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How to comment on Office files with Google Drive (without file conversions)

How many hours could you save if you could comment on Microsoft documents uploaded to Google Drive? How to save your Office 2016 documents in the cloud? Use cloud services like OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive to make your files available anywhere, to anyone. Read more ? Thanks to the Google Drive interoperability feature in G Suite, you can easily annotate Office files, PDFs, and images without having to switch between formats or install Microsoft Office.

How to comment on Office files with Google Drive

You can open and comment on a shared Microsoft file in Google Drive, and the comments will appear when you or someone else opens it in Microsoft Office. The feature works in the Unit Preview mode. The steps are simple:

  1. Sign in to Google Drive.
  2. Double-click the shared Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file that you want to comment on. Opens in Preview mode.
  3. In the top right, click Add Comment (the plus sign). Click on the text, cell, or section you want to comment on.
    How to comment on Office files with Google Drive (without file conversions)
  4. Enter your comment and click Comment .
  5. Your team can see the updated file and comments when they open the file.

This is not the same as real-time comments and collaboration, as you have to open the file to see the updated comments. But it helps avoid the extra step of converting Microsoft files to Google files!

You can comment on PDF files, images, video, audio or other files. But remember that the same sharing permissions apply. If someone only gives you viewing privileges, you can only view comments, but you can't make new comments or share the file with others.

You can continue to convert Microsoft Office files in G Suite, of course. In Google Drive, right-click an Office file and click Open. Select Docs, Sheets, or Slides. You can also install Office Editing for Docs, Sheets &Slides Chrome edition when you want to edit Microsoft Office files. The extension is part of Office Compatibility Mode in Google Drive and works with DOC, XLS, and PPT file formats.