Tag Archives: Editors

Collaborate with people who are not using a Google account in Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites

What’s changing 

We’re making visitor sharing—secure, pincode-based collaboration with people who do not have a Google account—generally available. This means you can share items with non-Google accounts, enabling them to view, comment on, or edit content in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites using a secure pincode. 

Visitor sharing was previously available in beta, and will replace the current admin setting to allow users in your organization to send sharing invitations.  '

We’ll introduce the new feature according to this timeline: 
  • August 31, 2020: The setting to control sharing with people who are not using a Google account will begin to appear in the Admin console. This setting may be on or off by default depending on your current settings. See “Getting started” below to learn more. This setting will not start taking effect for users until September 8, 2020 (for Rapid release domains) or September 28, 2020 (for Scheduled release domains). 
  • September 8, 2020: Users in Rapid Release domains will be able to use the new feature, if enabled by their admin. 
  • September 28, 2020: Users in Scheduled Release domains will be able to use the new feature, if enabled by their admin. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why you’d use it 

G Suite customers often work with partners outside of their company. These external users, or “visitors,” don’t always have Google accounts, making it more difficult for G Suite and non-Google users to collaborate seamlessly and securely. 

This new feature will help ensure smooth and secure collaboration with visitors through: 
  • Rich collaboration—including comments, edits, and more⁠—with anyone you need to work with, regardless of whether they have a Google account. 
  • Audit logging for collaboration with visitors, so that all interactions are monitored and recorded. 
  • Ability to revoke access and remove collaborators as needed. 
  • Reduced need to download, email, or create separate files to work with external users who don’t have Google accounts. 
If the visitor chooses to create a G Suite account with their email address, their collaboration and activity history will be preserved after the account is created. 



Additional details 

Visitor sharing will not be supported for Cloud Identity users. With this launch, Cloud Identity users will only be able to share with non-Google recipients by sending invites that allow users to preview file contents in a read-only mode without signing in to Google accounts. 


Getting started 

Admins: 
  • Sharing outside of your organization to users with non-Google accounts will be ON by default if you currently allow users in your organization to send sharing invitations to people outside your organization who are not using a Google account.
  • Sharing outside of your organization to users with non-Google accounts will be OFF by default if you currently do not do not allow sharing outside your organization, or use domain whitelisting, Use our Help Center to learn more about sharing to non-Google accounts. 
  • Visitor sharing will be controlled by new settings at Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Drive and Docs > Sharing Settings. See image below. The new settings can be controlled at the domain or OU level. 


End users: Visit our Help Center to learn more about visitor sharing. Visitors can use our Help Center to learn how to delete their visitor session. 



Rollout pace 

Admin console setting: 
End user feature availability: 

Availability 

  • Available to G Suite Business, G Suite Enterprise, G Suite for Education, G Suite Enterprise for Education, G Suite for Nonprofits, and G Suite Essentials customers 
  • Not available to G Suite Basic, Cloud Identity customers, or users with personal accounts 

Resources 

Roadmap 

Improving braille support in Google Docs

Quick launch summary 

We’re making several improvements to braille support in Google Docs to make it easier for users of assistive technologies, including refreshable braille displays, to work on documents. These changes will enhance the experience of reading documents with new keyboard shortcuts, improved navigation, and more reliable verbalizations. We encourage assistive technology users to enable braille support when working in Docs.

Improvements you may notice include: 
  • You can use the new Ctrl+Alt+H (CMD+Option+H on Mac) shortcut to toggle braille support in Docs, Sheets, and Slides. 
  • When you use shortcuts to navigate, we now announce where your cursor moves to, including comments, headings, misspellings, and suggestions. 
  • We improved the reliability of navigating through lengthy documents and lists. 
  • Images, misspellings, and grammar errors are now verbalized directly by assistive technology. 
  • We’ve improved navigation and selection verbalizations when moving through tables and when selecting content, including announcing the entire cell’s contents. 

