Google Docs

250 'Google Docs' stories May 2011 - October 2015

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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 now eats Google Apps fees for switchers w/ previous enterprise agreements

Stephen Hall Oct 19 2015 - 11:00 am PT

According to a post made on the Google for Work blog this morning, Google is now giving enterprises a new opportunity to try Google Docs. Google knows that many enterprises likely have previous enterprise agreements with other companies that would make trying out Docs for their organizations difficult, so the company is now offering to pay the usual Google Apps fees until those contracts run out:

In fact, we’re so confident that Docs has all the features you need, without the ones you don’t, that we’re making it even easier to give it a try. If you’re worried about switching to Docs because you still have an enterprise agreement (EA) with another provider, we’ll cover the fees of Google Apps until your contract runs out. We’ll even chip in on some of the deployment costs and set you up for success with one of our Google for Work Partners.

Google says that once your enterprise agreement is runs out, companies can sign up on a simple contract “with no traps or gotchas,” and that many businesses find that Google Apps is cheaper, as well. The company, additionally, points out that many of the features that businesses think are missing from Google Docs are actually present, and that more and more useful tools are being added constantly.

Businesses can head over to the Google Apps‘ website to learn more.

Google Drive clocks out early, service disruption impacts Docs + other apps [Updated]

Zac Hall Oct 9 2015 - 12:45 pm PT

Update: Google says all services are restored!

Seeing Google Drive and other services unresponsive this afternoon? Rest assured that it’s not just you. Google has acknowledged the service disruption on its app status page with this message posted within the hour:

We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Drive. We will provide more information shortly.

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Google Docs gains speech to text, new templates, smart sheets, more

Tom Maxwell Sep 2 2015 - 12:01 pm PT

Update: Two other minor updates targeted to business customers have also been included. Text inside a Sheets cell can now be partially formatted, rather than formatting all the text to one font style (i.e. italics), and Google’s fonts are preserved when opening a Docs or Sheets file in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.

Google has today pushed a bunch of new features and general improvements to its Docs suite of web-based productivity apps. It’s the beginning of the school year so it’s no surprise that the company’s post on the changes is targeted towards teachers, but anyone using Docs will benefit.

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Google Docs & Sheets for Android learn a few new useful tricks

Tom Maxwell Aug 20 2015 - 8:27 am PT

Update: This post has been updated to include an APKMirror link to the Docs update which includes Print Layout.

Google Docs and Sheets, two of products that make up Google’s suite of online productivity tools, have received some small updates on Android that will come in handy for mobile warriors (sorry, had to say it).

Let’s start with Docs. Now from the overflow menu of a document you’ll find a new Print Layout option that, when selected, will show you a fully paginated (each page labeled with its order in the document), read-only version of your document. This is what your document will look like printed on paper. Print Layout will continue to update in real-time as collaborators make changes. The ability to edit from within the Print Layout view will come in the future.

The other new updates today come for Google Sheets. The first is a new “intuitive keyboard functionality.” Now when you tap a cell in a Sheets spreadsheet, either the alphabetic or numeric will open depending on which type of characters are in the cell. Tap a cell with only numbers in it, Sheets will open the numeric keypad so you don’t have to make another tap to switch to it. Nice touch.

The final update to hit Sheets is autofill. As you can see in the GIF above, autofill makes it easy to complete a pattern without the tedium of going cell-by-cell and doing it yourself. Select the data you want to repeat and drag to the cells you’d like to repeat it in, and Sheets will fill in the cells using the pattern of your selected data.

The latter two updates for Sheets can be found in the latest update to the app for Android in Google Play, while an APK download of Docs including Print Layout can be found on APKMirror.

Google Slides presentations can now be shared over Hangouts video call

Stephen Hall Aug 5 2015 - 7:38 pm PT

Google has announced today that, thanks to a recent update to Google Slides, users can now quickly and easily share their presentations over Hangouts video call.

Google Slides helps you share your big ideas with the world, but sometimes presenting these ideas can be challenging. In June, Slides added support for Chromecast and Airplay, which made it easier to project your slides on the big screen. Now there’s another new way to share your work: easy presenting to Hangouts video calls. Teammates, partners, clients and classmates can see your ideas, even if they’re on the other side of the planet.

As you can see in the below video, all you need to get started is an Android phone or tablet. Tapping the play button along the top bar of the app will let you present to a new video call or one that’s already ongoing.

