Google Docs

258 'Google Docs' stories May 2011 - April 2015

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Google Docs originated from web-based word processor Writely. The app would lay the groundwork for such common features as collaborative text editing. Eventually acquired by Google, it was made available to all Google Apps users in February of 2007.

The marquee feature of Docs is the ability to collaborate with a wide number of people online. Controls help determine who can see, comment, and edit documents. In its current form, Docs is an HTML5 app that runs on most modern browsers and even has support for rudimentary viewing on mobile. Its Android and iOS apps are quite powerful and gives users access to the same web functionality.

On Chrome, Docs works offline and allows users to work without an internet connection and have changes synced backed up to the cloud. An Add-ons feature allows third-party developers to add extra functionality like a thesaurus and a bibliography creator.

Google updates Google Docs Android apps with improved editing features, faster loading

Ben Lovejoy Apr 16 2015 - 5:40 am PT

Google has updated its Android apps for editing Google documents on the move. Google Docs now allows you to accept, reject or comment on suggestions, as well as track changes and comments in Word files; Google Sheets lets you move, resize and delete spreadsheets; and Google Slides now offers you the ability to reorder objects on slides.

Google said that PowerPoint presentations will also be faster to load and scroll.

The company previously updated Google Docs with improvements to its Office Compatibility Mode. All three apps are a free download from the Google play store.

Update Wednesday roundup: Docs, Slides, Sheets, & more updated, Android for Work released for Jelly Bean

Chance Miller Apr 15 2015 - 3:26 pm PT

Google’s Update Wednesday routine is in full swing today with a variety of updates rolling out to the company’s apps. Earlier today, Chrome 42 for Android made its was to the Play Store. Now, several other Google apps have been updated. Google has pushed updates to its Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Google My Business apps. The company also today released Android for Work app to the Play Store.

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App Roundup: Google updates Maps, YouTube, Inbox, Play Music, more

Stephen Hall Mar 19 2015 - 7:55 am PT

Google tends to push several updates to its apps in the middle of the week, and this week has been a particularly eventful one. Updates have landed over the last 24 hours for several apps in Google’s Android inventory, including Inbox, Google Docs (Sheets and Slides, too), YouTube, Quickoffice, Google Maps, and Google Play Music.

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Google Docs for Android updated w/ Office Compatibility Mode improvements, more

Chance Miller Feb 18 2015 - 1:48 pm PT

Google today has started rolling out an update to the Google Docs app on Android with a few new enhancements. First off, the update adds support for selecting, cutting, copying, and pasting text, images, tables, and charts in Office Compatibility Mode. The update also adds the ability to insert links into Google documents.

From the Google Apps blog:

A new version of the Google Docs Android app is now available on Google Play. New features include:

Support for selecting, cutting, copying and pasting text along with images, tables, and charts in Office Compatibility Mode

Ability to insert links in Google documents

The update is available now via the Play Store, although it is a staged rollout and may take a little while to hit your device.

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Opinion: Can Google woo businesses while seemingly suffering from ‘Product ADD’?

Ben Lovejoy Jan 22 2015 - 6:54 am PT

Two of the biggest tech companies in the world–Google and Apple–couldn’t be more different in their philosophies. Apple has always believed in doing a very few things very well, famously saying no to a thousand things for every time it says yes. Google, in contrast, has tried to do– well, almost everything, including things well in the realms of science fiction.

Steve Jobs and Larry Page spoke about this difference shortly before Jobs died, with the Apple co-founder urging Page to “figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up.” Jobs expressed the view that, without focus, Google was in danger of turning into the next Microsoft, creating a large number of ok products but none of them with any wow factor …
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Google+ gets minor update for Android, Touch ID comes to Docs, Slides, and Sheets for iOS

Stephen Hall Jan 21 2015 - 11:49 am PT

Google has—as it very often does on Wednesdays—released a slew of updates across many of its first-party apps. Today’s updates are hitting the official Google+ Android app as well as the Docs suite of Android and iOS apps.
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Google adds Docs, Sheets, & Slides shortcuts to App Launcher

Jordan Kahn Dec 17 2014 - 1:01 pm PT

Google today announced that it’s adding new shortcuts for its Google Drive web apps— Docs, Sheets, and Slides— to the App Launcher feature accessible from the upper right corner of most its web services (pictured right). The new shortcuts join services like Search, Mail, Calendar, and Drive that were previously accessible from the App Launcher.

For regular users, Google is adding Docs to the main section of the App Launcher and making Sheets and Slides shortcuts available by opting in when visiting the apps:

And the next time you visit sheets.google.com or slides.google.com, you’ll see the option to add Sheets and Slides to the launcher as well. Remember that you can always rearrange the icons to your liking by just clicking and dragging them around… One note–if you’ve already customized the arrangement of your icons, you’ll need to visit docs.google.com and click “Add a shortcut” in the App Launcher to get the Docs icon to appear.

