Tag Archives: docs

Work reimagined: new ways to collaborate safer, smarter and simpler with G Suite

Over the last decade we’ve witnessed the maturation of G Suite—from the introduction of Gmail and Google Docs to more recent advancements in AI and machine learning that are powering, and protecting, the world's email. Now, more than 4 million paying businesses are using our suite to reimagine how they work, and companies like Whirlpool, Nielsen, BBVA and Broadcom are among the many who choose G Suite to move faster, better connect their teams and advance their competitive edge.

In the past year, our team has worked hard to offer nearly 300 new capabilities for G Suite users. Today, we’re excited to share some of the new ways organizations can use G Suite to focus on creative work and move their business forward—keep an eye out for additional announcements to come tomorrow as well.

Here’s what we’re announcing today:

Security center investigation tool (available in an Early Adopter Program* for G Suite Enterprise customers)
Data regions (available now for G Suite Business and Enterprise customers)
Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat (coming soon to G Suite customers)
Smart Compose (coming soon to G Suite customers)
Grammar Suggestions in Google Docs (available in an Early Adopter Program for G Suite customers today)
Voice commands in Hangouts Meet hardware (coming to select Hangouts Meet hardware customers later this year)

Nothing matters more than security

Businesses need a way to simplify their security management, which is why earlier this year we introduced the security center for G Suite. The security center brings together security analytics, actionable insights and best practice recommendations from Google to help you protect your organization, data and users.

Today, we’re announcing our new investigation tool in security center, which adds integrated remediation to the prevention and detection capabilities of the security center. Admins can identify which users are potentially infected, see if anything’s been shared externally and remove access to Drive files or delete malicious emails. Since the investigation tool makes it possible to review your data security in one place and has a simple UI, it makes it easier to take action against threats without having to worry about analyzing logs which can be time-consuming and require complex scripting. Investigation tool is available today as part of our Early Adopter Program (EAP) for G Suite Enterprise customers. Learn more.

Investigation Tool in Security Center - G Suite Next '18

In addition to giving admins a simpler way to keep data secure, we’re constantly working to ensure that they have the transparency and control they need. That’s why we’re adding support for data regions to G Suite. For organizations with data control requirements, G Suite will now let customers choose where to store primary data for select G Suite apps—globally distributed, U.S. or Europe. We’re also making it simple to manage your data regions on an ongoing basis. For example, when a file’s owner changes or moves to another organizational unit, we automatically move the data—with no impact on the file’s availability to collaborators. Plus, users continue to get full edit rights on content while data is being moved.

Rob Tollerton, Director of IT at PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwCIL), and his team are using G Suite to manage global data policies: "Given PwC is a global network with operations in 158 countries, I am very happy to see Google investing in data regions for G Suite and thrilled by how easy and intuitive it will be to set up and manage multi-region policies for our domain.“

Data regions for G Suite is generally available to all G Suite Business and Enterprise customers today at no additional cost. We're continually investing in the offering and will expand it further over time. Learn more.

I am very happy to see Google investing in data regions for G Suite and thrilled by how easy it will be to set up and manage multi-region policies. Rob Tollerton
Director of IT, PwCIL

Let machines do the mundane work

We’ve spent many years as a company investing in AI and machine learning, and we’re dedicated to a simple idea: rather than replacing human skills, we think AI has endless potential to enhance them. Google AI is already helping millions of people around the world navigate, communicate and get things done in our consumer products. In G Suite, we’re using AI to help businesses and their employees do their best work.

Many of you use Smart Reply in Gmail. It processes hundreds of millions of messages daily and already drives more than 10 percent of email replies. Today we’re announcing that Smart Reply is coming to Hangouts Chat to help you respond to messages quicker so you can free up time to focus on creative work.

Our technology recognizes which messages most likely need responses, and proposes three different replies that sound like how you typically respond. The proposed responses are casual enough for chat and yet appropriate in a workplace. Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat will be available to G Suite customers in the coming weeks.

Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat - G Suite Next '18

Smart Reply makes sending short replies easy, especially on the go. But we know that the most time-consuming emails require longer, more complex thoughts. That’s why we built Smart Compose, which you may have heard Sundar talk about at Google I/O this year. Smart Compose intelligently autocompletes your emails; it can fill in greetings, sign offs and common phrases so you can collaborate efficiently. We first launched Smart Compose to consumers in May, and now Smart Compose in Gmail is ready for G Suite customers.

In addition to autocompleting common phrases, Smart Compose can insert personalized information like your office or home address, so you don’t need to spend time in repetitive tasks. And best of all, it will get smarter with time—for example, learning how you prefer to greet certain people in emails to ensure that when you use Smart Compose you sound like yourself.

Smart Compose in Gmail will be available to G Suite customers in the coming weeks.

We’re also using AI to help people write more clearly and effectively. It can be tricky at times to catch things like spelling and grammatical errors that inadvertently change the meaning of a sentence. That’s why we’re introducing grammar suggestions in Docs. To solve grammar corrections, we use a unique machine translation-based approach to recognize errors and suggest corrections on the fly. Our AI can catch several different types of corrections, from simple grammatical rules like how to use articles in a sentence (like “a” versus “an”), to more complicated grammatical concepts such as how to use subordinate clauses correctly. Machine learning will help improve this capability over time to detect trickier grammar issues. And because it’s built natively in Docs, it’s highly secure and reliable. Grammar suggestions in Docs is available today in our Early Adopter Program.

Beyond writing, we’re also working to improve meetings. Last fall, G Suite launched Hangouts Meet hardware, enabling organizations to have reliable, effective video meetings at scale. Many people still view connecting to video meetings as daunting, which is why we’re using Google AI to create a more inviting experience.

We're excited to see so many people actively engaged with Google Assistant through voice—managing their smart home and entertainment—and today, we’re bringing some of that same magic to conference rooms with voice commands for Hangouts Meet hardwareso that teams can connect to a video meeting in seconds. We plan to roll this out to select Meet hardware customers later this year.

Simplify work with G Suite

One of the reasons why G Suite is able to deliver real transformation to businesses is that it’s simple to use and adopt. G Suite was born in the cloud and built for the cloud, which means real-time collaboration is effortless. This is why more than a billion people rely on G Suite apps like Gmail, Docs, Drive and more in their personal lives. Instead of defaulting to old habits—like saving content on your desktop—G Suite saves your work securely in the cloud and provides a means for teams to push the boundaries of what they create.

In fact, 74 percent of all time spent in Docs, Sheets and Slides is on collaborative work—that is, multiple people creating and editing content together. This is a stark difference from what businesses see with legacy tools, where the work is often done individually on a desktop client.

So that’s how we’re reimagining work. Learn more about these announcements by visiting the G Suite website—or stay tuned for more updates in G Suite tomorrow.

*The G Suite Trusted Tester and Early Adopter Programs will soon be renamed as Alpha and Beta, respectively. More details to come.

Source: Gmail Blog

A new guide for integrating Google Shopping ads using Google APIs

Good news for developers planning to integrate Google Shopping ads! We have just released a brand new guide explaining how to automate the delivery of Google Shopping on behalf of merchants using Google APIs.

The Shopping Automation Guide covers the steps required to set up new merchants using a combination of the Content API for Shopping and AdWords API. It describes how you can fully automate certain tasks that would otherwise be performed manually using the Merchant Center and AdWords websites.

The guide is for developers interested in feed management, campaign management, or full automation workflow that includes both. The workflows provide detailed explanations of how the different APIs can be used for each stage of the user journey. You can follow the workflow step by step or navigate straight to the article you require using the side panel.

Head over to the developer pages to get started! If you have any questions or need help, please contact us on the relevant forums:

If you have any feedback on the guide, please use the “Send Feedback” link at the top right of each page.

We also appreciate any feedback on your experience using the guide. If you would like to share it, please complete this survey.

