Huddle Desktop makes Cloud-collaboration 'easier than ever'

Huddle has announced general availability of its desktop app, Huddle Desktop. Available for both Windows and Mac, Huddle Desktop adds a new layer of productivity to the Huddle experience, including deeper integration into Microsoft Office applications and a simple to use desktop app to help users manage their Huddle files on, or offline.

Huddle Desktop is designed to connect the user’s desktop experience to the industry’s most powerful cloud-collaboration platform and simplify how they access and manage their files.

“Our goal is to make document collaboration as simple and intuitive as possible,” explains Stuart Cochran, CTO, Huddle. “Huddle Desktop is all about personal productivity: the app provides instant access to recent work, allows users to manage offline availability, prevents version conflicts, and enables you to search all of your online Huddle content. Huddle’s cross-platform, recent files feature also means you can pick up on a document that you were just reading on your iPad, and start editing it on your Windows PC or Mac immediately.”

For the first time, Huddle Desktop also comes with Plug-ins for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook to deliver deeper integration into the user’s existing desktop applications. This allows documents stored within Huddle to be opened, edited, and saved natively from within the Microsoft Office suite of tools. Users can even view team member’s comments and sync their own comments back to Huddle from within Microsoft Office applications.

“Huddle Desktop is the perfect bridge to connect the desktop experience to the industry’s most powerful cloud-collaboration platform,” adds Cochran. “For example, if I know I’m going to be without Internet connectivity, I can quickly make a file available offline through the Desktop App, then edit it, review team comments and save from within Microsoft Word. When I reconnect, Huddle Desktop will automatically manage the synchronization of the file – and my comments – back into the cloud for the rest of my team.”

Key features of Huddle Desktop include:

Full integration with Microsoft Office – save files to Huddle from Word, Excel and PowerPoint, read and make Huddle comments directly from Microsoft Office applications and archive any Outlook email and its attachments to a Huddle project workspace or attach Huddle files to email

Quick, direct access to relevant files – along with instant search from the desktop, Huddle Desktop provides instant access to the files users need most, across all their projects and teams.

Eliminate version conflicts – users have the ability to lock a document, preventing any overlapping edits and providing full transparency into the status of any document at any time

Work offline – users can make up to 50 files available offline and accessible from the desktop, Web or iOS at a time