For Google Apps users, Google will put Docs, Slides, and Sheets shortcuts in the App Launcher by default and bump Groups and Contacts into the “More” section of the launcher.

Apps users can expect the change to kick in early next month.

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for Android get updated with a slew of new features

Stephen Hall Dec 15 2014 - 1:19 pm PT

Google has announced today that, following a slew of updates that came to the Google Drive collection of iOS apps last week, the company’s Android apps for Drive are also receiving a few updates today:

Docs has some new, handy line spacing controls that let you choose single, double or fractional line spacing, Sheets has scrollbars for faster navigation, and you can now insert, move, resize and rotate text boxes, shapes and lines in the updated Slides app.

All three apps are now even friendlier with Office files with easier file creation and other updates, and we’ve added better accessibility options and squashed some bugs.

The updates coming to this set of apps may seem minor, but there are a few notable additions here. Scrollbars in sheets is going to make that app much more usable, and the ability to create and edit graphics within Slides is going to make it much easier to make presentations that are closer to what you’d be able to do on the desktop.

Google says that the updates should be rolling out today. If you don’t already have them, you can get the Docs, Sheets, and Slides Google Drive apps over on the Play Store for free.

Google updates Drive and Docs sharing with profile pictures and suggested recipients

9to5 Staff Dec 11 2014 - 11:04 am PT

Google has made a couple of updates to its Drive and Docs editors that deliver smarter sharing and make it easier for collaborating with others. Starting today, after adding an email address to the sharing dialogue on either service, you will see profile pictures for each person you’ve added and, after adding two collaborators, suggested recipients based on who you frequently share emails or files with.
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Google Drive adds ability to convert Office file attachments from Gmail

Chance Miller Dec 2 2014 - 1:06 pm PT

In a post on the official Drive Google+ account, Google today announced that Gmail web users can now easily open and edit Microsoft Office attachments. Google previously introduced the ability to edit Office files in Drive, but today’s update makes the process considerably easier for Gmail users. Now when a user receives a Microsoft Office file in an attachment, they can simply click the “edit with Google Docs” pencil icon to instantly open and edit the file.

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Google Docs updated w/ new image editing options, ability to merge cells

Chance Miller Dec 1 2014 - 3:01 pm PT

Google this evening has announced a trio of updates to its Drive suite of apps. First off, Google Docs has been updated to add the ability to merge the cells of a table. In order to merge cells in Docs, simply highlight the cells to be merged, then right-click and choose the “Merge cells” option from the pop-up menu.

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Google Drive and related apps experiencing outage for some users (update)

Zac Hall Oct 27 2014 - 9:03 am PT

Google Drive and some related services are currently experiencing issues for some users, according to Google.

We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Drive. We will provide more information shortly.
Affected users will notice 500 errors and latency.

The same service issues apply to Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, which each have the same error message from Google. The notice was first posted at 8:20 AM PST.

Update 9:20 AM PST: We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 10/27/14 1:30 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.

Update 11:18 AM PST: Our team is continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 10/27/14 3:30 PM with more information about this problem. Thank you for your patience.

Update: Google says the issue has been resolved and has released the following statement on the matter:

The problem with Google Drive should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better.

Google Docs, Slides and Drawings now equipped with automated list formatting

Mark Hearn Sep 18 2014 - 11:02 am PT

Today, Google announced a couple of updates for its office software suite that should increase productivity for frequent users. The search giant has added a new formatting feature to Docs, Slides and Drawings that automatically creates bullet points or numbered lists after typing an applicable character at the beginning of a paragraph. For example, if you type an asterisk followed by the spacebar, Docs will automatically add a bullet point to that particular segment.

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Google Docs now imports tracked changes from Word as Suggested Edits

Mark Hearn Jul 25 2014 - 2:52 pm PT

Google recently introduced Suggested Edits, which is pretty much the company’s take on Word’s Track Changes feature for Word that lets editors collaborate with each other when composing a document. Aware the some people still use Microsoft’s word processing software , Mountain View has given Docs the ability to convert tracked changes from .docx to it’s Suggested Edits.

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Google starts incorporating ‘Material Design’ on Docs web pages

Stephen Hall Jul 11 2014 - 1:51 pm PT

Google showed off its new “Material” design language alongside Android “L” at Google I/O 2014. And while you can follow our guide to get a glimpse at Android L in its full glory on your Nexus device, you can also simply load up a few new web pages that Google has redesigned in Google Docs.