- Ian Ballantyne, AdWords API Team

Source: Google Ads Developer Blog

G Suite Pro Tips: how to sync one spreadsheet to another in Google Sheets

When it comes to analyzing data at work, we often have to pull information from several different sources in order to see the big picture. But if you need to manage product inventory or report on quarterly sales figures, spending time flipping between spreadsheets or manually copying and pasting data into one place can take up too much time. There’s a better option.

With G Suite—Google’s suite of cloud-based collaboration and productivity apps—there are a ton of ways you can skip repetitive tasks, including in Google Sheets.

Today, we’re kicking off a tips series to help you become a G Suite pro—starting with how to combine data from one spreadsheet into another. Check it out.

G Suite Pro Tips: syncing one spreadsheet to another

Combining data from two Google Sheets in four steps

With Sheets, it’s easy to combine data into one spreadsheet to create a single source of truth.

Step 1: Identify the spreadsheets you want to combine.

Pull up the two spreadsheets that you’d like to import data between. You should have the original spreadsheet (Ex: “Sales Revenue”) and the one you want to add information into (Ex: “Product Inventory”).

Step 2: Grab two things from the original sheet.

You need two pieces of information from the original spreadsheet in order to move the data: the spreadsheet URL and the range of cells where you want to pull the data from. In this example, our original spreadsheet’s name is “Sales Revenue.”

First, highlight and copy the full spreadsheet URL from the original spreadsheet (Note: you can also use the spreadsheet “key,” which is a code hidden inside the URL between the “d/” and “/edit.” It looks like a jumbled mix of letters and numbers.).

Next, before you switch to the new spreadsheet, make sure to note the range of cells where you want to pull the data from in the original spreadsheet. For example, A:1 to C:10.

Step 3: Use a Google Sheets function to port your data over.

Now we use the IMPORTRANGE function. First, click into the new spreadsheet where you’d like to add data into. In this example, it’s named “Product Inventory.” Insert columns or rows into the spreadsheet where you want to put data.

Next, type =IMPORTRANGE in the cell (you can choose to use all caps or not, it doesn’t matter.). The function will then ask you for three things:

The URL of the original spreadsheet (or the spreadsheet key, both options work.)
The name of the specific tab in your spreadsheet that you’re pulling information out of
The range of cells for data you need

It will look similar to this:

=IMPORTRANGE(“https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RNez4bhTMt_evAdHrFOBHeBgk1l5HAWVTb43EKpYHR8/edit#gid=0,””Sales Revenue by Quarter!A1:C10”)

It’s important to note that you have to use the specific name of the tab in the sheet in the formula. So for this example, the name of the original spreadsheet housing multiple datasets is called “Sales Revenue,” but the name of the specific tab with our data in it is called “Sales Revenue by Quarter.” We want to use the specific tab’s name to avoid our function breaking in the future when new sheets or tabs are created.

Oh and another trick: don’t forget to add the exclamation point (!) before the data range. That’s important, too.

Step 4: Import your data.

After you’ve added your IMPORTRANGE formula, you can click enter.

If it’s the first time you’ve imported data from that particular spreadsheet, a pop-up might appear. Don’t worry! This security check makes sure you’re okay with granting any collaborators on this spreadsheet access to data that lives in another spreadsheet. It will ask you to “Allow access” when you see the #REF in your cell. Go ahead and click yes.

Voilà! Your data will appear in the new spreadsheet.

Focus on work that’s important

Google Sheets has more than 400 functions you can use to help speed up work. To learn more about how cloud-based tools like Sheets can help businesses uncover insights quicker—and, as a result, encourage employees to spend time on strategic work—check out this post.

Source: The Official Google Blog

New ways to help teams work faster and smarter with G Suite

Today’s workplace is vastly different than it was 30 years ago. It used to be that a business could rely on a single team in a single location to get things done. These days, business is more diverse, dynamic and distributed than ever before. Decisions have to be made fast, teams need to align quickly and time can’t be wasted on repetitive, manual tasks. Consequently, companies that rely on decades-old, legacy work systems may find they aren’t agile enough to compete and stay relevant.

