Editing Microsoft Office files on Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for mobile is a cumbersome experience as it requires users to convert the document into a format that"s compatible with Docs, Sheets, or Slides. This was an unnecessary and inconvenient process that made editing Office files using Google"s productivity suite on mobile a painful experience.
Thankfully, this will change starting today as Google is rolling out support to natively edit, modify, and comment on Office files in Docs, Sheets, and Slides. You can now get version history and real-time collaboration support for Office files which was previously not possible. Apart from all this, you will also get access to improved sharing options and controls. Google had rolled out a similar functionality on the web last year so the company has taken its own sweet time in bringing this feature to the mobile version of the apps. As per Google, the following Office file types will now be natively supported by Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
- Word files: .doc, .docx, .dot
- Excel files: .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm (macro enabled Excel files), .xlt
- Powerpoint files: .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .pot
The feature is being rolled out starting today for G Suite and Gmail customers, though the rollout can take longer than 15 days to complete.