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.