Google offers one of the most powerful collaborative tools via Docs, Slides, and Sheets. These are not just limited to G Suite users but the masses. It enables you to work with colleagues or friends together on a project at any time, from any place. The company recently perked up the productivity by allowing users to collaborate on MS Office files from the web. Today, Google is enabling this feature for G Suite users on Android as well.
The company boosts mobile productivity by giving you the option to upload any Word, Excel, or Powerpoint files to Google Drive and work on it together with others in real-time without the need to convert them to any other format. All three apps, including Docs, Sheets, and Slides have been updated to support this feature. It is enabled by default and admins don’t need to change any settings to enable collaboration for MS Office files.
In an official blog post, Google states that the “feature brings the collaborative and assistive features of G Suite to your Microsoft Office files when you’re using your Android device.” It has also listed the supported file types, which you can see attached below:
Word files: .doc, .docx, .dot
Excel files: .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlt
Powerpoint files: .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .pot
The biggest benefit of this feature is that you do not need to go through the hassle of converting Office files to an older format. It saves time and further streamlines your workflow by improving sharing options available to G Suite users. This feature is now rolling out and should reach everyone over the next two weeks.
