Google going full steam ahead on cloud offerings!

Google has now added support for 12 new file formats in the Google Docs Viewer, in addition to Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint presentations as well as PDF files.

The new dozen are:

1. Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
2. Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 / 2010 (.PPTX)
3. Apple Pages (.PAGES)
4. Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
5. Adobe Photoshop (.PSD)
6. Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF)
7. Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
8. PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
9. TrueType (.TTF)
10. XML Paper Specification (.XPS)

Read more on Gmail Blog.

If you get any of these files as attachments, you can see a “View” prompt for opening them in Google Docs Viewer.

In addition, Google is also offering “Cloud Connect Plugin” for Microsoft Office suite. With this you can seamlessly share, backup and collaborate MS Office documents through Google Docs.

The following are the nifty things that you can do with the Google Cloud Connect:

• Simultaneous editing for Word, PowerPoint and Excel files, no document or paragraph locking
• Google Docs sharing URLs for each Microsoft Office file
• Revision history for Microsoft Office files, stored in Google Docs
• Offline editing with smart synchronization of offline changes
• No Microsoft Office upgrade or SharePoint® deployment required

More information on this gizmo together with elaborate video tutorials can be seen at the Google Apps page.

Tags: adobe, apple, autocad, cloud, collaboration, docs, excel, font, format file, google, microsoft, office, photoshop, plugin, powerpoint, share, truetype, xml

Web hosting options for WordPress

So you have decided to create a WordPress-powered web site or blog!

Welcome to the friendly WordPress ecosystem!

Now let us take a look at the basic requirements to kick-start your blog (ok, site)!

1. A domain name – which forms the name, address and identity for your web presence
2. A web real estate where you can park your blog content media et al – they call this a “Web hosting Account”
3. WordPress blogging package – to be downloaded fresh from http://wordpress.org/
4. Themes and plugins as necessary from this page

I assume that you have a domain name already registered with a good and reliable domain registrar or repute.

Now the most important decision that you will have to take is selecting a good web host to park and deliver your site/blog.

First lesson you have to learn is that all web hosts are not the same, though their web sites look the same!

And hosting you blog with a professionally-managed and reliable web host is vital to ensure that your site is up all the time without conking out during most hours of the day or for weeks together. And to ensure that you do not encounter hiccups at each point by being restrictive and paranoid. I will discuss about this aspect later in this article.

How to select a good and reliable web host?

I’ll try to list out the indication of typically bad hosts to be avoided upfront.
Read on » »

Tags: blogging, cloud, cloud computing, host, hosting, mysql, php, web host, webhost, webhosting, WordPress