If you use the Google Chrome browser when working with Google Drive, a new feature which allows you to carry out offline editing is now available.
The only caveat is that it won’t work on old spreadsheets that you might have created, and that Google will convert to its new format somewhere in the future. This means that you have your work cut out for you…
Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is using cut and paste to move information from old sheets to new ones.
But there’s a simpler way, actually!
All you have to do is download the files and upload them but not before you make sure you’re using the new version of Sheets by visiting the link: g.co/newsheets
Once you’ve done this, download the sheet in .xlsx fomat, the standard Microsoft Excel format, and then drag and drop into on your Google Drive page in Google Chrome. It goes without saying that this sheet will now be uploaded as a Microsoft Excel sheet to your drive.
After it has finished uploading, then it’s time to check whether the offline editing option works. For this, right-click the file while selecting ‘Open with… > Google Sheets’. In other words, your file is now ready to be edited offline.
While it might seem a bit tedious to carry out this process, it is actually easier than it seems over a broadband connection. In fact, it only takes a few seconds to do this with one file.
No matter what – it’s still a better option than copying and pasting data from one sheet to the other!