Google Docs Viewer

Google Docs Viewer can view documents directly from web sites or from your Google Docs library.

Overview

docs.google.com/viewer is the location of a online document viewer that uses your web browser. It can directly view files, download these files, print these files, or view files off-line. It is part of the editing and collaboration tools at http://doc.google.com

Any file that you upload to Google Docs and don’t convert to a Google Docs format has a Google Docs page. You can access this page by clicking the file's title in the Documents List or by following a link shared with you.

Features

In addition to reading, downloading, and printing documents using Google Docs Viewer you can also Search text on the page using the Ctrl + F keyboard shortcut.

Google Docs is also connected directly to Gmail. If you receive an attachment in Gmail, you can click the ‘View’ link, which will display that file attachment in the Google Docs.

Supported file types

Supported file types:

• 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 and .PS)
• TrueType (.TTF)
• XML Paper Specification (.XPS)
• Archive file types (.ZIP and .RAR)

And many image types.

Keyboard shortcuts

Search Shortcuts

• Search for item: Ctrl + F or /
• Find next: F3 or Enter
• Find previous: Shift + F3 or Shift + Enter

View Shortcuts

• Zoom in: Ctrl + Shift + Right arrow
• Zoom out: Ctrl + Shift + Left arrow
• Fit page to screen: 1
• Fit two pages to screen: 2

On Macs use the Apple key (command) instead of CTRL.

Tip

Google Docs Viewer can be set as a URL to view documents. For example, if you wanted to view the PDF at the URL http://research.google.com/archive/bigtable-osdi06.pdf using this viewer, you would use the URL: http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fresearch.google.com%2Farchive%2Fbigtable-osdi06.pdf

This kind of link can be generated automatically from the Viewer home page. Just enter the URL and tap the generate link. The resultant link can be sent or used anywhere. For example in a web page you generate or as a link in an email you send.