When Apple introduced iCloud in 2011 touting the online service’s ability to seamlessly sync your contacts, calendars, reminders, notes, images, documents, and other data, the expectancy that it just works were very high. However as outlined in my article, The Mac iCloud/iWork dilemma, disappointment about the failure to seamlessly sync documents could be found in any iCloud review. Finally, a year later, with the release of Mountain Lion, Apple has integrated the seamless Documents in the Cloud feature into OS X.
Documents in the Cloud
This feature allows apps that offer iCloud storage, such as Apple’s iWork an Byword, to store documents in the cloud, that can then be access from any computer or iOS device linked to the iCloud account.
There is however a paradigm shift involved. Each app has its own iCloud Document Library, called container; there’s no master list of all cloud-based documents. It is possible for the same app on iOS and OS X to share documents between platforms because they use the same container ID, a value provided by Apple to the app developers.
That is the reason why it is not possible for one app to access the container of another app. This could be a problem now that apps like Preview and TextEdit, which deal with generic files, are iCloud enabled. Another problem would be trying to share/edit the same kinds of documents using multiple text-editing apps.
iCloud Interface
Every iCloud-compatible app in Mountain Lion has a new Open dialog to select files stored either in the iCloud Document Library or on the Mac.
Using the app with the iCloud for the first time, the library will be blank. One way to move documents from the Mac to the library is by dragging files from the Finder window to Document Library window. To copy files hold down the Option key and drag them into or out of the Documents Library.
Organizing files into folders can be done, iOS-style, by dragging one file’s icon on top of another’s. That will create a folder containing both of them. Folders can’t be nested, but can be dragged from the Document Library to the Finder (or to another Document Library) just as files can be. Files stored in iCloud retain their full Versions history, supporting Auto-Save, restoring of past versions, and duplication.
From the Document Library, files, but not folders, can be shared by selecting them and clicking the Share button (or by Control-clicking on the file). To delete a file simply move it to the Trash by dragging it there or Control- or right-clicking it and selecting Move to Trash, that file will be inaccessible from all iCloud-connected devices.
Moving forward
Finally, with Mountain Lion, Apple has delivered that seamless iCloud integration promised to make Documents in the Cloud just work. For now, in addition to Apple’s iWork, TextEdit and Preview apps, only a few third party apps, such as Byword, offer iCloud integration. It is now up to other developers to give users the choice to use the iCloud storage in addition to their current cloud storage option, such as Dropbox.
