Amit Agarwal has a nice blog post explaining how to download all your documents from Google Docs as a zip. If you want to have a back up of your Google Docs online, you can do so using Zoho Docs. Zoho Docs allows uploading of zip files and you can upload the zip file downloaded from Google to Zoho Docs. The slide show below shows the steps involved in backing up your Google Docs in Zoho Docs.

Recently we announced the integration between Google Apps and Zoho Projects. That integration allows you to attach a Google Docs file to the Documents module of Zoho Projects. We are coming up with more such exciting integrations soon. Stay tuned.

Related Posts

• Backup your Gmail in Zoho Mail
• Announcing Zoho Projects for Google Apps
  

The latest update to Zoho Docs brings in a good many business-centric features. Let's see them in detail.

Groups Dashboard
When you login to Zoho Docs, you'll see 3 tabs - Desktop, Groups, Tags (with Desktop being open by default). Clicking on the Groups tab will get you a page where you can add Personal Groups & Organization Groups. For creating a group, you just need to give the email addresses of those you would like to be part of that group. You can originate a group chat, send a group mail & see the group's member details from the Groups dashboard. You can also view the files belonging to each group.


Note that only business users can see their organization groups and the administrator has the permission to create such groups. Non-business (Personal) users won't be seeing the organization groups.

Business Pricing Plan
We have introduced a new pricing plan for businesses. Plans starts as low as $9 per month for 15 GB disk space and 3 users.


Admin Console
As you can see from the pricing page above, the Administrator buying a business account gets an Admin Console from where the organization's Zoho Docs account can be configured / controlled. Features of this admin console include,

• Uploading a customized logo
• Registering for a new domain or configuring your present domain
• Adding the organization's users. This includes LDAP support & importing a bulk user list from a comma separated file
• Defining user role policies (whether a user can export/publish documents, create personal/org groups etc)
• Defining trusted IPs (IPs from where the organization's members can access the account)
  

A slideshow done in Zoho Show about this update below.

Test the new features in Zoho Docs & do let us know the features you would like to have.

In one of my previous posts, I talked about integration between different Zoho Apps expanding on the following integrations.

• Sheet integration with CRM
• Writer & Sheet integration in Zoho Projects
• Meeting & Chat integration in Zoho Show
• Creator Integration in People
• Projects integration in Invoice
• Writer, Sheet & Show integration in Notebook
• Writer, Sheet & Show integration into Wiki
• Chat integration in Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook, Meeting etc

Here in this post, let us look at some of the integrations we have added since then. Here we go...

Writer, Sheet & Show integration in Zoho Docs

When we introduced Zoho Docs, we not only aggregated all your documents from Zoho Writer, Sheet & Show, we also added the ability to open these documents right within Zoho Docs. With Writer, Sheet & Show integration in Zoho Docs, we let you open documents as a tab in view-only mode within the Zoho Docs application. You always have an option to 'Edit' these files which launches the appropriate Zoho application in a new window.



Zoho Mail Integration in Docs and Vice Versa

In Zoho Mail, we added an option to attach documents directly from Zoho Docs. This is a simpler way to send documents created in Zoho. Similarly, if you are in Zoho Docs, we integrated Zoho Mail to email your documents. Additional information about this integration is available here.




Zoho Chat Integration with Mail, Docs, People & Business

When I previously talked about Zoho Chat integration, we had Zoho Chat integrated with Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook & Meeting. We now extended this integration to Mail, Docs, People & Business. This means you'll see the consistent chat bar at the bottom across all Zoho Apps allowing you to chat with members in your buddy list. With Zoho Chat supporting multiple IM Networks, you can now seamless chat with your buddies from other IM Networks no matter which Zoho Application you are in.



Zoho Meeting Integration in Zoho Chat

I previously talked about Zoho Chat integration with Zoho Meeting. This time, the integration is the other way around. We integrated Zoho Meeting in Chat. This means, while chatting with other users in Zoho Chat, if you have a need to share your desktop with other users, you can do so with a single click. As Zoho Chat is integrated with multiple IM Networks (Yahoo, Google, MSN, AIM, ICQ & Jabber), you can share your desktop with users from any  IM networks.




