Google Docs for business now displays word count as users type.

Starting today, Google will be rolling out a minor but very useful update to Google Docs for businesses that will give users the ability to view their word count live while working on a document. This feature can be extremely useful if you're limited to a certain number of words in the document you're drafting.

Word Count has been available in Google Docs for a while, it just wasn't handily available and required users to stop typing, dive into the menus to fetch the data. "Instead of going to Tools > Word Count each time you want to view this information, now, you can simply select Tools > Word count > Display word count while typing to continuously display it in the lower-left corner of your doc.", Google wrote in a blog post.

There's more. Clicking on the Word Count box will provide additional information like page count, character count, and even counts per section of the document.

As I said above, the update is gradually rolling out and is intended for business users. Google did not say if Word Count is coming to home/mobile users.

Source: Google

Google updates Docs, Sheets and Slides with new formatting tools.

                

Google has updated its productivity suite today and in case you’ve never considered Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, you should do so for the very simple fact that they are free to use on any Android device. Of course, they do not offer the powerful features found in Microsoft Office, but what makes Google products interesting are their simplicity of use and collaborative features.

In this update, Google added the following features:

Google Docs: Easily format tables, images and drawings with new toolbar items.

Google Sheets: Easily format images and shapes with new toolbar items.

Google Slides: Easily format images and shapes with new toolbar items. 

These features are already available in the Android version of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but if you’re a Google user, you will find these new formatting features useful.

Google Docs and Sheets now support image cropping & adjustment, Headers and Footers.

Google has updated its productivity apps for Android today, namely Docs and Sheets with some useful features. If you're a big user of these apps, you will welcome these features. Google announced the update in a blog post and the new features apply to both Docs and Sheets running on Android phones and tablets.

First in the list is the introduction of headers and footers. From now on, users will be able to insert and edit headers and footers. The steps to do this is quite straight forward. First, users must turn on "Print Layout" and tap the header or footer, then type the text they want. Adding page numbers is also supported. Follow the full set of instructions in this link to add header, footer and page numbers to your docs.

The biggest new feature in this update is the ability to resize, move and rotate images. In addition, users will be to change their text wrapping and border styles. Google has a very detailed tutorial on their site.

Finally, Docs will also let you drag and drop text in Docs.

Grab Google Docs and Sheets in Google Play Store.

Google Docs, Sheets, Slides updated with Page setup, IMAGE function and more.

Happy New Year dear readers. I hope all went well for you during the Holidays seasons. Now that the party is over and we're all back to work, here's an update to Google Suite of productivity apps available for download in Google Play Store.

Google Docs and Sheets got some new features. Docs now lets users change the orientation, paper size and color in Page setup. A new IMAGE function in Sheets will display images inside cells.

This update also adds some new features in terms of new files support with Docs now capable of exporting files in EPUB format and OpenDocument Text (.odt). Docs will also handle the import of .odt files. Slides will also support the same features.

Before heading to Google Play Store to download the update, note that these features are only available when the device has a data connection.

Download:

• Google Docs
  
• Google Sheets
  
• Google Slides

Google Docs, Sheets & Slides gets improved comment notifications on Android and web.

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides received an update today that makes it easier to interact with comment notifications made by colleagues or friends on your documents. Prior to this update, notifications were sent as emails. This update, which works on Android devices and web browsers, will let you respond quickly. These notifications will appear based on your settings on the device and Drive settings for the browser.

Check out the updates in Google Play store:

• Google Docs
• Google Sheets
• Google Slides

Google Docs gets content editing in Print Layout view and Sheets gets conditional formatting.

Google Docs and Sheets picked up two new useful updates today. Google Docs users will be able from now on to edit documents while in Print layout view. Tap the edit pencil when viewing a document and users will be able to make changes to it without leaving that mode. That 'novelty' has me confused, as the experience is different in Microsoft Office where after launching Word you go directly in Print layout view, unless you've deliberately switched to another view previously. But I guess Google Docs first opens in Edit mode or something like that. The information to retain here is that tapping on the pencil in Print Layout mode will let you edit a document without switching views.

Google Sheets for its part is getting conditional formatting. A tool that allows you to apply formats to cells or a range of cells, rows and columns based on certain conditions. The formatting change depends on the value of cells or formula. For example, a cell may have its content become red or green if it contains a particular word or number, like green if there is a profit or red in case of loss in a balance sheet. Conditional Formatting is an excellent tool to highlight sheet content for quick viewing. Note that you'll be able to create new and edit existing conditional formatting rules.

Google made the announcement of the release of these features on its blog today, but they may not appear in the store yet because it is a gradual update. But rest assured it is coming. 

Download:

• Google Docs
• Google Sheets

This update is also available on iOS.

Source: Google

Google will soon let you set expiration dates on files in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides.

