Project Management with Google Docs - Revision management, Imports and filetypes

The GroupCamp team is happy to announce that we have gone one step further for our Gmail and Google Apps users in our integration with Google Docs. As you know, up till now, GroupCamp Project has two main Google Docs integration features which are:1) the ability for users to create a Google Docs file from GroupCamp which is readily shared with all members of a Google Apps domain (for Google Apps accounts) and 2) the ability to link to an existing Google Docs Files from your online projects.

We have now worked on giving you a view of the actual revisions of your various Google Docs file in your Google/Gmail or Google Apps account. And because the magic never stops, you can also decide for a particular revision of a file, in which format you want to import the file into your project. This allows you to easily convert a Google Docs file into PDF or Microsoft Excel, Word or Powerpoint format. We have also implemented for your Google Docs documents, the ability to convert them into .odt or .ods (OpenDocument format) files.

Google Docs revision management information within your projects

In the Files application of your project, you can link to a Google Docs file if your GroupCamp account is linked to either a Gmail or Google Docs Account or if it is installed in your Google Apps domain. To link to a Gmail account, add your Google Account in the ‘My Settings’ section. If you want to install GroupCamp in your Google Apps domain, first go to the Google Apps Marketplace.

Prior to this release, you could link to an existing Google Docs file and share in your GroupCamp project the link to a file available in Google Docs (the file is stored in your Google Docs account).

Import your Google Docs files into your collaborative projects
What is new is the icon which is displayed next to every revision of your Google Docs files and which allows you to import that file within GroupCamp in a selected format (the file is then stored within your GroupCamp account):

For each of your files, by clicking on the revision icon, GroupCamp will display the list of revisions available for each file:

Now, for each revision of your Google Docs file, the date of the latest revisions is displayed together with the name of the user having made the changes. You can therefore decide which revision to import and you can choose the format in which to import the file. Google Docs will allow you to convert files into the following formats:

• for a Google Docs document import as : doc (Word), pdf, odt (OpenDocument),
• for a Google Docs spreadsheet, import as: xls (Excel), cvs, pdf et ods (OpenDocument),
• for a Google Docs presentation, import as: pdf et ppt (PowerPoint).

How to make the most of imports when collaborating in your projects

How does this change your teamwork? What is great with Google Docs is the ability to collaborate on the same file in real-time. What GroupCamp Project does is create a link to a file on which work is in progress in Google Docs and the project managers can monitor progress on a given file. This is the way our marketing, communication and consulting clients work. Bear in mind the fact that if you are collaborating with a client in your project the link to your Google Docs draft can be made private so that the users from your client organisation do not have access to it. Once the document is validated and can be imported, you can then import the final revision and share it with all users of the project.

Please note that there are two ways to access the revision management information for import, one is by clicking on the ‘link to a Google docs file’ as shown above. You can also choose the ‘New version’ link when you are on an existing Google Docs link within GroupCamp (see below). We will then immediately display the revision information for that particular file.

We hope you will enjoy this one as much as the GroupCamp team does.

More task management and time tracking features on the way
Dickel from GroupCamp