Google Drive saves individual Slides, Docs or Sheets offline
The update gives you more control over which files are saved on your computer.
Google introduced offline access to Sheets, Docs and Slides for Drive back in 2013, but once you select the option, it stores a large chunk of files on your device. Starting today, however, an update to Drive lets you select individual documents to save offline. To use the new option, go to the home screen for either Docs, Sheets or Slides, select the overflow menu for the file you want to make offline (the three dots) and toggle the "available offline" switch to "on." Bear in mind that it only works in the Chrome browser on the desktop for now.
If you use Google Drive's documents sporadically, the current system that syncs most of your files is probably fine, and you can still work that way. However, corporate users of Google's paid "apps for work" service may generate hundreds or thousands of files that eat up space on their machines. In that case, it makes sense to only keep working files offline and stow older files safely on Drive. It's also a way for Google to keep up with Microsoft, which has always had local file storage and vastly improved file sharing and online access for Office 2016. Google's new app features start rolling out today.
