Author Archives: G Suite Updates

Work anywhere with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in new offline mode

What’s changing 

It’s now possible for users to work on Docs, Sheets, and Slides files when your device is offline or have a bad internet connection within Google Drive. You can also preview which files are available offline with a new offline preview mode.

Right click on Docs, Sheets, and Slides files from within Google Drive to make those files available offline.

You can preview which files are available offline using the Offline preview mode

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users.

Why you’d use it 

We know it’s important for users to access and work on their files while traveling or when there’s low connectivity. With offline mode, it’s now possible to create, edit, and comment on Docs, Sheets, or Slides files. Any changes made to files while offline will then sync in Drive once the user is connected again.

How to get started 

  • Admins: Admins can enable this feature for all or some users:
    • To let users enable offline access (recommended), go to Apps > G Suite > Drive and Docs.
    • To enable offline access for specific devices, see this article in our Help Center.
    • Note: The default for this feature is that all users can enable offline access on any device they sign into, but it is not enabled automatically except on Chromebooks 
  • End users: To work with your files while offline, you’ll need to enable offline access in your Drive settings:
    • From Google Drive, click the gear icon at the top right corner, select Settings > General and select Sync Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings files to this computer so that you can edit offline.
    • Once offline access is enabled, a checkmark icon will appear in the top right next to Settings (gear icon) and Support (question mark). When you click this icon, you can find the offline preview toggle. 



Additional details 

To make files available offline in Google Drive, right click on any file and toggle Available offline from the menu while connected.

When offline access is enabled, Google Drive also automatically and intelligently makes a certain number of Google Docs/Sheets/Slides files available offline based on how recently you accessed them. You can preview which files are already available offline automatically using the offline preview mode. You can also mark a file available offline -- so that it always remains available offline -- while in offline preview mode, as long as you are connected.

Helpful links 

Availability 

Rollout details 
  • Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 24, 2019 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 21, 2019. 
G Suite editions 
  • Available to all G Suite editions.
On/off by default? 
  • This feature will be ON by default for users who already have offline enabled.
Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Work with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in Dropbox with a new beta

What’s changing 

This Dropbox beta will allow Dropbox users to work with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides directly in Dropbox.

G Suite admins with a Dropbox Business subscription for their organization can find more details and apply for the beta here.

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users.

Why you’d use it 

When users are signed in to both their Google and Dropbox accounts, they can create and store Docs, Sheets, and Slides files in any Dropbox folder, alongside traditional files. You’ll be able to:

  • Create and edit web-based files: 
    • You can start a shared Docs, Sheets, or Slides file right from dropbox.com or from apps on Windows and Mac, and have it stored in Dropbox. When you open files, you’ll be taken straight to familiar Google editors within Dropbox.
    • You can also open .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx files from Dropbox in Docs, Sheets, or Slides, and save them back to Dropbox in their original format. 


Create Docs, Sheets, and Slides from within Dropbox Web UI

  • Share Files and manage access: 
    • Adding a Docs, Sheets, or Slides file to a shared Dropbox folder will automatically grant members access. You can also share files on a one-off basis without adding it to a shared folder by inviting people from Dropbox or creating a shareable link. 


    • Whether sharing files directly from Dropbox or with a link, you can set edit or view-only access. You’ll also have the option to set permissions to team only when sharing within your organization or anyone when sharing files outside your organization.


Dropbox sharing modal overlaid on Slides presentation 



  • Search your files: Docs, Sheets, and Slides files will show up when searching in Dropbox, including results from the content within your Docs, Sheets, and Slides in addition to file names. 


  • Collaborate: You’ll be notified of any comments or edits made on your Docs, Sheets, and Slides files in your Dropbox notifications, so you can easily stay on top of what’s happening with your files. 

We hope this feature will streamline workflows by reducing the time spent switching between multiple tools helping you use data more effectively.

How to get started 



Additional details 

Dropbox users on desktop, web, and mobile can view, comment, search, move, copy, and delete files. Note that mobile users will not be able to edit files.

Helpful links 

For more details and how to apply for the beta, see here.

Availability 

G Suite editions 

  • Available to all G Suite editions.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

New email alerts and location for easier alert center management

What’s changing

We’re making some improvements to the alert center for G Suite. Specifically we’re:

  • Moving the location of alert management for predefined admin alerts in the Admin console to the system defined rules section.
  • Adding optional email notifications for more alerts.


Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

We hope that this will help you identify and take action to resolve potential issues affecting your domain. To get the most out of the alert center, you could also sign up for our recently announced beta, which will help you collaborate and track the status of alerts within your domain, as well as triage faster with insights from related alerts.