Please make sure to update to the latest versions of your assistive technologies and browsers to fully benefit from these improvements. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: This feature will be ON by default for users with braille support turned on. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to use a braille display with Docs editors, and make sure to update to the latest versions of your browser and screen reader to use all features. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all G Suite customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Review presentations more quickly with new viewing interface on Google Slides Android app

Quick launch summary 

We’re improving the mobile viewing experience for Google Slides on Android. Rather than swiping to view slides one by one, you can now: 
  • Scroll through a vertical stream of slides. 
  • Pinch to zoom to get a closer look. 
  • Easily switch to editing, presenting, or casting content. 
This enables you to see more information at once, which can help you review slides faster. Read our Cloud Blog post to learn more about how these and other launches can help you collaborate from anywhere, with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides on mobile.

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: To use the feature, open a presentation in the Slides app on Android. Visit our Help Center to learn more about how to use Google Slides on Android. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all G Suite customers and users with personal accounts. 

Resources 

New chart text and number formatting options in Sheets

Quick launch summary 

We’re adding new features to help you customize chart text and numbers in Google Sheets. Specifically, you can now: 
  • Directly click on almost any chart text element and update both its content and style, most notably individual data labels and legend items. 
  • Set advanced number formatting options on both your data labels and axis labels, including the option to conditionally format by color. 
  • Use a contextual sidebar editing experience, making it easier to format individual data labels, legend items, and single data points. 
See images below for demonstrations: 

Customize the text content and style of legend items and single data labels 

Advanced number formatting of chart data and axes labels (including conditional color formatting) 

Quickly format single data columns, bars, or points using the contextual sidebar 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all G Suite customers and users with personal accounts 

Resources 

Dark theme now available for Docs, Sheets, and Slides on Android

Quick launch summary 

We’re enhancing Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides on Android with Dark theme support. Dark theme will intelligently adjust the product interface and user-generated content in ways that can make it more usable in low-light environments and save battery life. 

Settings for Docs, Sheets, and Slides will adjust automatically when the Android system is set to use Dark theme. You can also turn dark mode on or off for Docs, Sheets, or Slides independently. If you do this, each app will always be in the selected theme regardless of the Android system settings. 


Docs, Sheets, and Slides in Dark Theme 

Getting started 

  • Admins: No action needed. 
  • End users: This feature will automatically respect the Android system settings. Dark theme can also be enabled in the Docs, Sheets, or Slides apps individually by going to Menu > Settings > Theme > Dark in each app. When using Dark theme, you can preview your current document or sheet in the Light theme using More > View in light theme. Visit our Help Center to learn more about Dark theme in Google Docs, Sheets & Slides. 

Choose your theme

View in light theme 


Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all G Suite customers and users with personal accounts 

Resources 

Connected Sheets now generally available, replacing Sheets data connector

What’s changing

We’re making Connected Sheets generally available to G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers. Connected Sheets helps you analyze BigQuery data in Google Sheets. It was previously available in beta. Connected Sheets will replace Sheets data connector, a more limited way to connect Sheets and BigQuery.

Read more about how you can use it to analyze petabytes of data with Google Sheets in our Cloud Blog post.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

Connected Sheets links Google Sheets to BigQuery, so you can analyze large BigQuery datasets using familiar spreadsheet tools and operations. This means users don’t need to know SQL and can generate insights with basic spreadsheet operations like formulas, charts, and pivot tables.

This makes it easier for more members of your organization to understand, collaborate on, and generate insights from data. Specifically, it can help subject matter experts work with data without relying on analysts, who may be less familiar with the context of the data or be overloaded with a wide range of data requests.

Connected Sheets includes all the capabilities of the legacy Sheets data connector with additional enhancements. Enhancements include the ability to analyze and visualize data in Sheets without needing to first extract the data, being able to see a preview of data through a Sheet, and scheduling data refreshes to avoid analyzing stale data.

Learn more about how you can analyze petabytes of data with Google Sheets on the Cloud Blog. 

Getting started


  • Admins: No action required, Connected Sheets will be ON by default. To use it, you must have set up BigQuery for your organization, and users must have access to tables or views in BigQuery. Use our Help Center to learn more about how to set up Connected Sheets.
  • End users: This feature will be ON by default. To use it, must have access to tables or views in BigQuery. Use our Help Center to learn more about Connected Sheets.

