The feature for save any type of file The Google Drive web client was made available to G-Suite users two years ago. This beta version went through a lot of difficulties during the testing phase, which kept it away from the public during all this time. Now this feature is finally available to everyone.
Once this new feature hits you, you can simply mark multiple documents on your Google Drive with an offline status. You’ll also be able to do this directly from your web browser, so you won’t have to download the document first or use Google’s desktop features.
While Google’s suite of products like Docs, Sheets, and Slides already supported offline viewing, other file types like PDFs and images were not. This has changed and now you can also view these non-native Google files offline in Google Drive.
The process for marking files available offline is very simple. You alone right click on relevant files and then turn on the “Available offline” switch. If you open these files offline, all non-native documents will open with their respective applications. For example, PDFs will open with your PDF viewer installed.
Some of you may be thinking that this is nothing new? Well, some Google Chrome users have already had a similar feature available during the last months. This feature in Chrome is available directly from the browser.
This feature is now rolling out for all users, including Workspace, G-Suite, and personal users. While some may start to see the feature in the next few days, it can take up to 15 days to fully implement.
Closing words
It’s good to see this feature finally reaching all Google Drive users. It’s definitely a useful little feature to now be able to access more types of files offline with Drive. Although it may seem like a minor thing, being able to access certain files offline is critical, especially with more and more people working remotely. I hope I can use these capabilities with my own files.
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