Documents dress up and print out

Posted by: David Kuettel, Software Engineer, Google Docs

A Google document's natural habitat is online, and in the past, this is where it stayed. While it was possible to print a Google document, it was admittedly difficult to predict what the printed page was going to look like -- kind of like stepping out for an evening without knowing what you're wearing until you get out the door, an option that makes staying in pretty tempting.

Not that staying in is a bad option, of course. If you're a Google document, home means being safe and instantly accessible, never having to worry about the life-threatening disaster of a hard drive crash, or the pain of packing up and moving as multiple versions are emailed to and from multiple collaborators -- in short, a life of leisure!

Because of this, there are many Google documents that will never want to leave their online oasis. However, there are also documents that need to make an appearance in the "real world."

We hear from students and teachers, lawyers and accountants. They all let us know that keeping and sharing their documents online made their jobs infinitely easier. But they also made it clear that the end result of their work needed to be a well-formatted paper document, printed and presented outside of Google Docs' online home.

We took this seriously, and now we're introducing better printing for Google documents and the option to set the following specifications for your printed documents:

• Margins
• Page numbers
• Landscape or portrait page orientation
• Legal, Letter, or A4 paper size

So, while documents will always make their home online, we're happy to announce that for those of you with a need, Google documents can now come out to play. Right out of your printer and on to your desk, or your boss's desk, or your teacher's folder, or your client's briefcase...printed documents are here!

Teaching revision writing with Docs

Posted by: Cristin Frodella, Product Manager, Education Initiatives

Some of Google Docs' most loyal users are teachers; we get lots of emails, suggestions, and lesson ideas from you. Based on what you've told us, one of your favorite things about using Docs with your students is that they tend to work harder if their work is transparent to each other. They react well to seeing one another's writing and getting the opportunity to show off just a teeny bit. We've also learned that "writing buddy" programs give kids the opportunity to brainstorm with and inspire one other, while letting them learn crucial editing and interpersonal skills.

Google for Educators has buddied up with the good folks from the Weekly Reader to bring you a lesson on revision writing -- with a buddy. The talented writers at Weekly Reader have worked with teachers all over the country to come up with tips and checklists for incorporating buddy writing in the classroom. And as always, Google Docs allows your students to create their first drafts, fix their mistakes and hone the perfect paper, all while keeping track of each and every comma change, word replacement and new stroke of genius along the way.

Come check out the lesson, grab a few hints on using Google Docs and introduce your kids to buddy writing -- we suspect their collaborations will get your creative juices flowing, too.

Get Docs in 38 languages

Posted by: Ken Norton, Product Manager, Google Docs

Earlier today we launched Google Docs in 13 more languages, bringing our total number of supported languages to 38. That means 99% of the world's Internet users can collaborate in a version of Docs fully localized to their native language.

The new languages are: Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Filipino, Greek, Hindi, Latvian, Lithuanian, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, and Slovenian.

Docs on the go

Posted by: Zach Lloyd, Software Engineer - Google spreadsheets

I track a lot of work related tasks on spreadsheets that are shared with other engineers, and I often like to know if anyone has updated them while I'm away from my computer. Until now, this was pretty much impossible.

Enter Google Docs for your mobile phone. If you have an iPhone, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile device, you can now point your phone's browser to http://docs.google.com/m to view (no editing yet - sorry), mobile-optimized versions of your docs, spreadsheets, and even presentations (for iPhone only for now). You might have to squint a little, and it's only for English-language users for now, but the information is all there, in your pocket, wherever you are. Now you'll have no excuse not to pick up the milk that was added to that shared grocery list while you were out (huh? You don't have a shared grocery list yet?)

It was a real challenge coming up with useful views, especially of spreadsheets, that would work on the inherently limited screen size and the (um, how to say it nicely) often finicky mobile browsers - but go ahead and give it a shot, and please tell us what you think on the help group.

We've also introduced a few other features... Now you can format spreadsheet cells based on rules. For example, the cell could turn red if it contains a date prior to today. It's a really nice way of quickly seeing the state of a complex or quickly changing sheet - works great for all my overdue tasks! We've also (finally) introduced a way of hiding (and un-hiding) rows and columns. It's always nice to eliminate clutter. Check out all the recent changes on the description on the help group or our new features page.

