Native Microsoft Office editing integrated into Google Drive


Google has announced you'll now be able to edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files within its Google Drive suite of apps.


Previously, you'd need to convert the Office files into Google Docs or other files in order to view them in Google Drive, but now they appear just as you'd expect them to.


Google has worked to integrate Quick Office into Google Docs to offer native Office editing with the Google Drive suite of editing apps.


Even in emails, when you're sent a Word document for example, you can open it directly into Google Drive and make edits.


When you're done, you can then save it back as a Word document (or PowerPoint or Excel) to send back to your contact for them to use.


Of course, you can still convert that file into a Google Drive document to get full access to the collaboration features.


Another Word feature that has been added to Google Drive is Suggestion Edits. Working in a similar way to Track Changes in Review Mode of Word, Suggestion Edits lets you add your own changes or ideas to the document to be viewed by the file owner and its collaborators.


They can then be added or rejected according to the feelings of the group.


Working with these new features is Google Slides, the Google Drive version of Microsoft PowerPoint, which lets you create presentations to share and edit with your friends.


With Google Drive boasting 190 million 30-day active users, there's no wonder Google has worked to make the editing tools even more productive.


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