Tag Archives: Google Sheets

More ways to work with and analyze BigQuery data using Connected Sheets

What’s changing 

We’re adding several new features that will give you more ways to work with, display, and organize your BigQuery data when using Connected Sheets. Specifically, the new abilities and improvements are: 
  • Column stats 
  • Filter by value 
  • Calculated fields for pivot tables 
  • Pivot table grouping 
  • Slicers 
See below for more details on these features. If you’re new to BigQuery and Connected Sheets, check out this video demo. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins and End users 

Why you’d use it 

Column stats 
This new feature allows easy access to aggregated insights about the data in any column of your BigQuery table. These insights help you understand the shape of your data and include sum, average, median, unique count, max, min, list of most and least frequent values and distribution of the values in the column. 



Filter by value 
In addition to the ability to filter a column “by condition”, you can now filter a column “by value”. Connected Sheets will retrieve the list of values for any column that you can access for your analysis. Use the Help Center to learn more about filtering columns by value when using Connected Sheets. 



Calculated fields in pivot tables 
Calculated fields for pivot tables allow for custom aggregation of formulas in pivot table buckets. Use the Help Center to learn more about how to use calculated fields. 

Pivot table grouping 
You can now group numeric values from your source data into buckets of equal size in Connected Sheets pivot tables. This is useful when you’re working with a pivot table with numerous unique values—grouping can better narrow down your data by a minimum, maximum, and interval. Use the Help Center to learn more about using pivot table grouping in Google Sheets. 



Slicers for Connected Sheets 
You can also use a slicer to filter your Connected Sheets tables, charts, and pivot tables. A slicer is based on a column/field from the BigQuery data source. The slicer influences all the Connected Sheets charts, extracts and pivot tables in the same tab. Use the Help Center to learn more about using slicers with Connected Sheets. 

Additional details 

In the coming weeks, we will introduce improvements for scheduled refresh, allowing you to automate refresh at a specified frequency with more granular scheduling options. These options include: 
  • Hourly refreshes 
  • Specific start dates 
  • Frequency options such as every five days, every two months, etc. 



When this feature becomes available, we’ll provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog. 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus customers 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

Changes to Google Workspace storage policies timeline

What’s changing

We’re extending the previously announced timeframe for upcoming changes to the Google Workspace storage policy. The updated timeline is:

  • June 1, 2021: High-quality photos will count towards Drive quota beginning June 1, 2021. There is no change to this timeline.
  • February 1, 2022: Any newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files will count toward storage. Existing files within these products will not count toward storage, unless they’re modified on or after February 1, 2022. Read more in our Help Center.

Note that there are no changes to the previously announced dates for personal Google accounts.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users. Storage limits differ across Google Workspace and G Suite editions, but we estimate that the majority of users will not be affected by these changes. See “Getting Started” below for more information on determining storage usage across your organization.

Why it’s important

People are uploading more content than ever before—in fact, more than 4.3 million GB are added across Gmail, Drive, and Photos every day. These changes to our storage policy are necessary to provide our users with a great experience and to keep pace with the growing demand.



We recently announced changes to the pooled storage policy for Workspace for Education customers. As a part of these updates, to empower Google Workspace admins to adapt to this model and optimize their storage, we will provide new admin tools to identify and manage how storage is used and allocated before the policy goes into effect. We’ve decided to delay the count of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files count toward storage quotas until that tooling is in place.

Getting started


Rollout pace

High-quality photos
Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard

Availability

  • These changes will apply to all customers with Google Workspace and G Suite licenses.

Resources

Quickly navigate to active cells and ranges with the new range name box in Google Sheets

Quick launch summary 

We’re adding a range name box, located to the left of the formula bar, to improve navigation in Google Sheets. Previously, active cells were only indicated by a blue outline and could be located by scrolling or using the arrow keys. Now, you can use the range name box to jump directly to coordinates and named ranges in a sheet. 

Additionally, this box provides a dropdown menu to easily access and manage to create new named ranges in the sheet. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. The new range name box can be found at the left of the formula bar. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using named ranges in Sheets.  

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Quickly navigate to active cells and ranges with the new range name box in Google Sheets

Quick launch summary 

We’re adding a range name box, located to the left of the formula bar, to improve navigation in Google Sheets. Previously, active cells were only indicated by a blue outline and could be located by scrolling or using the arrow keys. Now, you can use the range name box to jump directly to coordinates and named ranges in a sheet. 

Additionally, this box provides a dropdown menu to easily access and manage to create new named ranges in the sheet. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. The new range name box can be found at the left of the formula bar. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using named ranges in Sheets.  

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Open Office attachments from Gmail in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides with one click

What’s changing

We’re making it easier to view, edit, and collaborate on Microsoft Office files sent and received in Gmail using Docs, Sheets, and Slides. With this launch, we’re adding: 
  • Open Office files in Docs, Sheets, or Slides with one click: When you send or receive email with an Office file attached, you’ll see an edit icon that will open the file directly in Docs, Sheets, or Slides while preserving the original file format. 
  • Easily reply to the email from within the file: Once the file is opened, you’ll have new options to respond to the email thread from the File menu in Docs, Sheets, or Slides. 

See images below. 


