Microsoft launches Office Online add-on for Chrome browser

On Thursday, Microsoft announced the launch of a Chrome add-on to enable users to gain quick access to Office Online apps and their documents. The launch of the new Chrome plugin by Microsoft is an indication of Google Chrome’s growing dominance in the browser market.

The Office Online add-on which Microsoft has launched for the Google Chrome browser is a small extension which adds an icon to Chrome. A click on the icon shows up the documents which the users have most recently edited in OneDrive, or OneDrive for Business.

In addition, a click on the icon added to Chrome also gives users the ability to create a new document in the browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote or Sway. Users can also click on the icon to open locally-stored documents.

In a nutshell, the new plugin which Microsoft has released for the Google Chrome browser enables users to create as well as open Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Sway documents by using Office Online directly from the Chrome browser.

The Office Online Chrome add-on is presently not available for Microsoft’s newest ‘Edge’ browser, but is expected to become available when ‘Edge’ starts supporting plugins.