A nice surprise, when I went to check my Gmail this morning, was the addition of an ‘Open a as Google Document’ button for reading office documents. This passes the file over to Google Docs where it can be read and edited.

Gmail’s lustre had been somewhat dulled by a few problems(1,2) with Gmail in recent months but I think this new feature is another step towards Gmail being the perfect webmail tool.

So what exactly can you do with Google Docs & Spreadsheets?

Here’s what you can do with documents:

• Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text (or create documents from scratch).
• Use our simple WYSIWYG editor to format your documents, spell-check them, etc.
• Invite others (by e-mail address) to edit or view your documents and spreadsheets.
• Edit documents online with whomever you choose.
• View your documents’ and spreadsheets’ revision history and roll back to any version.
• Publish documents and spreadsheets online to the world, as Web pages or post documents to your blog.
• Download documents to your desktop as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML or zip.
• Email your documents out as attachments.

Here’s what you can do with spreadsheets

• Import and export of .xls, .csv, and .ods formatted data (and export functionality for .pdf and .html).
• Enjoy intuitive navigation and editing, like any traditional document or spreadsheet.
• Use formatting and formula editing in spreadsheets so you can calculate results and make your data look the way you want it.
• Chat in real time with others who are editing your spreadsheet.
• Embed a spreadsheet, or a piece of a spreadsheet, in your blog or website.