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!