ZDNet: Ransomware and phishing: Google Drive will now warn you about suspicious files. “Users of the Google Drive file and syncing app will now start to see warning banners if they open a potentially dodgy file. The new alerts are rolling out to Workspace Google Drive users globally today and aim to help protect users and their organizations from malware, phishing and ransomware.”
The Verge: Google’s Area 120 incubator releases a powerful AI document scanner for Android. “Google’s Area 120, an internal incubator program for experimental projects, is releasing a new app today called Stack that borrows the technology underlying the search giant’s powerful DocAI enterprise tool for document analysis. The end result is a consumer document scanner app for Android that Google says vastly improves over your average mobile scanner by auto-categorizing documents into the titular stacks and enabling full text search through the contents of the documents and not just the title.”
Digital Inspiration: How to Password Protect Google Documents and PDF files in Google Drive. “Introducing PDF toolbox, a new Google Drive addon that lets you password protect PDF files and Google Documents. The app can also help you unlock PDF files that are already protected with a password in your Google Drive.”
BetaNews: LibreOffice 7.0 Beta 1 arrives with ODF 1.3 document support . “The Document Foundation has released the first public beta of its upcoming LibreOffice 7.0 office suite for Windows, Mac and Linux. Users are encouraged to download and test the software — which installs alongside any existing production release — ahead its final release, expected to be in August. The new release doesn’t boast any major new features, but does update ODF support to 1.3, plus unveils improvements both major and minor to the suite’s major components — in particular Writer.”
Engadget: Google Photos makes it easier to take clear pictures of receipts. “Google is making it easier to capture clear photographs of receipts and other documents. Following on from the AI-powered suggested actions feature unveiled out last year, which automatically brightens and rotates images, the company is this week launching a new crop and adjust function for snaps of printed items and text-heavy pages.”
NiemanLab: The New York Times has released an open-source tool to let you manage all your internal knowledge more easily. “The means for creating (and maintaining) a documentation site — or a style guide, or a knowledge base, or any other set of information frequently used as a reference — have shifted back and forth over time. Blogging software! Wikis! Flat files! Database-driven! Google Docs! GitHub Pages! Dropbox Paper! Notion! The number of options — and the degree to which their selection sometimes come down to one person’s aesthetic choice or workflow preference — has left the job of keeping updated documentation a bit of a mess. Into this muddle steps The New York Times, which faced the same set of questions and built an internal tool called Library to address them. “
PC Magazine: How to Encrypt a Document Stored on Google Drive. “If you want to keep your files safe from prying eyes, encryption is your best bet—especially if you’re going to store those files in the cloud, where data breaches and other security issues can expose them to the outside world.”
PC World: Zoho Office Suite taps AI to provide a free, powerful alternative to Office 365. “If you don’t want to pay for Microsoft’s AI-powered Microsoft Office, there are alternatives—including Zoho’s free Zoho Office Suite. Zoho’s alternatives to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Google Keep launch today, complete with their own intelligent features that are arguably friendlier than Microsoft’s own.”
Make Tech Easier: 5 of the Best Document Scanner Apps for iOS. “There are dozens of document scanner apps available for iOS, but most of them are junk. Our top five picks are based on great image quality, diverse formatting options, accurate text recognition, ease of use, and ample sharing options. They also offer clear privacy and security policies, plus editing and annotation features.”
Lifehacker: How to Use Google Drive’s New ‘View History’ Feature. “If you use Google Docs (or Sheets, or Slides) you may have noticed a recent pop-up letting you know that ‘Editors can now see you view history.’ Without any context, the message is a little confusing—even disconcerting if you’re the paranoid type—but there’s nothing to be worried about. Here’s what you need to know about the latest feature coming to Google Drive.”
Library of Congress: Papers of President James Buchanan and Harriet Lane Johnston Now Online . “The papers of President James Buchanan, who presided in the four years leading up to the Civil War, have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress, along with the papers of his niece, Harriet Lane Johnston, who served as first lady in the White House. Buchanan was the nation’s only president who never married.”
VentureBeat: Google Drive now lets you comment and collaborate on Microsoft Office files, PDFs, and images. “Yesterday, Microsoft announced plans to attract new OneDrive customers through a special ‘free-switch’ offer aimed at rival cloud storage services from the likes of Google. Today, Google revealed it was turbo-charging Google Drive to include a bunch of new features designed to appease Microsoft Office users across the spectrum.”
New York Times: How to Preserve Your Family Memories, Letters and Trinkets. “Recently, someone wrote to Mary Oey, a conservator at the Library of Congress, asking for help archiving her father’s personal papers. He was a Holocaust survivor, and he had used his diaries and papers as primary sources to teach schoolchildren about his experience. He had laminated them to keep them safe, and — Ms. Oey gave a mournful sigh as she told this story — lamination is a terrible way to preserve documents. There was no way to save this patron’s history.”
Indian Express: Asiatic Society library goes digital with 10,000 books, 2,000 manuscripts. “One of the most picturesque spots in the city, The Asiatic Society of Mumbai is also a rich repository of rare documents, books, periodicals, manuscripts and maps. However, time has ravaged some of the invaluable resources available at the library, which is now over 200 years old. Some of the material available, which dates back to well over 300 years, has been in a state of despair, with the paper too brittle to even touch. After years of efforts and lobbying, The Asiatic Society of Mumbai launched its digital library initiative…on January 15.”