Google axes editing of Docs on mobile web, presenting install banners for multiple file types

Tom Maxwell Jul 27 2015 - 3:33 pm PT

Google Drive for the mobile web has always restricted editing to just Docs files — attempting to edit Sheets or Slides files required downloading the Google Drive app for iOS or Android. That changes today. No, you won’t be able to edit Sheets or Slides files now, but rather Google is also killing off the editing capabilities in Docs for mobile web.

The change makes total sense, if for consistency at the very least. But Google says it’s because the Drive native mobile app is “easier to use and offers more robust functionality.” Native apps typically have more access to the hardware and system-level software capabilities of the devices they’re installed on than web apps, and since they are downloaded directly onto the device, much of the boilerplate user interface doesn’t have to be loaded from the Internet each time the user goes to use them.

From now on, when a Drive user opens a Docs, Sheets, or Slides document from the mobile web, they’ll be presented with one of Google’s new app install banners that make it easy to launch or download the native app, and then be taken directly to the file they were initially viewing in the browser. Tapping the pencil icon in the top right will also trigger the banner to appear.

The user interface across the mobile web viewers for the three aforementioned editing tools have also been cleaned up to create a more consistent experience, which is nice.

Google’s productivity apps receive minor updates for paid and unpaid users

Tom Maxwell Jul 20 2015 - 1:57 pm PT

Google’s productivity apps have received two small updates today, one specifically for paid customers of Google Apps, the enterprise-grade version of Google’s online productivity suite for those who want to use Google products with their own domain, and the other for all users of the products. Let’s take a look.

First off, a couple products which tend to fall under the “Docs” brand have received a new UI button (pictured above) for all users which makes it clearer want kind of access you have to a document you’re viewing, and easier to request greater access. If you’re viewing a spreadsheet and have only been granted the ability to view it but not edit or add comments, for example, you’ll see a blue button which says “View only.” Clicking the downward facing arrow reveals the option to request greater access, in this case the ability to edit. Viewers with the ability to comment will see a similar button in the color green. The blue “View only” button will appear across Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings, while the “Comment only” button will only appear across Slides, Sheets, and Drawings.

The second minor change up on the block is specifically for Apps administrators, and alerts company employees to when a document they’ve shared with someone cannot be viewed by that person for one reason or another. Oftentimes to prevent sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands, Google Apps administrators will restrict their employees from sharing files with any user of Google’s apps other than those on the same domain (i.e. tom@corpemail.com). This is what it may look like if you attempt to share a document with someone outside your corporation and sharing outside your own domain is disabled:

More information on both updates is available on the Google Apps Updates blog, here for the new Docs UI buttons, and here for the new invalid sharing settings alerts.

Google Apps customers can now whitelist external domains for cross-sharing

Tom Maxwell Jul 13 2015 - 12:55 pm PT

Customers of Google’s Internet-based productivity suite, this one’s for you: As an Apps for Business or Education admin, you can now whitelist specific outside domains to share files with people across organizations.

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No, Google’s Photos app isn’t uploading photos without you knowing it

Cam Bunton Jul 13 2015 - 8:22 am PT

Over the past day or so we’ve seen a number of reports across the web claiming that Google’s Photos app is uploading photos even after it’s been uninstalled. Of course the worry is that customers could be racking up huge cellular data overages from having it “switched on without them knowing it”. The truth is, having the Photos app installed or uninstalled makes no difference to whether or not your snaps are being uploaded to Google’s drive in the sky.

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Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides for Android get improved editing, collaboration features

Jordan Kahn Jul 9 2015 - 11:15 am PT

Google is rolling out updates today for its Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps for Android, bringing a few improvements to editing and collaboration features in the process.

First up, Google will now offer quick access to editing titles for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations directly from the app’s overflow menu in the top right corner of the UI across all three apps (as pictured above).

In addition, the Google Slides Android app gains the ability to switch layouts of existing slides: individuals can now change the layout of an existing slide to one of several predefined layouts, allowing them to update presentations on mobile more effectively.

Lastly, the Docs app get improved collaboration features for those using the Office Compatibility Mode:

People can now reply to comments when working in Office Compatibility Mode in the Docs app. In addition, when in OCM, suggestions and comments now appear in the Comments panel in the order they were made—rather than as all comments first and all suggestions second.

All three app updates should be arriving on Google Play for Android users sometime today.

Google appears to be sunsetting the classic Drive UI

Tom Maxwell Jul 2 2015 - 1:39 pm PT

Are you a holdout who’s been using the classic Google Drive ever since Google unveiled the new design over a year ago? Unfortunately, it seems that your time to give in has come.

