Monday, June 01, 2009 9:41 AM
I still remember the first time I was introduced to Google Docs by a friend. I had one of those "aha" moments. Here was a product where I could easily share documents with people all over the world, and never have to worry about overlapping revisions or heavy email attachments. And with everything stored online, it meant that I didn't have to always carry around my computer or back up my files.
Aha.
Well, it didn't take long for me to start telling everyone I knew (and even some people I didn't!) about my experience with Docs. But there was one recurring question from my friends - how do I get my Word and Excel 2007 documents into the cloud?
Today, I'm happy to be able to answer their question: we've added .docx and .xlsx to the list of file formats that we accept for uploading documents (which already included .doc, .odt, xls, .ods, .ppt, .csv, .html, .txt, .rtf, and others).
To import a .docx or .xlsx file, simply click the "Upload" button in your Docs List menu, select your file, and voila! We'll upload and convert your document for use in Google Docs. This is a another great benefit of Google Docs - you don't have to worry about what format the file is in. Just upload it and we'll figure it out for you.
24 comments:
"And with everything stored online [...]"
Online, yes! Stored, no!
Google Docs converts your files when they are uploaded and downloaded and this process is not - I repeat not - lossless!
Even suggesting this is possible can lure potential users into thinking they can use Google Docs to store their files. But Google Docs can NOT be used to store files.
I think this is great! Finally, this has been put into play. My suggestion to this great feat is to make it easy to import from gmail. xlsx and docx down next to come pptx I hope.
How much fidelity is lost in the conversion to your internal representation? I notice in the example the photo at the bottom of the Word document is left justified, but in Google Docs it is centered.
"How much fidelity is lost in the conversion to your internal representation?"
Too much to mention. Just be aware that Google Docs text editor is not really page aware so you page oriented layout is the first to go. This becomes most annoying when e,g, your text was 'snaking' in multiple columns.
Other than that any inclusions like WordArt or MathType bite the dust - at best you will get an image that replaces them.
Think of it as trying to load a Word document in Write or Wordpad, if you are lucky the text loks the same, but you won't find the same features as you had in Word.
The real problem is you won't get your original document back like you uploaded it, even if you didn't change a space or comma in it.
Make sure you try out www.OffiSync.com an Office add-on that integrates MS Office with Google Docs. The new file format support just made OffiSync even better!
Great news! Import/export tools are never perfect, so I don't even hope for 100% fidelity, but this happens with traditional office suites (anyone who tried to open .odt file in MS Word, or .doc in OpenOffice knows what I'm talking about). If you want perfect formatting, use one format and an application that supports it natively. For me the strength of GoogleDocs lies somewhere else.
I'm probably getting boring, but I'm still looking forward to ODF presentations support (.odp)...
Perhaps Importing or Converting would be a less misleading way of saying what happens to the document.
I agree with ahab - saying 'Uploading' (& that everything is stored online) is likely to mislead unfamiliar users & cause them problems later, although it is quite a clear explanation if you're used to G.Docs ...
That said, it should always be fine to try converting your document, just remember to check that it's close enough to what you want/need afterwards ;-)
New support is wonderful. Next, could we see the ability to upload larger files....
I agree, stored is misleading. Besides this, why don't we have an equation editor yet? Besides this, I love Google Docs.
@Sheldon
Is TeXify or one of these others be any use? http://tinyurl.com/pw2qcb
@imma, thanks, the link is very helpful.
aaah Finally! The feature that I was waiting for
Very Cool! Now, only if there was a way to double-click files on the OS desktop and have them automatically upload to Google Docs.
Anyone know of a tool that'll map the file type associations to the tool and open the files in Docs?
More formats is good. But if only Google Docs word processor had decent table editing functions, then I could use it all the time instead of having to stay "outside the cloud" for my more sophisticated WP requirements.
Not bad. But what about the OpenDocument XML standard?
Google Docs is still limited to 500KB of pure text. This is quite stupid when it can handle 2MB embedded pictures, even spreadsheets' max size is more than that.
When will Google Docs be expanded to at least 1MB?
I have 700KB+ docs and I can't use Google Docs for them.
Otherwise, Google Docs is great for Word documents and spreadsheets. It takes a while to get used to the fact that it is not 100% compatible with Word or Excel (you can use Live / OfficeSync for that), but I appreciate the fact that you don't need Microsoft's suite anymore, and that you can work on the shared single copy of your documents from home, work or on the road. This is the future of authoring! I wish Google Docs would propose more than the current few formats supported, so it can maybe be used as an archival/storage service as well, my other documents are jealous of my text docs and spreadsheets!
I mean, as long as I have 7GB of free space, I'd like to use it the way I want. At least zip files could be added at practically no cost, since this is just about storage, with no editor application required (maybe a content preview for v2.)
This is great news.
However, when I use the uploader application it returns an error and I cannot upload the file
I do have a Google docs account and I think it is a great product but I stopped using it because I thought Google was shutting down google docs... Is that not correct?
Why would you think such a thing, Google is on its way to replace Microsoft, no reason to stop now.
Did it come to you in a dream? ^^
What if i wanna add a document shared by another user to my google docs account
coz i don't remember all those big urls.
when on opens up an email attachment using google docs, it saves an editable copy on their server automatically.
google docs should not save an editable copy on their server without asking first. and at a minimum, they should provide an option to delete it afterwards, which they do not.
it does not matter whether i am the only one with the link to that doc. i do not want my personal documents on their server, period.
not knowing what other zealous tactics google is using, i will stay away from google docs app. the app is not worth risking my privacy.
just look at their blunder from March 2009, where many people's documents were 'shared' without their permission. just stay away.
@s you should be able to go File-> Delete to remove it
I think you are confused as to what google docs is - it's an online editor, so opening something in it is saying you want it on a webserver ;-)
Of course if you're opening it from GMail then there's already a copy on the servers as it's webmail ...
Feature request: ability to store & share *native* office documents *without* conversion, could we have that?! Much appreciated.
What about other file formats, like Visio flow chart documents, mindmap docs (.imm), MS project files, code files like (.c++) or (.py) or (.aspx). There are thousands of files that we'd love to move from our pcs on to google docs.
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