Make Google Docs Better with Chrome Extensions

Google is not known for the lack of features in its products, it is a company ran by engineers after all, but even so, it can’t possibly cover everything that a user may want. Browser extensions and user scripts are a popular way of extending the functionality of web services not just the browser itself and, ever since Chrome introduced extension support, its users proved just as eager as anyone to add new features to the browser.

Interestingly though, many of the most popular apps in the Chrome extension gallery are actually related to Google services, from Gmail to Docs. The Google Docs PDF/Powerpoint viewer, for example, built by the company’s own engineers is getting close to 400,000 downloads and is the fifth most popular Chrome extension of all time.

“Six months ago, we launched the Chrome extension, Google Docs PDF/Powerpoint Viewer, that allows you to preview PDFs and Powerpoint presentations in your Google Chrome browser without having to download them,” the Google Docs team said. “Since the launch, we have continued adding features such as support for previewing Microsoft Word documents and made the extension available in all 48 languages that Google Docs supports.”

But just as that extension gains popularity, other developers are working to make Chrome and Google Docs better and the Docs team decided to highlight some of its favorites. High on the list is Snippy, an extension, which allows users to copy a portion of a web page and save it in Docs. The real interesting part is that it tries to save the formatting as well.

Table Capture is another extension that got the praise of the Google team. This extension enables users to easily paste HTML tables into Docs spreadsheets. Finally, the New Spreadsheet and New Doc extensions, which add a button to the Chrome toolbar for quick access to new documents.

Of course, there are other Google Docs-related extensions out there that can be quite useful. The popular Turn Off the Lights, for example, added support for Google Docs, though only for the old documents editor for now. There is also an extension for accessing your Docs files with just a couple of clicks and even an audio player for Docs. With over 5,000 extensions to choose from, you’d be surprised how many quality tools there are in the Chrome extensions gallery.