Imagine that your team needs to close a major sales deal. Stakeholders in multiple locations have to be consulted on the strategy. Customer needs have to be identified, a winning pitch must be drafted and the entire team must align on the right pricing approach—all before the end of the quarter.

G Suite makes this possible. It transforms the way teams collaborate, with intelligent tools that help them solve problems faster and focus their time on work that matters. Today, we’re announcing new, intelligent updates to G Suite to give businesses even more ways to manage projects—like closing a sales deal or bringing a new product to market—from one place.

Use a new, centralized platform to stay aligned on projects and make decisions quicker.

Available today, Hangouts Chat makes it easy to collaborate efficiently so teams can make faster decisions. With team chat rooms and threaded conversations, powerful search functionality and intelligent bots that connect workflows and speed up tasks (even with 3rd party apps), you can work on projects from one spot—like opening a new store location or launching an advertising campaign. Chat has deep integrations with other G Suite apps like Google Drive, Calendar and Hangouts Meet, and built-in security to meet retention, eDiscovery and regulatory/compliance needs for enterprises. Read more about Hangouts Chat or learn how you can build your own bots.

Spend less time setting up meetings and more time accomplishing goals.

We want to make it simple to manage meetings, which is why we’ve built tools to help you surface conference room information and find times to meet. In the coming months, Calendar will use artificial intelligence to automatically suggest rooms for you to book. And because they’ll be optimized for each attendee based on their building and floor location, previous booking history, audio/video equipment needs and room capacity requirements, you can feel confident that you’re booking the right space for your team to be productive.

Solve problems face-to-face with teammates over video, right away.

Sometimes it’s best to jump into an online meeting face-to-face with colleagues so you don’t hold up progress. Now, your team can quickly transition from a conversation in Chat and join a Hangouts Meet video conferencing meeting with just a few clicks.

Spend less time searching for the right documents and more time crafting ideas.

Today, we’re bringing Quick Access to Docs to help teams focus their time on work that matters (similar to Quick Access in Drive). Quick Access uses artificial intelligence to suggest relevant files based on signals like Drive activity and information in your documents, so you can work with the most up-to-date information and create new material quickly. Let’s say your global marketing team needs a central project plan; the team can start a Doc and use Quick Access in the Explore panel to find information from related files and add it into the plan quickly.

To stay relevant, businesses must transform how they operate. Try today’s updates in G Suite and empower your teams to work better together.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Work hacks from G Suite: onboard new employees like a boss

We’ve talked about how corporate training can positively impact employee engagement. The same is true for efficient onboarding. The faster new employees are onboarded, the faster they feel they’re part of the team and can contribute to your company’s mission.

Here are a few tips to help you onboard new employees without a hitch.

1. Set up an onboarding checklist, save to Team Drives

To help new employees get up-to-speed quickly, create centralized resources like an onboard checklist or company backgrounder in Google Keep or Docs.

Your new team member can track to-dos by listing out key tasks in Keep. Create a note in Keep and select “Show checkboxes” in the three dots menu. Type in to-dos like “set up HR benefits,” “outline goals” or “meet with Anish about process.”

Pro-tip: Keep integrates directly into Docs. If you’re in Keep, pick a specific note, click the three dots menu and select “Copy to Google Doc.” Or if you’re in Docs, drag-and-drop your note over from Keep.

You can also prepare a more detailed company background for your teammate in Docs. List upcoming projects, assign action items or include other reference material like key contacts. Once you’ve created these resources, be sure to save them to your Team Drives so that the “newbie” knows where to find or upload files for team use.

2. Create an onboarding portal with Google Sites

Now that you’ve created individual resources for an employee, create a mini-onboarding portal in Sites to house them. What’s great about Sites is that you don’t have to be handy with code to build a website—you can spin one up quickly without design, programming or IT resources. Sites also syncs with your favorite G Suite apps, like Drive and Calendar.

3. Request access to IT systems and equipment using Forms

Sometimes it can take a while to get access to the tools we need to do our jobs, but G Suite apps can help you get around the lag. Help your IT department set up equipment and system access on day one using Forms and Sheets.

