How to Convert Microsoft Office files to Google Docs

This post will show you how to convert Microsoft Office files like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint to Google Docs, Documents, Sheets, and Slides, respectively.

Both Microsoft Office and Google Docs are widely used software for creating spreadsheets and documents. Both the software has its pros and cons, and the choice between them mostly depends on your type of work and usage. Microsoft Office files like Word and Excel sheets are widely used because of their powerful formatting tools and advanced formatting features, which are quintessential to creating professional documents.

While Microsoft Office requires you to be an Office 365 subscriber, Google Docs and Google Sheets, on the other hand, are available to use absolutely free of cost. Although the word processing ability of Google Docs is not feature-rich like Microsoft Office, Google Docs is excellent when it comes to availability, which provides you with the ability to edit documents online while you are away from the desktop. Moreover, unlike Office files, Google Docs can open any other file format.

If you are looking to import Microsoft Office files into Google’s productivity suite, then you are in the right place. It is possible to convert Microsoft Office files like Word documents, Excel sheets, and PowerPoint into Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, respectively, using Google Drive.

The very advantage of Google Drive is that it allows you to upload any files in Google Docs. This is extremely useful if you use a web-based Operating system that does not support Windows software. In such a case, Google Drive can be used to open Office files like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Moreover, with the help of Google Drive, you can edit Office files in the cloud as and when required. In this article, we explain how to convert Microsoft Office files like Microsoft Word in Google Docs, a PowerPoint presentation in Google Slides, and Excel files in Google Sheets.

Convert Microsoft Office files to Google Docs

There are three ways you can do this.

1] Open Google Drive and click New option on the left side of the page.

Choose File Upload from the drop-down menu.

Now choose the document if you want to convert Microsoft Word to Google Docs or select a spreadsheet to convert Microsoft Excel to Google spreadsheets or select a presentation to convert PowerPoint to slides.

Allow the Microsoft file to upload to Google Drive.

Once the upload is complete, open the file to get a file preview.

In the preview window, click OpenWith and select Google file type from the drop-down menu to import Office file to Google suite.

Once the import is complete, you can edit the file and save it as either .xlsx or .docx or .pptx file format.

2] Open Google Drive and click on the Settings icon on the right side of the page.

Click Settings from the menu and select the box with option Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format. Enabling this option will automatically convert all the Office files you upload to Google Drive into Google file format.

Go to Google Drive and click New option on the left side of the page.

Choose File Upload from the drop-down menu.

Now choose office files that you want to convert to Google Docs.

Select the uploaded office files from the list and click Open.

Allow Google drive to convert office files into Google file format. Note the drive converts Microsoft Word to Google Docs, Microsft Excel to Google spreadsheets and converts PowerPoint to Google Slides.

Now navigate to My Drive. All the converted files will appear under File.

3] If you have installed AODocs Smartbar extension in Chrome browser for using AODocs features in Google Drive, follow the below steps to convert Office files into Google files.

Launch Google Drive and open AODocs library.