Google launches a Chrome extension to let you open Drive files directly in the relevant desktop apps

You can get a whole lot of work done with just Web apps nowadays, but sometimes you simply need the power of full-fledged desktop applications like Photoshop or PowerPoint.

To make your life easier, Google is releasing a Chrome extension for Mac and Windows to let you launch desktop apps right from within Google Drive, no separate download process required.

To use it, you just need to open up Drive, right click the file you want and select “Open With”. You’ll see a list of applications on your computer that support the file format.

Once you open a file in a desktop app, just be sure to save any edits, and they’ll be synced right back up to your Google Drive automatically.

If you’re a Chrome user, it’s a more seamless process than needing to download a file, open it on your desktop app, and then remember to re-upload it onto Drive if you make any changes. So if you want to give it a shot, you can get the new extension from the Chrome store now.

➤ Google Drive Blog: Launch desktop applications from Google Drive in Chrome [Google Drive Blog]