Google Docs

252 'Google Docs' stories May 2011 - January 2019

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Google Docs originated from web-based word processor Writely. The app would lay the groundwork for such common features as collaborative text editing. Eventually acquired by Google, it was made available to all Google Apps users in February of 2007.

The marquee feature of Docs is the ability to collaborate with a wide number of people online. Controls help determine who can see, comment, and edit documents. In its current form, Docs is an HTML5 app that runs on most modern browsers and even has support for rudimentary viewing on mobile. Its Android and iOS apps are quite powerful and gives users access to the same web functionality.

On Chrome, Docs works offline and allows users to work without an internet connection and have changes synced backed up to the cloud. An Add-ons feature allows third-party developers to add extra functionality like a thesaurus and a bibliography creator.

Google Drive

Google Drawings can now be embedded into Google Docs and easily updated

Abner Li Jan 7 2019 - 12:44 pm PT

In addition to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, G Suite touts other productivity apps like Google Forms and Sites. Google Drawings will soon feature improved Google Docs integration by allowing a direct and updating embed.

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Google Docs

[Update: Forms] Google launches ‘․new’ links for instantly creating blank Google Docs, Sheets & more

9to5 Staff Jan 3 2019 - 9:30 am PT

Google took to Twitter today to introduce a small but useful feature that makes it easier than ever to create a Google Doc. By merely visiting a series of ‘.new’ URLs, such as ‘docs.new’ or ‘slide.new’, users will immediately be taken to a new blank document.

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Google Drive

Activity dashboard in Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides updated w/ Google Material Theme

Abner Li Oct 29 2018 - 12:26 pm PT

Earlier this year, Google introduced an Activity dashboard in Docs, Sheets, and Slides that allowed users to easily keep track of file history. Like Google Drive, it’s now gaining the Google Material Theme with a redesigned interface on the web.

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Grammarly adds Google Docs support in beta for all users this week

Ben Schoon Sep 12 2018 - 6:43 am PT

Grammarly is one of the best proofreading tools you can use today, and now after a limited launch, the tool is adding Google Docs support for all users…

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Gmail’s side panel Keep and Tasks widgets coming to Docs, Calendar, other Google apps

Abner Li Aug 22 2018 - 10:47 am PT

G Suite Google Docs

Besides the Google Material Theme, Gmail added a number of productivity features with its revamped web version in April. Today, the “quick-access side panel” that provides convenient access to Keep, Tasks, and more is making its way to other G Suite web apps like Docs and Calendar.

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Google preps Classroom, Drive updates, more VR, & ARCore on Chromebook tablets for new school year

Abner Li Aug 7 2018 - 9:18 am PT

Google Education ISTE 2019

With the new school year almost underway, Google is launching a number of education features across its products. Many were announced earlier this year and are coming out of beta, including a big revamp to Google Classroom, formating updates for Google Docs, and a suite of new AR/VR features.

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Google Docs adds Grammar Suggestions, Drive nears 1B users, & Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat

Abner Li Jul 24 2018 - 9:40 am PT

At Cloud Next 18, Google announced a number of machine learning-powered updates for G Suite. Smart Reply is now coming to Hangouts Chat and Smart Compose is now available for all G Suite customers, while Google Docs will now offer “grammar suggestions.”

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Google Drive

Google Docs adds natural language search to Explore, expands Quick Access

Abner Li Jun 28 2018 - 12:24 pm PT

One area Google is heavily applying machine learning advancements to is work and productivity. Just yesterday, Google announced that Calendar’s new Digital Wellbeing features would infer your office hours. Now, Docs is gaining natural language search, while Quick Access is rolling out to more users.

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Google Drive

Google Slides adds support for inserting slides into Google Docs, new guides and rulers, more

Justin Duino Apr 18 2018 - 8:58 pm PT

To better compete with Microsoft Office, Google is continually adding new features to its suite of apps within Google Drive. This time around, Google Slides is getting an update that adds new guides and rulers to make it easier to format a slide, the ability to add a single slide and place it into a Google Doc, and more.

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Copied Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides can soon include comments, suggestions

Abner Li Nov 8 2017 - 11:38 am PT

Following a very useful tweak to the image picker earlier this week, Google Drive is getting another small, but noticeable feature. Copying a document will soon include the option to bring over the original file’s comments and suggestions.

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Google Drive

Google simplifies image insertion in Docs, Slides, & Drawings, adds Google Photos drawer

Abner Li Nov 6 2017 - 8:50 am PT

In a small, but impactful update, Google today announced that the Drive apps are receiving “improvements to the image insertion process.” Applicable to Docs, Slides, and Drawings on the web, there is now a redesigned menu and dedicated drawer for adding images to files.

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Google Drive

Google explains Tuesday’s Drive and Docs bug that marked some files as violating ToS

Abner Li Nov 2 2017 - 10:13 am PT

On Tuesday, several Google Docs users noticed that they were not able to access their files, with Drive displaying a Terms of Service violation error. In a blog post, Google today explained the issue and addressed concerns that arose.