How to get started




Additional details

Moving alert management location

  • The alert management controls for predefined alerts could previously be found at Admin console > Reporting > Alerts. They will now be at Admin console > Security > Alert center > Settings (gear icon). 
  • These predefined admin alerts include: 
  • There will be no change to any settings (whether email alerts are on or off, or the email subscriber list for any alerts) or the content of the alerts. We’re just moving where you should go to manage them. There will also be no change to the location of custom alerts. For the moment, they will still be at Admin console > Reporting > Alerts. 



Email notification options for more alerts 

  • We’re adding an option to get email notifications for several existing alerts that previously didn’t have the option to receive emails. 
  • These alerts include: 
    • Domain data export initiated 
    • Phishing message detected post-delivery 
    • Spike in user-reported spam, and others 
  • For each alert, you can choose whether to turn them on or off, and to specify which email address the alerts should go to. 
  • The email alerts will be on by default. To change or turn off email alerts, they can be adjusted at Admin console > Security > Alert center (gear icon), or directly access the new System defined rules section. 


Helpful links 




Availability 

Rollout details 



G Suite editions 
Available to all G Suite editions.

On/off by default?
These features will be ON by default.


Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Duplicate larger sites in new Google Sites

Quick launch summary 

Previously, we made it possible to copy a site in new Google Sites. Based on user feedback, we’re improving site copy by making it easy to copy much larger sites — see here for supported sizes. We hope this feature helps site editors with large sites efficiently copy their existing sites, allowing them to back up their work, iterate on previous sites, or create ‘templates’ to start new sites.

To make a copy with the improved site copy, open a site in the new Google Sites, click the More menu > Duplicate site. See our Help Center to learn more about copying a site. 


Availability 

Rollout details

G Suite editions 

  • Available to all G Suite editions. 

On/off by default? 

  • This feature will be ON by default.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Work smarter in Sheets with several new features for objects

What’s changing

We’re launching several new features and tools that will help you create more compelling and stylized reports in Sheets:
  • Guides 
  • Multi-Selecting Objects 
  • Enhanced Pivot Table Insertion 
  • Copy and paste images into Sheets 
  • Formula backed charts inserted from Answers

Who’s impacted 

End users

Why you’d use it

We hope these tools will help you make more engaging and informative reports by making it easier and faster to format charts, pivot tables, images, and more.

How to get started 

  • Admins: No action required. 
  • End users: See below for how to use each new feature in Sheets.

Additional details

Guides 
  • You can use guides to help you align, size, and position various objects within your sheets. Guides are also helpful in making sure multiple objects within the same sheet are in proportion to one another. 
Multi-selecting objects 
  • To select multiple charts, drawings, and images to move, resize, or delete in bulk, hold down the Control or Shift key and select. 



Enhanced pivot table insertion 
  • When adding a new pivot table, you’ll now have the option to either place it in a new sheet or in a custom location on an existing sheet. 
    • To create a new pivot table, go to Data > Pivot Table and select a data range. 
    • In the dialogue box, under Insert to, select New sheet or Existing sheet, and click Create. Note that if you select existing sheet, you’ll have to select a specific cell location for the pivot table. 


Copy and paste images into Sheets 
  • Recently, we made it easier to add images to your spreadsheet by inserting images into cells. Now, you can copy images from other websites and paste them directly into your sheet. 
    • Simply right click on an image and hit copy, then in Sheets right click and hit Paste to insert the image over the grid. 
Formula backed charts inserted from Answers
  • Now, when you use Sheets Explore to create charts, the charts you insert from the Q&A feature (Answers) will be backed by formulas. This means that charts will automatically update if the underlying data changes, ensuring you always have a fresh chart with the latest information.

Helpful links 

To learn more about charts and graphs in Sheets, see here. 
To learn about adding and editing a chart or graph, see here. 
To learn about adding an image to a spreadsheet, see here. 
To learn about creating and using a pivot table in Sheets, see here. 
To learn about editing and formatting a spreadsheet, see here.

Availability

Rollout details
G Suite editions
  • Available to all G Suite editions. 
On/off by default? 
  • These features will be ON by default.
Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Save time with new scheduling features in Calendar

What’s changing

We’re updating the creation flow for meetings in Calendar to help you save time with an easier way to schedule.
You’ll see several changes when creating a meeting such as:

  • Peek at calendars and automatically add guests: Now, when you add a calendar in the “Search for people” box, you can temporarily view coworkers’ calendars. Creating a new event then automatically adds those people as guests to your meeting and might suggest a title for the meeting.
  • More fields in the creation pop-up dialog: The Guests, Rooms, Location, Conferencing, and Description fields are now editable directly in the meeting creation pop-up dialog. Once you add your coworkers’ calendars, they’ll load right in the background, making it even easier and faster to find an available time for everyone.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

People-first scheduling makes it quick and easy to find time with others. You can add rooms, a location, a video conference and add a meeting description without having to click into “More options.”

