Google Drive Blog
The latest news and updates from the Google Drive team.
Your iPhone & iPad are ready to get to work with new apps for Docs, Sheets, & Slides
Monday, August 25, 2014
You suddenly remember you need to add "buy milk" to your grocery list, but don't have a pen or paper in sight. You’re on the subway with no reception and need to update your soccer club spreadsheet before you get to practice. You desperately need to make edits to your marketing strategy PowerPoint before you present, but you only brought your iPad to the meeting.
We've all been in binds like this before, but the good news is, now there's a way out.
With today’s launch of the
Slides app for iPhone & iPad
and updates to the
Docs
and
Sheets
apps, we’re delivering on our
promise
to make it possible for you to work with any file, on any device, any time. You can now create that grocery list, edit that spreadsheet, and update that slide deck with no problem.
Here's the lowdown on what you can now do with Docs, Sheets, and Slides:
You can truly get stuff done
from any device
—your iPhone, iPad,
Android phone, Android tablet
, laptop or desktop computer. Any change you make on any of these devices is saved automatically, so you can pick up right where you left off any time, anywhere that you can sign in.
The Docs, Sheets and Slides apps come with
offline editing built right in
. Just make the files you want to edit
available offline
. Any changes you make offline get automatically synced when you reconnect, just like when you make
offline edits from your computer
.
And while converting Office files to Docs, Sheets and Slides is a cinch, the new iPhone/iPad apps also let you
edit Office files directly
-- just like on the Android apps and the web.
Simply put, no matter where you are, how spotty the WiFi is, or what file type you're working with, you can get stuff done your way.
Posted by Li-Wei Lee, Software Engineer
Here, there and everywhere—Google Keep reminds you at the right time
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
(Cross-posted from the
Android Blog
)
Notes are a good way to keep track of all you have to do, but most of us need a little nudge now and then. Google Keep can remind you of important tasks and errands at just the right time and place. For example, Keep works with Google Now to remind you of your grocery list when you walk into your favorite grocery store, and nudges you on Thursday night to take out the trash.
To get started, select the “Remind me” button from the bottom of any note and choose the type of reminder you want to add. You can add time-based reminders for a specific date and time, or a more general time of day, like tomorrow morning. Adding a location reminder is incredibly easy too – as soon as you start typing Google Keep suggests places nearby.
Of course, sometimes plans change. If you get a reminder you’re not ready to deal with, simply snooze it to a time or place that’s better for you. It’s now even easier to get to all of your notes using the new navigation drawer, which includes a way to view all of your upcoming reminders in one place. And for people who want more separation between their home and work lives, the drawer also lets you easily switch between your accounts.
And finally, we’ve made it easier to add your existing photos to a Google Keep note on Android. When you tap the camera icon you can choose between taking a new photo or adding one you already have from Gallery.
The new update is gradually rolling out in
Google Play
, and available now on the web at
http://drive.google.com/keep
and in the
Chrome App
.
Posted by Erin Rosenthal, Product Manager
Google Keep—Save what’s on your mind
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
(
Cross-posted from the
Android Blog
)
Every day we all see, hear or think of things we need to remember. Usually we grab a pad of sticky-notes, scribble a reminder and put it on the desk, the fridge or the relevant page of a magazine. Unfortunately, if you’re like me you probably often discover that the desk, fridge or magazine wasn’t such a clever place to leave the note after all...it’s rarely where you need it when you need it.
To solve this problem we’ve created Google Keep. With Keep you can quickly jot ideas down when you think of them and even include checklists and photos to keep track of what’s important to you. Your notes are safely stored in Google Drive and synced to all your devices so you can always have them at hand.
If it’s more convenient to speak than to type that’s fine—Keep transcribes voice memos for you automatically. There’s super-fast search to find what you’re looking for and when you’re finished with a note you can archive or delete it.
Changing priorities isn’t a problem: just open Keep on your Android phone or tablet (there’s a widget so you can have Keep front and center all the time) and drag your notes around to reflect what matters. You can choose the color for each note too.
Pro tip: for adding thoughts quickly without unlocking your device there's a lock screen widget (on devices running Android 4.2+).
Google Keep
is available on Google Play for devices running Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich and above. You can access, edit and create new notes on the web at
http://drive.google.com/keep
and in the coming weeks you'll be able to do the same directly from Google Drive.
Posted by Katherine Kuan, Software Engineer
Google Drive: Updates for iOS and Android
Monday, September 10, 2012
(
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
Every day, more and more people are choosing to live online and
get things done in the cloud
. Helping to make this experience as seamless as possible,
Google Drive
is one place where you can create, share and keep all your stuff. Drive is available on the web, as well as
Mac
,
Windows
and
Android
and
iOS
.
Updates for iOS
Starting today, if you’re using the
Drive app
on your iOS device you can also
edit
Google documents, just as you can with the
Android app
. From your iPhone or iPad, you can
create a new document, edit an existing one or format text
. And just like on your computer, you’ll be able to see other people’s edits instantly as they’re made.
