Google Drive Now Works Better With Microsoft Office Files

Google is rolling out a huge new feature for Drive on the web today. The company is bringing the ability to comment on Microsoft Office files right from Google Drive, without needing to convert Office files into Drive files.

With today’s update, Google Drive users can comment on Office files such as a Word document from the preview pane without needing to convert it to a Google Docs file. When the user shares the same exact Word file with a co-worker that uses Word on their device, these comments will carry over to Word, which sounds pretty cool.

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Google Drive’s latest update to work better with Office files is supposedly part of the search giant’s continued push to improve interoperability between Microsoft Office and G Suite products. “The ability to comment in Drive preview mode is just one example of interoperability between G Suite and Microsoft Office products. You can also use a Drive plug-in for Outlook to make it easier to insert files stored in Drive to an Outlook email and save incoming attachments to your Drive from Outlook,” the company said in a blog post.

Google has been heavily focused on improving its G Suite products for business customers lately — and although Microsoft’s Office applications continue to dominate the market, both in terms of features and subscribers, the increased competition between the two giants will hopefully end up benefiting consumers of both the services.

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Conversation 7 comments

  • MadsM

    07 February, 2018 - 1:16 pm

    <p>This is an excellent improvement. </p><p><br></p><p>EDIT: the improvement I was talking about it that it doesn't lock my temporary Word files anymore.</p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    07 February, 2018 - 1:25 pm

    <p>The preview pane can still be incredibly, painfully slow for larger files. But I guess this is better than nothing. I still hope my company will somehow, someday switch back to Office.</p>

  • tbsteph

    07 February, 2018 - 2:55 pm

    <p>Larry and Sergi have also agreed to help with future updates or editing :)</p>

  • dontbe evil

    07 February, 2018 - 6:07 pm

    <p>Gladly I have always been able to do all this on the better onedrive and free office online</p><p><br></p>

    • Davor Radman

      08 February, 2018 - 9:55 am

      <blockquote><a href="#244036"><em>In reply to dontbe_evil:</em></a></blockquote><p>Not in my experience, though that is also circumstantial.</p><p>Sharepoint can be a b**ch.</p>

  • LeFrenchFab

    08 February, 2018 - 2:59 am

    <p>Would be nice if file compatibility would go further. Because converting Office files to Google format is still painful and is not convenient when sharing info outside the company.</p>

  • Brian Hodges

    Premium Member
    09 February, 2018 - 12:15 pm

    <p>Not germane but that is a better picture of you.</p>

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