How to display Office documents in your web browser
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Key notes
- Viewing Office documents in your browser is helpful since you don't need to download the Office suite.
- Read below to find out how to save space and bandwidth by managing documents directly in the browser.
- Feel free to check out our collection of articles in the Browsers Hub, for more useful material.
- For recommendations and guides on the Office suite, see our Microsoft Office section.
Many users don’t know this, but you can’t display Office documents in a browser natively. Almost all browsers require a plug-in or an additional service in order to do so.
Even though Office files aren’t natively supported, you can still open them in your browser, and today we’ll show you the best way to do that.
How can I open Office documents in a browser?
1. Use the online version of Office
- Go to the Office website.
- Select Sign in.
- Enter your Microsoft credentials.
- Now drag and drop your file in order to upload it to the OneDrive.
- Once the file is uploaded, you can open it without any problems.
Alternatively, you can use Google Docs, but your files will be converted, so you might lose certain style or formatting settings during the conversion process.
For the best browsing experience, we recommend using the Opera One browser. This browser stands out in comparison to other popular browsers due to the many exclusive helpful features such as the built-in ad blocker, free VPN, native AI or Search in Tabs function.
Since all these tools are integrated with Opera One, they don’t act like extensions, slowing down the loading speed of your search engine, unlike with other browsers.
Overall, if you’re having issues with your browser, or you just want the best browsing experience, be sure to try Opera One.
Opera One
Manage your Office documents in Opera One and benefit from all the exclusive tools this browser provides.2. Use browser extensions
Opera One has a few extensions that can help with viewing Office documents, and you can easily find them in the add-ons library.
To mention some plugins :
- Open with Google Drive Viewer – opens many file formats on the condition that the files are online and publicly accessible.
- Documents – opens not only Office formats, but also .xps, .tiff, .eps, .ai, and more, so it saves space and bandwidth on your device.
There are also two extensions available on Chrome that will help you OpenOffice documents in your browser.
- Office Chrome extension – useful to view, edit, and create Office documents directly in your browser.
- Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides – view and edit Office documents without the need to download the Office suite on your PC.
There you go, two simple methods you can use to display Office documents in your browser. If you found our guide useful, let us know using the comments section below.
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