How To Use Google Docs In Offline Mode

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Google, at its Google I/O announced that users can now edit Google Docs even when they are offline. You can now edit documents and Google Spreadsheet stored on Google Drive when you are travelling by an airplane or in a subway where there’s no internet connectivity. The best part is that when you open that same document when you’re connected to the internet, then those changes are automatically made available online.

Behind the hood, these documents are saved on the computer. When connected to the internet, documents will be synchronized online. In this tutorial, let’s learn how to enable Google Docs Offline.

For now, Google Docs offline is available only in Chrome browser. If you are on Chrome, then open your Google Docs (or Google Drive if you’ve migrated over the new interface) and click on the gear icon from the top-right side and select “Set up Docs Offline”.

How To Use Google Docs In Offline Mode

Next, you need to complete two-step process. Firstly, click on “Enable Offline Docs” and then for second step, you need to install Google Drive app for Chrome. Click on “Install from Chrome web store” and you will be taken to Chrome web store where you can complete the installation process. It will just take a few seconds to finish this process.

Now open Google Docs and you’ll see a notification pointing to the gear icon that informs you that your recently opened Google Documents are synchronized. You will also be informed how to access those docs offline.

Click on the gear icon and then on “View offline Docs”. This will open a new Google Docs page which can even run offline. You can press Ctrl+D to bookmark this page or you can always head over to this page.

That’s all you need to do. Now you can access and edit those documents and spreadsheets offline also.

Note that offline access is available only for documents and spreadsheets. For now, spreadsheets are available in view-only mode and you’ll need to enable your internet connection to edit spreadsheets. Presentations, drawings and other items from your Documents List are not available offline at this time.

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