It's an interesting development to be able to do all your academic writing and referencing in a browser using web applications. I did check out Google Docs recently for writing and I was pleasantly surprised at it being a fairly decent distraction-free writing environment.

There is a subscription fee of USD2.99/mo. for non-business users.

https://paperpile.com/features

However, this really assumes that you have 100% internet access all the time, on all your devices that you want to use this with--which is a risk and a cost I'm not willing to take.

It would be nice though if there was a universal online reference management service that one could use to insert references to any web-based writing app (such as Gingko). I might sign up to something like that...

I also wondered about being so dependent on the web. I think the resolution is with the use of the Google ecosystem. Anything in Google Drive can live on your computer if you have downloaded the Google Drive software. Google Drive syncs well with its web-based version.

Daly

Dr Andus wrote:

It's an interesting development to be able to do all your academic
writing and referencing in a browser using web applications. I did check
out Google Docs recently for writing and I was pleasantly surprised at
it being a fairly decent distraction-free writing environment.

There is a subscription fee of USD2.99/mo. for non-business users.

https://paperpile.com/features

However, this really assumes that you have 100% internet access all the
time, on all your devices that you want to use this with--which is a
risk and a cost I'm not willing to take.

It would be nice though if there was a universal online reference
management service that one could use to insert references to any
web-based writing app (such as Gingko). I might sign up to something
like that...

Daly de Gagne wrote:

. Anything in Google
Drive can live on your computer if you have downloaded the Google Drive
software. Google Drive syncs well with its web-based version.

Oh, thanks, I didn't realise there is that option. Though I wonder if Paperfile itself would still work without an internet connection. If not, then your workflow would be disrupted, as you might not be able to insert your references etc. And there is the additional USD4.99/mo. + taxes if you go over the 15GB storage in Google Drive...

Daly de Gagne wrote:

I also wondered about being so dependent on the web. I think the
resolution is with the use of the Google ecosystem. Anything in Google
Drive can live on your computer if you have downloaded the Google Drive
software. Google Drive syncs well with its web-based version.

I've installed Google Drive Sync today, thinking I would be able to use my Google spreadsheets offline, and then sync them with the server later. But it doesn't seem to work the way I thought it would. I wasn't able to use the already open Google spreadsheets in offline mode, and when I clicked on a .gsheet file in my drive, it would just launch a new browser and tell me I didn't have internet connection.

When I tried to right-click on the file in Dopus to see if I could open it in Excel, it did nothing other than crashing Dopus every time. As the Drive Sync app kept trying to connect to the Internet, it slowed down my reasonably powerful PC to the extent that I had to switch the sync app off, otherwise I wasn't able to dictate with Dragon NS.

So if you can't use Google's own .gsheet and .gdoc files offline, then this thing just becomes a poor man's Dropbox. With that effort I could just as well be using an Excel sheet in Dropbox...

Or am I missing something?

Dr. Andus, check this:
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375012?hl=en

Dominik

...and here:
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/1628467

Dominik

Dominik Holenstein wrote:

...and here:
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/1628467

Dominik, thanks for that. Just came across that page myself. So, no offline spreadsheet access--which is the only type of Google doc I really use... That's disappointing. I think I'll be switching to Excel + Dropbox then for offline access.

Dr Andus wrote:

Dominik Holenstein wrote:
...and here:
>https://support.google.com/drive/answer/1628467
Dominik, thanks for that. Just came across that page myself. So, no
offline spreadsheet access--which is the only type of Google doc I
really use... That's disappointing. I think I'll be switching to Excel +
Dropbox then for offline access.

Looks like the new Google Sheets will now work offline as well:

http://googledrive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/newsheets.html

Here is a blog post describing use of Paperpile with Google Doc (in an academic context):

"Collaborative writing with Google Docs and Paperpile"

http://itchyandirritated.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/academia-and-chromebooks-part-2.html

Another article on Paperpile:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/managing-references-with-paperpile/61592