Google Docs and college life

As the start of the academic year draws close, students are always looking for new ways to make life at school run more smoothly, whether it's working on group projects or keeping track of dorm budgets.

With that in mind, we're launching a new Google Docs page for college students. This page has new Google Docs tips including some templates designed specifically for resident assistants, teaching assistants, and student leaders. We've also made a video showcasing how a lovestruck student collaborates with friends using Docs.



To learn more about how Google Docs can help college students, check out our new page.

Posted by: Stephanie Vezich, Summer Intern, Google Docs

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Translate documents: sharing across languages and generations

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

My cousin is in first grade and sometimes she writes short stories for class. I try to share the stories with her grandparents, but because Japanese is their first language and they don't speak English very well, it's been tough. Today we're releasing a feature for Google Docs to make this kind of multi-lingual sharing easier — you can now automatically translate documents into 42 different languages.

So for my cousin's latest story, I helped her type it up in Google Docs and then clicked "Translate document" from the "Tools" menu. In a matter of seconds, Google Docs has translated the whole story into Japanese using Google Translate's technology.

You can replace the original document with the translation or make a new translated version. I like keeping an English version for friends here and creating a separate Japanese version for her grandparents. All the formatting and layout is preserved no matter what language it's in — translations aren't perfect, but we are continuously working on improving translation quality over time. We hope this new feature helps you more easily share information without worrying about language barriers.

Posted by: Rita Chen, Associate Product Manager Intern, Google Docs

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Getting your ducks in a row with snap to grid

Today, we're launching snap to grid in Google Docs presentations. Snap to grid makes it easy to auto-align text, images, shapes, and tables within your slides. This option is on by default, so you may have already used it without noticing anything, apart from a mild sense of euphoria.

But, there's more than meets the eye with snap to grid. Try out these handy keyboard modifiers:

[ALT] while dragging turns off the grid and gives you smooth drag (use [OPTION] on a mac)
[SHIFT] while dragging enables vertical and horizontal dragging guides
[SHIFT] while moving an object with arrow keys enables 1 pixel nudge
[SHIFT] while resizing preserves the aspect ratio of the object
[CTRL] while moving leaves the original object and drops a duplicate in the new location



You can disable and re-enable snap to grid through the slide context menu or the arrange menu.

Please let us know what you think on the Google Docs user forum.

Posted by: Andy Perelson, Software Engineer

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Counting Down to NFL Season? Let Google Docs Count for You.

Guest post: Beah Burger, a member of the Search Quality team here at Google, has an affinity for using lesser-known Google spreadsheet functions to solve everyday problems. A couple of months ago, Beah wrote in her personal blog about how her favorite Google spreadsheet function, GoogleLookup, helped her create a list of song recommendations for her friends' wedding. We asked Beah to write a guest post about another off-the-beaten-path use of Google spreadsheets.

Three years ago I packed up my sub-compact car, bid farewell to teary-eyed parents, and drove more 3,000 miles from Philadelphia to San Francisco. California is great, but I miss my hometown dearly. My coworkers -- most of whom think I'm "obsessed" -- allow me to hang a Pennsylvania state flag and various Philadelphia sports posters around the office. But I feel most connected with my hometown through my fanatical devotion to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Although Northern California weather doesn't really recognize the existence of seasons, my year is divided into two: NFL season and the off season. I've been anticipating the start of the 2009 season for months and recently decided I'd use Google to track just how much longer I need to wait.

A web search for "nfl schedule" revealed the Eagles' first regular season game is September 13th, but I wanted to know exactly how many days stand between me and Eagles' glory (or heartbreak). I'm a much bigger fan of the Eagles than I am of math, so I was relieved to find a pair of Google spreadsheets functions that not only count the days for me, but also keep that count updated over time. Here's how it works:

The DAYS360 function calculates the difference between two given dates. In this case, the dates we want to plug in (the "arguments") are:

1. Today's date
2. September 13th

To get the first argument, we will use the TODAY function. I could enter today's date, but using the TODAY function makes for a smarter spreadsheet because it will update automatically each day. The TODAY function is really simple and requires no inputs (or arguments); I just type "=TODAY()" into a cell in my spreadsheet, and the function returns "8/7/09."

Now I want to create a cell with the second argument for the DAYS360 function: the game date. I'll type "Sep 13" into cell B4. Google spreadsheets understand that I am typing a date and automatically convert the text to this format: "9/13/2009."

So far, so good. Now that we have our two arguments, we are ready to use the DAYS360 function. The syntax for DAYS360 is "=DAYS360(date_1, date_2, type)". Because date_1 is located in cell A2 and date_2 is located in cell B4, the function should look like this: "=DAYS360(A2, B4)". (The "type" argument is optional and not necessary here so I'll omit it). I could also have skipped typing "Aug 13" into its own cell and written the function like this: "=DAYS360(A2, "8/13/2009")".

Triumph! Upon hitting return, the function gives me the number of days between now and the Eagles' first regular season game: 36.

If you want to view an additional example of the DAYS360 function or see other useful functions, visit the Google spreadsheets function list. Otherwise, adjust your digital antennas and stock up on nacho supplies because the Eagles' season is almost here.

Posted by: Beah Burger, Search Quality Strategist

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