Google Docs, Sheets and Slides get new features for enterprise and education users

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are getting notable updates today with a handful of new features specifically designed to improve the experience for both enterprise and education G Suite users. Among the features, the apps are getting new collaboration and organization tools, customizable templates with built-in add-ons, and enhanced search capabilities via Google Cloud Search integration.

New templates arriving today include built-in add-ons and you’ll also now have the ability to customize your own templates with add-ons:

These templates allow you to customize and deploy tools specific to your organization’s workflows. We’ve launched five examples of this in the general template gallery, like the new Mutual Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) template from LegalZoom and DocuSign. With this template, businesses can quickly create an NDA and collect signatures using the DocuSign Add-on for Docs.

Google gives the example of a custom Sheets template “paired with an add-on to gather internal approvals or an invoice template in Docs (paired with an add-on) that pulls information from your CRM system.”

For the new collaboration and organization features, users will now be able to name versions in all three apps, and Docs users can now preview “clean versions” as well as accept or reject all edit suggestions at once:

Being able to assign custom names to versions of your document is a great way to keep a historical record of your team’s progress. It’s also helpful for communicating when a document is actually final. You can organize and track your team’s changes in one place under “Version history” (formerly known as “Revision history”) on the web. Select File > Version history > Name current version. For even quicker recall, there’s an option to select “Only show named versions” in Docs, Sheets or Slides… Preview “clean versions” of Docs to see what your Doc looks like without comments or suggested edits. Select Tools > Review suggested edits > Preview accept all OR Preview reject all.

In addition, users will now be able to suggest changes for a Doc from mobile devices including both Android and iPhone/iPad.

And lastly, Docs and Slides are today getting new and improved search features thanks to integration of Google Cloud Search into the Explore feature. That, according to Google, will allow Cloud Search to offer “relevant information to help you work more efficiently,” including pulling in info from Gmail, Drive and other G Suite apps. You’ll see this new info when you start typing into the Explore tab.

You can get more info on Google’s G Suite update on its blog here.