Google Forms, Refreshed

With Google Drive, you can do more than just create, store, and share stuff. A variety of apps can help with everything from editing spreadsheets to signing documents electronically.

Forms let you easily create questionnaires and automatically collect responses in a spreadsheet. Today a new version launches, rebuilt to bring you a faster, cleaner, and more collaborative experience.

Now with collaboration 
Create a form faster than ever. Just as with Docs, Sheets and Slides, you can now collaborate with others in real-time. If you need to work with two colleagues on a survey, all three of you can work on the same form simultaneously and even have a group chat on the side, without leaving the form.

Better editing 
Even if you’re working solo, some new changes will make creating and editing forms easier. All your changes are auto-saved and you can quickly undo/redo edits. Improved copy-and-paste will let you copy a list of bullets from the web or multiple rows of text from a spreadsheet; then, when you paste into a form, each line will be appear as an individual answer. And you can use keyboard shortcuts to get things done more quickly.

Some things unchanged 
With the new Forms editor, you can continue using all the features you’re already familiar with:

• Scale: Whether you’re collecting responses from ten friends for a baby shower or ten thousand attendees at a conference, you can count on Forms to reliably collect data for any number of responses. 
• Analyzing: See the responses you’ve received right in Google Forms or collect them neatly in Google Sheets. And you can now download a .csv file for more detailed analysis and reporting. 
• Sharing: If you share a form directly in Google+, anyone in your circles can respond without leaving their stream. Or if you send a form via email, respondents can submit their answers right from Gmail.

This update to Forms will roll out over the next few days. You can create forms directly from Google Sheets or Drive, or install the Chrome Web App for easy access from your browser. Also check the Google Drive +page all week for tips and tricks.

Posted by: Nick Santos, Software Engineer

Create, edit and present with Google Slides offline

Good news, Slides lovers. You can now create, edit, comment and (perhaps most importantly) present without an internet connection—just like you can with Docs. Any new presentations or changes you make will be automatically updated when you get back online. So you can continue polishing slides on your next flight, and head to your upcoming presentation without worrying about whether there's going to be wifi.

If you already have offline editing for Docs enabled, you don’t have to change anything to work with Slides offline. If not, you can turn it on for Slides (and Docs) by following these instructions. Note that to work offline you’ll need to be using Chrome or ChromeOS.

We’re rolling this functionality out over the course of the day. And for those of you who use Google Sheets, we’re working to make offline spreadsheets available as well—stay tuned.

Posted by Michael Frederick, Software Engineer

Go Paperless in 2013

It’s a new year, which means new resolutions. If you’re up for saving time, money and trees, going paperless might be a good goal for you in 2013.

Google Drive makes it easy to keep all your stuff in the cloud and access it anywhere -- so you don’t have to carry around paper copies wherever you go. There are also other great apps that can help you get things done in the cloud - no printer required. This year, Google Drive is part of the Paperless Coalition, a group of organizations and products that help you live completely in a paper-free world. So whether you’re an expense reporter, invoice tracker, file hoarder, or note jotter, you can do it all without using paper.

It’s simple. Visit Paperless2013.org to sign a pledge (electronically, of course!) and invite others to do the same.

Here’s to a great and paperless 2013.

Posted by Meredith Blackwell, Product Marketing Manager