Some great new features added to Google Docs in the last few weeks. The first one I would like to highlight is a new Google Docs New View with enhanced look and feel for users. I have to say, it took a day to get the feel for the new look but now that I have a handle on the system I am really enjoying it.
The big difference off the hop is that they have done away with folders, Google Docs never really had folders. Now they call them collections, and you can keep files under multiple collections which I like. It is like the labels feature in Gmail.
You have quick access to the file properties as well with the preview window on the right. This is a great feature to see the information about the file, who it is shared with, and the last revision and timestamp.
The next great new feature is the support of 12 new file types for the for Google Docs viewer. This is great, since the adding of uploading any file type, I now us Google Docs to store project files of various types. This has come with some challenges without the thumbnail view. Now that is solved with the new viewer support for these common file types.
Here is a list of the new file types support in the Google Docs viewer:
- Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 / 2010 (.PPTX)
- Apple Pages (.PAGES)
- Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
- Adobe Photoshop (.PSD)
- Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF)
- Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
- PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
- TrueType (.TTF)
- XML Paper Specification (.XPS)
This will now top off all the support for popular Microsoft Office products (Google Docs now supports DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS and XLSX), it also adds quick viewing support for many of the most popular document and image types.
This support also crosses over into Gmail, (this is great) now for Gmail users if an email comes in with an attachment of a supported file type you will see a “View” link, that will allow people to click the link and load the file in the Google Viewer.
You can view the full post on the file type support on the Google Docs Blog.