And now we present...

Posted by: Jeff Grimes, Software Engineer

Earlier this year, we told you that in addition to documents and spreadsheets, we'd soon be adding support for presentations as well. We know you've been waiting, and today we're excited to invite you to try out presentations for yourself at http://documents.google.com.

Just like Google documents and spreadsheets, presentations are stored securely online, so you can access them from anywhere using only a web browser. Working together with one or more people to put together a killer presentation? Not a problem, just like with documents and spreadsheets, you can collaborate with others and see everyone's changes in real time. If you're new to Google Docs, check out this video to learn more:



If you're starting your presentation from scratch, you can pick from several pre-defined themes and layouts; if you already have a presentation, you can import that as well. Once you've started, you can easily add additional text and images, and of course, you can move and resize everything so that it looks just the way you want.

When you're ready to share your presentation with your friends, customers, or even the world, it's easy to do using the familiar Google Docs interface. You can even walk your audience through the slides online in real time. Participants simply click a link to join and follow along, and everyone can chat about the presentation together.

We're excited about making presentations available today in response to your requests, and we're looking forward to rolling out updates and improvements to this feature over the coming months. Or, as my son likes to say, "Google. Slide. Weee!" We hope you'll feel the same way.

Please see: http://google-d-s.blogspot.com.

Lazy Wednesday...

Posted by: Andy Bonventre, Engineer - spreadsheets team

I'm a pretty lazy guy, as I'm sure anyone who knows me can attest to. Any method or process that reduces the amount of work I have to do in order to accomplish a task is always a welcome addition to my tool set. This is why it made me very excited to hear that I would be in charge of providing the ultimate laziness feature to Google Spreadsheets users: AutoFill. With AutoFill you can reduce the amount of repetitive entry into your sheets by dragging the new little square at the bottom right of whatever range is selected. You can now fill in commonly seen series, like the days of the week or a series of numbers, or simply use it as a copy-and-paste tool. But of course, that's not all...

For some real interesting fills, we've hooked AutoFill up to our old-timer Labs brother, Google Sets (a combination that JR refers to as 'MagicFill'). Make use of the integration by holding down the CTRL (Linux and Windows) or ALT (Mac) keys before dragging the handle, and you can use it to create grocery lists, luggage manifests, or a list of similar prospective colleges (for all you rising high school seniors out there). We're still working out some kinks, though, so consider this an early-release feature ;). Thanks to Matt for helping make sure there were less kinks than my earlier version.

Of course, AutoFill isn't the only new addition...
We've also just introduced some cool new data query functions that allow you to import RSS/Atom, HTML, CSV/TSV and XML data directly into your sheet. These are handy for basic data import tasks and provide virtually endless opportunities for integrating information from web sources. The spreadsheet fanatics out there (we have some here) might even try this as an alternative to the fantastic Google Reader interface for aggregating your favorite feeds ;). Special thanks goes out to Tom Swedlund, a summer intern, who was in charge of implementing those.

You may also notice the new strike-through font formatting button that was implemented courtesy of Animesh Kejriwal in his 20% time. Thanks Animesh!

Have fun, and don't forget to post some of your own discovered 'MagicFills' in our Help Group...

Draft without drafts

Those of you who play fantasy football know how crucial the draft is. The decisions you make in August can have you jumping for joy on Sunday or tearing your hair out on Monday morning. I'm a fantasy football addict and I love the game - but not the paperwork. Unfortunately, before using Google Docs & Spreadsheets, there was a lot of paperwork.

Like most leagues, my buddies and I relied on lots of email with scores of attachments. The commissioner would create a league spreadsheet and send it to each of us in an email. Then we'd fill it out and send it back to him. The poor guy would tirelessly compile everyone's draft picks and send it out again. This awful cycle would begin anew each week as the commissioner tallied the scores and updated the standings. Thanks be praised, the olden days are gone, and this drudgery is over.

