Google Docs viewer is a feature that allows users to view different file formats in Google Docs. It is also integrated into Chrome and Gmail, allowing you to view attachments without downloading them. Viewing documents online is a nice way to read or view something without downloading it to your computer.
Google Docs Viewer has been used to view PDFs, Microsoft Word Documents (DOC, DOCX) and PowerPoint Presentations (PPT, PTTX). Now, there are 12 more file types added to 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)
In Gmail, there is a "view" link that will appear if the attachment is a supported file type.
You can also now upload these file types to Google Docs and then share them with others.
This is a great feature that allows online viewing of different file formats without needing to download the files or have specific software.
Here is a standalone page for using Google Docs to view a file: (just enter the file url)
http://docs.google.com/viewer