Zoho Meeting Integration in Zoho CRM

Zoho Meeting is contextually integrated into Zoho CRM. When you search for a contact in Zoho CRM, you'll see an option on the right to start a quick one-on-one meeting with that user with just a click. As Zoho Meeting is free for one-on-one meetings, you need not be a paid Zoho Meeting user to try this functionality.



These are some of the new integrations between Zoho Apps. We have few others which I'll expand in a future post. We also have some interesting integrations coming. Stay tuned.

If you are a regular Zoho Mail user, you probably noticed frequent improvements to the app. Our Mail team keeps pushing some goodies which we don't talk regularly in this blog, but the latest update very much needs mention as it adds some great features.

Drag and Drop your Emails

You can now drag and drop your emails in Zoho Mail. As you know, we support both folders and labels in Zoho Mail. No matter what you use, you'll now be able to effortlessly organize your emails.

To move your emails to a folder (or sub-folder), just drag your email to the folders on the left. When you drag and email, a green background color indicates that you can successfully move the email to the folder. A Red background color indicates that the email cannot be moved to the folder. This drag-n-drop functionality is similar to what we offer in Zoho Docs.





While this functionality works for Folders, the way Labels behaves is different as you can assign multiple labels to an email. To do that, you need to drag and drop your email to the label. If you need multiple labels assigned to your email, just drag and drop your email on top of t the labels.

To drag and drop multiple emails, just select the emails and move them across to either folders or labels.

Open Attachments in a Tab

Zoho Mail had the option to open your email attachments with respective Zoho applications - Writer, Sheet and Show. Previously, the attachments were opened in a new browser tab. With this update, we open email attachments as a tab within Zoho Mail. This way you can switch between your emails and attachments without leaving the application.





We previously used tabs to open documents in Zoho Docs. Now, you'll notice this consistent behavior while opening attachments in Zoho Mail.

Compose Window Enhancements

There were several improvements in the Compose window. When you compose a mail now, you'll notice that it opens in a new tab within Mail (similar to attachments). An option is available to pop it out in a new window.






You'll also notice few changes in the Compose WYSIWYG editor with fine-tuned buttons. We also added new options to insert tables, inline images and smileys.

Chrome Support

Zoho Mail now supports Google Chrome browser. With this update, we now officially support Firefox, IE and Chrome. We do have plans to support Safari moving forward.

Other Changes...

Apart from many minor bug fixes, this version of Zoho Mail gets other enhancements like the 'Edit as New' option in Mail view. We'll leave it to you to explore other features.

As always, we are looking forward to your feedback.

Zoho Gadgets launches today with the aim to connect Zoho applications with external applications. Zoho Gadgets, available at http://gadgets.zoho.com, can be integrated/embedded with online applications like iGoogle, Facebook, Orkut, Gmail & more. To start with, we are offering six Zoho gadgets.

• Zoho Docs (Including Writer, Sheet & Show)
• Zoho Mail
• Zoho Calendar
• Zoho Tasks
• Zoho Contacts and
  
• Zoho Planner
  

All the gadgets are OpenSocial compatible - this means you can now use these gadgets in any OpenSocial compatible social network. We plan to provide gadgets for other Zoho Applications moving forward.

These gadgets can be embedded individually in any websites or can be added to iGoogle or any personal dashboard.

Gadgets for iGoogle
You can now add all Zoho Gadgets to your start page. To add Zoho Gadgets to iGoogle, just click on the iGoogle link in Gadgets page and add these gadgets for them to appear in your iGoogle page.

These gadgets support oAuth when plugged into iGoogle or Gmail. This means, Zoho Gadgets can be accessed without entering Zoho Credentials inside iGoogle/Gmail. Also, as you know, we do let you login to Zoho with your Google credentials. This means, we automatically show your Zoho contents if you use this option to login to Zoho.

Gadgets for Facebook & Orkut
Gadgets can be added to Facebook by clicking on the Facebook icon in the Gadgets page and bookmarking the gadget. Your gadgets will be visible from the Applications bar at the bottom in Facebook.


As you may know, we have Zoho App for Facebook as well.

Similar to Facebook, these gadgets can also be added to Orkut. Clicking on the Orkut link in Gadgets page will redirect you to Orkut page where you have an option to add the application to your profile.


