On-line Document Storage

Everyone has documents that shouldn't be lost. Examples include:

• Birth certificates
• Wills
• Passports
• Drivers licenses
• Important contact lists, e.g. for survivors in case of death

These can be kept in a safe deposit box, but the inconvenience often precludes doing so. A fireproof safe in the home is a good idea, but not all fireproof safes can survive worst case fires.

Modern technology has recently begun to offer a good way to keep copies of these documents safe from harm while easily accessible - on-line (on the internet) storage. There are a number of on-line document storage services available - both free and fee-based. By copying the important documents and uploading them to one of these services, you can be sure that they will be there for you even in the event of a serious accident to your home. A nice added benefit is that they can be accessed while you are traveling, like if you lose your passport while out of the country and need to get a replacement made.

To assist a local fire department in offering a document copying/storage service to local residents, a step-by-step procedure was developed for creating an on-line storage account and uploading important documents to it. Of the many possible providers, Google was chosen. The decision was fairly arbitrary, but benefits include the fact that their service is free, and that Google is financially stable and likely to be in business for the foreseeable future. Because the fire department uses Macintosh computers, the procedure is based on Macintosh software. However, it should be easy to follow it using Windows or Lixus-based computers - the screen images would look somewhat different but the process would be the same.

The procedure is a combination of textual instructions and screen images that will be encountered during the process. It should be easy to follow. If you encounter problems, it would be very kind of you to send a message describing your difficulties so that the instructions can be updated. To send a message, click the "contact us" link in the blue box at the bottom of the page.

Here is the PDF file containing the instructions. Good luck.