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For anyone who relies on Google’s suite of web-based office applications to edit Microsoft Office files, there’s good news this week – they’ll now open in edit mode by default.
It’s okay to expect any file you open in Google apps to be instantly editable, but that hasn’t been the case so far for Office files. When trying to open a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or Powerpoint presentation, a preview version loaded. The previews cannot be edited, so an additional step was required to switch to Office edit mode or choose to download the file.
Office edit mode will now be the default for all supported Office file types (.docx, .doc, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm). The only exception are documents that are password protected, which will continue to open in Preview mode. Switching to edit mode by default is done automatically, so it should start working. Google will roll out the feature in a phased version starting this week, but everyone may experience the change until December 15.
As Chrome Unboxed points out, the biggest impact this change will have will be on Chromebook users. It will allow them to treat Office files like any other using Google tools. Removing a conversion stage removes the frustration, and I’m sure Google will push this as a selling point in the future, especially for business users.
