Layout-safe syncing
Paragraphs are matched by content, so edits, insertions and deletions land in the right place. Styles, overrides and spacing are preserved. Blank spacer paragraphs you added for rhythm are kept, not swept away.
Features
Everything DriveSync does
Thirteen things, all of which exist in build 2.14.6. Nothing on this page is a roadmap item.
The interface
This is all of it
One docked panel. Every file you have connected, which frame it belongs to, and whether the writer has touched it since you last synced. Changed files are flagged; everything else stays quiet.
There is no dashboard to log into, no second application, and nothing to learn beyond “connect a file to a frame”. Designers who have used it describe the panel as looking like part of InDesign, which is the highest praise a plugin gets.
Connected files also appear in InDesign’s own Links panel, with their Google document behind them — so they sit where you already look for placed content.
Real InDesign tables
Tables from Google Docs arrive as InDesign tables. On later syncs the cell text is updated in place, so widths, styles, strokes, fills and insets survive. You can narrow a column to fit the measure and it stays narrowed.
Images that stay put
Images are placed on the first sync and then frozen. A later text change will not move, duplicate or re-import them. Turn image import off entirely if you would rather place artwork yourself.
Google Sheets support
Connect a Sheet, choose a range, and bring it in as a table or as tab-separated text.
Word and Excel files too
Files uploaded to Drive without converting are supported as well: .docx, .doc, .xlsx and .xls.
Change detection
DriveSync checks connected files on a timer and flags the ones that have changed, so you can see at a glance what needs a sync.
The Links panel
Connected files appear in InDesign’s own Links panel with their Google document behind them, so they sit where a designer already looks.
Style mapping
Map Google’s named styles — Heading 1, Heading 2, Normal text — onto your own InDesign paragraph styles, once. New text picks up the right style automatically.
Import options and presets
Control tables, images, empty paragraphs, Sheets ranges and how new text is styled. Save the combination as a preset and reuse it across documents.
Export back to Google
Send a frame’s text out to a new Google Doc, for when the copy needs another round of writing.
Suggestions
Choose whether Google Docs suggestions are read as accepted or rejected, so you can typeset a document that is still being marked up.
Safety
DriveSync refuses a sync that would replace most of a long story, rather than doing it and leaving you to notice. Connections are stored inside the InDesign document itself, so they travel with the file.
Privacy by design
DriveSync asks Google only for access to the specific files you pick. It cannot see the rest of your Drive, and neither can we.
What it deliberately does not do
DriveSync is not a collaborative editor and has no live cursor. It does not merge simultaneous edits, there is no API and no headless mode, and it will not design anything for you. It moves text and tables from Google into a layout you have already built.
Try it on the document that is annoying you most
Fourteen days, every feature, no card required. If DriveSync cannot hold your styling on a real job, you will know within an afternoon.