Google Docs Viewer Supports 12 New Formats: Excel, Pages, Photoshop, And More

Earlier today, both the Google Docs and Gmail blogs highlighted the addition of 12 new formats that the Google Docs Viewer now supports. Google finally rounded out Microsoft Office compatibility with Excel spreadsheet and Office 2007 support, plus you can also view Apple Pages, Adobe Photoshop, and a number of other common format documents. The 12 new formats include: • 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) While it does seem odd that it took Google this long to add Excel support, we can just be thankful that it's here now. The ability to view Microsoft Office 2007 and later documents is really nice for those who may not even have the latest versions. Still, some commenter suggestions included hopes for OpenOffice, Quark Express, and Celtx support in the future. I did attempt to test how painless and smooth the process worked, especially for files like Photoshop and Pages, but was unable to. As of this post, I don't yet see these new formats available for viewing, only the former download option. Actually, I couldn't even successfully upload a Pages document, as it would give me a server error. My testing involved the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, Mac OS X Safari, and iOS Safari. As there is a small possibility it could be the cause for the lack of success, I will mention that I am using older versions of Pages and Photoshop: iWork '08 and Photoshop CS. My guess is Google may be slowly implementing these into accounts, or at least I would hope. Nevertheless, they are claimed to be available and will -- hopefully -- be coming soon to all Google Docs and Gmail users. For those of you who have been able to upload and view these new formats; how well does it work? [via @MacworldBiz]

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