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it’s important 

This provides a fast and convenient way to view, edit, and collaborate on emailed Office files directly in Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Previously, users would have to save a file to Drive before being able to use G Suite’s Office editing features. With this launch, they can open files more quickly and reply to email threads featuring Office files more easily. 


Getting started 


When you receive an Office file in Gmail, click the Edit icon to quickly open the file to view, edit, and collaborate. 

After opening an Office file from Gmail, you’ll see new options in the Docs, Sheets, or Slides File menu to reply with a file, or open the original message. 


Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials and Enterprise Essentials customers 

Resources 

Use Macro Converter add-on to convert Microsoft Excel files with macros to Google Sheets

Quick launch summary 

We’ve launched Macro Converter for Google Sheets. This Google Workspace add-on will help convert Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code used in Microsoft Excel macros to Apps Script code that works in Google Sheets. 


Many organizations use macros in Sheets and Excel to automate processes. Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers can use the Macro Conversion add-on to determine the compatibility of Excel files, and help convert them where possible. This can help teams to recreate Excel macros in Sheets, which can help teams save time through automation while reducing the work needed to convert files.  




Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • This is available now for all users. 

Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Standard, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, and Nonprofits customers 

Resources 

New comment interface for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides rolling out to more devices

Quick Summary 

We’re updating the user interface for comments and action items in the Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps for iOS. These improvements 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. 


These updates were previously made available on the Docs, Sheets, and Slides Android apps; they’re now rolling out to the Drive Android app and the Docs, Sheets, and Slides iOS apps. 

They’ll be made available on the Drive iOS app in the future. See below for more details on the rollout.

Getting started 

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


Rollout pace 

Docs, Sheets, and Slides on iOS 

Drive Android app

Drive iOS app
  • Stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for information on when this will launch to iOS devices. 

Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers 

Resources 

Office editing on iOS brings Google Workspace collaboration to Microsoft Office files

Quick launch summary 

We’re making Office editing available on iOS. This feature brings the collaborative and assistive features of Google Workspace to your Microsoft Office files when you’re using your iOS device. Already available on the web and Android, it: 
  • Allows you to edit, comment, and collaborate on Microsoft Office files using Google Docs’, Sheets’, and Slides’ powerful real-time collaboration tools. 
  • Improves sharing options, improves sharing controls, and reduces the need to download and email file attachments. 
  • Streamlines workflows by reducing the need to convert file types. 

Office editing will replace Quickoffice (sometimes known as Office Compatibility Mode), which has more limited functionality and collaboration capabilities. See more about Office editing in our announcement for the feature on the web. 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • This feature is available now for all users. 

Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Changes to Google Workspace storage policies starting June 1, 2021

What’s changing

In 2021, we’ll make some changes to the way we store Google Photos, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard content that may impact your domain. Please see below for more details.

Google Photos
Starting June 1, 2021, any new photos or videos uploaded to Google Photos or Google Drive in High quality will count toward the storage limits for users in your domain. Currently, only photos and videos uploaded in Original quality count toward storage quotas. Please note that any photos or videos uploaded in High quality prior to June 1, 2021, will not be impacted by this change and will not count toward storage limits.

Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard
Starting June 1, 2021, any newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard files will also count toward the storage limits for users in your domain. Existing files within these products will not count toward storage, unless they’re modified on or after June 1, 2021.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users. Storage limits differ across Google Workspace and G Suite editions, but we estimate that the majority of users will not be affected by these changes. See “Getting Started” below for more information on determining how much storage each user in your organization is allotted.

Why it’s important

Over the past decade, Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos have helped billions of people securely store and manage their emails, documents, photos, videos and more. Today, people are uploading more content than ever before—in fact, more than 4.3 million GB are added across Gmail, Drive, and Photos every day. These changes to our storage policy are necessary to provide our users with a great experience and to keep pace with the growing demand.

Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability 

  • These changes will apply to all customers with Google Workspace and G Suite licenses. 

Resources

 

Office editing mode is now the default editing mode for Office files in Drive on the web

What’s changing 

We’re changing the default editing mode for Microsoft Office files in Google Drive on the web. Now, when you double-click on an Office file, it will open directly in Office editing mode. 

Previously, double clicking would open a preview of the document, from which users could choose whether to open in Office editing mode or download the file. You can still use the preview mode by right clicking the file and clicking "Preview,” or by pressing ‘P’ on the keyboard while double clicking the file. 



Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it’s important 

This change makes it quicker to open and start editing documents. Users can directly edit, comment, and collaborate on Office files using the familiar interface of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, with changes automatically saved to the file in its existing Office format. 


Additional details 

Note that: 
  • This change will apply to all compatible Office file types, including .docx, .doc, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm 
  • Password protected Office files will not open directly in Office editing mode. These files will continue to open in Preview mode. 
  • If the “Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides” Chrome extension is installed, we will redirect to the extension and not to Docs, Sheets, or Slides. This is the same as if you select “Open with” today. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: This feature will be ON by default. There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: This change will take place by default when opening compatible Office files in Drive on the web. You can still use the preview mode by right clicking the file and clicking "Preview," or by pressing ‘P’ on the keyboard while double clicking the file. Visit the Help Center to learn more about working with Office files in Drive. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources