By the use of the old-style Microsoft Office formats, Google has stopped support for the export of documents, spreadsheets and other files. Last October 1, users of all editions of Google Apps that includes Government, Education and Business will be incapable to download presentations, spreadsheets and documents in older Microsoft Office formats with file extensions like .ppt, .xls and .doc.
This action will affect the users that have a version older than five years of Microsoft Office on their local personal computers. The Docs users will no longer have the capability to export Google Docs format files in Office 1997-2003 format such as .xls, .ppt and .doc, the following features is determined to release to these domains on October 1, it was declared by the firm in an abrupt announcement in the update feed.
The cloud providers can utilize over their data and its move when it is carried in the cloud, the impulsive decision may give many organizations pause for consideration. Most of the organizations said that they have severely considered Google Apps as a substitute to Microsoft Office, however it have been defer by its per-user costs and a lack of a locally installed choices.
The action will excessively affect users that have transferred to Google Apps however who have not upgraded their versions of Microsoft Office exactly because they have moved to the web, one work around will contain downloading and operating an open source Office suite like the Libre Office or the OpenOffice that carry on support for an extensive range of old Office together with other formats in addition to the newest file XML-based file extensions like the OpenDocument Format.
REFERENCES:
http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2208564/google-drops-support-for-doc-in-google-apps
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19741880
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010672/google-apps-drops-download-support-for-older-office-formats.html
http://redmondmag.com/articles/2012/10/01/google-drops-support.aspx
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231756/Google_Apps_drops_download_support_for_old_Office_formats
