1) It might not be difficult, but that doesn't mean they should do it. I don't really think it's "baffling" why they wouldn't build a bunch of extra functionali

1) It might not be difficult, but that doesn't mean they should do it. I don't really think it's "baffling" why they wouldn't build a bunch of extra functionality that probably wouldn't be used by many people. Most people editing documents want a wysiwyg editor like Google Docs, from which they can always download the file in the plain text format. People who actually edit plain text files regularly (programmers and such) probably have a preferred editor that they use, and wouldn't really want to edit in a little <textarea>, unless you are proposing they build a more advanced text editor (I assume that's not what you mean though, you said it wouldn't be difficult). 2) Sure, but again, just because they can add a feature doesn't mean they should. 3) Interesting, I didn't know that. Maybe they are planning to add the feature after all. Another option of course is to use the Google Drive desktop program, and edit your plain text files locally, which will be synced to your Drive.