This week in Docs: Quick starring, justify paragraph in the toolbar and improved sharing invitations

We’ve got a few features this week that we hope will save you time.

Starring

Have you ever run out of time while you’re reading a doc and wanted to remind yourself to come back to it? Today we’re making that easy -- now you can star documents while editing them.

Once a doc is starred, you’ll be able to find the doc by clicking on the starred link in your document list.

We’ll also be adding starring to drawings and spreadsheets over the next few weeks.

Justify is now in the toolbar

We also made it faster to justify paragraphs in documents by adding a button to the toolbar. No need to select Format > Align > Justify.

Improved sharing invitations

Lastly, we’re launching an update to sharing invitations today that will make it easier to start discussions around files. When you share a doc with others, all new collaborators are now included on the email thread.

This means that when someone replies to the email in the thread, the other invitees will automatically see the message. We’re hoping this will help spark conversations and put an end to multiple email threads about a single doc.

That’s it for this week. If you have feedback on any of these features, let us know in the comments.

Posted by: Michael Frederick, Software Engineer

Cloud printing on the go

Cross posted on the the Gmail Blog and the Google Mobile Blog

Back in April 2010 we announced Google Cloud Print, a service in beta that allows printing from any app on any device, OS or browser without the need to install any software. Just last month we opened Google Cloud Print to users in the Chrome notebook pilot program. Today we are very pleased to announce the beta launch of Google Cloud Print for mobile documents and Gmail for mobile, which we will be rolling out to users throughout the next few days.

Imagine printing an important document from your smartphone on the way to work and finding the printout waiting for you when you walk in the door. Just open a document in Google Docs or an email in Gmail in your mobile browser and choose “Print” from the dropdown menu in the top right corner. You can also print certain kinds of email attachments (such as .pdf or .doc) by clicking the “Print” link that appears next to them.

This feature will be rolling out today and tomorrow for English speaking users in the US and will work on most phones that support HTML5, such as devices running Android 2.1+ and iOS 3+. To get started, you’ll need to connect your printer to Google Cloud Print. This step requires a Windows PC for now, but Linux and Mac support are coming soon. You can learn more at the Google Cloud Print help center.

Posted by: Tyler Odean, Google Cloud Print Team

Google Science Fair seeks budding Einsteins and Curies

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog, Google Student Blog and Google LatLong Blog)

Are you a student who loves science? Do you have a good idea for an experiment that you’d like to share with the world? In 1996, two young computer science students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had a hypothesis that there was a better way to find information on the web. They did their research, tested their theories and built a search engine which (eventually) changed the way people found information online. Larry and Sergey were fortunate to be able to get their idea in front of lots of people. But how many ideas are lost because people don’t have the right forum for their talents to be discovered? We believe that science can change the world—and one way to encourage that is to celebrate and champion young scientific talent as we do athletes and pop idols.

To help make today’s young scientists the rock stars of tomorrow, in partnership with CERN, The LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American, we’re introducing the first global online science competition: the Google Science Fair. It’s open to students around the world who are between the ages of 13-18. All you need is access to a computer, the Internet and a web browser.

You may have participated in local or regional science fairs where you had to be in the same physical space to compete with kids in your area. Now any student with an idea can participate from anywhere, and share their idea with the world. You build and submit your project—either by yourself or in a team of up to three—entirely online. Students in India (or Israel or Ireland) will be able to compete with students in Canada (or Cambodia or Costa Rica) for prizes including once-in-a-lifetime experiences (like a trip to the Galapagos Islands with a National Geographic Explorer), scholarships and real-life work opportunities (like a five-day trip to CERN in Switzerland). And if you’re entering a science fair locally, please feel free to post that project online with Google Science Fair, too!

To enter, register online and create your project as a Google Site. Registration is open through April 4, 2011. Please note: you must get parental or guardian consent in order to compete. You can check out the complete rules here. After April 4, we’ll begin judging and will announce our semi-finalists in early May.

The semi-finalist projects will be posted on our online gallery, where we’ll encourage the public to vote for a “people’s choice” winner. From our list of semi-finalists, we’ll select 15 finalists to bring their projects to Google headquarters on July 11 to compete in our final, live event, where world-renowned science judges will select a winner in each age category, as well as a grand-prize winner.

Here's an example of a great science fair project site to inspire you. We asked Tesca, a U.S. high school senior from Oregon, to create it for us based on an award-winning project she’s been working on for years. Tesca’s objective is to make hospitals more efficient using artificial intelligence—a world-changing goal, to be sure.

So if you think you're the next Albert Einstein, Marie Curie—or Larry Page or Sergey Brin—sign up today for the Google Science Fair. Prove once again how science can change the world!

Posted by Cristin Frodella and Samantha Peter, Education Product Marketing Managers

Introducing the Google Science Fair!

Cross-posted on the Google Student Blog

Are you a 13-18 year old who loves science? If you are or know someone who is, you’ll be psyched to know that Google is announcing the first ever global online science competition, the Google Science Fair, tomorrow, Tuesday January 11th.

To celebrate our launch, we’re hosting a live event on youtube.com/googlesciencefair tomorrow, on January 11th at 9am EST. Tune in to get details about how you can submit your own project online and be inspired by some famous scientists so you'll be ready to prove you're the next Albert Einstein, Marie Curie or Dean Kamen.

Posted by: Cristin Frodella, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Education

This week in Docs: Video player in the document list

Happy New Year! We’re starting this year by making it easier to view memories from 2010 that you’ve uploaded to your document list directly in your browser. Just click on a video in a supported format and press play.

Please note that some videos uploaded earlier last year might not have been processed yet and will be available soon. Also, newly uploaded videos may take some time to process before they are available for viewing.

So what are you waiting for? Press play!

Posted by: Patrick Lacz, Software Engineer