Web browser support for Docs and Sites

The web continues to evolve at lightning speed, and using an up to date browser enables you to use the very latest web apps. If you're having problems, it could well be because you're using a very old browser. So we'd like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to update their browsers as soon as possible. There are many choices:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
Mozilla Firefox 3.0+
Google Chrome 4.0+
Safari 3.0+

Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We're also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites on March 1st. So while you'll still be able to access these Google applications, newer features may not be available and some features may even stop working. You can learn more about web browsers and check what version you're currently using at http://www.WhatBrowser.org, a site created by Google.

Posted by: Rajen Sheth, Google Apps Senior Product Manager

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A thumbnail is worth about one hundred words

Earlier today, we added a new view option to your Documents List: thumbnail view.

While the standard "list view" displays the item title and information like sharing state, the thumbnail view displays small previews of your files. We generate thumbnails for all Google Docs types and most common files (photos, PDFs, etc). You can toggle between the two using new buttons on the top right of the toolbar.

When combined with search by relevance, the thumbnail view makes it really easy to find the file you're looking for.

And for all us spelling-challenged and typo-prone folks, we added spelling correction in search. Never again will you need to wonder how your search for "agedna" (agenda) came up with zero results. :-)


Finally, we recently finished rolling out the upload and store any file feature, so everyone should now be able to upload, store, and share any file in Google Docs. We also increased the maximum file size based on your feedback, so you can now uploads files up to 1 GB in size.

Posted by: Vijay Bangaru, Product Manager, Google Docs

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The Google Docs for students page

We recently launched the Google Docs for students page which highlights how various student populations can use Google Docs in their daily life. For example, Marie, a resident assistant, plans fun trips for her whole dorm using forms, while Christine, a math major, powers through her Probabilistic Systems Analysis class using the equation editor in Google Docs to collaborate with classmates.

These characters use Docs to enhance and manage their academic and social lives. We hope their stories will help our student readers discover what's possible with Google Docs.

To read more about these and other characters – and to keep up with news especially for students – check out the Official Google Students blog.

Posted by: Joelle Fornengo, Google Docs User Operations

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Upload and store your files in the cloud with Google Docs

We're happy to announce that over the next few weeks we will be rolling out the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. With this change, you'll be able to upload and access your files from any computer -- all you need is an Internet connection.

Instead of emailing files to yourself, which is particularly difficult with large files, you can upload to Google Docs any file up to 250 MB. You'll have 1 GB of free storage for files you don't convert into one of the Google Docs formats (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year. This makes it easy to backup more of your key files online, from large graphics and raw photos to unedited home videos taken on your smartphone. You might even be able to replace the USB drive you reserved for those files that are too big to send over email.

Combined with shared folders, you can store, organize, and collaborate on files more easily using Google Docs. For example, if you are in a club or PTA working on large graphic files for posters or a newsletter, you can upload them to a shared folder for collaborators to view, download, and print.

You can also search for document files you've uploaded or that have been shared with you just like you do with your Google documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and PDFs. And you'll be able to view many common document file types with the Google Docs viewer.

To learn how businesses can take advantage of this new functionality, check out the post on the Enterprise Blog.

As always, we’d love your feedback and if you have any questions, please check out our help page. This feature will be enabled for your account over the next couple of weeks — look for the bubble notification when you sign in to Google Docs.

Posted by: Vijay Bangaru, Product Manager, Google Docs

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Using Google Docs to facilitate patient flow in a community health center

Guest post: David Margolius is a medical student at Brown University. He is spending the year in San Francisco as a research fellow and recently began working with Southeast Health Center to improve access, patient care, and clinic flow. He changed patient management at the clinic by using a shared Google Doc to make it easy for staff and providers to communicate in real time, without walkie-talkies, pagers, and interruptions.

Southeast Health Center is a community-oriented primary care clinic in San Francisco. Through Healthy San Francisco, a program created by the City of San Francisco, Southeast and other clinics make health care services accessible and affordable for uninsured residents. The program offers a new way for San Francisco residents who do not have health insurance, to have basic and ongoing medical care.

At Southeast, all of this work can make it difficult to keep track of which patients are in which rooms, how many patients are in the waiting room, and how far the doctors are falling behind with their patients for the day. Up until about a month ago, when patients checked in, the front desk would page the medical assistant who would then escort the patient to a room when one was free. The assistant would then let the doctor know that the patient was available. If patients were late, canceled their appointments, or the waiting room was overflowing, the doctor would be the last to know. All in all, communication was linear, uncoordinated, and difficult.

The medical director asked me try to figure out something better…anything better. After observing clinic flow for a few days, my first thought was to build some sort of intra-office communication device with switches and LED lights. I found an intra-office light communication system online and with the director's permission was ready to spend some big time money on it, but a friend of mine ruined all of my crazy ideas by saying: “Why can’t you just do that in Google Docs?”

A few days later, Southeast Health Center fully incorporated the “Check-in Tracker”, a shared spreadsheet on Google Docs, into their clinic flow which you can see a sample of below:



When a patient checks in at the front desk, the clerk types “a” into the slot where that patient was scheduled. Using the “change color with rules” function, that slot turns orange to let everybody in the clinic know that Dr. Mark’s 8:15 AM patient has arrived. If the 8:55 AM patient arrives at 9:15 AM, the front desk types in “L 9:15” into that slot and the slot turns pink. Dr. Mark can look at the Google spreadsheet and type an “x” if he is unable to see the late patient or “ok” if he has time to see the patient. Patients in rooms turn green and indicate which room number. Discharged patients turn blue.

Everybody communicates in real time, because we are all using the same shared spreadsheet. Medical assistants, doctors, providers, clerks, and nurses are communicating with each other more efficiently. It is pretty incredible to see.

Google Docs has made this all possible, no mechanical engineers or big time money required. Check out this template in the Google Docs template gallery to try it out yourself.

Posted by: David Margolius, Clinic Coach, Southeast Health Center, Margolius@gmail.com

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Google Docs and Sites: 2009 in Review

As the new year begins, we wanted to reflect on 2009 and highlight our favorite additions to Google Docs and Sites. We've shed the beta label and added more than 45 new features including:

• Shared folders to simplify collaboration with friends and colleagues
  
• The Google Docs viewer, making it easy to view more files in your browser
  
• Templates, automatic and hierarchical navigation, monetization, maps, and photos in Google Sites
  
• Opening up the Public Template Gallery so everyone can share their templates with the world
  
• Logic branching, new themes, and more in Google forms
  
• Improved translation features in documents, spreadsheets and Google Sites
  
• Spreadsheet editing on mobile devices and sheet protection
  
• An easier way to give us your feedback and feature requests
  
• Improved consistency and better sharing emails across Google Docs
  
• Improvements to presentations, including co-editor presence, tables and better object control with drawings
  
• Features for the busy student just in time for back to school

We hope you enjoyed the 2009 additions to Google Docs and look forward to bringing you lots more in 2010.

On behalf of the entire Google Docs team, Happy New Year!

Posted by: Peter Harbison, Product Marketing Manager

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