need a really easy filesharing method

[dmehling]

I'm researching a tablet to buy for my mother, and I need to find an easy file sharing system. We are working on a project together and need to share documents between my Windows PC and whichever android tablet I get her. I need the simplest solution. I have had very frustrating experiences with trying to share files between Windows computers, and I want to avoid such experiences in this next endeavor. I went prefer to keep the documents on either her tablet or my computer, rather than using cloud storage like dropbox. Any suggestions?

 

[Scott Kenyon]

In Dropbox and Drive, there are options for saving the file locally and keeping it backed up in the cloud. I don't know of any better or easier options.

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[B. Diddy]

I agree with Scott. As long a you don't need a whole ton of bells and whistles (like lots of different fonts), collaborating on a document using Google Drive is probably the easiest way. And although you can save it locally and you'd prefer not to keep it in the cloud, on the whole it's going to be easier to collaborate if the document is shared in the cloud, because what happens if you make modifications locally, and then your mother makes modifications locally on her device, and then you try to reconcile the modifications? It could get a little confusing.

 

[dmehling]

I guess those would be the easiest options. But I still don't particularly like the idea using the cloud, especially since I have frequent outages in my Internet service.

If I do end up using either one of those cloud services, what word processing apps are compatible? I would think that most would be, but I don't know for sure. I'm pretty ignorant of these things since I have not yet used a tablet or smartphone myself.

 

[Scott Kenyon]

I guess those would be the easiest options. But I still don't particularly like the idea using the cloud, especially since I have frequent outages in my Internet service.

If I do end up using either one of those cloud services, what word processing apps are compatible? I would think that most would be, but I don't know for sure. I'm pretty ignorant of these things since I have not yet used a tablet or smartphone myself.

Anything that'll run on Android. You can choose which app to open the file with by clearing the defaults.

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[Golfdriver97]

I guess those would be the easiest options. But I still don't particularly like the idea using the cloud, especially since I have frequent outages in my Internet service.

If I do end up using either one of those cloud services, what word processing apps are compatible? I would think that most would be, but I don't know for sure. I'm pretty ignorant of these things since I have not yet used a tablet or smartphone myself.

Kingsoft Office is free on Play. It can display Microsoft documents, allows editing, etc. Cloud is probably best. You may be able to email them if they are small enough.

 

[dmehling]

What is the best word processing program for the situation I have described? Ideally I would like something that works well with MS Word documents. So if my mother were to work on a document using a wp app on her tablet and save it, then I could open it in Word on my computer with no major issues (I don't plan on doing any special kind of formatting). On the other hand, is there some kind of cross-platform solution that might work better? I have no special attachment to MS Word, at least for this particular project. I would be willing to try an alternative as long as it has some of the basic formatting options.

 

[B. Diddy]

Google Drive can handle Word documents, as long as there isn't any fancy formatting. You can work on the document on Google Drive exactly as you would on a word processor, and one of the great advantages is that it is constantly saving, so that you have very little risk of losing your work. If you really need to work on the document using Word, you can always install the Google Drive program on your computer (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/drive), and any file you place in Google Drive on your computer will automatically be synced to the cloud.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Google Drive can handle Word documents, as long as there isn't any fancy formatting. You can work on the document on Google Drive exactly as you would on a word processor, and one of the great advantages is that it is constantly saving, so that you have very little risk of losing your work. If you really need to work on the document using Word, you can always install the Google Drive program on your computer (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/drive), and any file you place in Google Drive on your computer will automatically be synced to the cloud.

Cool tip. Didn't know Drive could support Word.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

 

[B. Diddy]

So what happens is that with Drive, you set it to automatically convert files to Google Drive format or not. If you don't automatically convert, then a Word document gets uploaded as a Word document (with a W icon next to it). You can view it on Drive that way, but in order to edit it, you need to open it with Google Docs, after which there will be a duplicate copy in Google Docs format. If you want to download the document again after editing it, it will give you the option of which format to download it as, including .docx (from Word).

 

[srkmagnus]

I agree with Drive and Dropbox as probably being the best option. Also, with concerns related to internet outages, files are automatically downloaded by your PC once you have uploaded the file on your tablet or phone. It's a seamless way of transferring and editing files on the go.

Let us know how things go for you .

 

[dmehling]

There is one additional aspect I just thought of. Does the android app version of dropbox behave like the Windows application? In other words, if I save a document on the tablet in the dropbox folder, is it saved to the tablet internal storage and then uploaded to the cloud? Or is it only saved to the cloud? I need to be able to see easily save to both locations.

 

[Golfdriver97]

There is one additional aspect I just thought of. Does the android app version of dropbox behave like the Windows application? In other words, if I save a document on the tablet in the dropbox folder, is it saved to the tablet internal storage and then uploaded to the cloud? Or is it only saved to the cloud? I need to be able to see easily save to both locations.

So long as the account is the same, you can download all files. Typically, its a copy that goes to drop box.

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[dmehling]

I want to make sure I understand how things would work since I have not yet been able to try out an android tablet and have very little familiarity with the OS. Does the Android OS have a file manager like the Windows explorer? And does the android version of dropbox have a folder within that file manager that I can save documents in?

 

[Golfdriver97]

I want to make sure I understand how things would work since I have not yet been able to try out an android tablet and have very little familiarity with the OS. Does the Android OS have a file manager like the Windows explorer? And does the android version of dropbox have a folder within that file manager that I can save documents in?

Android sort of has a file explorer. Can you look at files? Yes. Is it like windows? Not really. Some devices stock file browser sucks, some don't. There are free ones on Play.
Dropbox has a file system in it's own app that allows viewing files.

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