Rollout pace


  • Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially more than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 30, 2020. We expect rollout to complete within a month. 

Availability 


  • Available to G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers* 
  • Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G Suite for Education, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers 

Resources 



Roadmap 


*Availability in alternative packages is variable and based on your services.

New chart axis customization in Google Sheets: tick marks, tick spacing, and axis lines

Quick launch summary 

We’re adding new features to help you customize chart axes in Google Sheets and better visualize your data in charts. The new options are:

  • Add major and minor tick marks to charts. 
  • Customize tick mark location (inner, outer, and cross) and style (color, length, and thickness). 
  • Set the precise numeric spacing between major and minor axis ticks or grid lines. 
  • Choose to show or remove the line that marks the axis. 

See how this works in the images below.
Customize the location and style of tick marks. 

Set the spacing between tick marks and grid lines. 

Choose to show or remove axis lines 


Getting started 



Rollout pace 



Availability 


  • Available to all G Suite customers and users with personal accounts 

Resources 


Spanish grammar suggestions now available in Google Docs and Gmail

Quick launch summary 

We’re expanding our advanced assistive writing features in Google Docs and Gmail to Spanish. Last year, we introduced grammar suggestions powered by neural-networks for the English language. Now, we’re using the same technology to provide grammar suggestions as you type in Spanish.

Language will be detected automatically, and even if you switch between writing in Spanish and English, we will provide the appropriate grammar suggestions. These capabilities can help you write faster, more accurately, and with more confidence.

Later this year, we’re also planning to make spelling autocorrect and Smart Compose available to Spanish language users. Keep an eye on the G Suite Updates blog to know when those features become available. Learn more about the expansion of our Spanish language assistive writing features on our Cloud Blog.

Getting started 



Rollout pace 



Availability 


  • Available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G Suite Essentials, G Suite Enterprise Essentials, and G Suite Enterprise customers. 
  • Not yet available to G Suite for Education, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers, as well as users with personal Google accounts. 

Resources 


New comment interface for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides on Android

What’s changing 

We’re updating the user interface for comments and action items in the Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps for Android. Some of the changes you may notice include:

  • Larger, clearer interface to make it easier to see comments and their context in a document. 
  • Shortcuts and gestures to help you quickly scroll through and respond to multiple comments. 
  • Quick access button to reply, “@” mention someone, and assign action items. 


Who’s impacted 

End users

Why it matters 

Commenting is a powerful way to collaborate on documents while remote. Comments can help you ask questions, document discussions, make sure other users see something, assign action items, and more. They’re particularly useful when working remotely, enabling multiple users to be part of discussions whenever and wherever it's convenient for them.

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be ON by default. To get started, tap on a comment when using the Docs, Sheets, or Slides app on an Android device. Use the Help Center to learn more about using comments and action items on Android. 

Rollout pace 



Availability 


  • Available to all G Suite customers and users with personal accounts. 

Resources 


New document save status and offline indicator for Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Quick launch summary 

We’re updating the interface which tells users about the file save status and whether they’re working online or offline in Google Docs editors and Drawings. The changes will help users understand where the file is saved, whether they’re connected to the network, and if the file is available to edit offline.

This is an update to the interface only - there are no changes in the underlying functionality. The changes you may notice include:

  • A new location for document save status next to the document name. 
  • More descriptive text to indicate whether a document is saved to the cloud (when online) or to the device (offline). 
  • A new way to enable offline by clicking on the document status icon. Previously, you had to go to File > Make available offline. 


For users in domains where admins have turned off Docs editors offline access, we will adjust the message shown to users in order to minimize confusion regarding settings controlled by their admin. 

See images below for more details.

Getting started 



The saved file indicator is now next to the document name and features more descriptive text 


You can enable offline by clicking the document status icon 

Rollout pace 



Availability 


  • Available to all G Suite customers and users with personal Google Accounts. 

Resources