Need a shared drive that integrates with Apple & Office applications

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Need a shared drive that integrates with Apple & Office applications

Hi there,

I am in need of a common drive that will enable me to share and edit files from office and iwork applications. I know I can collaborate my iwork files on the Icloud, and I can share my Excel files through Share, but there is not one place where I can house all of my shared files together. The answer would be Google drive if I were not restricted to only using Google sheets/docs. Is there anything out there that works like Google Drive for organizing my shared files, no matter the application? I have used Box and Drobox in the past, but not as user friendly (or free) like Google Drive.

MacBook Air (2018 or later)

Posted on Dec 30, 2018 1:24 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 31, 2018 12:48 PM in response to deannainn

Not true. You can put for example a Word document on GoogleDrive and anyone you give access to can work on that document using Microsoft Word and have it save to their GoogDrive directory which syncs it to GoogleDrive and everyone else to whom you gave access.

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Answer 2

Dec 31, 2018 1:11 PM in response to deannainn

Well we work daily on collaborative documents and have never run into the issues you are discribing. We use multiple online cloud synchronization services to work on Office documents. Of course you can't work on them at the same time using a web interface such as that provided by GoogleDrive but GoogleDrive can also sync any document rather than just GoogleDocs. As each user works on a document it is synced to the cloud so other users immediately see the canges as they are saved.

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Answer 3

deannainn Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 31, 2018 12:57 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

The problem is that they cannot edit it within Google drive - so if we want to be looking at the same word document or excel sheet (excel we use more) - we cannot review together via telephone and make changes and be able to see those changes in real time. You can do that with the Icloud. But again, with Icloud we can only share iwork files not office files. Also with Google drive- when we share an iwork application (such as numbers) you cannot even open it in Google drive to view it. Perhaps we are trying the impossible and may just need to switch our files over to Google files. This just causes some issues for certain files that we are restricted to certain appications for sharing with other external business partners. Hence my challenge.

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Answer 4

deannainn Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 31, 2018 12:30 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Hi Bob and thanks for the note. While Google drive allows you to share most files of any type- it does not allow you to edit them unless you open them in a google application -sheets, documents, etc. that is the main problem I am having as my business partner and I share files of both apple applications and windows applications.

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Answer 5

Dec 30, 2018 2:53 PM in response to deannainn

You are not restricted to any file type on GoogleDrive, DropBox, iCloud, or any other cloud file sharing service as far as I know.

Just allow specific others access to the files on the cloud and you can synchronize changes as you work.

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Need a shared drive that integrates with Apple & Office applications

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