Microsoft Office allows you access documents from web servers like SharePoint or Office live ( using Windows Live ID ) even if you are offline by using caching fundamentals. In this post we will take a look at how you can access, update and upload back when you are not connected to internet.
Microsoft Office 2010 comes with a tool, Microsoft Office 2010 Upload Center. This tool manages all the uploads and downloads you make for editing documents. Though it is possible to edit documents using Microsoft’s Office Web Apps but that again needs internet connection.
I am assuming here that you know how to upload documents ( Using Save to Web and Save to SharePoint ) to web server using Microsoft Office. Now if you have lots of document that you upload and want to find out which has been uploaded, failed which can be accessed from cache, just launch the Upload Center Tool.
Here you can see the list of files with status of all the files. The advantage using this tool is you can open the files right from here or open it in the website when you are connected, this helps you in saving time which you would have spent in finding them.
Now lets assume you are offline and want to edit a document. All you need to do is launch the upload center and change the view to “All cached Files”. This will list all the files on your local machine, right-click and edit it. As you edit and save documents, you will be receiving messages about the status of the upload etc.
In case of error, you will be notified about it and you can take corrective measures to resolve them. The error could be sign in or conflict with the document which is already on server and modified by somebody else .
The best part of this is that you can save a copy if you cannot resolve it. This way you never lose any work. It is also possible to configure few settings like notifications, cache settings so that if you don’t want documents to stay for more than few days for security or audit reasons it can be changed.
