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Awesome Drive Chrome Extension

We have some users who still need to be able to work with Office files while storing their files in Drive. One answer is to use the Google Drive Sync Tool (the local install of Google Drive). The downside of this tool is the all the files are cached on your local hard drive and unless you are disciplined and only sync the folders you need (and how many users ever bother to go into advance settings to do this?) you can use up a huge amount of local hard drive space. The other issue is that the process of syncing those files uses significant bandwidth and if you have a site with a 1000 users - you run out pretty quickly if any number use this tool.

Another solution is the AwesomeDrive Extension. This allows you to open Office files directly from Drive into local apps and save them back without the need for the local Google Drive Apps and its associated issues.

I've pushed this app to all PC users via Group Policy - see my guide here. Demo of it in action:

 
Just be aware it only works in list view. Otherwise an awesome extension.

I know in principle everything should be done as a Google Doc - and by and large is now - but when dealing with external agencies and resources that come from external bodies - this is really useful for PC users who need more that the Chrome Office editor.
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