How to get started


  • Admins: No action required.
  • End users: No action required. This new creation flow will automatically appear in Calendar on the web.

Helpful links

Help Center: Create an event

Availability

Rollout details


G Suite editions
Available to all G Suite editions

On/off by default?
This feature will be ON by default.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Improvements to organizing and finding Team Drives

What’s changing 

As a result of your feedback, we are introducing improvements to how you organize and find files in Team Drives. These improvements include the ability to:
  • Hide Team Drives on web and mobile 
  • Search by Team Drive file creator 

Who’s impacted 

End users

Why you’d use it 

These improvements allow you to quickly access the Team Drives or files within Team Drives that are most important to you by:
  • Slimming down your list of Team Drives by hiding and unhiding as needed. 
  • Searching for items that have been created by a user in a Team Drive, similar to the search by owner in My Drive. 

How to get started 

  • Admins: No action needed. 
  • End users: 
    •  Hiding Team Drives 
      • See our Help Center for details on how to hide and unhide Team Drives 
      • You can select more than one Team Drive to hide on web
    •  Search by Team Drive file creator 
      • On the web: to search for files originally created in a Team Drive by a specific user, use “creator: email address.” 

Additional details 

Streamline your list of Team Drives by hiding inactive or irrelevant Team Drives
You may have a long list of Team Drives in your Drive left hand panel. Now, you can hide a Team Drive for a completed project or that isn’t relevant to you. Hide individual Team Drives as needed, or select multiple Team Drives and hide all at once. Hiding Team Drives is available on web and mobile.



Search for files located in a Team Drive 

People can search for My Drive files by owner, but Team Drive files are owned by the team. This makes them harder to search for. Now, you can search by “creator” for files located in a Team Drive. 

Often you remember the name of the person that created the content, instead of where it might be located. Search by “creator” will fulfill this need. To learn more about finding files in Google Drive, see here.


Helpful links 

To learn more about finding files in Google Drive, see here.
To learn more about sharing files with Team Drives, see here.
To learn more about Team Drives limits, see here.
To learn more about known issues with Team Drives, see here.

Availability 

Rollout details 
G Suite editions 
  • Available to G Suite Business, G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Enterprise for Education and G Suite for Nonprofits. 
  • Not available to G Suite Basic. 
On/off by default? 

  • These features will be ON by default

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Avoid double-booking rooms in Calendar

What’s changing

Rooms will no longer accept two Calendar events that overlap in time.

Previously, if an event was created directly on a room’s calendar by someone with manage permissions for the resource, the room would accept this meeting even if another event had already added this room for that same time period.

Now, if the room has already accepted another meeting, creating a new event at the same time directly on the room’s calendar will result in a room decline of this conflicting meeting.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why this matters

This means that you’ll no longer have to scramble to find an alternative room if your meeting room was double-booked.

How to get started


  • Admins: No action required.
  • End users: No action required, this behavior will happen automatically. For situations where you’d like a long room hold (such as an all day event) where you’d like to schedule individual sessions in the same room, we recommend the following work around:
    • Create a long hold booking of the desired room.
    • Create the individual sessions, where you write in the location field or description the room location; for example. “Room A [Separate room hold].”

Manually overwrite the Hangout information for the individual sessions with the Hangout ID of the long hold.

Additional details

This change in behavior only impacts future room bookings. Existing events will not be impacted.

Availability

Rollout details


G Suite editions
Available to all G Suite editions.

On/off by default?
This feature will be ON by default.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Easily customize theme colors in Slides

Quick launch summary 

You can now edit the theme colors for your presentations in Slides, making it easier to set up a new theme, or apply bulk color changes to existing presentations. Previously, we only supported custom colors that were not linked to the presentation theme.

Now, users can easily customize the color palette associated with a theme. In any color picker dropdown, click the edit button for your Theme color palette. In the Theme color sidebar, select a color from the dropdown to begin editing.



Note: These changes will only apply to the current theme and will not create a new theme.

We hope this new feature will help you customize your presentations in Slides, especially when it comes to incorporating your company’s brand colors.

Availability 

Rollout details 


G Suite editions 

  • Available to all G Suite editions. 


On/off by default? 

  • This feature will be ON by default.


Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Summary: Next 2019 announcements

Google Cloud Next 2019 is happening now in San Francisco. To learn more about the event and tune into sessions, click here.

For a summary of the announcements from the event, see our Cloud blog posts about how we’re helping businesses work faster, smarter and more collaboratively in G Suite, and increasing trust in Google Cloud with visibility, control and automation.

For details of the announcements, see the posts on this blog:

Keep an eye on the G Suite Updates blog for more announcements throughout the event.