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Docs updated with Android L support and Material Design appeal

Mark Hearn Jul 1 2014 - 11:31 am PT

Google recently revealed its plan to deep-six Quickoffice, so updates for apps like Docs are pretty much a given. The latest version of Mountain View’s word processing application introduces a cluster of new features, including support for Android L, which should make early, early adopters smile. Other noticeable changes in software version 1.3.251.9 include a redesigned interface more in line with Google’s Material Design language, along with the ability to create and edit Microsoft.docx files.

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Google Drive Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps now let you delete files right from the editor

Jordan Kahn Jun 19 2014 - 8:44 am PT

A nice little enhancement for Google Drive users started rolling out last night with the ability to delete files directly from within any given app’s editor. For instance, if you’re editing a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide, you will no longer have to return to your main list of files in Drive to delete it.

The new option is located under File > Move to Trash as pictured below:

Google Drive update officially removes document editing

Mark Hearn May 8 2014 - 3:07 pm PT

We knew it was coming and now it’s here. Today, Google rolled out a new version of Drive for Android that removes document editing from the cloud-storage application. This change in direction is an immediate follow up to Google’s new trio of productivity apps that released last month. If you still haven’t picked up Docs and Sheets, the updated version of Drive will now display a view-only version of documents and will prompt you to install Google’s new standalone apps for editing options. Although some users will need to download three apps, document editing can now be done offline, so that’s a plus.

Google Docs updated with image editing tools

Mark Hearn May 5 2014 - 2:02 pm PT

Today, Google updated Docs with a simple set of editing tools, placing it on a par with the company’s Slides application. Users can now crop, rotate and add borders to images directly from within Docs, so there’s no need to jump into a different app when working on a document loaded with pretty pictures. Google recently added these type of features to Slides and from the look of things, Docs’ tools are identical. Today’s update leaves Sheets as the odd app out in Mountain View’s office software suite, however you’re probably less likely going to find yourself inserting any photos into that data-heavy spreadsheet.

{via Google)

Google Drive to drop document editing in favor of standalone apps

Mark Hearn May 4 2014 - 12:08 am PT

Google’s new take on Docs and Sheets might be the first of many changes for the company’s Drive platform. The folks at Android Police managed to get their hands on a new, unreleased version of Drive and it appears to be missing editing functionality for sheets and documents. If you attempt to open a document while in Drive, it’ll display a view-only version of the item and will prompt you to install Google’s new standalone word processing app. We understand that this change might be frustrating for some users, but unbundling these apps lets people pick and choose the software that they want to use. It also gives Google a chance to focus on each app individually, which will hopefully result in a better user experience for each platform. Our fingers are crossed.

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Google announces Docs, Sheets and Slides mobile apps

Mark Hearn Apr 30 2014 - 10:37 am PT

Google’s mobile office suite isn’t the most refined experience, but it’s there if you need to compose a document or edit a spreadsheet while on the go. Aware of its shortcomings (and competition), the company has released three new mobile apps today that aim to improve the way you handle projects when out and about. First up is Docs, a full-blown word processing application that lets users compose, edit and share documents directly from their mobile devices. The second new piece of software in Google’s big release is Sheets, which focuses specifically on spreadsheets. With similar functionality to Docs, this app lets you edit and manage rows and columns on a spreadsheet from the comfort of your smartphone or tablet.

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Google introduces add-on features for Google Docs & Sheets

Zac Hall Mar 11 2014 - 10:33 am PT

Announced today, Google is introducing a new layer of features to its Google Docs and Google Sheets productivity web apps. The word processor and spreadsheet editor will now support additional features through user-installed add-ons developed by select partners.

The add-ons are accessible through a menu in the tool bar when editing a document or spreadsheet and include a number of partners like Mail Chimp and Avery. Once prompted from the tool bar, Docs and Sheets will present a store-like interface laying out the various supported add-ons allowing you to install them to your apps.

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Microsoft releases yet another anti-Chromebook advertisement

David Beren Dec 6 2013 - 9:07 am PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wAgB5J1gSQ&w=600&h=420]

Imagine my shock and surprise as yet another anti-Chromebook advertisement hits the YouTubes courtesy of Microsoft. The latest in the company’s anti-everything-Google campaign attacks the notion that a Chromebook has “everything you need” as a laptop.

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Google testing new attachment experience for Gmail

Jordan Kahn Nov 12 2013 - 7:49 am PT

Google Operating System blog, which has a good track record for leaking upcoming features for Google products, today posted a screenshot that shows a redesigned attachments UI for Gmail being tested internally. In the image above we can see the text “Dogfood confidential – submit feedback on the new attachments experience,” along with what looks to be a simplified interface for attachments in emails.

This is what attachments currently look like in emails:

And this is the new attachment interface:

The report speculates that Google could be dropping the “View” and “Download” options and instead just sending users to Google Drive when clicking an attachment.