Updates to Google Docs app for Android: Offline access and improved tablet experience

MrGoogle — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:45:00 +0000

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.

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Google Docs and Sites 2011: A Year in Review

MrGoogle — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000

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

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Create and celebrate with Google Docs templates for the holidays

MrGoogle — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:30:00 +0000

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…

College Tips by Google: A new site for students

MrGoogle — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:30:00 +0000

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.

MrGoogle — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000

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.

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Bringing the very best of what we do to the veteran community

MrGoogle — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:00:00 +0000

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…

Faces of Docs: Vance Vagell, User Interface Software Engineer

MrGoogle — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite things about being the community manager on the Google Docs team is working alongside people with a myriad of backgrounds, interests, and talents. From learning of one of teammate’s pro cricket player past or another’s literary aspirations, I’m constantly discovering new things about the people I spend my workdays with. I thought you might enjoy reading about them, too–which is why we’re taking a cue from our friends at Gmail to bring you “Faces of Docs,” a series that will spotlight the people that make up our team.

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Celebrating VisiCalc’s 32nd birthday with the inventors of the spreadsheet

MrGoogle — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:30:00 +0000

On Wednesday, VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet available for personal computers, turned 32. We invited its inventors, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, to Hangout On Air with us to celebrate a product that’s paved the way for much of what the Google Docs team has been able to do today.

Users around the world tuned in to our live public stream as Dan and Bob shared the history of VisiCalc, their thoughts the spreadsheets of today, and their visions for the future. Watch the full video below.

And for you spreadsheets fanatics out there…

Another nonprofit shares its Google Sites story

MrGoogle — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:12:00 +0000

Last week we told you about Children’s Radio Foundation using Google Docs to act like a file server for their organization. This week, we’re talking about another nonprofit, Grassroot Soccer, that uses Google Sites to host files for their organization. Learn more on the Google’s Nonprofit blog.

Posted by: Carolyn Wendell, Consumer Experience Specialist

A fresh start for Google presentations

MrGoogle — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:00:00 +0000

A year and a half ago, we released completely new document, spreadsheet and drawing editors. Google Docs has been picking up speed ever since with more than 60 new features and millions of new users. Today we’re rounding out the suite by previewing a new version of presentations with faster collaboration and more features.

A collaborative approach
Presentations are made to be shared—whether it’s presenting your thesis to your professors or inspiring colleagues at a conference. And the best presentations are made together, collaborating with others to build a compelling story that captivates your audience. Creating presentations together…

South African nonprofit benefits from Google Docs and Sites

MrGoogle — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:00:00 +0000

We recently met with two nonprofits to learn more about how they use Google Docs and Sites to better manage and share files across their organizations. Today, we’re sharing the story of Children Radio’s Foundation (CRF), a nonprofit organization based in South Africa. Tom Henry, a CRF volunteer, sits down with the Google for Nonprofits team and tells us why collections and sharing are two of his favorite features in Google Docs. Learn more on Google’s Nonprofit Blog.

Posted by: Carolyn Wendell, Consumer Experience Spealist

An enhanced Google Docs experience on mobile tablets

MrGoogle — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:45:00 +0000

Earlier this year, we introduced the Google Docs app for Android. Since then, many users have downloaded the app and enjoyed the benefits of being able to access, edit and share docs on the go.

Today’s update to the app makes Google Docs work better than ever on your tablet. With an entirely new design, we’ve customized the look to make the most of the larger screen space on tablets. The layout includes a three-panel view, which allows you to navigate through filters and collections, view your document list, and see document details, all at once.

Looking at the…

Experience the new look of Docs and Sites

MrGoogle — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:59:00 +0000

Starting today, we’re rolling out the new design for Google Docs and Sites to everyone.

We began rolling out these improvements in early August with the documents list and have since upgraded our entire collaboration suite. You may have noticed that our new look matches other recent Google visual updates, which aim to bring a consistent, improved experience across our products.

Your content is what’s important, and we aim to highlight it with this new design. You’ll see clean menus and toolbars, prominent action buttons, and colorful presence that pops when you’re editing with others.

To…

Visualize your data with charts in Google Sites

MrGoogle — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:04:00 +0000

Ever since we launched the chart editor in Google spreadsheets, many of you have asked us to integrate charts into Google Sites as well. Today we are making this possible. Now you can display charts in your Sites by going to Insert Menu and choosing Charts in edit mode.

Once you select a spreadsheet, the editor picks existing charts from the spreadsheet to embed into a Site.

Trying on the new Dynamic Views from Blogger

MrGoogle — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:08:00 +0000

As you may have noticed, the Docs blog looks a lot different today. That’s because we—along with a few other Google blogs—are trying out a new set of Blogger templates called Dynamic Views.

Launched today, Dynamic Views is a unique browsing experience that makes it easier and faster for readers to explore blogs in interactive ways. We’re using the Classic view, but you can also preview this blog in any of the other six new views by using the view selection bar at the top left of the screen.

