Google supported viewing in certain foreign formats in its office programs, but required documents, spreadsheets, or presentations to be converted to its proprietary format for editing. Starting last February, Google introduced the ability to annotate files in Microsoft’s formats without the user having to convert them first.
Full-fledged editing of Microsoft files without the need to use various add-ons has only now arrived. And it’s straight into all versions. In addition to the younger Office Open XML (files with DOCX, XLSX, and other extensions), Google Docs supports standardized formats (such as ISO/IEC 29500) and Microsoft’s long-standing closed binary format for documents (DOC, XLS, … ).
One meter for all documents?
For MS Office, there will be no shortage of versioning, sharing, or even real-time collaboration between multiple people on a single document in Google Docs. Until recently, Google retained all of these capabilities for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in its formats. With this move, you no longer have to run away from Google tools if you need to work with relevant documents beyond viewing.
The exception to full compatibility can be seen in the templates area. When editing documents in an older format, the templates will automatically be converted to the newer version. While not perfect, there will be some limitations. For example, it will not be possible to use application scripts, add-ins and we can also forget about the ability to lock cells in tables. However, these manifestations of incomplete compatibility are common in the field of formats and tools.
Benefits of Google Docs
Google Docs (GDocs, Google Docs) is used for individual as well as collective editing of text documents, spreadsheet files, presentations, and survey forms. The tool can be used for free by any registered user of Google services. Almost any web browser with JavaScript enabled is sufficient.
One of the biggest advantages of Google Docs is its online accessibility across users. So a document can be edited by a whole team of people at once, with changes reflected dynamically in the view of everyone working at the same time. The quick-publish feature on a website or blog is also widely used. Once published, you will be given a URL under which you can see the article available online without having to manually paste it into your own web space.
Many users use Google Sites for web presence, primarily because of the ease of uploading and editing a published document. It takes a few clicks to publish a document written in GDocs to a web space, while the original can still be edited and the changes are reflected in the web page on Sites when reloaded.
The Google Docs office tool is a handy tool for easily manipulating your documents. If you’re thinking about a cloud-based business solution for collaboration and productivity, we’d love to help you with a solution!