New in Google Docs and Google Sites

Two big advantages of building web applications are frequent feature releases and easier cross-product sharing. Today we have a little of both for you. This week, we are adding version history to uploaded files in the documents list as well as drop downs in horizontal navigation and a new sharing experience to Google Sites.

Version history
Earlier this year, we added the ability to “Upload any file” to Google Docs so that you upload, store, and share any file up to 1 GB in size. Now you can upload new versions of the same file to your document list. Previously, each time you updated a file, you would have to upload the new version as a new file with a new URL, re-share it, and put in the correct folders again.

When you select the “Add or manage versions” option on any file, you can upload new versions of a file, download previous versions, and delete older versions.

Drop down menu in horizontal navs
Sometimes, you want to group information using drop downs and now you can by going More actions > Manage site > Site layout.

New sharing experience
Back in June, we made sharing easier in Google Docs. Today, we extended this simplified sharing experience to Google Sites, unifying the sharing experience across Google Docs and Google Sites. As with Google Docs, Google Sites now be set to one of three visibility options: private, anyone with the link, or public on the web.

The new visibility option is always available at a glance at the top of each site.

With this update, the new “Anyone with the link” setting makes your site available to anyone that knows the unique URL, but blocks search engines from indexing the site. And for those times that someone sends you a link to a site but you don’t have access, you can now request access to that site from the access denied page.

As always, we’d love your feedback and if you have any questions, please check out our document list and Google Sites help pages.

Posted by: Mike Procopio, Software Engineer

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Guest post: Writing a book using Google Docs

Guest post: November is National Writing Month and to celebrate, we’ve invited Dr. Steven Daviss to talk about how he used Google Docs to write a book with two colleagues. Dr. Daviss is currently the Chairman of Psychiatry at Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Maryland and has been increasingly leveraging his clinical and administrative experience towards a career merging health care policy, informatics, and health care reform.


Two other psychiatrists (Anne Hanson and Dinah Miller) and I have been writing a popular blog (Shrink Rap) about the practice of psychiatry since 2006. A year later, we started a podcast (My Three Shrinks) that has received great reviews in iTunes. Late in 2007, we decided to take some of those posts and weave them together to write a book.

We started out using a desktop word processor to write the book, each chapter being a separate document. We learned about the limitations of making edits and sending out each of our revisions to the other two: we very quickly had multiple out-of-sync versions and the whole thing was a mess. This is from one of Dinah’s emails back then: “With 3 people doing this, I need to be able to keep track of what everyone wants to write. As I revise it, I'll change the file to reflect the date, but remember that if you and steve are sending me changes and edits simultaneously, I may not see them or it may get very confusing. Your color is red.”

After several weeks of this, we were all seeing red, which was causing a lot of unnecessary tension.

I had used Google Docs collaboratively before to write a couple articles and a few grant proposals, but wasn’t sure if we could successfully use it to write an entire 250-plus page book. But I knew it had to be better than what we were doing.

Once we switched to Google Docs, writing the book together became a much more fluid process because we were able to focus on the writing and not on the complications of getting the technology to keep up with us. We imported the first couple chapters and proceeded from there, making each chapter a separate document shared by the three of us and (eventually) our editor. We could write our own chapters privately until they were ready to show our co-authors, then sharing was as simple as clicking a couple buttons. Whenever we changed our minds about what to take out, we were able to restore sections from previously saved versions. We didn’t have to think about which version of word processing software someone was using, or if the documents would lose formatting between Mac and Windows. And, I could see when my co-authors were also working on the book, so I knew when to call and talk about the project.

Eighteen months after getting the book contract, we had a completed manuscript ready for copy editing.

Google Docs also helped to save our relationship. Initially, despite being good friends, the three of us had many conflicts about the technology and about the way we wanted to write (e.g., grammar, tense, tone, characters). When we were using emailed versions of documents, our arguments increased. After switching to Google Docs, we went back to our usual level of bickering ;-).