My league now uses Google Docs & Spreadsheets to compile and compare the information for that all-important draft. Now my commissioner creates an online spreadsheet and invites each league member to collaborate. Each of us enters our information online, in one place. Nobody ever has an out of date version and we can see everyone else's changes as they happen. With Google Spreadsheet's integrated chat feature, we can even trash talk in real time.

Since switching to Google Docs & Spreadsheets, I have a lot more time to research my draft picks, my league commissioner has his life back, and the world is a better, more collaborative place. Now I just need Frank Gore to put up some serious points.

(Docs & Spreadsheets user Dave Kaufman also shared his experience with the draft.)

How Docs & Spreadsheets grew at Google

Posted by: Ken Norton, Product Manager, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

When we first launched Docs & Spreadsheets last fall, we brainstormed different ways to drive awareness and adoption inside of Google. Should we hold a contest? Put up posters? But before we knew it, something interesting happened -- Googlers just started using it. They didn't need to be encouraged to reduce their email attachments. They didn't need to be told that having a single copy of their document would reduce confusion and allow access from any web browser. They didn't need a demo on how to import and export from traditional desktop applications. In sum, they didn't need us to tell them it would change the way they work together.

At Google, it's common to use our own products internally. In software industry parlance, we "eat our own dog food." (We like to think that Google products are tastier than kibble, but we'll leave that alone for now.) This is especially true for Google Apps. We use the same product as customers like Arizona State University and Prudential Preferred. As you can imagine, few tools in the corporate world are more important than email, calendar, instant messaging and document editing, so a vote of confidence from our co-workers means a lot. Since we use all of the Google Apps every day, we experience first hand what works and what doesn't, and we can apply that knowledge to making the products better.

Here are some statistics: 87% of Google employees worldwide used Docs & Spreadsheets in the past week and 96% have used it in the past month. Googlers have created and shared more than 370,000 documents and spreadsheets and they create more than 3,000 new ones each day. In fact, I wrote this blog post and shared it with colleagues using Docs & Spreadsheets just a few moments ago. If it works for us, it might just work for you too.

Peek-a-boo, I see you (on this spreadsheet)

Posted by: Micah Lemonik - Google spreadsheets engineer

As we mentioned in the Docs & Spreadsheets help group last week, we added a few cool (in my opinion ;) features to the collaborative spreadsheets editor. What we didn't mention was the hard work of a few interns which led to these features.

Matt Ziegelbaum gave us the new Sortbar, which is a huge improvement to our old Sort tab. It's that new gray bar you'll see towards the top of your spreadsheets. You can drag and drop the handle at the left to quickly and easily freeze your header rows, but it also gives you one-click access to sorting. Just click it once above the column you want to sort; click again to reverse the sort.

James Walker gave us the collaborator location indicators. This one adds even more "wow" to the Real-time collaboration capabilities of the product. When you are working in the same spreadsheet with other people, you can now see where they are - as their selected cell will be highlighted with a colored box. If you don't see them, just click their name in the discuss tab and you'll be taken to the part of the spreadsheet where they are working and watch, in real-time, as they move around the sheet. You'll also be given a visual indicator when a cell is being edited (it turns gray) to help avoid those "oops - I think i just edited the same cell as you" moments. If you've never actually edited a spreadsheet at the same time as other people, go create a spreadsheet of your favorite videos or musicians and invite a few people to give their ratings... or whatever. Real-time collaboration might change your perspective on productivity... and fun!

If anyone ever tells you that interns do un-important tasks and get coffee for their managers - don't believe it. In fact, I'm going now to get coffee for James and Matt and the rest of the team who helped get these features done!

Hide and go sort

Posted by: Steven Saviano, Software Engineer, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

We've gotten an unprecedented amount of feedback since we launched the redesigned document list last month. As promised, we're considering all your suggestions -- positive and, ahem, "constructive." Today we've added two new features that topped your lists: sorting and hiding.

• Sort your documents: Click on column headers to sort by document name, date changed, starred/unstarred and shared with. Click twice to change from ascending to descending order.
• Hide is back: The archive feature is back, now called "hide." You'll notice a Hide button in the document list toolbar that will remove selected documents from view. You can always get back to hidden documents by selecting "Hidden" on the left. It's easy to unhide a document by selecting "Unhide" or simply dragging the document to a different folder.

