Google Drive Blog
The latest news and updates from the Google Drive team.
January in Review: Styles, Sparklines, Google+ sharing, and more
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
One of the best things about working on web apps like Google Docs is that it gives us the flexibility to frequently bring you new features and improvements. Starting this month, we’re going to make some small changes to how we communicate what’s been happening in the world of Docs. Instead of writing blog posts for each and every minor update, we're going to try bundling them together monthly to give you a detailed overview of our favorite features and a short list of other notable changes to make sure you don't miss out on anything new.
On that note, we’ve got a bunch of new features that launched today, as well as some great things that improved over the month of January.
Customizable styles in documents
Giving your document consistent and beautiful formatting should be easy. Before today, if you wanted to update all the Subtitles in your document to look a particular way, you had to change each of them one at a time. That’s too many steps. Now you can
restyle
all your regular paragraphs, headings, or titles with just a couple clicks. For example, if you want to update all the Subtitles in your document to be a particular size, set one Subtitle to that size, select it, right click and choose
Update Subtitle to match selection
. This will change all the Subtitles already in your document and automatically update the style for any new Subtitles you create. Plus, with the new
Options
menu in the styles dropdown, you can set the current document’s styles as the default for new documents or you can load your default styles into the current document.
Sparklines in spreadsheets and more charting options
In Google spreadsheets, we’ve added more charting options and support for
sparklines
to make it easier to communicate data. The
new options
give you a bunch of tools to create more sophisticated charts including different Y-axes on either side of the chart, formatting options for the axis and title text, and all sorts of other customization for how your lines, bars, or pies are displayed. We’ve also added sparklines, which let you display line or bar charts inside of cells and are handy for presenting and comparing data in a simple, bite-sized way. In the example below, we’ve used sparklines to plot currency exchange rates over a 30-day period.
Sharing forms on Google+
Sharing the forms you create in Google Docs with the right people shouldn’t be a hassle. Today we added a
Google+ share
to the form editor so that you can share your forms directly with your circles with just a couple clicks.
And there’s more…
On top of today’s new features, here are some changes from January that you may have missed:
Adding images to your docs from a high quality stock photo gallery. Simply go to
Insert > Image
, select
Stock photos
, and then search for the images that you want.
A more streamlined format for document discussion notifications that batches multiple discussions into a single email.
Quickly opening and selecting items from specific menus with keyboard accelerators. For example, when using Google Chrome,
Ctrl+Option+E
on a Mac and
Alt+E
on Windows or Linux will open the
Edit
menu.
Copying and pasting via the context (right click) menu in documents when you have the
Chrome App
installed.
Easily adding Google drawings or Google Groups discussions to a Google Site from the
Insert
menu.
Progress bars while uploading files to Google Sites.
Searching for text inside of PDFs in your documents list using
Optical Character Recognition
.
If you’d like to learn more about what we’ve been up to in January, I’ll be doing a
Hangout On Air
later this week this to talk about these changes and listen to your feedback. Stop by our Community Manager
Teresa’s Google+ page
on
Thursday, February 9 at 12 p.m. EST
to tune in.
Posted by: Jeff Harris, Product Manager
Updates to Google Docs app for Android: Offline access and improved tablet experience
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
There may be times when you don’t have an Internet connection on your Android device, but you still want access to a file you’ve saved in Google Docs. Now you can select any file in Google Docs to make it available offline. So regardless of whether you’re connected to the internet, you’re always connected to those files.
Even better, Google Docs automatically updates your offline files when you’re on Wi-Fi. You can also manually update files anytime you have a data connection by opening the file or tapping ‘Update’ from the Offline section of the app.
Make file available offline
Update online file
Make file available offline
Update offline file
For those of you with Android tablets, we’ve also improved the Google Docs reading experience. Now, when you open a Google document on your tablet while online, you’ll get a high-resolution version of the document. Swipe left and right to flip between pages, or use the slider at the bottom to page ahead quickly.
New reading layout on Android tablet
You can learn more about
offline capabilities
and the
new reading layout
in our Help Center.
Whether you’re offline or online, these improvements will make it easier to be productive from anywhere.
Posted by: Freeman Liu, Software Engineer
Google Docs and Sites 2011: A Year in Review
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
This year, we introduced over 100 new features to Google Docs to make creating, sharing, and collaborating in the cloud an even better experience.
In addition to the features you
asked for the most
, like
page numbers
and
vertical merge
, here are our team’s favorite improvements of 2011:
A new version of Google presentations
with character-by-character collaboration - plus new transitions, animations, and themes
Comments in Google documents
, followed by improvements including collapsible discussions, better email notifications, and a more detailed discussion pane
A Google Docs Android app
available in 48 languages for searching, viewing, and sharing Google Docs on the go in 48 languages
Comment-only access in documents
that allows others to view and comment on your doc without editing
Offline viewing
for your documents and spreadsheets
Pivot tables
in spreadsheets to process and summarize large data sets in seconds
Pagination in documents
that provide visual page breaks on the screen
New printing options
such as one-click CloudPrint from your mobile device
Page-level permissions
in Google Sites for better control over who can view and edit your pages
Improved accessibility
including new screen reader support and shortcuts that makes Google Docs more accessible and navigable for blind users
A new look
across Google Docs and Sites for a more consistent web experience
Our team also loved hearing from you throughout the year: We had you
ask us anything in a Reddit AMA
, met our
Docs and Sites Top Contributors
, and held our first
Docs Office Hours Google+ Hangout
. Our interactions with you were constant reminders of why we build these products.
