Tag Archives: Google Slides

New interface for Activity dashboard in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

We’re updating the interface of Activity dashboard in the Google Docs editors. The options and settings available won’t change, but we hope the new interface makes it easier to find data and collaborate more effectively.

See the new Activity dashboard UI 
“View time” in the new Activity dashboard interface

“Viewer trend” in the new Activity dashboard interface


A comparison of the old and new Activity dashboard interfaces 

See our Help Center for more information on how to see the view history of your Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.

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

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: See the view history of your Google Docs, Sheets & Slides 
G Suite Updates blog: Improve collaboration in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides with Activity dashboard


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Easily add images and charts from other files to Google Docs and Slides

The Explore feature in Google Docs and Slides makes it simple to search for Google Drive files related to whatever you’re currently working on. With this launch, G Suite Basic, Business, and Enterprise users can view images and charts in those files—right from within the Explore panel—and insert them quickly and easily into their document or presentation.



Visit the Help Center for more information on how to use Explore in Google Docs and Slides.

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

Editions:
Available to G Suite Basic, Business, and Enterprise editions only

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

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: See and use suggested content in a document
Help Center: See and use suggested layouts in a presentation


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Add automatic real-time captions when you present in Google Slides

You can now show automated closed captions in real-time when presenting in Google Slides. This feature uses your computer’s microphone to detect your spoken presentation, and then transcribes what you say as captions on the slides you’re presenting. We hope that this will make your presentations more effective in more environments to a wider audience.

Captions created automatically from your audio 

If you turn captions on, Google Slides will use the audio from your microphone to automatically create captions of what you say. These captions will display in real time at the bottom of your screen to all audience members watching the presentation. This will work for local presentations and for presentations over video conferencing software, where captions will show on the shared screen.

The feature works in U.S. English on Chrome browsers. Captions are created from the presenter’s computer and its microphone, so captions may not work consistently if there are multiple presenters using different computers. You may want to let the audience know that captions are from Google Slides, not the video conferencing software, and that only the speaker's voice is captioned.

Helps improve accessibility and in environments where it’s hard to hear 

This feature can help make your presentation more effective for:

  • Audience members who are deaf or hard of hearing 
  • Non-native speakers and/or audience members who prefer written content 
  • In venues with poor audio or in noisy ambient environments 



To find out how to turn on and use automated captions in Slides, visit our Help Center.

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

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: Present slides with captions 


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Use quick-access side panel to do more from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, and more

We’re adding a quick-access side panel to the Docs editors and Google Calendar to help you quickly access other G Suite products without leaving what you’re working on. A similar side panel has been a popular feature of the new Gmail, and we hope that this integration will help you work more efficiently within and across G Suite.

You’ll be able to access three G Suite products from Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings:

  • Google Calendar: Quickly reference, create or edit invites. 
  • Google Keep: Easily take notes, create lists, and see your other content. 
  • Google Tasks: Manage your tasks and to-dos. 
You’ll also see the side panel in Google Calendar, where you’ll be able to use Keep and Tasks.


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

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: Use Google products side-by-side 
The Keyword: With new security and intelligent features, the new Gmail means business


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Docs Activity dashboard now available to all G Suite users

We’re making the Activity dashboard feature available to all G Suite users. Previously this feature was not fully available to G Suite Basic customers.

Extending Activity dashboard to G Suite Basic edition 

All G Suite admins and users will now have full access to Activity dashboards and associated controls. Previously admins and users in Basic domains could choose whether their viewing data appeared in dashboards, but they could not see dashboards for their own files. Now that these users can view dashboards for their files, there are new options and controls:


  • New admin controls available now: Admins in G Suite Basic domains can decide whether their users can use Activity dashboard. This new Admin console setting will be available for two weeks before the feature becomes available for users. By default this will be turned on, meaning that users will be able to view Activity dashboards for files that belong to their domain and that they have “Edit” access to. 
  • Existing admin and user controls will not change: Any existing privacy controls will remain the same when the change is enabled. For example, if an admin or user in a Basic domain has previously chosen to prevent their viewing data from appearing in Activity dashboards, this setting will not change. 
  • User features roll out starting September 4th: Depending on the admin action taken, this change will begin to roll out to users in Rapid Release G Suite Basic domains on September 4th and Scheduled Release G Suite Basic domains on September 18th. 


G Suite Enterprise, Enterprise for Education, Business, Education, and Nonprofit domains already have access to the feature. Nothing is changing for admins or users in these domains.

To learn more about how to change these settings for your organization, see our original launch announcement for Activity dashboard and our Activity dashboard Help Center article for admins. 

Activity dashboard enables efficient and effective communication 

Activity dashboard gives users useful metrics about how people are interacting with their Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files. They can use this to collaborate more efficiently and effectively. Since the initial launch of the Activity dashboard, we’ve made the feature more useful and more actionable. Users can now:

  • Email collaborators through Activity dashboard. Use knowledge about view histories to pick recipients and send custom follow-up emails. 
  • See viewers over time. Keep track of how many viewers have visited your file over time, adjusting the data range and focusing in on specific data points for more details. 
Activity dashboard gives users useful metrics about their files

Launch Details 
Release track: 
- Admin console settings are available today to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains.
- User-facing feature will begin to roll out to Rapid Release domains on September 4th and Scheduled Release domains on September 18th.

