On Monday, Google is planning to launch Gears support for Google Docs. Google Gears is a free, open-source multi-platform JavaScript application programming interface (API) that allows Web applications to work offline. For end-users, Gears takes the form of a browser plug-in for Internet Explorer or Firefox.
"What that's going to allow a user to do, the first time they come to Docs and see the offline link, they'll install the open-source Gears extension, and all documents will automatically be synced," said Ken Norton, product manager for Google Docs. "If you lose your Internet connection, you can still open your documents and make edits."
The initial process of copying online Google Docs files to a local device and synchronizing local copies with remote versions could take some time if the files in question are large or numerous. Thereafter, the process should be quicker because only changes between local and remote files are synced.
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