Tag Archives: Editors

Improving the menus and toolbars in Google Docs and Slides

We’re making some changes to the menus and toolbars in Google Docs and Slides on the web. These changes will make it easier to find certain items and increase consistency across Docs and Slides. Among other things, you’ll notice the following:
  • In Docs and Slides, “Lists” in the Format menu has been renamed “Bullets and numbering.”
  • In Docs and Slides, “Show spelling suggestions” has been renamed “Spelling” and moved from the View menu to the Tools menu.
  • In Docs, “Document outline” has been renamed “Show document outline” and moved from the Tools menu to the View menu.
  • In Slides, “Import slides” has been removed from the Insert menu.
See below for some examples of the revamped toolbars and menus.



Launch Details
Release track: 
Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming on January 4th, 2018

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI


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New categories and languages for templates in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

We know how valuable templates can be to a company—they save employees’ precious time, ensure that their work product looks professional, and increase brand consistency across their materials. That’s why we’ve spent the last several months working with partner experts to develop templates in four new categories:

1. Project Management in Sheets, in partnership with Smartsheet



2. Sales in Docs, in partnership with PandaDoc



3. Human Resources (HR) in Docs, in partnership with Zenefits



4. Freelancer Engagement in Docs, in partnership with Upwork



At the moment, these templates are only available in English and on the web.

While the new templates above are English only, our existing templates are now available in several additional languages, including Hindi (hi), German (de), Indonesian (in), Japanese (ja), Dutch (nl), and Chinese (zh-CN). These localized templates will be available in Docs, Sheets, and Slides on the web.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Create a file from a template


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Pivot to the cloud: intelligent features in Google Sheets help businesses uncover insights

(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

When it comes to data in spreadsheets, deciphering meaningful insights can be a challenge whether you’re a spreadsheet guru or data analytics pro. But thanks to advances in the cloud and artificial intelligence, you can instantly uncover insights and empower everyone in your organization—not just those with technical or analytics backgrounds—to make more informed decisions.

We launched "Explore" in Sheets to help you decipher your data easily using the power of machine intelligence, and since then we’ve added even more ways for you to intelligently visualize and share your company data. Today, we’re announcing additional features in Google Sheets to help businesses make better use of their data, from pivot tables and formula suggestions powered by machine intelligence, to even more flexible ways to help you analyze your data.

Easier pivot tables, faster insights

Many teams rely on pivot tables to summarize massive data sets and find useful patterns, but creating them manually can be tricky. Now, if you have data organized in a spreadsheet, Sheets can intelligently suggest a pivot table for you.*

In the Explore panel, you can also ask questions of your data using everyday language (via natural language processing) and have the answer returned as a pivot table. For example, type “what is the sum of revenue by salesperson?” or “how much revenue does each product category generate?” and Sheets can help you find the right pivot table analysis.**


In addition, if you want to create a pivot table from scratch, Sheets can suggest a number of relevant tables in the pivot table editor to help you summarize your data faster.

*You can view pivot tables on all platforms, but you can only create and edit them on the web.
**The “Answers” feature in Sheets is only available in English at this time.

Suggested formulas, quicker answers

We often use basic spreadsheet formulas like =SUM or =AVERAGE for data analysis, but it takes time to make sure all inputs are written correctly. Soon, you may notice suggestions pop up when you type “=” in a cell. Using machine intelligence, Sheets provides full formula suggestions to you based on contextual clues from your spreadsheet data. We designed this to help teams save time and get answers more intuitively.

Even more Sheets features

We’re also adding more features to make Sheets even better for data analysis:
  • Check out a refreshed UI for pivot tables in Sheets, and new, customizable headings for rows and columns.
  • View your data differently with new pivot table features. When you create a pivot table, you can “show values as a % of totals” to see summarized values as a fraction of grand totals. Once you have a table, you can right-click on a cell to “view details” or even combine pivot table groups to aggregate data the way you need it. We’re also adding new format options, like repeated row labels, to give you more fine-tuned control of how to present your summarized data.
  • Create and edit waterfall charts. Waterfall charts are good for visualizing sequential changes in data, like if you want to see the incremental breakdown of last year’s revenue month-by-month. Select Insert > Chart > Chart type picker and then choose “waterfall.”
  • Quickly import or paste fixed-width formatted data files. Sheets will automatically split up the data into columns for you without needing a delimiter such as commas between data.
These new Sheets features will roll out in the coming weeks—see specific rollout details below. To learn more about how G Suite can help your business uncover valuable insights and speed up efficiencies, visit the G Suite website. Or check out these tips to help get started with Sheets.

Launch Details
Release track: 
Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming on January 24th, 2018*

*Due to the holidays, the launch to Scheduled Release will occur more than the standard two weeks after the launch to Rapid Release. The rollout to Scheduled Release domains will begin on January 24th, 2018.

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: See and use suggested charts and analysis in a spreadsheet
Help Center: Create and use pivot tables
Help Center: Customize a pivot table
Help Center: GETPIVOTDATA
Help Center: Chart and graph types
Help Center: Import data sets and spreadsheets
Help Center Separate cell text into columns


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Embed HTML and JavaScript in the new Google Sites

We recently made it possible to embed webpages as iframes in the new Google Sites. With this launch, we’re giving you one more tool to customize your sites—you can now embed HTML and JavaScript code directly into your sites.


