Blank page for Google docs shared folders - public to the web?

Haven't touched google docs for a while...

If I remember correctly, months if not years back, google did not allow users to upload pdf files.

When I took the blog down in Feb. 2008, blogger still did not have the option of "Exporting" your entire blog.  At that point, all that I could do was to save my postings by month and in html format... and later, converted them to pdf files.

I had tried to upload the files to other free file sharing places... unfortunately, that service requires the user to log back in something like every few weeks or months... By the time I remembered, the account was deactivated and them files cleaned out.

This is why I was so excited when finding out google docs allows people to share and work with pdf files.... although... only had the chance to test out the sharing part.

So, I created a folder in google docs and uploaded my old blog Ratology: Down with Meds, with them pdf files nicely filed into subfolders (e.g., 1/2007-6/2007).

Since the intention is to share the docs back to the public, I decided to set the viewing level of security to the most relaxed level... "Public to the Web."

However, there is no "apply it to all subfolders and files" option, as a result, I had to apply it to all subfolders and files and make them all "Public to the web."

So all things went well and fine when using the browser that I am logged in to... shared folders, subfolders and all files loading and showing.

So perfect that it almost felt like paradise...

Then, I used IE to test it out... trying to load the main folder of "Ratology."

Oops... nothing but a blank page.

I tested out using Firefox... same thing.

So, with IE, I decided to log in to another google account of mine, and, found all things fine, and, it also went fine when loading the url into yet a different google account using Firefox.

I, therefore, came up with the conclusion... regardless of the browsers, if you would to load a URL for shared folders, you will have to log in to a google account; otherwise, you would be staring into a blank page.

However, the next question came to my mind was, "What about individual files?"

I logged myself out of google for all three browsers and tried to load the url for one of the shared files and it worked fine for all browsers.

Thus, until the time when google get it fixed... if people can't see the Google Docs folders that you made public to the web, tell them to log in to a google account and it should work...