I am sure you would have definitely received bounce back mails from the recipients when you sent large attachments in mail. Or you were not even able to send those big attachments because your service provider doesn’t allow those large size mails.
Now what to do, how to send those large important documents to your recipients. Simple,
Put the file at some common place and send them a link of that file in email.

As you might know the entire office is moving on the world wide web. With the services available free of cost it has never been so easy to share word, excel, power point and pdf documents with colleagues, friends and family members. And best of all there is apparently no file size limit and online collaboration is way too easy.
Now there is no need to attach those big excel files in the mail and eventually make multiple copies of it. Rather you can just share the link of the document and then have people update it simultaneously.

You might worry about security and privacy, so for that I can say, if you can believe these services for your emails then you should believe about your documents as well. What do you say…???

Below I have compiled a list of couple of options available Free of cost and believe me they are the best in class. I have arranged the list as per my personal recommendation. Besides these 8 services you can use any of the other online file sharing services mentioned in my previous post, “How to get virtually UMLIMITED online space for free?“. Below is the list:
  1. Zoho: Oh my goodness, these guys at Zoho gave online office a new definition. Apparently there is nothing you can’t do with Zoho. They have Writer (Word), Show (Power point), Sheet (Excel), Wiki and what not. You can share, edit and upload your existing documents to Zoho. Now you can access your documents anywhere you go. Oh yes, BTW, you don’t have to create and remember another account information to use Zoho, you can use your existing Google or Yahoo account to login. If you use Zoho-plugin for office then it is even easier to upload, open and save your document online. You get 1GB of free space online.
  2. Google Docs & Spreadsheets: Google Docs is another great product from Google umbrella of online applications. Whatever you can do with your install office applications, you can do with Google Docs with an added advantage of online sharing and collaboration facility. If you have a Gmail account, you already have a Google Docs enabled. You get UNLIMITED space.
  3. Windows Live Workspaces: Live Workspaces are provided from Microsoft and Live team. You can upload Word, Excel and Powerpoints to your live workspace and then share, edit and collaborate with anyone. Use Office Live plugin to use Live Workspaces with your Office Suite. You get 5GB of free online space.
  4. Scribd: With Scribd, you can upload and share any kind of document with the world. You can publish and embed the document in your blog as well. You can upload documents in many different formats, including Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, plain text, HTML, PowerPoint, Excel, OpenOffice, JPEG etc. And you get UNLIMITED storage space for free.
  5. Slideshare: With Slideshare, you can only share powerpoints. It is a great service to use for powerpoint sharing and embedding in your website. Slideshare supports PowerPoint (ppt, pps, pot) and OpenOffice (odp) and PDF format. Maximum allowed file size is 100 MB. They don’t yet support Microsoft Office 2007 file format (.pptx)
  6. Buzzword: Buzzword is the service provided by Adobe. With Buzzword, you can upload, edit and share your Word documents. (Another post is in the pipeline covering this entire suite) You get 5GB of space for Free.
  7. Thinkfree Online: Instant access to your word, excel and powerpoint files which you can share and collaborate with colleagues and friends anytime, anywhere. Thinkfree will give you the exact same feel as using Microsoft Office. Thinkfree provides you with 1GB free online storage for files.
  8. Middlepost Docs: With Middlepost, you get umlimited storage space for your documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and pdf) files. Your files will be retained for 3 months for free account. You may register for paid services which increased file retention to 7 years. Middlepost even incorporates Digital online signatures as well which is a great addon. Real easy to sign-up and intuitive to use.
Over to you: Now tell me if you have used any of these services before. What are your views about them. Do you prefer using them instead of regular desktop applicatiions and if yes, why? Or may be is there any other similar service you use and would like to recommend to readers.

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