The book is being typeset now by Johns Hopkins University Press and will be out in May of 2011. And we have Google Docs to thank.

Posted by: Steve Daviss MD

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Using new visualizations to tell your story

Spreadsheet data can tell compelling stories when placed into charts and other visualizations. Today we’re excited to announce a new editor for charts, redesigned from the ground up as well as a set of new chart types. Check out our video to see these charts in action:

New and improved chart types

We’ve added annotated time-lines, organizational charts, gauges, our popular motion chart (which makes it easy to visualize data changing over time) and more to our chart types.


We’ve also given our existing charts a more professional look and feel with with a refreshed color palette, improved layout and new customization options.


New charts editor
With these new chart types, we’ve also added a new charts editor that suggests recommended charts, matches your data labels and headers, auto selects colors, has a full size preview pane and more. The editor is designed to help you create the chart you need in just a few clicks.

The Start tab has basic options, including up to four recommended charts based on the data you selected. For example, if you have a charts with the following five columns: date, number, text, number, text, the first recommended chart will be an annotated timeline.



The “Charts” tab includes the full gallery of new and redesigned charts, and the “Customize” tab includes all of the advanced customization options.


Improved publishing
It’s easy to show charts you’ve created in spreadsheets with the world. Publish your interactive chart on any webpage and it will update as you change the data in your spreadsheet. Click the play button below:


Give the new charts editor a try at goo.gl/newcharts, learn more from our help articles and let us know what you think on the forums.

Posted by: Hillel Maoz, Software Engineer

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Google Apps Script support in Google Sites

Google Apps Scripts can save time by sending emails, scheduling calendar events and more with one click.

We just announced on the Google Enterprise Blog that you can now create, edit, and launch Google Apps Scripts from any Google Site. For example, you can create a site to browse and sign up for training sessions. On a training site, you could have a “Register Now” button on each classes page that would automatically add users to the class roster, add the class to their Google Calendar, and email them to confirm enrollment.

To learn more about how to automate tasks in Google Sites using Google Apps Scripts, check out our post on the Google Enterprise Blog.

Posted by: Laurent Tu, Google Apps Software Engineer

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Drag and drop images in documents

When writing a document, it often helps to augment text with images and diagrams. Google documents already has three ways to add images: you can choose them from your hard-drive, add them by URL, and you can find them using Google Image Search.

But sometimes the exact image you need is on your desktop and you just want to add it to your document quickly. Starting today, you can drag images from your desktop directly into your documents.

For now, you can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers as soon as they support the feature.

Posted by: Philipp Weis, Software Engineering Intern

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Tips & Tricks: Sharing Google Docs Like a Pro

Google Docs enables you to collaborate on your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawings with as many, or as few, people as you’d like. We’ve explained our new sharing model before, but, in recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness month, we want to make sure you’re aware of your options for sharing your documents.

Google Docs Sharing Icons 101

In your document list, you’ll notice various icons and descriptions listed next to the title of each doc. Here’s a general overview:

• A lock icon means “Private”
• A lock icon in front of a globe means “Anyone with the link”
• A globe means “Public on the web”

Next to each of these icons, you’ll see text indicating who can edit a doc and who can view a doc -- a collaborator is able to edit, while a viewer can access a doc in view-only mode.

Let’s look at a few examples:

If you have a doc with a lock icon that reads “Not shared,” the doc is private to only you. No one but you can find, view or edit that document.

If your doc has a lock icon that reads “[Owner’s name] to X collaborators, Y viewers,” that document is accessible to you and the people with whom you (or a collaborator, if you have given collaborators the ability to change permissions) have explicitly shared it. If the link to the doc is sent to someone who hasn’t been granted either view- or edit-access, that person won’t be able to open the doc.

The sharing setting “Anyone with the link” is represented by a small lock over a globe. If you see this icon, it means that the doc is viewable to anyone who has the link to the doc. You can also explicitly allow certain individuals to edit the document, which is represented by the text “3 collaborators.”