Editions: 
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace: 
- Admin settings: Available now.
- User-facing feature: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) 

Impact: 
Admins and end users

Action: 
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information 
Help Center (admins): Let users see who viewed files 
Help Center (users): See who has viewed Google Docs, Sheets & Slides


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Improved slide layouts with new size and position controls in Google Slides

We’re adding new controls to adjust the size and position of shapes, images, text boxes, and more in Google Slides. This builds on our launch from April, when we added guide and ruler features to give you more control over object positions and text alignment. Together these features provide precise control over slides and enable the design of more attractive and effective presentations. The new options allow users to:


  • Set exact size by numeric value or percentage scale 
  • Adjust object position on a slide 
  • Rotate by flipping horizontally or vertically, or setting a precise rotation angle 

Size & position controls in Slides
New object size and position controls in Google Slides 
You can access the new controls through:

  • Format menu > Format options 
  • Right click on object > Format options 
  • Select object > Format options in the toolbar 


See our Help Center for more information on how to arrange objects in Google Slides.


Launch Details

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

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: Insert and arrange text, shapes, diagrams, and lines


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New insights in Google Docs Activity dashboard

We’re introducing new features to provide more insight and help you collaborate through Activity dashboard in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. This will help make the data in Activity dashboard:

  • More actionable. Users can quickly email file collaborators. 
  • More useful. Users can see viewing patterns over time. 


Email collaborators through Activity dashboard 

In just a few clicks, users can pick recipients, customize, and send a follow-up email with the link to the file. Users can:

  • Select who to email. There are shortcuts for collaborators who have viewed the file or have not viewed the file, or you can pick recipients manually with checkboxes (see image below for example). 
  • Customize an email. Users can write a message to chosen recipients. 
  • Send the email. 

See our Help Center for detailed instructions on how to send emails through Activity dashboard. 




See viewing patterns over time 

A popular request from our users is to have more insight into patterns around viewing data on files. So we’re adding a chart showing how many viewers have visited the file over time. You can adjust the date range, and hover over specific data points for more details.



Use our Help Center to find out more about how to understand the data in Activity dashboard.

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

Editions:
Available on G Suite Business, Enterprise, Education, and Nonprofit editions

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

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information





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New in Google Slides: linking in Docs, guides and rulers, and improved commenting

Today we’re introducing several features in Google Slides on the web that will make it easier to create, collaborate on, and share presentations. Read on for more information.

Insert slides from Google Slides into Google Docs

You can now insert a slide from a Google Slides presentation directly into Google Docs. If you want, you can then link that slide in Docs to its source presentation in Slides and sync any changes with just one click—similar to the way you can insert and link charts from Google Sheets. This should save you from doing duplicative work and ensure that the content in your documents is always up to date.

Use our Help Center to learn how to insert and link slides in Docs.


Design your slides with precision using new guides and rulers

You can now add guide lines for consistent placement and alignment throughout a presentation. These guides will show on all slides in a presentation, and text and objects will snap to a guide to ensure they’re aligned.

We’ve also created a new visual ruler, which gives you fine-grained control over the alignment of text, lists, objects, and guides. Indentation markers in the ruler can help you control the alignment of text or bullets within objects.

Use our Help Center to find out how to use guides and rulers in Slides.


Comment on text within individual objects

You can now comment on specific text within an object, such as a text box, on a slide. Previously, you could only comment on the whole object or the whole slide. We hope that this extra control over what you’re commenting on will make it easier to collaborate on presentations.

For more information on working in Slides, please visit the Help Center.

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

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: Link a chart, table, or slides to Google Docs or Slides
Help Center: Insert and arrange text, shapes, diagrams, and lines
Help Center: Add a bulleted or numbered list

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Menu and toolbar updates in Google Docs editors

Based on usage data and your feedback, we’re making some changes to the menus in the web versions of the Google Docs editors. These are similar to the changes we made in December, in January, and in February and will make it easier to find certain items.

Changes that affect the Google Docs and Google Slides menus: 
  • In the Format menu, text formatting options (including bold, italic, font size, and more) will be moved to a new “Text” submenu.

Changes that only affect Google Slides menus: 
  • The Table menu will be removed. Options to add or remove a table will be in the Insert menu. Options to format tables will be in the Format menu. 
  • In the Slide menu, four options for moving slides will be moved to a new “Move” submenu. 
  • In the Arrange menu, "Align horizontally" and "Align vertically" will be moved into a new "Align" submenu. 

Changes that only affect Google Docs menus and toolbars: 
  • In the toolbar, text color and highlight color will be split into separate controls for each. 
  • In the toolbar, a new option will be added to “Insert image” 
  • The Table menu will be removed. Options to add or remove a table will be in the Insert menu. Options to format tables will be in the Format menu. 

Changes that affect all Docs editors menus (including Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets): 
  • Items in the Insert menu will be reordered.

These changes will only affect the visual menu on the web version of these products. All options will still be available via keyboard shortcuts and the search box in the Help menu.

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

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: Keyboard shortcuts for Google Docs 
Help Center: Keyboard shortcuts for Google Slides 
Help Center: Docs editors homepage

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Launch detail categories
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Improving the menus in Google Docs editors

Based on usage data and your feedback, we’re making some changes to the menus in the web versions of the Google Docs editors. These are similar to the changes we made in December and in January and will make it easier to find certain items.

Changes that affect all Docs editors menus (including Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets):
  • In the Tools menu, “Spelling” will be renamed “Check Spelling.”
  • In the Edit menu, “Select none” will be removed. 
  • Items in the File, Edit, and Tools menus will be reordered. 


Changes that only affect Google Sheets menus:
  • In the Data menu, “Filter” will be renamed “Create a filter.”
  • In the Data menu, “Validation” will be renamed “Data validation.”
  • Items in the Data menu will be reordered. 
  • Items in the Format menu will be reordered. 


These changes will only affect the visual menu on the web version of these products. All options will still be available via keyboard shortcuts and the search box in the Help menu.


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

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: Keyboard shortcuts for Google Docs
Help Center: Keyboard shortcuts for Google Sheets
Help Center: Docs editors homepage


Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates