A new user recently emailed us to point out that My Docs Online, using WebDAV and the Desktop App, is working nicely as an alternative to MobileMe and iDisk, which will no longer be available after June.
Here’s what he said to us:
I just signed up for your service after evaluating many others over the last few days. Your interface seems closest to what I had with the iDisk under Apple’s Mobile Me. I upgraded to Lion and also had to find something before June 30 when the iDisk goes away.
I use the OverTheAir app for my iPhone and iPad2 to get to your site, I use the “go to server” (WebDAV) method on my OS 10.6 Mac computer and the desktop app on my Lion (10.7) Mac.
– Bud Cothern
Apple’s iCloud is very different from iDisk. iDisk is (soon to be was) a remote server that is organized like a typical drive, with a folder tree, and accessible via standard, open methods like WebDAV. iCloud is closed, and accessible only via apps using the interface provided by the operating system. It’s another outgrowth of iOS, where the location of files is generally hidden, and files are accessible from the apps that handle them. Mountain Lion for the Mac will work much the same when it is released later this year.
That means there’s no way to use the iCloud storage outside the services and apps that make use of it, such as iPhoto, iTunes Match, iWork, and AppStore apps that makes use of the iCloud Storage APIs.
Those who prefer their cloud storage to more open, flexible, and accessible from non-Apple products will need to look elsewhere, and as this user found, My Docs Online can do the job.
If you’d like to try it for yourself you can sign up for a no-obligation, no-credit card needed trial here.
The Desktop App, available for both Windows and Mac users, is becoming more and more popular for everyday use by our customers, and by our customers’ customers. Now you can opt to use a custom version that displays your logo on the sign-in screen and on the file list screen, like this example below for the STEP Program for BMW of North America, LLC.
How can you get your logo incorporated into your own copy of the Desktop App?
Send a request to [email protected]. Tell us your group admin ID and attach a logo (or point us to your website so we can find a logo there).
We’ll do the work and send you back a unique link you can share with your customers and users.
If you don’t yet have a My Docs Online account there is no time like the present to get started. You can sign up for a free My Docs Online trial account here.
Let’s face it – there are lots of places online where you can share files. But when it comes to sharing large files, really large files, files over 2GB in size the number of places you can go gets much smaller quickly.
File storage companies have different limitations on file sizes, with some capping file sizes at as little as 100 MB. Some companies offer single file size limits of 1 GB and most of those who go larger stop at 2GB.
At My Docs Online we have no file size limitations. The only limit is the size of your account, as long as you are using the Desktop App. Using the desktop app is what allows us to exceed the browser based upload limitations of 2GB in file size. The My Docs Online desktop app runs on both both Windows and Macs so if you need to transfer really big digital files give us a try.
Now – what are the practical realities of transferring a file of that size? A pretty good cable modem upload speed is between 2 – 5 Gbps so uploading a 2 GB file should take between 1 – 2 hours at those speeds. Download speeds are normally quite a bit faster so downloading the file may only take 25% of the time it takes to upload it. If you’re curious as to what your internet connection speed is you can test it at http://www.speedtest.net.
Sometimes, you really do need to get the file there today and when that’s the case you need something that will do the job for you. If you’re in that position I hope you’ll give My Docs Online a try by signing up for a free trial, running the desktop app and uploading your file.
One of the most requested new features to the desktop app has been the addition of file sharing. We’ve listened and file sharing is now available in the current version of the desktop app. There is nothing you’ll need to do to have access to the file sharing it will just be there the next time you run the desktop app.
The most obvious change you’ll see is the the big “Share” button on the right side of the menu bar which will allow you to select files for sharing via what used to be called our “give” feature. Just select the files, click share and you’ll be presented with two different options.
File Sharing with the Desktop App
The first option is to send the file (or files) yourself by generating a link that you can email directly to your recipient. The second option is to have us send the files for you. This second option most closely resembles the website “give” that you may be used to.
If you select the first option – you’ll be sent to a new window that contains the link that you can email directly to the recipient of your files. This allows you to customize the message and the email will come directly from you, making it more likely to be received and opened.
If you select the second option we’ll send the email for you but the link your recipient receives will be exactly the same.
We’ve also added public folder functionality to the Desktop App. Any file stored in your Public folder can be right clicked and you’ll see a menu item called “Show Public URL”. Selecting that option will get you a link to that specific file that can be posted in an email message, or a website, or one of your social media sites. That public folder link will continue to work until you remove or rename the file the link points to.
Thanks for requesting these new features. We hope you’ll find them useful.
If you’re a small business using Quickbooks to keep track of your income and expenses you probably share it with your accountant from time to time. If you only need to share the QuickBooks file at the end of the year, when the taxes are due, it’s a fairly simple process. You just create a backup copy of your data file and send it to your accountant for tax processing while you continue to work on the “live” file.
But if you need to share it more often, perhaps with a bookkeeper, you need to be extremely careful that you don’t each make changes to the same data file. If that happens either the changes that you made, or the changes that your bookkeeper made may be lost.
If you may have more than one person, in a different location, working on your Quickbooks file you need to have some sort of file locking process in place so that it’s not possible to have two people updating the file at the same time.
One way of doing this is to just be sure and check with the other person before you make any changes and then be sure to get them the changed file before they make any changes. Setting up a process of checking and double checking will work, but it can be a challenge.
An easier way is to use My Docs Online, with the Desktop Application to access your QuickBooks file. Your file is securely stored at My Docs Online and whenever you or your bookkeeper (or anyone else you designate) opens the file a file lock can be applied that prohibits anyone else from accessing the file while it’s in use.