Gadgets in Gmail
We have many users using Gmail for email and Zoho for Documents. If you are one of those users, you can now view your Zoho Documents within Gmail. To do this, you'll have to enable the Labs feature in Gmail. To do this, go to Settings > Labs Tab > Enable 'Add any gadget by URL' and save the changes.

Now, go to Settings > Gadgets tab and paste the XML URL of the gadget and click 'Add'. This XML URL is available under OpenSocial option in the Gadgets page.




For now, you'll be able to add Zoho Docs, Calendar and Tasks gadgets to Gmail. If you are using Gmail, we figured you won't need Zoho Mail & Zoho Contacts inside Gmail :)



Gadgets for OpenSocial Apps
Zoho Gadgets can be added to any application that is OpenSocial compatible. The OpenSocial option in our Gadgets page provides the link to the XML file needed to integrate the gadget.



Generic Embed
All these gadgets can be embedded anywhere with our standard embed option. Just copy and paste the code in your blog or website for the gadget to be embedded. Of course, this also means you can embed these gadgets in other Zoho Applications like Zoho Notebook, Wiki, Writer, Show etc which support standard HTML embeds.



This is just the beginning for Zoho Gadgets. We have more gadgets to come for our other applications. We also have plans to make these gadgets available in other social networks like Ning moving forward. These gadgets will also make their way to the Desktop component in Zoho Business.

Please do try out these gadgets in social networks and let us know your feedback.

Zoho Docs, Writer, Sheet & Show will undergo a scheduled maintenance on Friday, April 3, 2009 from 10:00:00 PM PST to 12:00:00 AM PST. During this period, access to the said Zoho services will not be available. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause.

We mentioned earlier that 2009 will be year of integration between Zoho Applications. We recently rolled out updates to Zoho Docs and Zoho Mail Applications integrating the two.


Zoho Docs integration into Zoho Mail

Next time you compose an email in Zoho Mail, you'll notice a new option 'Attach from Docs' in the compose window. This new feature lets you attach documents from Zoho Docs. The Zoho Docs dialog provides different options to choose the documents you want to attach - from your folder structure, Recent Documents or by file type.




Zoho Mail Integration to Zoho Docs

Zoho Docs integration into Zoho Mail is useful when you are in Zoho Mail and want to attach a document. But what if you are in Zoho Docs and want to email a document? You shouldn't have to go to email application to attach a document, right? For this reason, we integrated Zoho Mail in Zoho Docs as well.

If you want to email a document from Zoho Docs, just click the Email icon beside the document name and it'll launch the compose window from Zoho Mail with the document automatically attached. As the compose window is coming from Zoho Mail, all the features are available inside Docs, including the address book.

If you want to email multiple files, select multiple files in Zoho Docs, right click and choose the 'Send Mail' option.





Apart from this, as you may know, you can open attachments in Zoho Mail with Zoho Writer/Sheet/Show.

Contextual integration is the theme we are focusing on as we integrate our applications. I'll expand more on this in a separate post. We hope you'll find this integration useful. Please do let us know your feedback.

 
If you are a Yahoo Briefcase user, you probably are familiar with the service being shut down from March 30th. If you have any files in Yahoo Briefcase, it is easy to move them to Zoho Docs in two simple steps.

Yahoo Briefcase has a good option to download multiple files in a single shot. You can select all the files (not folders) and choose the 'Download' option to download all your files. All the selected file are downloaded as a single Zip file. If you have files in folders, you'll have to download these separately.





Zoho Docs has a great feature to upload Zip files and Unzip them after the upload. You can go to http://docs.zoho.com and upload the Zip file(s) you downloaded from Yahoo Briefcase. Once uploaded, you can right click on the Zip file and choose the 'Unzip' option to unzip all the documents. You'll find all your documents imported in Zoho Docs.





If you have folders in Yahoo Briefcase, you'll have to download the contents of each folder separately as a zip file and upload them to Zoho Docs in a single shot.

Once you have your documents in Zoho Docs, its a smooth ride from there. You can move the files into folders by simply dragging and dropping them in the folders. You can view and edit the documents by just clicking on them. If you want to download all your documents from Zoho in a single shot, select all files in Zoho Docs and choose the 'Zip' option to download the selected files as a single Zip file.

I hope this little tip is useful. If you are a Yahoo Briefcase user and are trying Zoho Docs for the first time, you should see a refreshing change.