As always, keep those suggestions coming in our help group.

Ten new languages

Posted by: Ken Norton, Product Manager, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

We thought you might like to know that we've added support for another ten languages to Google Docs & Spreadsheets. We're now available in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Czech, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian. To change your default language, click the "Settings" link from the top right of your document list. This means that now we know how to say "collaborate" in 25 languages!

Array Formulas without Ctrl-Shift-Enter

Posted by: John Danaher, Engineer - Google spreadsheets

If you're an expert spreadsheet user, you might be familiar with the powerful and obscure feature known as array formulas. They're powerful because they let you replace an entire column of formulas with a single array formula that does all the calculations in one place. And they're obscure because you've always had to hit Ctrl-Shift-Enter to create one, and, well, who's ever going to discover that on their own?

It's now a lot simpler to create an array formula in Google Spreadsheets. If you want to create a multiple-output formula (like TRANSPOSE or MMULT), just enter the formula normally and hit enter. As if by magic, the entire output of the formula will appear. And if you want a multiple-input formula, wrap the whole formula in the ARRAYFORMULA function, like so: =ARRAYFORMULA(SUM(IF(A1:A10>B1:B10, A1:A10, B1:B10))).

And if you've never heard of array formulas but we've piqued your interest, take a look at our array formulas help page that explains them in a little more detail.

Want spreadsheet filtering? Try this.

Posted by: Alex Komoroske, Intern - Google Docs & Spreadsheets team

When I joined the Google spreadsheets team in New York City as a Product Manager intern this summer, I let on to the fact that I loved to do programming on the side. My manager's eyes lit up and before I knew it he introduced me to the Google Spreadsheets API. He showed me a quick and (very) dirty javascript program he had written that would allow spreadsheet users to filter their view of a spreadsheet--that is, to view only rows that met some simple criteria. His code wasn't quite bloggable, so he invited me to make a 'real' spreadsheet filter application.

The API gave me access to practically all my spreadsheet data, so I had the flexibility to do whatever I had in mind. Within a few hours, I had a pretty powerful little application that could filter using easy dropdowns on each column. But I wasn't done -- I wanted more control over filtering. I added an expression parser that understands "fuzzy" filters -- things like "contains North or New" -- just as well as it understands more precise (but intimidating) traditional expressions.

I clearly went a little overboard with my spreadsheet application, but the point is that the API puts a lot of power into my hands--and yours. If you've got any kind of programming experience, why don't you give it a try ?

An entirely new way to stay organized

Posted by: Ron Schneider, Technical Lead, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Today we introduced some exciting changes to Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Here's what's new:

• Looking pretty - The entire document list has been given a complete visual overhaul - new icons, more content, and better organizational controls. We know users spend a lot of time here and we aim to make it feel more like home.
• Getting organized - Almost from the day we launched people have been clamoring for folders. They're here! Even cooler, our new folders continue to work like the tags they've replaced - your old tags are automatically converted to folders and documents can live in more than one folder at a time. Organizing your documents is as easy as dragging and dropping a document to a folder. We've also included special controls for seeing only those documents created by you or shared with a particular person.
  
• Search that thinks ahead - If you've ever tried Google Suggest, you know how cool it is when a search engine offer suggestions as you type. Google Docs & Spreadsheets now works the same way - we offer dynamically filtered results from your document list as you type, saving you time and getting you to your documents more quickly.

We hope you like what you see. As always, we welcome your feedback in our help group.

Changes are afoot

Posted by: Ken Norton, Product Manager, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Tomorrow we're going to release a new version of Docs & Spreadsheets, so keep your eyes peeled. We wanted to give you a bit of advance notice since things will look different when you log in.

People have really come to rely on Docs & Spreadsheets since we launched last October, and lots of you have offered suggestions for ways we could improve the experience for both new and power users. Tomorrow's update is a direct response to this feedback, and includes new ways to keep your docs organized, and find your old docs too.

We can hardly wait to show you, and we hope you'll like what you see. If you have questions or feedback, it's always welcome in our help group.

