Collaborative highlighting in documents

Wayne Gretzky famously said that “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”Writing a document collaboratively in Google Docs is like playing a team sport. It’s one thing to see your co-editors’ cursors and know where they are. But to really work well together, it helps to know what they’re about to do. Today we’ve made it much easier to anticipate the changes other editors are about...

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In-cell dropdown and validation in spreadsheets

Today, we added in-cell dropdown and validation to spreadsheets. This makes it easy to constrain the values of an individual cell to a specific range or list. For example, if you are building a trip planning spreadsheet, you can now limit the options in the travel destination column to a select set of cities via dropdown lists.In-cell dropdowns also make input easier by reducing unnecessary typing and errors in processing. You can create dropdown...

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Show all formulas in your spreadsheets

Finding cells that include formulas in them can sometimes be a bit like looking for something in the dark. To help you illuminate your spreadsheet surroundings, we’re introducing the ability to reveal all formulas with one click.When you’re comparing formulas with one another or trying to figure out where your formulas aren’t working, showing all formulas should help you out. You can turn this feature on from the formula bar by selecting the “Show...

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Tips & Tricks: Enhancing your Presentations with Incremental Reveal

Today’s blogpost is in a different format, a Google presentation about how incremental reveal can make your presentations better by improving their flow.Check out the difference by comparing the presentation below with and without incremental reveal. Start by clicking play to view the presentation without incremental reveal. Then click on the "open in new window" button to see the full presentation with incremental reveals in action.You'll notice...

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Horizontal navigation, site footer, and more in Google Sites

One of the most requested Google Sites features is horizontal navigation, which is why we’re happy to announce that it’s finally here along with a few other cool features.Horizontal navigationYou can now add horizontal navigation to your site’s layout in one of three different flavors: boxes, tabs, and links. If you want to customize the look and feel of the horizontal navigation, you can set the background, link and hover properties via More actions...

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Check spelling in Google spreadsheets

Correct spelling is an essential part of document creation and today we woild liek to annnounce that spelll chceking is now available in Google spreadsheets.To launch the new spell checker, go to Tools > Check spelling. The tool will go through all the cells on your sheet, highlighting each cell which has a misspelled word in red. Words that might be misspelled in each cell are underlined in red and can be changed by clicking on them and selecting...

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New in Gmail Labs: Find docs and sites quickly with Apps Search

Cross posted on the Official Gmail BlogWhere is that presentation? Was it attached to an email? Or in Google Docs? If you’re not sure, you may end up searching several places with the same query in order to find it. With the new “Apps Search” lab in Gmail, we just made that all a bit simpler.Once you enable it from the Gmail Labs tab under Settings, the “Search Mail” button in Gmail will say “Search Mail and Docs” instead, and your search results...

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Auto-linking, preferences and page sizes in documents

Typing links just got a little faster in Google documents. Now when you type something that documents recognizes as a link, it will become a link automatically. Try typing “docs.google.com”, “www.google.com,” or an email address to try it out.If you don’t want your text to be a link, you can undo the auto-linking by pressing Ctrl Z (Cmd Z on a Mac). And if you think you’ll never want automatic link detection, you can disable it by opening the Preferences...

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Tips & Tricks: GoogleFinance in Google spreadsheets

Would you like to easily keep track of stock market quotes and other data relevant to your stock portfolio? You can use the GoogleFinance function in Google spreadsheets to automatically pull up-to-date information into your spreadsheet. Using the GoogleFinance function in a spreadsheet allows you to create a one-stop shop for your stock data.Using the GoogleFinance functionTo use the GoogleFinance function, enter the formula into the desired spreadsheet...

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Collect audience input with Google Sites & Moderator

Google Moderator helps anyone find the best input from their audiences, whether it’s suggestions on how to stop the oil spill, debate questions at the Copenhagen climate change conference, or questions for Katy Perry. Starting today, you can use Moderator inside your Google Sites as well. For example, if you have a restaurant site, you can embed Google Moderator on your suggestions page to get input from your restaurant patrons. Here’s how:1. Create...

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Convert files in the documents list to a Google Docs format

Today, we’re happy to announce that you can now convert files already uploaded to your documents list into a Google Docs format. Previously, this option was only available on upload.This addition includes converting image and PDF files to text using our recently added Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. The full list of files that can be converted include:For spreadsheets: .xls, .xlsx, .ods, .csv, .tsv, .txt, .tsbFor documents: .doc,...

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A new curve tool for drawings

Sometimes scribbles just don’t cut it and you need more powerful curve tools in Google drawings. Well, we’ve just released a tool that does just that, based on cardinal splines.The new curves can be left open or closed, and can be filled or unfilled. You can also adjust points on the curve after drawing it.Most importantly, this tool is fun. You can freehand a nice logo, like this:Or make vector art from your photographs, like this:(original image)For...

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Table resizing and other niceties in documents

Want to add “Googlers” to your document dictionary? (It is a real word, you know...) Need to resize columns and rows in a table? Want to get rid of that pesky ruler permanently? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to copy your Google drawing into your documents? You can with a few new small updates to Google documents.Add words to your dictionaryYou can add words to the spellchecking dictionary by right-clicking on any word that’s marked as misspelled...

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