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Google Docs‘ word processor is finally getting offline access. Using the free Google Gears extension, users will soon be able to read and edit their files even when they have no internet connection.
Offline access is a necessary feature to make Google’s productivity suite a competitor to Microsoft Office, however Google Docs’ feature set, while improving over time, still falls far short of the functionality available in the Microsoft suite. And one of Google Docs’ most compelling features, its real-time multi-person collaboration, cannot work when parties are offline.
The only other Google application to use Google Gears currently is the RSS reader, Google Reader. There are a few other apps that use Google Gears, such as Remember The Milk. Mozilla maintains that HTML 5, which includes specifications for offline access to interactive Web sites, will obviate the need for Google Gears. That’s not likely to stop people from trying the new offline version of Docs, however.
Google Gears runs on Firefox 1.6 and above (but not beta 3) on Windows, Mac and Linux. It also supports Internet Explorer 6.0 and up on Windows.
The Gears-enable version of Google Docs will roll out to users over the next several weeks, starting today. If you don’t have access to the feature, just keep trying, Google Docs product manager Ken Norton told me.
Original post by Rafe Needleman and software by Elliott Back
