Convert your files in the Cloud – cloudconvert.org (beta)

File conversion from/to various different formats has always been an interesting challenge. That is, until the cloudconvert (beta) became available on the web. You know from reading my other blog posts that I’m becoming a big fan of ‘the cloud’. Microsoft’s Office 365, Adobe’s Creative Cloud, Carbonite for backing up computer files, DropBox for sharing files, and most recently, Google Drive. One cool, and not so obvious Google Drive feature is its ability to convert various file formats on download.  An example of this would be conversion of a document in Google’s native Google Docs format to Microsoft’s .docx format.  This is done by downloading a file into this format versus providing ‘save as’ options within Google Docs.

There are several free online document converters available on the web: online-convert.com, zamzar.com, convert.neevia.com, freefileconvert.com, and others. And some free off-line (locally installed) converters.  The one I have the most experience with and know works quite well is Free Studio from DVDVideoSoft.com.

But the online converter that got my attention most recently is cloudconvert.org.  As the name suggests, everything is done in the ‘cloud’. The file you want to convert (from any one of 148 formats) could be in DropBox or Google Drive (two popular cloud storage services).  The conversion is done on the web via your browser, and then the converted file is written to the cloud drive of your choice. Nothing is uploaded or downloaded (once the original file is in the cloud), and conversions are done on their server. Having done some very basic testing at cloudconvert.org, it appears to be quick and accurate. I also like the fact that you can throw just about anything at it for conversion.  From their web site, I show the various supported conversion formats.  There’s also an active blog on their site to report any issues people find with their converters.  Check it out…

 cloudconvert.org conversion formats:

archive formats

audio formats

cad formats

document formats

ebook formats

image formats

presentation formats

spreadsheet formats

vector formats

video formats