no reviews or discussion here on Crackberry. Is the author and company reputable? Has anyone used it for a while?

Does anyone have any other ideas on how to get files from the Blackberry to Google Docs?

**kbz1960** · 05-20-2012, 05:03 PM

GDocs has 334 reviews on appworld.

GDocs Premium Edition - Create edit upload and share your Google docs - BlackBerry App World

**mzman** · 05-20-2012, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by kbz1960

GDocs has 334 reviews on appworld.

GDocs Premium Edition - Create edit upload and share your Google docs - BlackBerry App World

I'm a bit suspicious, since they are all 4 or 5 star, with very little comment. Just "great app" and such. I'm concerned about fake reviews, since I'm not used to that pattern on Appworld. Plus, no mention here on Crackberry. Regardless, I'm also looking for alternatives, since I want to keep my Google password in few hands.

**kbz1960** · 05-20-2012, 05:12 PM

Understand. I did not read many since it is something I don't use. Perhaps email the developer and ask? Hopefully someone that has dealings with the developer will chime in.

**mzman** · 05-21-2012, 09:00 AM

I hope someone will chime in too. With so many reviews on App World, it would be very concerning if no one did!

**ubizmo** · 05-21-2012, 09:46 AM

From the looks of the reviews, the app has only been there since May 12. I have to agree that it looks a bit odd for an app to get 357 reviews in just over a week, with almost all of them consisting of just a few words of praise and five stars.

**ubizmo** · 06-14-2012, 07:55 AM

Okay, I decided to take one for the team and buy this app. I bought the Premium Edition, for $6. I do use Google Docs quite a bit, so I thought it would be worth it.

First, I think I can explain the profusion of brief, uninformative positive reviews on App World. This app prompts you to review it the very first time you use it. I suspect that a fair number of people do so and, having nothing much to say because they've only had the app for five minutes, just say "cool" and that's it.

This app is basically a BB-based front end for Google Docs. As such, it works very well. If you want to create a new document or other file, you are prompted for the file type and given an edit screen. This screen, unfortunately, doesn't activate BB auto-text or smart capitalization. I consider this a bug, but a minor one. I already contacted the developer about it, who intends to fix it in a future release. It's a minor bug because, once you save this document, it's the last time you see this "raw" edit screen. Subsequent edits to existing documents invoke WordToGo. So obviously you have to have WTG on your device to use GDocs.

The app lets you view existing Google Docs and edit them, after which you can choose "update" to have the web version updated to include your edits. I tested this by creating a doc on the BB, editing it on the web and saving, then opening it again on the device and doing some new edits. I kept the web version open the whole time. When I saved the BB version, nothing happened to the web version, but when I updated the device version the changes were pushed to the web version and appeared in the document while it was still open.

So it works well, but there is one possible problem. If you open a document on the BB that you've subsequently edited on the web, you don't get that latest version; you get the one stored on the device, which isn't the latest. There is a danger that you could "update" the device version, i.e., sync it to the web, and lose those latest edits. I think that when opening any file in the app, it should check to see if there's a more recent version on the web and ask if you want to update the device version. Of course this won't be possible if you're offline, but in that case there should just be a warning, e.g., "There may be a more recent version on the web." Or something like that.

It's a new app and we can hope for improvements from the developer. It's very good to see a new productivity app for BBOS 7.