Let us know in the comments what your favorite features of 2011 were -- and what you’re wishing for in the new year. Thanks for following along -- we look forward to bringing you more in 2012.
Happy holidays from the Google Docs team!
Posted by: Jonathan Rochelle, Product Management Director
Create and celebrate with Google Docs templates for the holidays
Thursday, December 15, 2011
This season, brighten up your holiday celebrations with some of our fun and festive Google Docs templates.
If you’re hosting a gift exchange with your friends, family, or colleagues, try our new
Secret Santa gift exchange template
by following
these instructions
. This template will allow you to quickly send out a form to collect the necessary information from participating guests. Then, using a
Google script
, the form will assign Secret Santas and send automated emails to guests with all the details - no folded paper scraps necessary.
Here are a couple of other ways to make your holiday planning easier:
Have guests
RSVP to your holiday soiree
Organize or budget for your
shopping list
Create a sheet of
customized gift tags or mailing labels
Browse the
template gallery
for more ideas, or submit and share your own templates for others to use. Wishing you the best this holiday season!
Posted by: Teresa Wu, Community Manager
College Tips by Google: A new site for students
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Are you applying to college, in the midst of your college years or getting ready for graduation? Wherever you are in your academic journey, Google has tips and tricks to help. Check out our
new site
, designed just for students, to learn how Google Docs and other Google products can help you stay on your A-game.
Posted by: David Kaufman, Cornell University ‘10 (Go Red!), Product Marketing Manager
Try Google presentations. No login required.
Friday, December 9, 2011
We recently launched a new version of
Google presentations
with many new features to help you create beautiful presentations together. We’ve added the new editor to our
Docs demos
to make it easier to test drive your presentation building skills.
Check out the new animations and transitions, get artsy with drawings, and show off your masterpiece to a friend or colleague. You can share the link in the demo with others and work on the same presentation together. No login required. No Google account needed. Just go to
docs.google.com/demo
to take it for a spin.
The new Google presentations continues to gradually roll out to all users. You can try it in the demo and if you like it, you can
enable it
in your Docs settings.
Posted by: Sarah Cooper, User Experience Designer
Bringing the very best of what we do to the veteran community
Friday, November 11, 2011
We believe that technology can be a force for good; one that builds and binds community. As a Googler, my proudest moments are when we take that technology and put it in the hands of people who can use it to communicate, collaborate, build and explore.
Today, on Veterans Day, I am proud to share a few Google tools and platforms for the military veteran community. They can be accessed on our website,
Google for Veterans and Families
, which was created by veterans and their family and friends, who work at Google. This single interface brings together Google products and platforms for servicemembers and their families. We believe it will be useful to all veterans, whether still in the service, transitioning out, or on a new path in their civilian lives. Here are some examples of what you’ll find on the site:
VetConnect
- This tool helps servicemembers connect, communicate and share their experiences with others who have served using the Google+ platform.
Google Veterans Channel
- A YouTube channel for discussion about military service for veterans, their families and the public. Veterans can share their experiences with each other as well as with civilians to help shed light on the importance and complexity of service. If you have not served, this is a great place to offer your thanks by uploading a tribute video.
Resume Builder powered by Google Docs
- We found that Docs can be a particularly helpful tool to transitioning service members seeking employment. Resume Builder generates an auto-formatted resume that can be easily edited, saved and downloaded to share with potential employers.
Tour Builder powered by Google Earth
(coming soon). A new way to tell your military story. Today, you can view some sample “tours”— 3D maps of veterans’ service histories, complete with photos and videos. Stay tuned for more details and updates on the
Google Lat Long Blog
.
It’s been a proud month for those of us here at Google who are veterans or family of veterans.
In October, 100 Googlers visited the
Soldier and Family Assistance Center at West Point
to conduct resume writing workshops for members of the Warrior Transition Unit. And, just two weeks ago, we traveled to
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
to teach wounded, ill and injured service members how to use Google tools to stay in touch with their loved ones while in recovery.
Finally, this week, we
introduced
the
Veterans Job Bank
in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Veterans Job Bank is a customized job search engine in the
National Resource Directory
(NRD), which is powered by
Google Custom Search
technology and crawls the web for JobPosting markup from Schema.org to identify veteran-committed job openings.
Even playing a small part to serve those who have served has been an honor.
Carrie Laureno, Audience Evangelist and Founder, Google Veterans Network
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
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