Google Docs Viewer Now Handles ZIP and RAR Archive Files

Google Docs Viewer just got a lot more useful. It now lets you view archive file types, ZIP and RAR contents online.

The Google Docs Viewer is an online service by Google which allows you to quickly view many file types. Using it, you can view PDFs, Microsoft Office files, and many image file types online and without leaving your browser. According to the official Google Docs Blog, now, if someone sends you a ZIP or RAR file in your Gmail, you’ll be able to view its contents from within your browser by clicking on View. This works for archives inside archive files too. Like, if you have a ZIP file inside a RAR file (or vice versa) you can simply click on that file to get access to the contents of the embedded archive.

zip-rar-support

Google Docs viewer already supports 15 different file formats. These includes:

  • Microsoft Word (.DOC and .DOCX)
  • Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT and .PPTX)
  • Adobe Portable Document Format (.PDF)
  • Apple Pages (.PAGES)
  • Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
  • Adobe Photoshop (.PSD)
  • Tagged Image File Format (.TIFF)
  • Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF)
  • Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
  • PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
  • TrueType (.TTF)
  • XML Paper Specification (.XPS).

The support for viewing archive file types ZIP and RAR has just made Google Docs Viewer much more useful than ever. The best thing is this feature is available in Google Docs for mobile, too. You can check out the feature yourself by viewing a ZIP file.

zip-rar-support

Do keep in mind that you can’t create archive files in these formats using Google Docs – you’ll still need the original applications to do that.

With these features, Google has added a welcome usability to Google Docs and Gmail. Now, I don’t have to download those large archive files from my Gmail, just to preview them. What other file types would you like to be supported in the Google Docs viewer?

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