Formula highlighting in spreadsheets

In the new version of Google Spreadsheets, cell references and the corresponding cells are now highlighted to make it easier to keep track of your formulas.Please note that this new feature is available in Chrome 4.0+, Safari 3.0+, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+. We plan to add support for Mozilla Firefox 3.7+ soon.Let us know if you have more feedback and ideas for improvements.Posted by: Ben McCann, Software Engin...

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Tips & Tricks: Comments in Google documents

In April, we launched a new version of Google documents. One feature that makes collaboration easier is improved commenting.Connecting text to noteComments let you make suggestions about the text in your document without modifying the document itself. When you click on a comment, the text it’s referring to is highlighted. And vice-versa -- when you select highlighted text in your document, we identify the associated comment.Additionally, when you...

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Faster finding and other document tweaks

Today we added a few features to the new version of the Google document editor.Faster findWhen you press Ctrl+F (⌘+F on Macs) you’ll see a drop-down box where you can type the word or phrase you’re looking for in your doc. As you type, all the matches in the doc will be highlighted and you can press to jump to the next match.If you want more advanced find options or if you want to replace text, you can access the full Find and Replace dialog from...

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Advanced sorting rules in spreadsheets

In the new version of Google spreadsheets, you can now sort a range of cells according to rules set for one column or across multiple columns. To sort your data, go to Tools > Sort... and then add your sorting rules. You should check Data has header row if your columns have titles and choose ascending or descending depending on how you want your data sorted. Click +Add another to add additional rules:Let us know if you have more feedback and...

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New themes in Google forms

Today, I’m happy to announce that we’ve added 24 new themes to Google forms, which take advantage of the new Google Font API and images from iStockphoto. As a reminder, when you're editing a form, click the Theme button to find the right theme and apply it to your form.I first got involved with themes at Google when I designed a few templates for the Google Page Creator launch in 2006. Since then, I’ve worked on a number of theme projects in my...

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Dictionary, improved comments and more in the new documents

We’re working hard to bring features from the old document editor over to the new editor. Today we added a few more, so we wanted to summarize them here.DictionaryIf you select a word in your doc, you can look up the definition for that word by going to Tools -> Define... Special CharactersTo insert characters that you can’t create with a regular keyboard, we also added a special characters dialog via Insert -> Special characters...So if you’ve...

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Google drawings enhancements

Since we launched the new drawings editor, we’ve received lots of helpful feedback from you. Based on your comments, we’ve made some usability improvements to Google Docs drawings over the last week.Selecting shapesPress Alt (Option on Mac) and drag your mouse to select only those objects completely within the selection region (this is useful for selecting objects in a busy part of the diagram)Holding Shift while you drag now adds shapes to your...

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What’s different about the new Google Docs?

Editor’s Note: This post is more technical than most posts on the Google Docs blog.A month ago we introduced the latest version of the Google document editor. The new editor comes with features like a ruler, tabs stops, and floating images. Those features might seem pretty basic, but they’re nearly impossible to support in a regular online text editor. This post unwraps some of the core technical changes with the new editor to make this new functionality...

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Rapid wireframe sketching in Google Docs

Guest post: Morten Just is a product manager in Vodafone. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, he spent most of his career as an interaction designer churning out wireframes and diagrams, and also co-founded Imity, a Bluetooth-enabled social network for mobile phones in 2006. On his personal blog he writes mostly about user experience.When I saw Google drawings on a Twitter update a few weeks ago, I didn't really think about it until I got a feeling I might...

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Answering your FAQs about the New Google Docs

We’ve been excited by how many of you have chosen to try the new Google documents, spreadsheets and drawings editors over the last month. We’ve received a lot of great questions in our forums, in blog comments, on the ideas page, and through webinars.In fact, at a webinar two weeks ago hosted by members of the Google Docs team (watch the video), we ran out of time before we could answer all the great questions people had. A lot of the questions echoed ones we’ve seen from many of you, so we wanted to post those questions -- and the answers to them...

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Copy sheets from one spreadsheet to another

A few weeks ago we introduced a new version of the spreadsheet editor in Google Docs.Today, we’re adding the ability to copy a sheet from one spreadsheet to another in the new version. To start, simply click on the sheet tab at the bottom of the page and select “Copy to...”.You’ll see a pop-up dialog box where you can search for the destination spreadsheet. You can choose any spreadsheet you own or have editing access to:Once you’ve selected a spreadsheet,...

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