Google documents: link files

A Google Docs, Sheets or Slides document does not exist as a downloadable file: it lives in Google's editor. HtkCloudSync represents it on your computer by a link file, a tiny file that opens the document in your browser, as Google Drive for desktop does.

Overview

In your local folder, each Google document appears with the document's name and an extension according to its type:

These files weigh a few hundred bytes and carry the HtkCloudSync icon in Files, with the description “Google Drive document link”. They do not contain the document: it cannot be read offline.

Step 1: open a document

Double-click the link file in Files. Your browser opens the document in its Google editor (Docs, Sheets, Slides…), with your browser's Google account. An internet connection is needed.

If opening fails, a “Cannot open this link file” notification gives the reason: damaged file, no browser found…

Important: a link file only ever opens a Google Drive address. A forged link file, received by email or dropped by a third party into your synced folder, can open neither another page nor a program.

Step 2: rename, move, delete

The link file is handled like an ordinary file, and the document follows:

• Renaming the link file renames the document in Google Drive, without the extension.
• Moving the link file to another synced folder moves the document.
• Deleting the link file sends the document to the Google Drive trash, from where you can restore it for thirty days.

The other way round, a document created, renamed or moved in the cloud gets its link file created, renamed or moved on the computer at the next cycle. A document edited in the editor simply gets its link file rewritten.

Changing the content of a link file on the computer does nothing: those changes are ignored and the file is rewritten by the service. A Google document therefore never causes a conflict.

In the log

On the “Activity” page, the arrival of a document appears as a received file, with a detail saying that it is a link to the online document rather than a size.

The setting

In “Settings”, “Synchronization” group, the “Google Docs, Sheets and Slides” line offers two choices. “Link files (.gdoc, .gsheet…)” is the behaviour described here, and the only one available. “Export to Office formats (soon)” is not implemented yet: choosing it shows “Office export is not available yet” and the setting goes back to link files.

Note: from a terminal, the address a link file would open can be read without opening it; see Command line.