Google Drive Blog: February 2009

A faster way to get to Docs and other Google Apps with Pack

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

We've invited Julie Farago and Mike Smith, Product Managers for Google Pack, to tell you about recent updates to Pack that might interest those of you who regularly use Docs and our other apps.

We think that you should be able to access your favorite web apps with the same ease and simplicity as desktop applications. Today, we took one small step in that direction.

As an option in Google Pack, you can now quickly install desktop access points to Docs, Calendar, and Gmail. These access points include placement in the start menu, shortcuts on the desktop, and a presence in add/remove programs. If you use Gmail, you can also make it your default mail handler. When you launch the apps from these access points, they run in a streamlined browser window via Google Chrome. You may have tried to customize this on your own but now it's even easier.

Try it out and tell us what you think by installing it from Pack.

Posted by: Julie Farago and Mike Smith, Product Managers for Google Pack

Data Validation gives you more control over your spreadsheets

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

data validationTools > Data ValidationTools > Data Validation

If data validation is applied to cells containing data, rules won't be applied until the data is modified.

Only one validation rule can be applied to each cell.

Posted by: Radhika Lakshmanan, Software Engineer

Add, edit, sort, and filter: Improved mobile access to spreadsheets

Friday, February 13, 2009

Over a year ago, we enabled view-only access to docs from mobile devices. This has come in handy for me because I use Google Docs spreadsheets to keep track of a lot of nerdy and not-so-nerdy things in my life. I've often found myself wanting to access my spreadsheet data on the go, when I'm not near a computer.
Today, I'm happy to announce that we've made mobile access even better by adding new capabilities with List View for spreadsheets. You can quickly view, edit, sort, and filter your spreadsheets on a variety of mobile devices including Android-powered devices like the T-Mobile G1, the iPhone and iPod touch, and the Nokia S60.
With Valentine's Day coming soon, I'd like to share two ways that List View is helping me to play cupid.
Last week I was trying to find some Broadway tickets to surprise my boyfriend for Valentine's Day. A friend of mine at a ticket agency publishes an online spreadsheet with a list of last-minute available tickets. From my iPhone, I was able to quickly access his spreadsheet to see upcoming shows:

Mobile List View showing all shows (sorted by "Show" column). Shown in portrait mode on the iPhone.

From here, in just a few taps, I was able to filter down to tickets available on Valentine's Day:

Choosing a filter for the "Date" column.
I could see only the rows that matched my filter, and I eventually found a show that I knew that my boyfriend would like: "Billy Elliot The Musical" at 7pm with orchestra seats.

All rows matching the "2/14/2009" filter.
With tickets purchased, and a restaurant booked, I'm nearly set. Here's another example of how this enhanced mobile access will come in handy tomorrow night. A few of my friends and I like to think of ourselves as wine aficionados. We rate wines that we like (and don't like) in a wine diary and it's kept in a shared spreadsheet. On the T-Mobile G1 or the iPhone home screens, we all have shortcuts which link directly to the spreadsheet.

Mobile List View showing all wines. Landscape mode on the G1.

While at a restaurant or wine bar, we can see each others' recommendations and note our likes and dislikes. Here I can view and add a new entry:

Mobile List View "Add row" widget on the G1.

Tomorrow night, mobile access to this spreadsheet will come in handy when presented with a big wine list, with my significant other looking at me across the table waiting for me to pick a wine (already).

Try this out by pointing your mobile device's browser to m.google.com/docs. And if you use Google Apps, go to docs.google.com/a/your-domain. This feature is available in all 38 languages that are supported in Google Docs spreadsheets.

Posted by: Eric Bogs, User Interface Software Engineer

Students tell their stories

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

You might remember reading about our visits to college campuses when we hit the streets and headed "App to School" in a retro bio-fuel bus to visit ten universities across the US using Google Apps. Today, Miriam Schneider is here to tell us more about the students' experiences with Google Apps, as well as the Google Students Blog.
Google Students blogsubscribe

playlistPosted by: Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing Manager & Editor-in-Chief, Google Students Blog

Preview before you print (and even more offline languages)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Those of you who have uploaded PDFs to Google Docs or have viewed PDFs in Gmail may notice that the new "Print Preview" feature is powered by the same fast and high fidelity PDF viewer. You can then preview the pages of your document, edit your print settings (if needed), and print.

In other news, we've just enabled offline access in 9 more languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Thai, and Vietnamese. Why the brief delay? We wanted to do some final testing on those languages before making them available to everyone. To get your Google Docs offline, I highly recommend that you start by reading this user group post.

Posted by: Jen Mazzon, Senior Product Manager

Meeting your New Year's resolutions? We'd like to hear from you

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Common resolutionstemplates gallery

personal finance templates

Are you sharing a workout spreadsheet with your training buddies to track progress as a group?

Have you created a budget to get your financial house in order?

Have you made progress in your job search by creating an online resume or CV?

share your storyTell us your storyPosted by: Andrew Chang, Marketing Manager

Offline access available in 29 additional languages

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Last week, the Gmail team launched Offline Gmail, an experimental feature that gives you access to email when you don't have a stable Internet connection or an Internet connection at all.
Back in March 2008, we launched offline access for Google Docs in English only. Since then, early adopters of this feature have been providing us with valuable feedback. We've been gathering this feedback and working to improve the offline experience (for example, the offline feature now works with Firefox 3), and now we're ready to bring offline access to more users.
You can now get this feature in an additional 29 languages. To get started, you'll first need to enable offline access for Google Docs.
Here's a reminder about what you can and can't do offline:
You can...

view & edit text documents offline
view spreadsheets, forms, and presentations offline

For now, you can't...

edit spreadsheets, forms, and presentations offline
create new text documents, spreadsheets, forms or presentations offline
view uploaded PDFs offline

To help ensure that your experience using Google Docs offline is successful, take a look at this user group post which provides some helpful tips on using offline.

Posted by: Joelle Fornengo, Google Docs Operations
Update: On February 4, 2009, we launched offline access in 9 additional languages.