We’ve got a video that shows how this works here and you can try it out for yourself by signing up for a Free Trial of our Multi-User Enterprise service. Pricing for the service that would secure support two people accessing the file begins at less than $10 per month.
April 15th is rapidly approaching, though the actual tax deadline this year is the 18th. Regardless, the pressure is on.
If you find that you need a hard copy receipt of your membership fees to provide to your you can generate a printable version of your most recent receipt by logging into your account at mydocsonline.com and clicking the “My Account” button.
Once you enter the My Account section you’ll see the Account Information section at the top of the page. In that section you should see a link to View / Print Most Recent Receipt. Clicking that link will provide a printable version of your most recent receipt.
If you have a quarterly membership and need a receipt for all purchases made during the year just email us at [email protected] and we’ll have our accounting group prepare that receipt for you.
Tax time can be chaotic so if there is anything we can do to help please let us know.
We’re in the process of building a number of short “how-to” type videos that are being added to our user support system. These videos are typically less than 2 minutes and cover just a single topic.
We are using YouTube to host these videos and we’ve created a channel to house them all. You can find the My Docs Online YouTube Channel here.
Use file locking when collaborating on the content of Microsoft Office Word documents and files in the internet cloud.
Using “file locking” technology is important when you are sharing a Word or other word processing document with others. A file lock is used to prevent two people from opening and updating the same document or file at the same time, because that would result in one person’s updates wiping out the other’s.
On an office LAN this happens automatically and easily because Word can directly open the file on a LAN server, or even on a colleagues Mac or PC if they are on the same LAN network.
When you share a Word or other word processing file “in the internet cloud” File locking requires special software to do the same thing.
The WebDAV protocol used by Web Folders (and supported by My Docs Online) does this only for Word and Excel, because each application needs to use and understand “WebDAV Locks” and Word and Excel are essentially the only applications that do.
Although Microsoft and Office have supported WebDAV since XP and Office 2003, the support in more recent versions of Windows and Office (notably the combination of Windows 7 and Office 2010) is less reliable. This can be an issue as people upgrade from XP to Windows 7.
File Locking is also implemented in the My Docs Online Desktop App, which has additional benefits, including working with all versions of Windows and Mac OS X, all versions of Microsoft Office Word, and other word processing applications such as OpenOffice, Word Perfect, iWork, and others.
If you’re in business for yourself you know that in small companies you get to wear a number of different hats. One of the hats that I wear for My Docs Online is a QuickBooks hat, meaning that I do the majority of the accounting work.
During the course of a given week I may need to access the QuickBooks file from my home, from the office, or when traveling. There may also be others who need access to QuickBooks so I can’t just keep the file on my computer and hope I have the computer with me all the time.
My solution? Well, it’s My Docs Online of course, right?
(Best viewed Full Screen)
I store the QB data file on My Docs Online and I can access it from wherever I happen to be. The problem with that has always been that if I’ve downloaded the file myself how do I let others know not to use it until I’m through? In the past we’d cobbled together a “check-in” and “check-out” method for accessing the file but it was not a great solution. What we really needed was file locking for QuickBooks so that anyone trying to access the file would know when it was in use.
Well, since we needed functionality we figured you might need it as well so we build it into the new My Docs Online desktop app.
Now when I’m ready to access the QuickBooks file I just launch the desktop app, highlight the QuickBooks file and click the “Lock and Open” button which locks the file and launches QuickBooks so that I can work.
Then when I’m done I reverse the process. I just close QuickBooks, then click the “Unlock and Save” button, which uploads the new file into our account and removes the lock so that someone else can use it. It also moves the file to the top of the date ordered list so that anyone can see that it’s been recently updated.
Being able to apply file locking to QuickBooks has been a real benefit to me while I’ve been testing the My Docs Online Desktop App. If you have the same need for file locking please check it out.
The short answer is a resounding no, at least according to John Lynn, the man behind the popular EMR and HIPAA blog. In a recent post titled, Email is Not HIPAA Secure, John makes a compelling case for why email is not HIPAA secure and lays out the reasons why.
To quote from the article:
There is a way to encrypt email sent between 2 email systems, but so far a standard and mechanism for encryption between all the vast number of email providers has not been established. I won’t go into the details of why this is the case (cost of encryption, standards for encryption, etc), but suffice it to say that almost none of the email systems send encrypted email that would satisfy the HIPAA requirements.
Meeting HIPAA requirements when communicating secure patient data can be daunting task. If you’re in the business of handling medical dictation the rules are pretty clear. You need a secure method of moving both the voice files and the finished transcription documents. If you’re going to transfer those files using a computer you need to be using a HIPAA compliant method of transferring them.
My Docs Online offers a easy way of moving those files, that satisfies those complex HIPAA requirements. For more information please check out our Medical Transcription page.
If you’re really interested in learning more about HIPAA there is a wonderful e-book titled The HIPAA Survival Guide(affiliate link) that is available online. The book, written by Carlos and Deborah Leyva, costs $9.95 and is is a valuable resource. You can purchase and download the book from the HITECH Survival bookstore site.
A new user recently emailed us to point out that My Docs Online, using WebDAV and the Desktop App, is working nicely as an alternative to MobileMe and iDisk, which will no longer be available after June.
We’re in the process of building a number of short “how-to” type videos that are being added to our 
If you’re in business for yourself you know that in small companies you get to wear a number of different hats. One of the hats that I wear for My Docs Online is a QuickBooks hat, meaning that I do the majority of the accounting work.
The short answer is a resounding no, at least according to John Lynn, the man behind the popular