Document Sharing with Sugarsync and the Pages App on the iPad

I've written about Sugarsync before as a backup solution. It works in the background to keep whatever folders you designate automatically synchronized between your desktop and the cloud. That way you can access your documents in the cloud from any computer. And, it's really a mirror image, not a backup. You don't have to do "restore" actions, as it's an exact copy in the original document format, just in the cloud.

One of the criticisms of the iPad, though it does save in Word format, is that it doesn't make sharing and transporting of files easy. I've tried numerous applications on the iPad, including DocsToGo, GoDocs and others. All of them allow you to "view" a document you've stored there, but not to edit it and re-save it. You can email the document back to yourself and open it in the Pages application, and that's not a terrible trade-off for the convenience and power of the iPad.

But, combining the backup ease and power of the Sugarsync App with the "Magic Briefcase" it provides will take care of both issues. You have your chosen folders continuously backed up in the cloud, and you can get your documents into the iPad when you need them, edit them, and save them back to the Magic Briefcase for access from any computer.

Sugarsync provides an email address for uploading files. So, once you've created a document in Pages on the iPad, you can just email it to the Sugarsync private email address, and it is placed into the Magic Briefcase in a folder for documents that were received via email. If you go to your desktop or any computer on which you've installed Sugarsync, you can open the Magic Briefcase, and your file is there. You can edit it, and save it back to the Magic Briefcase, so other computers and your iPad have access to the latest version.

You can delete docs out of the iPad to save space, but get them back at any time from Sugarsync. To view them only, you need only access them from the Sugarsync iPad application. But, if you want to edit them, just email to yourself, and the iPad allows you to choose to open attachments with Pages. You end up with a failsafe backup system, as well as an easy to access document repository for use on any of your computers or your iPad.

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