See shared docs & spreadsheets before logging in

Posted by: Jonathan Rochelle, Product Manager

When someone invites you to a view or edit a shared document or spreadsheet, you expect to be able to see it without having to jump over any walls (like a sign-in page or registration). We know this because you told us.

So now, if you invite someone who doesn't have a Google Account (or who does, but isn't logged in) to share a document or spreadsheet, he or she will be able to immediately view it. To edit, however, it's still necessary to first sign in or to create a Google account. Syd & Regina explained this in our Group.

To enable this feature, check the option on the "Share" tab called "Invitations may be used by anyone" - which will also allow people to forward your invitation email to others, so those people may gain access. You can always uncheck the box to limit access to those people you specifically invite. (They'll still need to be logged in to their Google account to create and edit documents and spreadsheets.)

Integrating visual tools with spreadsheet data

Posted by: Jonathan Rochelle, Product Manager

If you are looking for new ways to visualize data from your spreadsheets, or if you're looking for methods to integrate your own products or programming ideas with collaborative spreadsheet data - please check out this blog post on our Google Data APIs blog. It describes how two particular companies integrated Google Docs & Spreadsheets as data sources into their data visualization tools.

The more the merrier

Posted by: Michelle Lee, Docs & Spreadsheets User Experience Designer

Last week, I volunteered at the public library with my buddy Clark. We were cataloging donated books, so I shared a spreadsheet with him at clark.kent@notsuper.com. Little did I know, he was already into Docs & Spreadsheets, but typically used his other email address, superman@collaborativehero.com, to log in. Luckily, with the new invitation system, it worked seamlessly. He could see the book sale spreadsheet right next to the documents he'd already been working with.

Many of you shared your concerns about the old invitation system: needing to invite people on a mailing list, or having problems inviting users who had multiple addresses and multiple Google Accounts. So we've simplified our invitations to work better in those cases. Now, if you set the "Invitations may be used by anyone" option, the people you invite can get into the doc from whichever Google account they prefer - even if they aren't trying to hide a secret identity ;)

Meet the Help Group

Posted by: Syd and Regina, Google Docs & Spreadsheets Guides

If you're here, you probably know a little something about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, or at the very least you're eager to learn. Either way, we cordially invite you to a great place to get the lowdown: our Google Docs & Spreadsheets Help Group. It's a mouthful, we know, but once you get past the lengthy name, the concept is simple. It's a forum where the knowledgeable and the curious meet to discuss Docs & Spreadsheets. From complex questions to new features to bug fixes, people post questions and respond with answers on an innumerable array of topics.

In addition to learning from and sharing with other users, you'll meet us, Syd and Regina, your friendly D&S Guides (look for the cool Guide logo signifying our posts). We're Google employees with a passion for GD&S, and we monitor the group, answer questions, announce new features, and follow up on problems and bug reports.

So come join the fun! No RSVP needed...

How to make a pie

Posted by: Yoah Bar-David, Software Engineer, Google Tel-Aviv

I have a friend who is a great chef and owns a restaurant. A while ago he called and asked me in his mild French accent "how to make a pie." I can cook, and I do it quite often. My family loves the food I make, but I have never been asked before for a recipe by a professional chef, and I felt really flattered. I started telling him about my great apple pie, a recipe I learned from my mom, and he started laughing, saying "no, no, no, no." He wanted to know about spreadsheet pies.

A few months ago I told him how useful it could be to manage his restaurant's financials with Google spreadsheets. He would be able to access his data from home, from work, or while on one of his many trips. My pitch worked, and he started using Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Now he is asking me how to add charts to his spreadsheet, and he is not the only one -- many people have asked us about this. So today we are unveiling a quick, simple way to add charts to your spreadsheets: select the cells you want to use for the chart data, click the new chart icon in the toolbar, and, in the popup dialog, select your chart type and customize it.

Here are a few more of the new spreadsheet features:

• Named ranges: you can define a name for a range of cells, and use this name in formulas to refer to cells, for example write =sum(expenses) instead of =sum(c12:e17). This helps make calculation logic clearer to write and understand. Check it out under the "Formulas" tab.
• Cell comments: Attach comments to individual cells, great for additional information or for collaboration on a single cell.
• Bi-directional text: The ability to properly view and edit text in right-to-left languages like Hebrew. This is very important for our local community here in Israel.
• A quick way to duplicate a sheet.
• A new right-click option to search the web for the text in a cell.