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

Jordan Kahn Aug 16 2017 - 9:04 am PT

G Suite

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.

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Google Keep adds deep Docs integration, now a G Suite core service

Abner Li Feb 28 2017 - 12:01 pm PT

Launched in 2013, Google Keep has added a number of major features that make it a powerful note taking app. With new Docs integration, Google is making Keep a serious part of its productive tools for both free and paying G Suite customers.

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PSA: It’s now easier to make a Google Doc from a template via Google Drive

Stephen Hall Jan 30 2017 - 1:51 pm PT

You’ve long been able to quickly create a Google Doc from within Google Drive, but if your intention was to create a Google Doc from one of Google’s many readily-available templates, that required a few more annoying clicks. Now, Google is adding a button to Google Drive that lets you hope right on over to the template selection page to save you some time…

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You can now edit images, insert headers, and more in Google Docs for Android

Justin Duino Jan 27 2017 - 9:55 am PT

Google is currently rolling out an update to Google Docs on Android which gives you a lot more editing power when working on documents while mobile. These include the ability to resize, move, and rotate images, drag and drop text, and even insert headers and footers straight from your phone or tablet…

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Ability to download individual Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for offline editing now rolling out

Abner Li Apr 18 2016 - 6:17 pm PT

In 2013, Google Drive addressed one of the biggest advantages of Microsoft Office: offline access and editing. With this feature enabled, Docs, Slides, and Sheets effectively becomes a native application. An update starting today will allow users to select specific files to store and edit without an internet connection.

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Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, & Slides will soon let you set expiration dates for document access

Jordan Kahn Mar 15 2016 - 11:01 am PT

Google is adding the ability to set expiration dates for access to documents across Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides apps. The idea is that you can limit a contributor’s access to a document for a specific time period, which Google points out will come in handy for companies and organizations that often share files with third-parties temporarily:

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Google Docs adds ‘outline tool’ for easier document navigation on Android & web

Jordan Kahn Mar 9 2016 - 12:05 pm PT

Google is rolling out a new feature for Google Docs on Android and the web today that will make navigating through long documents much easier. The new “outline tool” adds a new pane on the left of the page adds quickly links to the document’s headers so you can quickly jump to that section without having to scroll through the whole document to get there.

Displayed in a pane to the left of the page, the outline features headers for each section of your document, making it simple to quickly jump from section to section. If you haven’t manually applied headers, no worries—we’ll do it for you, intelligently detecting the logical divisions within your work. You can then edit or remove these headers as necessary.

And there’s also a second component to it that lets users scroll through documents easier with a new “navigation handle” that will appear once you start to scroll. “Touching that handle will display the entire document’s structure, allowing you quickly skip from section to section, instead of slowly swiping up and down.”

Here’s a look at the feature in action:

Look out for the feature in Google Docs on Android and the web starting today.

Google Docs apps add much-needed iPad Pro support, but still lack iOS 9 multitasking

Zac Hall Mar 8 2016 - 10:08 am PT

Google is on a roll lately with readying its iOS apps for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro announced last September and released last November.

Google’s YouTube app gained native resolution two weeks ago, but lacked iOS 9 multitasking features like Split View and Picture-in-Picture, then yesterday we saw Google Photos update with iPad Pro support in an update that actually includes Split View and Slide Over features.

Now it’s the Google Docs apps turn, at least to start, as the latest version of Google Docs for iOS adds native resolution support for the iPad Pro.

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Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides get new templates on web & mobile

Jordan Kahn Mar 2 2016 - 11:54 am PT

Google is today adding new templates to the initial selection it first rolled out to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides back in September of last year.

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Use your voice to edit & format in Google Docs w/ these new voice commands

Jordan Kahn Feb 24 2016 - 10:59 am PT

After rolling out voice typing functionality to Google Docs on the web in Chrome back in September, today the web app is adding the ability to make edits using your voice too.

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‘Documents for Android Wear’ lets you view Google Docs and PDFs on your watch [Video]

Stephen Hall Jan 19 2016 - 10:24 am PT

A new app called Document Viewer for Android Wear was recently released by appfour, and you’re probably either excited or rolling your eyes. I’m definitely in the latter category. But then again, most times developers have tried to take apps that typically require a decently sized screen and shrink them to the size of teeny tiny Android Wear, the results haven’t been great. I’m looking at you, emulators that are definitely cool–proofs–of–concept-but-completely-impractical.

This one may not be as ridiculous as running a PSP game, but I’d say—and I mean absolutely no offense to appfour—it’s very unlikely to become an app you use daily…

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Google Drive apps add support for templates on Android and iOS

Abner Li Dec 15 2015 - 2:20 pm PT

In September, to coincide with the beginning of the school year, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides added the ability to use a template to start a document. Previously restricted to the web, an update rolling out starting today adds the same ability to Android and iOS apps.

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