Initially spotted by a tipster talking to the (unofficial) Google Operating System blog, the toggle in Drive’s settings dropdown which allowed switching between the new Drive experience and the classic version appears to be disappearing. I can no longer see it myself. It was possible to switch to the classic version by clicking the settings icon in Drive and then choosing “Leave the new Drive”.

We don’t have our own image of it, but thanks to techinfoweb.com here’s what the toggle did look like:

And from a Google support page on how to switch between the two (it’s still live), here’s a comparison of the design and user interface of the new Drive and the classic Drive:

I know a lot of diehard users were upset when Google unveiled the new Drive, but I’m not quite sure what exactly is believed to be worse about the new experience. Maybe one of you can enlighten me?

You can now publish Google Sheets documents to the web in 5 new formats

Stephen Hall Jun 30 2015 - 11:32 am PT

After making a spreadsheet in Google Sheets, you can make your content publicly visible through the app’s “Publish to the web” tool. As Google announced on the Google Apps updates blog today, this feature now supports publishing to five new formats. On top of being able to choose Web page, you can now publish in Comma-separated values (.csv), Tab-separate values (.tsv), PDF document (.pdf), Microsoft Excel (.xlsx), and OpenDocument spreadsheet (.ods).

Today’s launch allows people to publish spreadsheets in five additional formats—as comma-separated values (.csv), tab-separated values (.tsv), a PDF document (.pdf), a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet (.xlsx), or an OpenDocument spreadsheet (.ods). The URL generated, when opened in a browser, will automatically download the spreadsheet in the chosen format (spreadsheets in these additional formats cannot be embedded).

To see the new options, head over to a Google Sheets document and click “File,” and then “Publish to the web…” The feature should be available over at the Google Sheets website right now.

Google Docs now supports more image types when converting Microsoft Office files

Stephen Hall Jun 22 2015 - 2:27 pm PT

Google has announced today that it is expanding the types of images it supports when converting Microsoft Office files to Google Docs. Previously, supported image file types included JPEG, PNG, EMF, and WMF. Now, a greater number of less common image types are also supported. Google Docs can now convert larger images, more file formats (specifically including TIFF), and images with color profiles other than RGB.

Starting today, larger images, images in less common formats (like TIFF), and images with non-RGB color profiles (like CMYK), can also be imported to and exported from the Google Docs editors on the web successfully. Check out the Help Center for more information on converting files in Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

This is a useful update if you commonly find that your Microsoft Office documents aren’t being properly converted when moving them to Google Docs — or, likewise, when you’re exporting them to use in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. You can head over to the Google Apps blog to read the original post, and Google sends you to the Help Center if you need more information about importing and exporting documents.

Google Drive for Android gets updated w/ performance improvements, PDF enhancements

Jordan Kahn May 13 2015 - 1:22 pm PT

Google is rolling out an update for the Google Drive for Android app today that it says brings a long list of performance improvements and polish.

Google says the update also includes enhancements to PDFs with “the ability to see completed form data.”

The updated Google Drive for Android app, version 2.2.183.15, should be available to all through Google Play over the coming week.

Google released updates to other Android apps today including new features for Google Docs and Slides and improvements for Gmail.

Updates for Google Docs & Slides let you insert & quickly edit images on Android/iOS

Jordan Kahn May 13 2015 - 11:31 am PT

Google is today rolling out updates to its Google Docs and Slides mobile apps bringing the ability to insert images directly from the app on both phones and tablets.
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Google updates Google Docs Android apps with improved editing features, faster loading

Ben Lovejoy Apr 16 2015 - 5:40 am PT

Google has updated its Android apps for editing Google documents on the move. Google Docs now allows you to accept, reject or comment on suggestions, as well as track changes and comments in Word files; Google Sheets lets you move, resize and delete spreadsheets; and Google Slides now offers you the ability to reorder objects on slides.

Google said that PowerPoint presentations will also be faster to load and scroll.

The company previously updated Google Docs with improvements to its Office Compatibility Mode. All three apps are a free download from the Google play store.

Update Wednesday roundup: Docs, Slides, Sheets, & more updated, Android for Work released for Jelly Bean

Chance Miller Apr 15 2015 - 3:26 pm PT

Google’s Update Wednesday routine is in full swing today with a variety of updates rolling out to the company’s apps. Earlier today, Chrome 42 for Android made its was to the Play Store. Now, several other Google apps have been updated. Google has pushed updates to its Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Google My Business apps. The company also today released Android for Work app to the Play Store.