If you’re a manager or work in the human resources department, try using Forms to submit requests to IT before a new employee starts. Create a form for equipment and access needs, like computers (shameless plug: Chromebooks), keyboards, phones or IT system permissions. The IT team can then import requests from Forms into Sheets and keep track of needs in real-time.

4. Introduce new employees to the team with Google+

During your first few days on the job, it’s hard to remember all of the new names and faces. Try setting up a welcome community on Google+ to help your newbie get to know the team.

To get started, go into G+ and click Communities > Yours > Create a Community. Enter the name of the community you want to create and manage who can see the community in your settings. Click “done,” invite people to join your community and started posting.

Employees are a company’s greatest asset. Try these tips to make new folks feel engaged and productive right from the start, or learn more at the G Suite Learning Center or the Google Cloud Transformation Gallery.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Work hacks from G Suite: onboard new employees like a boss

Here are a few tips to help you onboard new employees without a hitch.

1. Set up an onboarding checklist, save to Team Drives

To help new employees get up-to-speed quickly, create centralized resources like an onboard checklist or company backgrounder in Google Keep or Docs.

2. Create an onboarding portal with Google Sites

3. Request access to IT systems and equipment using Forms

4. Introduce new employees to the team with Google+

During your first few days on the job, it’s hard to remember all of the new names and faces. Try setting up a welcome community on Google+ to help your newbie get to know the team.

Source: Google Cloud

Work hacks from G Suite: onboard new employees like a boss

Here are a few tips to help you onboard new employees without a hitch.

1. Set up an onboarding checklist, save to Team Drives

To help new employees get up-to-speed quickly, create centralized resources like an onboard checklist or company backgrounder in Google Keep or Docs.

2. Create an onboarding portal with Google Sites

3. Request access to IT systems and equipment using Forms

4. Introduce new employees to the team with Google+

During your first few days on the job, it’s hard to remember all of the new names and faces. Try setting up a welcome community on Google+ to help your newbie get to know the team.

Source: Drive

Work hacks from G Suite: onboard new employees like a boss

Here are a few tips to help you onboard new employees without a hitch.

1. Set up an onboarding checklist, save to Team Drives

To help new employees get up-to-speed quickly, create centralized resources like an onboard checklist or company backgrounder in Google Keep or Docs.

2. Create an onboarding portal with Google Sites

3. Request access to IT systems and equipment using Forms

4. Introduce new employees to the team with Google+

During your first few days on the job, it’s hard to remember all of the new names and faces. Try setting up a welcome community on Google+ to help your newbie get to know the team.

Source: Drive

Protecting our Google Docs and Drive Users

Protecting all Google users from viruses, malware, and other abusive content is central to user cyber-safety and sometimes we remove access to certain files in order to provide these protections.

On Tuesday, October 31, we mistakenly blocked access to some of our users’ files, including Google Docs. This was due to a short-lived bug that incorrectly flagged some files as violating our terms of service (TOS). The blocking raised questions in the community and we would like to address those questions here.

The Google Docs and Drive products have unparalleled automatic, preventive security precautions in place to protect our users from malware, phishing and spam, using both static and dynamic antivirus techniques. Virus and malware scanning is an industry best practice that performs automated comparisons against known samples and indicators; the process does not involve human intervention.

Tuesday’s bug caused the Google Docs and Drive services to misinterpret the response from these protection systems and erroneously mark some files as TOS violations, thus causing access denials for users of those files. As soon as our teams identified the problem, we removed the bug and worked to restore access to all affected files.

We apologize to our users for any inconvenience this incident caused and remain committed to offering high-quality systems that keep their content safe while fully securing their files.

Source: Drive

Protecting our Google Docs and Drive Users

Protecting all Google users from viruses, malware, and other abusive content is central to user cyber-safety and sometimes we remove access to certain files in order to provide these protections.

We apologize to our users for any inconvenience this incident caused and remain committed to offering high-quality systems that keep their content safe while fully securing their files.