Why Mac, Windows and Chromebook, but not Linux? There must be some proprietary code? I bet it won't run on an unlocked Chromebook either.
This surprised me too, as there is proprietary code but it's a Native Client plugin, so in theory should run on Linux Chrome the same as Windows and Mac Chrome.
The extension runs perfectly fine on Linux.
I seem to remember hearing this is based on Quickoffice (which Google acquired)
Glad Google chose not to go down the current gmail "force everyone through Google Docs/Drive" route.
Why is this a Chromebook only extension?
> Why is this a Chromebook only extension?
It's not. It used to be but this extension works on Chrome Beta, on Windows or Mac.
I'm running the latest Chrome Beta channel on my mac, and the installation button is disabled for me. Anyone care to host a crx?
If you download the crx, then manually drag it from your downloads folder to the Extensions page, it should install.
Unzipping and parsing XML with javascript doesn't sound like a very hard task, why isn't there a simple web-viewer?
MSFT's web version of office (office.live.com) actually handles Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote in web browsers without any plugins. I am not sure why Google had to write this.
Office Web actually handles the files server-side, as does Google's own Docs/Drive. This is a purely client-side extension.
That could work for 2007+ documents, but probably not the older .doc files that were in the obscure binary format.
I guess it's not that easy, just look at Libreoffice, it still struggles with somewhat-complex files.
Thanks for posting this - Preview is a pain for office documents.