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

Just over a month ago, we launched Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, adding simultaneous collaboration, revision history, cloud sync, unique URLs and simple sharing to the Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications.

Today, we’re happy to release our first update that adds support for 38 more languages and adds the ability to minimize the toolbar. Here is what Google Cloud Connect looks like in Japanese:

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

Almost a year ago, we introduced a new version of the document editor. The new version launched with character-by-character collaboration, higher import fidelity and new features like a ruler and support for positioned images. Since then, we’ve been continually adding more features like collaborative highlighting, better revision history, mobile editing, and discussions.

Since launch, the new editor has been available only for newly created documents. Beginning today, we’re testing a new feature that lets you convert an old document to the new editor. If you’re the owner of a document made in the old editor, you may now receive a notice at the top of your document giving you the option to preview the document in the new editor.

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

Today we’re releasing a bunch of new features in Google Drawings, designed to make editing easier and more collaborative.

Presence + Revision history
Google Docs has always been designed to make it easy to work on documents together. We’re making that easier in drawings by introducing two new features. First, we’ve added presence highlights around shapes. The color that you see beside a person’s name in the sidebar is now used to highlight the shapes which that person has selected. In the example below, mfrederick is editing the triangle at the edge of the drawing.

When you’re working on drawings together it’s really helpful to see who made which change and to be able to go back to previous versions. That’s just what we’ve added. We took the new revisions interface from documents and spreadsheets and brought it to the drawings editor. Now it’s easy to see all the edits that went into your drawing. You’ll also see the full revision history for any drawings that you’ve already created.

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

Collecting information is often much easier than analyzing or understanding it, especially for large information in large spreadsheets. One common challenge is that it’s hard to drill down into the data you want to find quickly.

Today we are making it easier to analyze and view your data with the addition of filtering in Google spreadsheets. Adding a filter onto a set of data can help you quickly narrow down the data set to find the data you need. By selecting a data set, you can filter and sort amongst many rows at once.

Let’s say you started with a list of wines that your friends like and you wanted to sift through and find the wines from 2006 that Peter and Phil like.

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

When we launched the new Google Docs last April, one of the big changes was moving comments to the sidebar and letting people reply to comments. Today, we’re updating comments in Google Docs to facilitate rapid and seamless discussions and integrate with email in an intuitive way. Since there are a number of significant improvements, this update is only available for newly created documents for now.



To start, we’ve improved the discussion flow by adding ownership and edit rights to individual comments. Each comment now has a timestamp and profile picture.

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

Having control over what you can graph and which sheets you can see at any given time is important. Today we added the ability to chart multiple ranges and hide sheets in Google spreadsheets.

Chart Multiple Ranges
In charts, you are now able to graph multiple ranges. Take this chart depicting time vs distanced traveled.

You can now add extra ranges by clicking on “Select ranges...” and “add another range.” You can also manually add new ranges separated by commas like “Charts!B5:B12, Charts!D5:D12, Charts!F5:F12.”

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

For all you serious basketball fans out there or for those that just want to follow along, the 2011 College Basketball Tournament Bracket template is a great way to share your picks with your friends.


Other Google teams are getting into the basketball spirit. From getting Realtime updates to exploring 3D venues on Google Maps, there is something for every basketball fan at google.com/collegebasketball2011.

Posted by: Haluk Tunali, Software Engineer

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

Last year, we launched mobile editing in English and more page sizes in Google documents. We’re excited to announce that we’ve expanded on both of these features this week by adding 44 more mobile editing languages and more print sizes to Google spreadsheets.

Mobile editing now in 45 languages
You can now edit your documents on the go in 45 languages on Android with Froyo (version 2.2) and on iOS devices (version 3.0+) including the iPad. Learn more at mobile.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