Google Starts Launch of Offline Access to Google Docs

Google announced they are rolling out offline access to Google Docs over the next few weeks, starting with a small percentage of users. According to a post on the Official Google Docs Blog: "With Google Docs offline (powered by Google Gears), I can take my little piece of the cloud with me wherever I go. Once enabled, I have a local version of my document list and editors, along with my documents. As long as I have an Internet connection, every change I make is saved to the cloud. When I lose my connection, I sacrifice some features, but I can still access my documents (for this initial release, you can view and edit word processing documents; right now we don't support offline access to presentations or spreadsheets...). Everything I need is saved locally. And I do everything through my web browser, even when I'm offline ... When my connection comes back, my documents sync up again with the server. It's all pretty seamless: I don't have to remember to save my documents locally before packing my laptop for a trip. I don't have to remember to save my changes as soon as I get back online. And I don't have to switch applications based on network connectivity." Offline access is only available in English for now. They're working on offline access in other languages. It will also be available to Google Apps users soon, and domain administrators that want it now can opt-in via their control panel. http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/03/bringing-cloud-with-you.html