Meet the Help Group

Posted by: Syd and Regina, Google Docs & Spreadsheets Guides

If you're here, you probably know a little something about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, or at the very least you're eager to learn. Either way, we cordially invite you to a great place to get the lowdown: our Google Docs & Spreadsheets Help Group. It's a mouthful, we know, but once you get past the lengthy name, the concept is simple. It's a forum where the knowledgeable and the curious meet to discuss Docs & Spreadsheets. From complex questions to new features to bug fixes, people post questions and respond with answers on an innumerable array of topics.

In addition to learning from and sharing with other users, you'll meet us, Syd and Regina, your friendly D&S Guides (look for the cool Guide logo signifying our posts). We're Google employees with a passion for GD&S, and we monitor the group, answer questions, announce new features, and follow up on problems and bug reports.

So come join the fun! No RSVP needed...

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How to make a pie

Posted by: Yoah Bar-David, Software Engineer, Google Tel-Aviv

I have a friend who is a great chef and owns a restaurant. A while ago he called and asked me in his mild French accent "how to make a pie." I can cook, and I do it quite often. My family loves the food I make, but I have never been asked before for a recipe by a professional chef, and I felt really flattered. I started telling him about my great apple pie, a recipe I learned from my mom, and he started laughing, saying "no, no, no, no." He wanted to know about spreadsheet pies.

A few months ago I told him how useful it could be to manage his restaurant's financials with Google spreadsheets. He would be able to access his data from home, from work, or while on one of his many trips. My pitch worked, and he started using Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Now he is asking me how to add charts to his spreadsheet, and he is not the only one -- many people have asked us about this. So today we are unveiling a quick, simple way to add charts to your spreadsheets: select the cells you want to use for the chart data, click the new chart icon in the toolbar, and, in the popup dialog, select your chart type and customize it.

Here are a few more of the new spreadsheet features:

• Named ranges: you can define a name for a range of cells, and use this name in formulas to refer to cells, for example write =sum(expenses) instead of =sum(c12:e17). This helps make calculation logic clearer to write and understand. Check it out under the "Formulas" tab.
• Cell comments: Attach comments to individual cells, great for additional information or for collaboration on a single cell.
• Bi-directional text: The ability to properly view and edit text in right-to-left languages like Hebrew. This is very important for our local community here in Israel.
• A quick way to duplicate a sheet.
• A new right-click option to search the web for the text in a cell.

So do have fun with this release, and keep sending us ideas and suggestions.

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Word Search 2.0 for Kindergartners

Posted by: Jonathan Rochelle, Product Manager - Google Docs & Spreadsheets

My six-year-old came home from school the other day asking me all kinds of questions about this word search puzzle he got from his teacher. It had a theme based on one of our favorite authors (Dr. Seuss) and had that tell-tale grainy look of something that has been photo-copied over and over (for several years no doubt) -- and he loved it!

Like most kindergartners on a mission, he is relentless in his pursuit of information: "How did she make this?", "How did she get the words and letters in there?", "I can tell it was done on a computer, Daddy - do we have the program that makes these?" -- and it didn't stop there.

"Google Spreadsheets!" I said with honest enthusiasm. "Are you kidding?" he said, with a hopeful grin. So we quickly pulled up his Google Docs & Spreadsheets account (yes, he has one - on his own domain under Google Apps!) and we created a spreadsheet... It was a simple grid of squares. We filled in each box with a single letter until all the words he wanted were there - actually, just check it out yourself, below!


(yes! you can embed a published spreadsheet in a blog entry!)

We printed a bunch of copies for him and his friends and even created and printed a teacher's version (with all the hidden words highlighted in yellow). It was perfect!

Now I just have to teach him the API so he can auto-generate the word search puzzle! Nah... I'll wait until he's in the first grade - he needs a break ;)

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Going to work with Docs & Spreadsheets

Posted by: David Kuettel & Isaac Shum, Software Engineers, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Corporate workers have experienced the pain of document collaboration for years. Nobody could find the latest version of that important spreadsheet. You were on a sales call and that proposal you needed was stuck on your work computer. Your email inbox was full of everybody's document edits. All that changed with Docs & Spreadsheets. But we kept hearing the same thing from business users - "how do I get everybody in my company using this?" As of today, the answer is easy: Google Apps.

Google Apps lets you offer private-labeled email, instant messaging and calendar accounts to everyone in your organization so they can share ideas and work more effectively. As of today, Google Apps now includes Docs & Spreadsheets. The Google Apps version works just like the Docs & Spreadsheets you know and love but with a few special new features like the ability to publish a document only to your co-workers and support for making everyone in your company a collaborator. Everything is hosted by Google, and no hardware or software is required. Check it out: we think you'll agree that we look pretty dapper in a suit and tie.

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Hello World

Posted by: Ken Norton

Dokumenty i Arkusze. That's Polish for Docs & Spreadsheets. I know that because D&S has been pretty popular in Poland since we launched. We've actually been quite popular all around the world, but until now we've offered an English-only experience.

I'm happy to announce that we've just launched Docs & Spreadsheets in 12 new languages. The languages we've added are: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and - you guessed it - Polish. If your favorite language isn't listed here, we've got an additional 18 languages in our spell-checker. You can select your language by clicking "Settings" inside Docs & Spreadsheets.

And if you haven't checked out the Google Toolbar Beta 3 for Firefox with integrated support for Docs & Spreadsheets, you can now download it in all of the same languages.

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Docs & Spreadsheets integrates with Gmail

Posted by: Ken Norton

We know many Google Docs & Spreadsheets fans are also Gmail users. We've heard from scores of you since we launched Docs & Spreadsheets, and the most common request is for more integration between the two products. It comes as no surprise -- everyone gets heaps of docs in their email. Until recently, if you received a document attached to an email message and wanted to import it into D&S, it was a convoluted process -- download the attachment to your desktop, then upload it to D&S. No more. Now the Gmail team has launched a one-click import feature that you'll really appreciate.

Whenever those of you who use Gmail receive a spreadsheet or a document in an email, you will see a new link next to the "Download" link that says "Open as a Google document." Click on that and the attachment will automatically be imported into Docs & Spreadsheets and added to your personal document list where you can make changes, invite collaborators and search for it later. We hope you like it.



As always, we'll be monitoring discussion group and support email for your feedback.

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Collaboration worldwide

Posted by: Ken Norton, Product Manager, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Whether you're sitting in the same room, across campus, or in different countries, you can collaborate with others using Google Docs & Spreadsheets. If you're using the application, and you live outside the U.S. or you're working with people outside of the U.S., we'd love to hear from you about what you're up to. So far we've heard from authors, college students, dragstrip operators, police officers, and even fantasy baseball league members.

Post your story here in our Google Group and while you're at it, check out other stories as well.

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