A feature change in Google Docs presents a potential headache for users and IT alike. For those organizations that use Docs and Microsoft Office, the time to prepare is now.

Google Inc. this week quietly dropped support for exporting documents in older Microsoft Office formats, so users will no-longer be able to save files locally if they are in the DOC, XLS or PPT file format.

In the consumerization era, where end users are working with documents across a range of computing environments and with unsupported tools, file format compatibility can become a real headache for organizations, said Matt McVey, a technology specialist at Broadleaf Services, an IT solutions provider based in Burlington, Mass.

'If an IT guy gets a file that looks like junk from a user because of file incompatibility, it doesn't matter where it was created,' McVey said. 'The user will expect IT to solve the problem, and that can take them off more important projects or waste lots of time trying to solve it.'

The best solution for IT when it comes to file format compatibility is to make sure software is up-to-date and to limit the number of platform documents that get created within, he said.

'It's easier to stick with one application because any number of things can get screwy with exporting files,' McVey said. 'Using the same tool all the time won't leave you disappointed.'.