To get started, select Embed from the Insert menu and choose Embed Code. For more details, visit the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming on January 2nd

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Add text, images & other content


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Easily add a site-wide footer in the new Google Sites

Many websites, especially those created for business purposes, require a consistent footer across all of their pages. These footers often house crucial information, like an organization’s contact information, privacy policy, and more. With this launch, we’re making it easy to create and manage these site-wide footers in a single place in the new Google Sites.


To add a footer, simply scroll to the bottom of your page and click “Add Footer.” This same footer will then appear across all of the pages on your site. To hide the footer on a single page, click the eye icon in the bottom left corner of the text box. If you then want to create a custom footer for that page only, you can create a new section (not using the “Add Footer” functionality) at the bottom of the page.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming in two weeks

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Add text, images, & other content


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New languages now supported in Google Docs and Slides files, as well as Docs editors templates

No matter where you or your customers or colleagues are located, we want to make sure Google Docs and Slides work for you at work. That’s why we’re expanding the font catalogue in Docs and Slides to support 62 languages, including non-Latin scripts like Cyrillic and Devanagari (with more coming soon!).

To find these new fonts and others, simply click More fonts at the bottom of the Fonts menu. There you’ll also find suggested fonts, based on your document’s language.


In addition, we’re making Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms templates available in four new languages: European Spanish, Latin American Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese. Stay tuned for additional languages, including Hindi, coming soon.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Change how paragraphs & fonts look


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Copy comments and suggestions in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides make it easier than ever to collaborate on great content. Which is why it’s increasingly important not to lose a history of that collaboration when you duplicate a document, spreadsheet, or presentation. With that in mind, we’re making it possible to copy comments and suggestions any time you make a copy of a Docs, Sheets, or Slides file.

To copy your comments and suggestions, simply select “Make a copy” from the File menu and check the box for “Copy comments and suggestions” or “Copy comments.”


These comments and suggestions will then contain a note indicating that they were copied from the original document.


Check it out today, and collaborate—even on copies—with ease.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming on November 29th, 2017

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Create, view, or save a file


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Insert images more easily in Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings

A picture is worth a thousand words... especially when you can add it to your document, presentation, or drawing quickly and easily. That’s why we’re making some improvements to the image insertion process in Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings.

Going forward, when you select Insert > Image or click the Image button in Docs, Slides, or Drawings on the web, you’ll see the following options:

  • Upload from computer
  • Search the web
  • Drive
  • Photos
  • By URL



If you select “Upload from computer,” you’ll be taken to your computer’s file manager, which many users are familiar with. If you select “Search the web,” “Drive,” or “Photos,” you’ll be taken to a menu on the righthand side of your screen that is easier to navigate and more intuitive to use. You can also drag and drop images directly from this menu into your document. If you select “By URL,” you’ll be given the option to input the specific URL for an image.

These options should make it easier to enhance your documents, presentations, and drawings with images.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Insert or delete images or videos


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Expanded page hierarchy in the new Google Sites

We know that many of your sites require a deep page hierarchy. That’s why we’re making it possible to nest five levels of pages in the new Google Sites, up from the two levels previously allowed. To nest a page within a page, simply drag and drop it into your desired location from the Pages menu on the righthand side of your screen—or use one of several new shortcuts.


Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Add, order, nest, & delete pages


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Turning down the in-app passcode feature in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides on iOS

In the past, we’ve heard feedback that customers want more security for the files on their iOS devices, which led us to enable an in-app passcode feature specifically for the Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides iOS apps. Over time, however, we’ve come to learn that it’s not just the content within Google Drive that’s valuable to you. Your contacts, calendars, and emails—it's important that all of this is secure as well.

As a result, we began putting particular emphasis on supporting mobile device management (MDM) on iOS. For example, recent launches give G Suite admins greater visibility and control over enterprise-deployed iOS devices. In fact, with MDM, admins can enforce a passcode on all iOS devices that access corporate data, and they can wipe account data on a device if it’s compromised.

Owing to this increased investment in security on iOS devices, we’re ending support for the in-app passcode feature in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides on iOS devices signed in with G Suite accounts. Support will end on December 4th, 2017, and we’ll remove the feature entirely no earlier than January 8th, 2018.

We highly recommend that administrators use MDM to deploy passcode requirements at the system level on all of their iOS devices by following these instructions. This will provide better security than the in-app passcode feature in two key ways:
  • These passcode policies protect all of the content on your managed devices, including photos, contacts, and other content besides Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides content.
  • These passcode policies give you more control over passcode type, strength, expiration, and failure cases. See this Help Center article for more details.

Beginning on December 4th, 2017, any user signed in with a G Suite account who has this feature will see a message asking them to either acknowledge and turn off the functionality, or to ignore the message temporarily. Beginning on January 8th, 2018, all new versions of the Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides iOS apps will no longer contain in-app passcode functionality.


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