If this link is inadvertently shared with people who shouldn’t have access, you can always reset the link by clicking Reset link in the sharing dialog in your doc:



If your doc is set to public, it will have a globe next to it, and it could potentially be found and viewed by anyone on the web. We call this setting “Public on the web (anyone can view).” If you check the box to allow anyone to edit in the sharing dialog, your doc will also be editable by anyone who opens it.

Be cautious when using this setting to help avoid sharing information beyond your comfort level.

View access versus edit access to a doc
In addition to the indicators above, you can see who can view a doc and who can edit a doc from the sharing dialog within the doc itself. If the doc is set to “Private to X collaborators, Y viewers,” you’ll be able to see which collaborators can view and which collaborators can edit. In the drop-down menu, the owner of the doc, or collaborators who have been granted permission, can change this setting for each person.

Click Change next to the text “Editors will be allowed to add people and change the permissions” if you don’t want to allow people with edit access on your doc to be able to share the document or change the sharing settings.

For docs with the sharing settings ‘Anyone with the link’ or ‘Public on the web,’ the Visibility options pane lets you control whether people viewing the doc will also be able to edit it. Check the box next to “Allow anyone to edit (no sign-in required)” if you’d like anyone who opens your doc to be able to edit it.

Note that both collaborators with view access to a doc and collaborators that have edit access will be able to make a copy of the data or material contained in the doc.

Using this handy reference for sharing icons and settings, we encourage you to go through your document list at docs.google.com and check your document sharing settings to make sure that you’re sharing and collaborating securely in Google Docs. You can learn more about sharing and visibility settings in the Google Docs Help Center.

Posted by: Julia Harter, Consumer Operations Associate

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Tips & Tricks: Making the most of your sidebar in Google Sites

The sidebar on a Google site helps site visitors find what they are looking for and stays with the user as they navigate the site. Let’s take a look at how you can take advantage of this space.

For example, let’s say you’ve gone on a few trips this summer, and you want to create a site to organize and document your travels. You want each destination linked on the sidebar of your travelogue site.

To access the sidebar menu, go to More actions > Manage site > Site layout (you can also click the Edit sidebar link under your sidebar).

Rearranging order of the links
By default, Google Sites organizes links in alphabetical order, but you can also arrange the pages in the order you visited them.

Click the Edit link within the Navigation box. In the Configure Navigation window, uncheck the box next to ‘Automatically organize my navigation.’ Next, add your pages manually (with the Add page link) and rearrange them with the arrows on the right. The up-down arrows change the order of the pages, and the left-right arrows allow you “indent” a page within another, making it a subpage.

Resizing the sidebar
You can also control the width of the sidebar via Site layout > Change site layout and entering in a new width.

Changing the color of the font
There’s also flexibility when it comes to changing the colors of the text in the sidebar. To find these settings, go to More actions > Manage site > Colors and Fonts.

Adding email addresses or links to other sites
If your travel buddies have their own websites, and you’d like to link to them from yours, you could add external links to your sidebar. Go to Site layout and edit the Navigation box. In the Configure Navigation window, select Add URL and enter in a URL and text to display.

Adding text and images
After you’ve reordered and added external links to your sidebar, you may decide that you’d like to add some information about yourself to your site. Since you can add and format text to the sidebar, as well as insert images and links, it’s easy to create a bio profile. Simply go to Site layout > Add a new sidebar item > Text.


Horizontal navigation
After adding the bio, you notice that the sidebar area got a little crowded. Luckily, there’s a new feature called horizontal navigation that allows you to move your navigation links to across the top of the site.

Go to Site layout > Change site layout and check the box next to Horizontal navigation bar. A new section on the site layout preview will pop up, called “Horizontal navigation bar.” You can customize the horizontal navigation bar the same way you reorganized the links earlier.

Let’s take a look at the result:

The Google Sites team will be adding some new functionality to horizontal navigation soon, so look out for that announcement on this blog.

Posted by: Lisa Ding, Consumer Operations Associate

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