Try the Office Compatibility Extension to Open & Edit Files in Chrome

Let's say you're a devoted Google Docs user like me, but some of your colleagues are wedded to Microsoft Office products. To work with the files those colleagues send to you, you can either install Office yourself or try using Google's Office Compatibility Extension.

Google's Office Compatibility Extension enables you to drag Office files into Chrome, open them in Gmail, and open them in Google Drive (provided you are using the latest version of Google Drive). Once the file is opened you can edit it and save it in your Google Drive and or download it as an Office file to send to people who prefer Office files.

Office Compatibility is being rolled out to all Google Apps for Edu domains in the next few days. You can read more about that on the Google Apps Updates blog.