I may have spoke too soon about the Office Editing for Docs, Sheets and Slides extension. I think there's a, for lack of better words, a sub-component of that Google calls 'Office Compatibility Mode' that seems to be what all of your local files open in.
Well, here let me drop a link:
https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6055139
I'm not certain if all the info on that page is correct/still relevant...
File types you can open with OCM
These are the file types that can be opened with Office Compatibility Mode (OCM):
Documents: .doc (if newer than Microsoft® Office 95), .docx
Spreadsheets: .xls (if newer than Microsoft® Office 95), .xlsx, .xlt, .xlsm, xltm, xlam
Presentations: .ppt (if newer than Microsoft® Office 95), .pptx
It seems to be able to open CSV files too. One of its many *things* is that in order to save edits, it forces a 'resave' or conversion to the newest file format. For example, a CSV file or an XLS file will be converted to a XLSX file. While that's probably okay for most, I certainly can see that it wouldn't be for all. Basically, if you're editing a file that is not saved in one of the latest MS Office formats, text pops up and tells you that in order to save edits it must be converted, it does offer a clicky that will automatically do so.
In my limited testing, most DOCX files seem to take simple (just think text) edits well (really, that's about all you can do) and the 'Compatibility Mode' sub-component performs well. Spreadsheets, not so much. Even a simple spreadsheet can cause that 'Compatibility Mode' to slow to a crawl. There's times too, where the sluggishness doesn't end when you close the editor. I could bring up the Task Manager and kill the Office Editing for Docs, Sheets and Slides extension and that seemed to help. The editor, much like Google Docs/Sheets/Slides, seems to
save the edits automatically (again assuming the files already are saved in the newer Office XML format, or you went through with the forced conversion).
Sound clunky, weird, awkward to you? Well, it gets a bit more so. If you drop the File menu in the editor, you're presented a Save as Google Docs/Sheets... option. Nothing else.
- let_sink_in.jpg (34.51 KiB) Viewed 5743 times
So, in order to do editing, you have to save in an Office XML format and simultaneously they're offering to convert to the Google Docs/Sheets/Slides format... And even better, this is all handled in ChromeOS Flex, and I assuming Chromebooks too, through an extension that you can't remove (at least not in any obvious way).
There is a slightly better way to handle files that are in Office XML formats. By 'better', I don't necessarily mean good. Essentially, upload them to Google Drive and when double-click on them, they'll open in Google Docs, Sheets... in their native format. Again, you can edit them and
saves are automatic -- not certain I like all this automatic saving, but...
To be frank, I would suggest that Google essentially eliminate that Office Compatibility Mode, and open files in Docs/Sheets/Slides automatically. If necessary, open them in the offline versions. It's rather a shame that you have to upload to Google Drive to make that happen. I get why some might actually want convert to the Google Docs format, although I think the placement of that option near the top of the File menu in the OCM tool could confuse some people. Also, that extension needs to be removable as there are other options for dealing with Office files. Again, I see why you'd want to include something to deal with Office documents in ChromeOS/Flex by default, but don't assume that people necessarily wish to stick with that. I haven't really looked, perhaps this is already an option with Docs/Sheets..., I'd prefer the saving to be done when I choose to do it, not automatically.
Heh, I just tested opening files from the Files app that are located in Google Drive (cloud). The files still opened with that compatibility mode tool. So, not only do you have to upload files to Google Drive, you have to open a browser, go to drive.google.com and double-click them to get them to open in Google's full-fledged editor.