Google adds quick-side panel to Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings to make G Suite users more productive.

Google added a quick-side panel to its productivity suite with the objective of making G Suite users more productive. The quick-side panel will allow users to do their job without leaving Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings. Three Google products will be available within these apps and they are google Calendar , keep and Tasks. So far, the side panel has been available in Gmail. This update brings the same feature to Google Calendar where users will be able to use Keep and Tasks, thanks to the side panel.

The update is rolling out now and G Suite users will start seeing it within 15 days.

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 Sheets easily builds charts with a simple question thanks to machine learning.

Google Sheets on Android received some major improvements today. Thanks to machine learning, Sheets is now capable of manipulating data and displaying them in a meaningful way without much effort from the user. For example, creating tables in spreadsheets requires several steps, but thanks to machine learning and a simple question, and without the use of formulas, Google Sheets is capable building a chart for you. By a simple question, I mean something like "what are average sales on Sundays?". Just take a look above the Gif to get an idea of how it all works.

Google also improved the synchronization mechanism between Sheets, Docs and Slides. If you copied a table say between Sheets and Docs, a simple press of an update button will keep the two files or data source in sync.

This update also some more features to improve users' experience and efficiency:

• Keyboard shortcuts: Change default shortcuts in your browser to the same spreadsheet shortcuts you’re already used to. For example, delete a row quickly by using “Ctrl+-.”  
• Upgraded printing experience: Preview Sheet data in today’s new print interface. Adjust margins, select scale and alignment options or repeat frozen rows and columns before you print your work.
• Powerful new chart editing experience: Create and edit charts in a new, improved sidebar. Choose from custom colors in charts or add additional trendlines to model data. You can also create more chart types, like 3D charts. This is now also available for iPhones and iPads. 
• More spreadsheet functions: We added new functions to help you find insights, bringing the total function count in Sheets to more than 400. Try “SORTN,” a function unique to Sheets, which can show you the top three orders or best-performing months in a sales record spreadsheet. Sheets also support statistical functions like “GAMMADIST,” “F.TEST” and “CHISQ.INV.RT.”

Learn more over on Google Blog.

Google Sheets now supports alternating row colors.

Google Sheets was updated with a new feature that makes reading data on a sheet legible with the introduction of alternating row colors. The change log states that users will be able to "apply and edit alternating row colors from the Formatting menu", thus make it easier to read the data stored in the rows and columns. Hopefully, this addition will open the path apply alternating row colors through Conditional Formatting. Let's wait and see.

Download or update Google Sheets from the Play Store. 

Preview Microsoft password-protected files in Google Drive.

No matter if you use Google Docs or Microsoft productivity suite, starting today, you will be able to preview Microsoft documents whether they're password protected or not. Going forward, when you open one of these files, you will be prompted for password and Google Drive will kindly oblige and upon entering the right password, Google Drive will open a read-only preview of the document. Not exactly what you're expecting, but i's a beginning. After all, Google is still playing catch up with Microsoft. This update does not apply to Android yet, but if you use Sheets on the web, then you're good to go.

Check out this update and preview password protected files on any Android devices. The update is available on Google Play Store.

Google Sheets now supports rotated text, accounting number formats, thicknesses and double borders.

Not all can afford Microsoft Office or Office 365. Google, thankfully, offers a free option that works on the web, a Android phone and Apple's iPhone. While Google productivity apps do not match Microsoft's offer yet and is even far from it, it is still an alternative to consider with Google constantly adding new features to its productivity app. Today Google has updated Google sheets app with new features based on users feedback. 

Users will be able to rotate text in Google Sheets cells to fit long header names into thin columns. This feature only works on the web, meaning you cannot rotate text on an Android device. The rotated text will show on any Android device though.

Google also made it easy to add currency symbols within the same monetary cells amounts. Again, this feature is available only on the web version of Google Sheets. Additionally, users will get to choose several border styles, including thicknesses and double borders. This feature is available in Toolbar > Borders > Borders Style.  

Google also added the following features:

• Support for using a mouse with the Sheets Android app
• Ability to view and select existing custom colors in the Sheets Android app
• Ability to drag and drop rows and columns in the Sheets Android and iOS apps
• Formatting suggestions in Explore in the Sheets iOS app

Google Sheets is available free for download on Google Play Store.

Slowly but surely, Google is catching up with Microsoft offerings.

Source: Google

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 adds support for more file formats in Google Sheets and Slides for Android.

No doubt Google is hard at work adding features to its productivity suite. A new update is available for Google Sheets and Slides Android apps after last week's update that brought expiration dates to shared documents.

In Sheets, users will be able to send a copy or save a spreadsheet as an HTML web page and this can be done right from the Share & Export menu. The saved files are provided in a .zip folder. Google also made it possible to save a sheet as Comma Separated Values (.CSV) and Tab Separated Values (.TSV). Google Sheets will also let you view Google Drawings in your spreadsheets, except that those drawings won't be visible if you happen to have frozen rows and columns on your sheets.

Google Slides only got one useful update which let users "send a copy  of or download the slide you're currently viewing as a .JPEG, .PNG, or .SVG file from the Share & export menu."

Both Google Sheets and Google Slides are available free on Google Play.

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

Google Sheets now lets you convert text to columns.

Google just made life easier for Google Sheets users with a new feature that allows them to copy and separate comma delimited text neatly into columns. This is only possible if the data is separated by commas, then a contextual menu will appear after the data is pasted into the sheet and the user can choose to split text into columns. This new feature will be a real time savior for heavy Sheets users. The update may not be available just yet, so make sure you check Google Play Store over the next two weeks.

Source: Google

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

Google Sheets finally lets you hide rows and columns.

Google Sheets just got better today with the ability to hide rows and columns. A feature Microsoft Office users are accustomed to for years on their PCs, tablets and phones. The "hide" feature comes in handy if you need to keep focus in a small part of your worksheet. The update also makes it easier to insert a link. Google also worked out some bugs and improved performance.

Google Sheet is available free in Google Play store.