Google Drive Blog: March 2011

38 more languages and minimize toolbar added to Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office38 more languages

Due to popular request, we’ve added the option to minimize Google Cloud Connect by clicking on a new minimize arrow. When the document is synced, the minimized bar will still show upload progress.

This update is available to everyone today. If you’re already downloaded Google Cloud Connect, you’ll receive an update automatically. If you’re new to Google Cloud Connect, you can download the plugin -- in any of the 39 supported languages -- on the download page.

Posted by: Alex DeNeui, Software Engineer

Making what’s old, new

Thursday, March 24, 2011

new version of the document editorcollaborative highlightingbetter revision historymobile editingdiscussions

From there you’ll get a chance to see what the document looks like in the new editor and either choose to convert it or leave it in the old format. There are two important things to note about this process. First, this feature will not be available to Google Apps customers initially. Second, revision history will not be imported into the new editor.

Because we’re converting between two very different editors, it’s also possible that the document could look slightly changed in the new editor. For example, there are still more table features we need to add to the new editor before it will be able to perfectly import all forms of tables that can be created in the old editor.

If you want to freshen up your old documents, try opening them today and seeing what they look like when you upgrade to the version with all the latest features.

Posted by: Jeff Harris, Product Manager

Revisions, and presence, and painters, oh my. Updates to Drawings

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Presence + Revision history

documentsspreadsheets

Format painter & recent colors
The new format painter lets you choose a source shape, press the format painter icon to copy its formatting, and then click on another shape to apply that formatting to the destination shape.

Colors are a special type of formatting because in drawings you can choose any color value you want. This feature is nice because it lets you make your drawings just so, but it can be frustrating because you need to remember any custom color codes in order to make sure that different shapes had the same colors. You can now solve that problem with the format painter, but we’ve also made matching colors even easier by adding a recent color palette. The palette shows you up to eight custom colors that you’ve used in your drawings.

Sub-group selection
Groups help you keep your drawings organized and they make it easy to format a bunch of shapes with a single action. But sometimes when you have a group of shapes, there’s a single shape that you want to modify. Before now, you would need to ungroup the shapes, make your modification, and then regroup. But today we’ve added the ability to select a shape within a group. To do this, first click on any shape in the group, then click again on the specific shape that you want to modify. You’ll see outlines and dragging handles around the entire group and also around the shape you selected.

Hopefully these features make online drawings a little easier. If you’ve got any fun drawings that you created, please share them with us in the comments.

Posted by: Misha Leder, Software Engineer

Filter your data in spreadsheets

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

To filter your data set, first select the information you want to filter. If you click on one cell within a large set of data, it will expand to select other cells in that range.

Ranges that are part of the filtered data set will have both the column and row labels colored green.

Once you’ve selected your data set, clicking on the drop down icon

in the header rows will give a set of filter options. Here, you can change sorting, select specific filters, search and perform bulk actions.

Search speeds up filtering for large data sets. For example, typing P will shorten the list to just the names that start with P. You can also Select all or Clear to perform bulk actions on the visible items. For example clicking clear below would de-select Peter and Phil.

The icon in the header row will change to a filter to denote the columns that have a filter applied to them. The filter toolbar icon will also change to green if a filter has been applied to any column. Finding all the wines from 2006 that Peter and Phil liked now takes seconds.

Note that filtering and sorting are both applied immediately for all collaborators and per person filtering isn’t available at this time. To turn off filtering, just click on the filter icon.

This is another highly requested feature that we’re happy to make available to everyone. We’re looking forward to your feedback on how we can improve it.

Posted by: Jane Lu, Software Engineer

Introducing discussions in Google Docs

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

new Google Docs

Google Docs doesn’t force you to delete comments. Instead, you can resolve comments to remove them from the visible document and view them later by clicking the discussions button at the top of any document. You can even re-open comments from here.

We know you can’t watch all of your important documents all day to see if there are any suggestions, which is why we’ve integrated comments with your inbox to facilitate more rapid and responsive communication. You can now add someone to a discussion with an @mention. For example, typing @eddy@altostrat.com in a discussion will send a notification email to Eddy with the text of your comment.

Eddy gets a message in her inbox with your question or comment.

She can easily click through to open the document itself to respond, or simply reply to the email.

The reply will show up in the document as soon as the email is sent.

To turn off email notifications for a document, just select Mute updates from this comment at the bottom of any email or select Discussion notification settings... from the Discussions drop down.

We've been using this next-generation commenting system inside Google for several months and have seen it make the feedback cycle shorter and get more people involved. The combination of added structure and intuitive email integration have really given life to the discussions that surround our documents, and we're excited for this new feature to do the same for you.

Discussions will be available over the next few days to all users with personal Google Accounts as well as to Google Apps customers on the Rapid Release track. Please note that improved comments are only available in new documents at this time so if you want to try it out make sure to create a new document. The comments you’ve created in existing document won’t be changed.

We’re excited to hear what you think so let us know on in the comments.

Posted by: Nick Cooper, Software Engineer

Multiple chart ranges and hidden sheets in Spreadsheets

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Chart Multiple Ranges

Select ranges...add another range

In this example, here is what the chart with the above data selected looks like.

Hidden Sheets
We’re also introducing the ability to hide your sheets. You can click on a sheet tab and select “hide sheet” to remove a sheet from view.

The sheet can still be seen in the list of sheets and any editor can click on this sheet to bring this back to view. Sheets can also be accessed from the Hidden sheets option in the View menu. Learn more about sheet hiding here.

We hope you enjoy these features, let us know what you think in the forums.

Posted by: DJ Lee, Staff Software Engineer

Template updated: 2011 College Basketball Tournament Bracket

Monday, March 14, 2011

2011 College Basketball Tournament Bracket template

google.com/collegebasketball2011Posted by: Haluk Tunali, Software Engineer

What’s new in Docs: Mobile editing in 45 languages, printing in spreadsheets

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

mobile editing in EnglishMobile editing now in 45 languages45 languagesmobile.google.com/docs

More print sizes
Following in the footsteps of last week’s hide gridlines update, there are now eight more print sizes in Google spreadsheets, including tabloid, statement, executive, folio and A3, A5, B4 and B5.

As always, feedback in the comments and on the forums is appreciated.

Posted by: Carmen Wilkinson, Software Engineer

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