Have you ever found yourself in a situation, when you needed to share a file with someone, but were not sure if she has necessary software to open it? Or, even worse, you were sure that the other party does not have necessary software? This often happens in professional setting, when you need to share mindmaps, CAD drawings, sophisticated graphics or other files in uncommon formats. Earlier, the best way to ensure the recipients can actually open and review what you share was to save the file as PDF or a plain PNG image irrevocably loosing many of the details in the original file.

Now there is a better way to share and publish files, while at the same time preserving high fidelity of your content and liberating your readers from the need to hunt for software to deal with your files – rollMyFile Buttons. In a few easy steps to can create a button, which will open your file in a fully functional online application specifically tailored at that type of file!

For instance, if you want highlight the points you are making in a blog post with a mindmap, you can give them full experience of interacting with your mindmap instead of scrolling around a huge PDF with an elegant button like this (it’s functional, try it now ;)

Here is how it works.

In your profile on rollapp.com (that’s right, you’ll need to register, if you have not done so yet) there is a section called “rollMyFile Buttons”, which lists all your existing rollMyFile buttons and allows to create new.

When you click on Create rollMyFile button now there, we will take you to a wizard, which will guide you through the process:

Step 1. Paste the URL of the file you want to create button for. The file has to be publicly available for download.

Step 2. Click Next and we will check that the file is accessible and find a suitable application to open it in our collection.

Step 3. Copy the generated code and put it in appropriate place on your web page and you are done!

Now when your visitors click the Open online on your page, we will open the files for them in an online application. With rollMyFile Buttons you can be sure all of your readers will be able to open and review the files you share.

If you have any questions or ideas – do not hesitate to contact us at support@rollapp.com.

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Collection of applications available on any device via rollApp is constantly expanding. Recently we brought some new great applications to the cloud. Welcome UFRaw, KGeography, GNect, KiCad and GVim!

The Unidentified Flying Raw (UFRaw) is a utility to read and manipulate raw images from digital cameras. It can be used on its own or as a Gimp plug-in. It reads raw images using Dave Coffin’s raw conversion utility - DCRaw. UFRaw supports color management workflow based on Little CMS, allowing the user to apply ICC color profiles.

KGeography is an aid for learning about world geography. You can use it to explore a map, show information about regions and features, and play quiz games to test your geography knowledge.

GNect is a four-in-a-row game. The objective is to build a line of four of your marbles while trying to stop your opponent (human or computer) building a line of his or her own. A line can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal.

KiCad is an EDA software suite for the creation of professional schematics and printed circuit boards up to 16 layers. With KiCad you can create schematic diagrams and printed circuit board up to 16 layers. KiCad comes with a rich set of libraries with 3D models as well.

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GVim is a is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. GVim has a number of options that make using the application especially easy. The pop-out menus guarantee easy access, while the tiered interface makes working from multiple documents even easier.

Let us know what apps you would like to see in our collection at Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or support@rollapp.com.

You may have noticed that we recently launched our redesigned web site. One of its core new features is home page of registered user, which makes it easy to launch frequently apps and more. Here we want to tell you more about how it works.

Now, when you login, you are redirected to this new home page:

Right at the center of your home page there is a Quick Launch bar, which allows to quickly launch applications – just click on the icon. In addition to the applications you used recently, we will add some recommended applications to help you discover other great apps available on rollApp.

Quick Launch bar also helps managing currently running applications. If you are absolutely sure that you would not lose any unsaved data in your application you can close it from the Quick Launch.

When you disconnect from an application (by closing browser window, closing laptop lid, etc), the application keeps running in the cloud. If you are a user on a Premium plan, the app will be running for 60 minutes, which gives plenty of time to reconnect to the application from another device or find a power outlet if your device has run out of battery. Users on the Free plan will get only 10 minutes.

To make dealing with files more accessible you can now open files from your computer using our new service rollMyFile directly from your rollApp home page. In addition to that you can now manage your cloud storage right from this page to make it possible to access your files in Dropbox, Google Drive, Box or OneDrive.

Also, at the bottom there are latest updates from rollApp. Keep an eye on them to see what new apps become available, learn about platform updates and get productivity tips and tricks from our team.

We will continue writing about features of the rollApp platform and we will appreciate your thoughts and ideas about our new site. Drop us a note at support@rollapp.com or our community forum.

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At rollApp we always aspire to let everyone use any application they need on any device they may have in disposal. And while for the established platforms like Windows PC or Mac it is relatively easy to find software for the task you have, for many of the emerging innovative platforms, like Firefox OS, it may be no easy thing to do. Providing tools for users of the new platforms has always been part of our mission and today is an important day as we officially announce availability of rollApp-powered applications on Firefox Marketplace.

Some users already had a chance to try OpenOffice and other rollApp applications available in Firefox Marketplace on the Firefox OS devices and we see steadily growing use of our applications on Firefox OS.

Great thing about Firefox Marketplace is that you can install applications not only on Firefox OS, but on other platforms as well, for example, Windows or Mac. Follow these guidelines to install applications on your computer. Mac users may have to adjust security settings to install and run applications from Firefox Marketplace.