So do have fun with this release, and keep sending us ideas and suggestions.

Word Search 2.0 for Kindergartners

Posted by: Jonathan Rochelle, Product Manager - Google Docs & Spreadsheets

My six-year-old came home from school the other day asking me all kinds of questions about this word search puzzle he got from his teacher. It had a theme based on one of our favorite authors (Dr. Seuss) and had that tell-tale grainy look of something that has been photo-copied over and over (for several years no doubt) -- and he loved it!

Like most kindergartners on a mission, he is relentless in his pursuit of information: "How did she make this?", "How did she get the words and letters in there?", "I can tell it was done on a computer, Daddy - do we have the program that makes these?" -- and it didn't stop there.

"Google Spreadsheets!" I said with honest enthusiasm. "Are you kidding?" he said, with a hopeful grin. So we quickly pulled up his Google Docs & Spreadsheets account (yes, he has one - on his own domain under Google Apps!) and we created a spreadsheet... It was a simple grid of squares. We filled in each box with a single letter until all the words he wanted were there - actually, just check it out yourself, below!


(yes! you can embed a published spreadsheet in a blog entry!)

We printed a bunch of copies for him and his friends and even created and printed a teacher's version (with all the hidden words highlighted in yellow). It was perfect!

Now I just have to teach him the API so he can auto-generate the word search puzzle! Nah... I'll wait until he's in the first grade - he needs a break ;)

Going to work with Docs & Spreadsheets

Posted by: David Kuettel & Isaac Shum, Software Engineers, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Corporate workers have experienced the pain of document collaboration for years. Nobody could find the latest version of that important spreadsheet. You were on a sales call and that proposal you needed was stuck on your work computer. Your email inbox was full of everybody's document edits. All that changed with Docs & Spreadsheets. But we kept hearing the same thing from business users - "how do I get everybody in my company using this?" As of today, the answer is easy: Google Apps.

Google Apps lets you offer private-labeled email, instant messaging and calendar accounts to everyone in your organization so they can share ideas and work more effectively. As of today, Google Apps now includes Docs & Spreadsheets. The Google Apps version works just like the Docs & Spreadsheets you know and love but with a few special new features like the ability to publish a document only to your co-workers and support for making everyone in your company a collaborator. Everything is hosted by Google, and no hardware or software is required. Check it out: we think you'll agree that we look pretty dapper in a suit and tie.

Hello World

Posted by: Ken Norton

Dokumenty i Arkusze. That's Polish for Docs & Spreadsheets. I know that because D&S has been pretty popular in Poland since we launched. We've actually been quite popular all around the world, but until now we've offered an English-only experience.

I'm happy to announce that we've just launched Docs & Spreadsheets in 12 new languages. The languages we've added are: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and - you guessed it - Polish. If your favorite language isn't listed here, we've got an additional 18 languages in our spell-checker. You can select your language by clicking "Settings" inside Docs & Spreadsheets.

And if you haven't checked out the Google Toolbar Beta 3 for Firefox with integrated support for Docs & Spreadsheets, you can now download it in all of the same languages.

Docs & Spreadsheets integrates with Gmail

Posted by: Ken Norton

We know many Google Docs & Spreadsheets fans are also Gmail users. We've heard from scores of you since we launched Docs & Spreadsheets, and the most common request is for more integration between the two products. It comes as no surprise -- everyone gets heaps of docs in their email. Until recently, if you received a document attached to an email message and wanted to import it into D&S, it was a convoluted process -- download the attachment to your desktop, then upload it to D&S. No more. Now the Gmail team has launched a one-click import feature that you'll really appreciate.

Whenever those of you who use Gmail receive a spreadsheet or a document in an email, you will see a new link next to the "Download" link that says "Open as a Google document." Click on that and the attachment will automatically be imported into Docs & Spreadsheets and added to your personal document list where you can make changes, invite collaborators and search for it later. We hope you like it.



As always, we'll be monitoring discussion group and support email for your feedback.