We’re eager to hear what you think about the…

This week in Docs: Import/export and paste special improvements

MrGoogle — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:04:00 +0000

Yesterday, we announced the vertical merge feature in Google spreadsheets, and today we’re happy to share two new features that we hope will make analyzing data a little more efficient.

More import and export support in Google spreadsheets
Now you can convert most pivot tables between Microsoft Excel files and Google spreadsheets for powerful data analysis in whatever file format you prefer. Additionally, filters that help you better visualize and organize your data are now supported in our import and export conversion tools.

To import a pivot table you created in Microsoft Excel, click the File…

Merge cells vertically in Google spreadsheets

MrGoogle — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:05:00 +0000

There are many times when you want to format your spreadsheets in a certain way to make your data easier to read and understand. Starting today, we’ve extended the merge functionality to let you create vertical merges across several rows of data.

In the spirit of the NFL season, let’s say you want to host a football tournament for your friends. To make it easier for them to cast their votes on the winning team, you organize the NFL teams by conference and division in a Google spreadsheet. Using vertical merges, you can assign headers to sets of rows.…

+1 button in Google Sites

MrGoogle — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:21:00 +0000

We have been thrilled with the response to the launch of the +1 button on websites all across the web, but we also heard that you’d like a simple way to add the +1 button to your own Google Sites. Adding the +1 button to your site will allow your visitors to recommend it to their friends and contacts, which helps more people discover it via their personalized search results.

Starting today, you can add the +1 button to any individual page by choosing +1 Button from the Insert menu, or you can add it to…

Improved Accessibility in Google Docs and Sites

MrGoogle — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:54:00 +0000

Today we announced some of the updates we’ve released recently to make Google’s applications more accessible to the blind community. For Google Docs and Sites, we’re pleased to announce new keyboard shortcuts and better screen reader support for our blind users.

Screen reader support in Google Docs and Sites
To help blind users read, edit and navigate content, Google Docs (including documents list, documents and spreadsheets) and Sites now support two screen readers: JAWS and ChromeVox. Here are a few examples of how screen readers work in Google Docs and Sites:

In documents, you’ll

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This week in Docs: Format painter, Google Fusion Tables, and drag & drop images

MrGoogle — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:09:00 +0000

This week in Docs, we’re introducing three new tools that put the fun in functional.

Format painter in Google documents

First, we’ve added a format painter to help you copy formatting within Google documents. The new format painter allows you to copy the style of your text, including font, size, color and other formatting options and apply it somewhere else in your document. To use the format painter, select the text for the formatting you want to copy, press the paintbrush button in your toolbar, and then select the text where you want to apply that formatting.

If you…

Comment-only access in Google documents

MrGoogle — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000

In the past several months, we’ve added new discussion and commenting features to improve collaboration in Google documents. As an engineer, I often create docs with design concepts and send them to my team to review and provide feedback, and we use the commenting features to facilitate these discussions. Sometimes, I want to let team members view and make comments without allowing them to directly edit my document.

Over the next several days, we’re releasing a new sharing option so that you can let people view and add comments to your documents without giving them edit access. To give…

What Happened Wednesday

MrGoogle — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:16:00 +0000

Not our best week. On Wednesday we had an outage that lasted one hour and meant that document lists, documents, drawings and Apps Scripts were inaccessible for the majority of our users. We use Google Docs ourselves every day, so we feel your pain and are very sorry.

So what happened? The outage was caused by a change designed to improve real time collaboration within the document list. Unfortunately this change exposed a memory management bug which was only evident under heavy usage.

Every time a Google Doc is modified, a machine looks up the servers that need to be…

Tips & Tricks: Using the new Subtotal function in Google spreadsheets

MrGoogle — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:30:00 +0000

This week, we added the Subtotal function to our list of functions in Google spreadsheets. One of the benefits of the Subtotal function is that it works well with AutoFilters by only using unfiltered data when performing calculations (other functions such as Sum include filtered data calculations). Subtotal also lets you change what function you’re performing on those values very quickly, by selecting an item from a drop-down list. See our help article for details.

This versatile function is often used by accountants, finance professionals, and business consultants. It can also be extremely convenient for…

Access Google Docs with FedEx Print Office Online

MrGoogle — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:00:00 +0000

With Google Docs, you have instant access to your files anytime — whether you’re at the office on your desktop, on the go with your mobile phone, or at home on your laptop.

When you need to print your documents from anywhere, FedEx Office® is now making it even easier with a Google Docs feature. With FedEx Office Print Online, you can upload and access your Google Docs directly from their site, choose what file types to print and customize your printing options. Once you’ve completed your order, you can choose to pick up the prints at a local…

This week in Docs: Page numbers in documents and one click to Google Cloud Print

MrGoogle — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:45:00 +0000

This week in Docs, we’re announcing page numbers and page count in documents, plus one click to Google Cloud Print — a couple features that we hope will save you time and energy.

Page numbers and page count in documents

Today we’re making it possible to add page numbers and page count to your documents. You can use the Insert > Page number option to add page numbers to the header or footer of your documents.

We’ve also added the option to insert page count, which displays the total number of pages in your document.…

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