Google Drive access comes to Microsoft Office

Google Drive users can now access their saved Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents directly from the Microsoft Office desktop suite.

Google has today released a plug-in for Office that also enables users to save files to Drive and also edit them within Google’s online apps.

The plug-in for desktop is only available for Windows users right now.

Google’s Darrell Kuhn, the Technical Program Manager for Google Drive plug-in wrote on the company blog: “If you’re working on a document, spreadsheet or presentation that’s on your computer, you can also save that file to Google Drive, directly from the Office apps.

“This is especially useful for sharing files with teams, or for accessing your files across devices.”

See more: Windows 10 Preview

Mountain View’s move makes it the latest company to embrace Microsoft’s open mindedness when allowing Office to be used on platforms outside its own ecosystem.

Other cloud storage solutions like Dropbox and Box have also taken advantage of Microsoft’s new outlook, which priorities making life as easy as possible for Office users, rather than forcing them into platform exclusivity.

The relationship with Google is particularly notable given the competition between the two tech giants. Google has long sought to lessen the need for desktop programs through its Drive Cloud platform and its web-based productivity suite.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has its own cloud platform OneDrive which goes up against Google Drive.