Mark PDFs, images, and Microsoft Office files as offline in Drive, launching to beta
Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise generally available to help protect high-risk usersWhat’s ChangingThe Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise is now generally available. It was previously available in beta. Who’s impactedAdmins and end users Why you’d use itThe Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise enforces a specific set of high security policies for employees in your organization that are most at risk for targeted attacks. Targeted attacks describe sophisticated, low volume handcrafted attacks that are often carried out by highly motivated professional or government backed groups. Employees at risk of targeted attacks that may benefit from the program include, for example, IT admins, executives, and employees in regulated industries such as finance or government. The individual policies currently included in the Advanced Protection Program are also available to G Suite admins and users outside of the program. However, the Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise offers a simple bundle of Google’s strongest account security settings for your organization’s high-risk users, and the program is constantly evolving to ensure these users continue to have Google’s strongest account security in place. How to get started
Additional detailsPolicies enforced for users in the Advanced Protection Program Policies enforced for users in the program include:
Requirements for users in the Advanced Protection Program The Advanced Protection Program is available for all users in all G Suite and Cloud Identity organizations unless admins turn it off for some or all users. When users enroll in the Advanced Protection program, they will need:
Details and requirements will be explained to users as they enroll themselves in the program at g.co/advancedprotection. New default: Allow security codes without remote access In the beta, you had an option to allow or not allow the use of security codes for your users who sign up for the Advanced Protection Program. Now, Google is adding a new option in addition to the previous two. The new option, allow security codes without remote access, will mean users can only use security codes they generate on the same device or local network.
This new option, allow security codes without remote access, will be the default for new and existing users. So any users who were not allowed to use security codes during the beta will be allowed to use security codes without remote access when general availability rolls out to your domain. Note that if you chose ‘allow security codes’ in the beta, that choice will persist when the GA version rolls out to your domain. If you want to change this for all or some users, go to Admin Console > Security > Advanced Protection Program and choose between:
See Google’s Help Center for more information on the new Security Code options. Admins can allow or prevent their users from being able to opt-in to Advanced Protection
AvailabilityRollout details
G Suite editions On/off by default? |
Mark PDFs, images, and Microsoft Office files as offline in Drive, launching to beta
What’s changing
You can already make Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files available offline. Now, as part of a new beta, you can mark also PDF, image, Microsoft Office, and other non-Google files for offline access using Google Drive on Chrome.
To learn more about the beta and to apply, see here.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why you’d use it
This feature helps complete the offline experience for Google Drive. Now, users can access their important non-Google files in an offline setting, like when they’re traveling or when there’s poor internet connectivity.
How to get started
- Admins:
- To apply to this beta, you must enable Drive File Stream use and installation for your domain, and enable offline for the domain and devices.
- Apply to join the beta here.
- Note: Admins who opted into the Alpha for offline for Docs, Sheets, and Slides will automatically be whitelisted for this beta.
- End users:
- First, enable offline from within the Drive or Docs settings.
- Next, sign into Chrome with the account associated with the whitelisted Google Group and access Drive File Stream.
- To mark the non-Google files as available offline, right click on a file and select “Make available offline.” You can use the offline preview feature as well.
Additional details
Note that while this feature is not currently supported in ChromeOS, Google is working on bringing these offline capabilities to ChromeOS in the future.
Additionally, users can also right click and open any non-Google files using native applications. By doing so, you can make an Office file available offline and—while offline—open that file using the native Microsoft Office application.
Helpful links
- Apply for the Google Drive Offline for Binary Content beta
- Set up offline access to Docs editors
- Use Google Drive files offline
- Viewing and opening files in Google Drive
Availability
G Suite editions
- Available to all G Suite editions
On/off by default?
- Once accepted into the beta, this feature is ON by default when:
- Offline is enabled for the domain.
- Users have Drive File Stream installed and offline is enabled in Google Drive or Google Docs settings.