Productivity booster: Google File Cabinets for Graphic/PDF assetts

[tomcam]

This business entails a fair amount of duplicated work. Copying and pasting your profile, copying and pasting a keyword-rich description of your website, and providing graphics in the forms of avatars, product shots, etc. If you ever use more than one computer at a time, Google Docs is a fantastic place to store these assets. I put affiliate links, <a> links and so forth in clearly named documents so I can get at them easily from both home and office.

But those are just words. What about pictures? Use Google file cabinets. These are mini download pages you can create yourself, instantly and without any technical knowledge. Here's how. First, create a site.

• If you're not already in Google Docs, click the link named Sites at the top of your Gmail page. This is Google's rudimentary website creator, sort of like Geocities but 10x better.
• On the off chance that you have multiple Google accounts you'll get an interstitial page asking for you to choose one. Click its radio button, then the Continue button.
• Click the Create new site button.
• Give it a name like "MyCompany's Graphic assets". As you do so a version of that identifier will be generated without spaces or irregular characters for its URL. Private or not, it has to be unique on the Web so coming up with a workable name may take a few tries.
• Create a description. If this is to be a public site, make sure it starts with a keyword.
• You probably don't want this site spread around (though it could actually help SEO if you did), so if it's meant to be private next to "Share with" click the "Only people I specify can view this site" button.
• Fill in the captcha or ask one of your kids to do it ;-).
• Click the Create site button.

You are then brought to a simple website. Now you have a place on the web for your assets, presumably private. You need to do that step only once. Let's add the file cabinet and populate it with files you need frequently. This step can be repeated for different kinds of files or products.

• Click the Create page button at the upper right of the screen.
• Click the File Cabinet radio button.
• Under Name give it a descriptive name, like Logo and cover images.
• Click the Create Page button. Your file cabinet is shown, empty.
• Click Attachments, then the Choose File button. A file browser dialog appears. Navigate to your JPG file and click Save.

You're done! Now when you need an image but aren't at the right computer just log into your Google Docs account.

This doesn't work for all types. For example, executable files are understandably not allowed because they pose a security threat if they contain viruses. But HTML files can't be stored this way either.

I find Google Docs to be an invaluable contributor to a web-based work environment.

[AmyBrown]

Thanks! I hadn't thought of using Google sites this way. I use Evernote but this will fill in some gaps.