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App Roundup: Google updates Maps, YouTube, Inbox, Play Music, more

Stephen Hall Mar 19 2015 - 7:55 am PT

Google tends to push several updates to its apps in the middle of the week, and this week has been a particularly eventful one. Updates have landed over the last 24 hours for several apps in Google’s Android inventory, including Inbox, Google Docs (Sheets and Slides, too), YouTube, Quickoffice, Google Maps, and Google Play Music.

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Google Docs for Android updated w/ Office Compatibility Mode improvements, more

Chance Miller Feb 18 2015 - 1:48 pm PT

Google today has started rolling out an update to the Google Docs app on Android with a few new enhancements. First off, the update adds support for selecting, cutting, copying, and pasting text, images, tables, and charts in Office Compatibility Mode. The update also adds the ability to insert links into Google documents.

From the Google Apps blog:

A new version of the Google Docs Android app is now available on Google Play. New features include:

Support for selecting, cutting, copying and pasting text along with images, tables, and charts in Office Compatibility Mode

Ability to insert links in Google documents

The update is available now via the Play Store, although it is a staged rollout and may take a little while to hit your device.

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Opinion: Can Google woo businesses while seemingly suffering from ‘Product ADD’?

Ben Lovejoy Jan 22 2015 - 6:54 am PT

Two of the biggest tech companies in the world–Google and Apple–couldn’t be more different in their philosophies. Apple has always believed in doing a very few things very well, famously saying no to a thousand things for every time it says yes. Google, in contrast, has tried to do– well, almost everything, including things well in the realms of science fiction.

Steve Jobs and Larry Page spoke about this difference shortly before Jobs died, with the Apple co-founder urging Page to “figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up.” Jobs expressed the view that, without focus, Google was in danger of turning into the next Microsoft, creating a large number of ok products but none of them with any wow factor …
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Google+ gets minor update for Android, Touch ID comes to Docs, Slides, and Sheets for iOS

Stephen Hall Jan 21 2015 - 11:49 am PT

Google has—as it very often does on Wednesdays—released a slew of updates across many of its first-party apps. Today’s updates are hitting the official Google+ Android app as well as the Docs suite of Android and iOS apps.
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Google adds Docs, Sheets, & Slides shortcuts to App Launcher

Jordan Kahn Dec 17 2014 - 1:01 pm PT

Google today announced that it’s adding new shortcuts for its Google Drive web apps— Docs, Sheets, and Slides— to the App Launcher feature accessible from the upper right corner of most its web services (pictured right). The new shortcuts join services like Search, Mail, Calendar, and Drive that were previously accessible from the App Launcher.

For regular users, Google is adding Docs to the main section of the App Launcher and making Sheets and Slides shortcuts available by opting in when visiting the apps:

And the next time you visit sheets.google.com or slides.google.com, you’ll see the option to add Sheets and Slides to the launcher as well. Remember that you can always rearrange the icons to your liking by just clicking and dragging them around… One note–if you’ve already customized the arrangement of your icons, you’ll need to visit docs.google.com and click “Add a shortcut” in the App Launcher to get the Docs icon to appear.

For Google Apps users, Google will put Docs, Slides, and Sheets shortcuts in the App Launcher by default and bump Groups and Contacts into the “More” section of the launcher.

Apps users can expect the change to kick in early next month.

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for Android get updated with a slew of new features

Stephen Hall Dec 15 2014 - 1:19 pm PT

Google has announced today that, following a slew of updates that came to the Google Drive collection of iOS apps last week, the company’s Android apps for Drive are also receiving a few updates today:

Docs has some new, handy line spacing controls that let you choose single, double or fractional line spacing, Sheets has scrollbars for faster navigation, and you can now insert, move, resize and rotate text boxes, shapes and lines in the updated Slides app.

All three apps are now even friendlier with Office files with easier file creation and other updates, and we’ve added better accessibility options and squashed some bugs.

The updates coming to this set of apps may seem minor, but there are a few notable additions here. Scrollbars in sheets is going to make that app much more usable, and the ability to create and edit graphics within Slides is going to make it much easier to make presentations that are closer to what you’d be able to do on the desktop.

Google says that the updates should be rolling out today. If you don’t already have them, you can get the Docs, Sheets, and Slides Google Drive apps over on the Play Store for free.

Google updates Drive and Docs sharing with profile pictures and suggested recipients

9to5 Staff Dec 11 2014 - 11:04 am PT

Google has made a couple of updates to its Drive and Docs editors that deliver smarter sharing and make it easier for collaborating with others. Starting today, after adding an email address to the sharing dialogue on either service, you will see profile pictures for each person you’ve added and, after adding two collaborators, suggested recipients based on who you frequently share emails or files with.
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