As a System Admin, I get to work with various people internally and externally, the latter being either colleagues from other regions or contractors, but in both cases accounts must be created and access to company resources granted to outsiders. It can be tedious for contractors working on a particular time limited project because it is so easy to forget to remove access after the projects is complete. Enter expiration date.

In an upcoming update to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides, Systems Admins will be able to set expiration date for specific user access to files in one of the above-mentioned apps. The scenario is quite simple. If a project lasts a month, you will be able to grant access to contractor for the duration of the project. After completion of the project, access to the file will be automatically denied to contractor if he/she tries to access it again. However, according to Google, "you’ll only be able to set expiration dates for users with comment or view access; you will not be able to set expiration dates for file owners or users with edit access."

Note that this "expiration date" feature is intended for business only and will not be available until mid- to late Q2 2016.

Source: Google

Export your Google Docs to EPUB format.

In an update coming soon to Google Docs, users will be able to export documents to EPUB publications "allowing people to consume long-form content in their preferred apps on a diverse range of screen sizes and devices, including smartphones, tablets, and eReaders." 

EPUB is short for Electronic Publication, an open eBook standard that is widely supported and one of its features is support for reflowable document, which adapts text when a "page" is resized. In comparison, a PDF file page is fixed and cannot be re-sized and is kind of a pain to read. 

Exporting a file as EPUB in Google Docs is very easy. Simply go to File menu > Download as > EPUB Publication (.epub).

Head over to Google Play Store to verify if the update is available for you to download.  

Google lets you enable/disable notifications settings in Docs, Sheets & Slides; view named ranges in Sheets.

Back in November, Google introduced a new mobile notification feature for when files on Google Drive were shared with you or someone requested access to a file you own. The notifications can be enabled/disabled with the settings of Drive. With today's update, Google now lets you change the notifications  in the settings of Google Docs, Sheets and Slides for Android. The notifications settings still applies to all of the Google productivity tools and cannot be toggled individually.

In addition to notifications, Google is bringing Named Ranges to Sheets for Android. Don't get too excited as you will only be able to view those named ranges that you created in Google Sheets on the web. Just in case you don't know, named ranges let you give a name to a range of cells for easier tracking or when creating formulas.

Check out the updates in Google Play Store. They may not available in every region yet.

Source: Google 

Google adds templates to its productivity suite: Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.

                       

Google has finally made templates available for its productivity apps. Google Docs, Slides and Sheets now let you start your creations using built-in templates that are accessible by tapping the "New" button. For Docs and Sheets, you get to select diverse templates including themes like Resumes, Letters, Education and Work. Simply choose the template you need and you're presented with one with the layout, picture placement, paragraphs, proper headings, fonts already set for you. Remove the template text - which by the way is not Latin and does not mean anything at all, so your translator is not broken - and get started adding your own text.

Check out the updates in the Play store:

• Google Docs
• Google Sheets
• Google Slides

Google updates its productivity suite.

Your Android device is a great productivity tool and Google knows that. The company is regularly updating its productivity suite adding new features to make our lives easier. This week, Google Docs, Sheets and Slide were updated. The first two received some welcome additions while Slides got some bug fixes and unknown improvements.

Who doesn't use documents. Everyone does. With that in mind, Google updated Docs with search. Users will be able to do search right within Docs, no need to leave the app to start Google Search and switch back to Docs. Multitasking within Docs is certainly going to enhance your productivity. And google did not stop there as it made the formatting tools available right when you need them. Last in the change log is the customary bug fixes and performance improvements. Up next is Google Sheets.

Data crunchers or eaters will love this update to Google Sheets which will let them "visualize trends and understand data with automatically created charts and insights." Remember those frustrating moments when you tried to make an individual word bold in a cell and the formatting tool would stubbornly apply it to the entire text? That's behind us now. Sheets will let you apply formatting to individual word in cells easily. 

One of the most tedious task in Sheets is data entry, very often typing the same data. Sure copy/paste helps, but it is not a perfect solution. Enter drop downs which lets you choose cell contents based on data you already entered in above cells. Microsoft Excel users have been using this for years, as well as suggested formulas that can be inserted with a tab.

Head over to Google Play Store to update Docs, Sheets and Slides:

• Google Docs
• Google Sheets
• Google Slides

Android finally gets official Google Docs app.

Better late than never. Google finally published a Google Doc app to Android Market that will allow users to create, edit, upload  and share documents from phones running Android 2.1 or later. Of course the app is free for download on Android Market. 

DESCRIPTION

Create, edit, upload and share your documents with the Google Docs app.

Create, edit, upload and share your docs from your phone with the Google Docs app:

* Designed for Android to save you time finding your docs
* Edits to your documents appear to collaborators in seconds
* Make quick changes to spreadsheets
* View your documents, PDFs, images and more.
* Upload and convert files to the Google Docs format
* Take a photo of printed text and convert it to a Google document
* Share docs with your phone’s contacts