You’ll also notice other new improvements to the iOS Drive app. For example, you can now view Google
presentations
on your iPhone or iPad, including speaker notes, full-screen mode and the ability to swipe between slides. You can also
create new folders, move files into folders and upload stuff
(like photos and videos) from your device directly in the Drive app.
Updates for Android
We’re also updating the Drive app for Android phones and tablets today. You can now add comments, reply to existing comments and view tables in your Google documents. And you’ll have the same new abilities to view presentations and organize your stuff as your friends with iPhones do.
More to come...
Looking ahead, we have plenty more planned for the Drive mobile apps—including native editing and real-time collaboration for Google spreadsheets. Stay tuned.
Get Drive in the
App Store
for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and visit the
Play Store
to get the latest on your Android phone or tablet. To learn more about Google Drive, visit
drive.google.com/start
.
Posted by Anil Sabharwal, Senior Product Manager
Announcing your two most requested features: offline document editing and Drive for iOS
Thursday, June 28, 2012
In April, we
introduced
Google Drive, a place where you can create, share, and keep all your stuff. Today at the Google I/O conference
we announced
two new ways to
get things done
in the cloud: offline editing for Google documents and a Drive app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Offline document editing
No internet connection? No big deal. With
offline editing
, you can create and edit Google documents and leave comments. Any changes you make will be automatically synced when you get back online.
You can enable offline editing from the gear icon in
Google Drive
and find more detailed instructions for getting set up in the
Help Center
. Note that you’ll need the latest versions of
Chrome
or
ChromeOS
to edit offline. We’re also working hard to make offline editing for spreadsheets and presentations available in the future.
Google Drive for iOS
We launched the
Drive app for Android
phones and tablets a few weeks ago, and starting today, Google Drive is
available for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
.
With the Drive app, you can open PDFs, photos, videos, documents and anything else stored in your Drive while you're on the go. You can also search all your files, add collaborators to documents, and make files
available offline
to view them even without an internet connection. For blind and low-vision users, the app also works great in
VoiceOver mode
. Learn more about what you can do with the app in our
Help Center
.
Get Drive in the
App Store
for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 5.0+ and visit the
Play Store
to get the latest on your Android phone or tablet.
To learn more about Google Drive, visit
drive.google.com/start
.
Posted by Clay Bavor, Product Management Director
Improved discussions, search scanned text in PDFs, and more
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Fresh on the heels of adding
discussions to Google presentations
and the ability to
edit within the Google Docs Android app
, we’ve been hard at work on a few other new features to enhance your Google Docs experience.
All your comments--in one tidy place
We just added the discussions feature to Google
drawings
, and today we’re making it even easier to see a log of all of the comments that have been made whether you’re using drawings, documents, or presentations. Just click on the “Comments” button in the upper right corner of the editor to see a complete history of your discussions. You can reply in line, resolve or re-open comments, link directly to a comment, or change notification settings--without ever leaving the “Comments” menu.
Better text search for PDFs and images
Last month, we launched a feature to let you search for text inside the PDFs in your documents list. Now, using the same
optical character recognition technology
, you can search for and copy highlighted text when you open a scanned PDF, like a fax or hotel receipt.
It’s not just stuff in your documents list: we’ve also made text in PDFs and images uploaded to Google Sites searchable.
And that’s not all...
In addition to the features that were released today, over the last few weeks we’ve also made a bunch of other changes that you may have noticed. Now you can:
Add
custom Javascript and CSS
to your Google Sites
See full names in document and presentation comments (instead of showing email addresses)
Use keyboard shortcuts for navigating between table cells in documents
Cancel running scripts from the Google Apps Script editor
Add
donut charts
and error bars in spreadsheets
Posted by Ian Kilpatrick, Software Engineer
Collaborate and edit anywhere with the updated Google Docs for Android
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
As I was sitting on the ferry commuting to Google’s
Sydney office
this morning, two thoughts occurred to me. First, Australia is beautiful. If you’ve never been here, you really should visit. And second, it’s amazing how productive I can be with just my Android phone and an Internet connection. I was responding to email, reading news articles, and editing documents--just like I do at the office. Only the view was better!
We want to give everyone the chance to be productive no matter where they are, so today we’re releasing a new update to the
Google Docs app for Android
. We've brought the collaborative experience from Google Docs on the desktop to your Android device. You'll see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones, and you can just tap the document to join in.
We also updated the interface to make it easier to work with your documents on the go. For example, you can pinch to zoom and focus on a specific paragraph or see the whole document at a glance. We also added rich text formatting so you can do things like create a quick bullet list, add color to your documents, or just bold
something important
. Watch the new Google Docs app in action:
If you want to hear about the latest Docs news or send us feedback on the new app, visit
Google Docs on Google+
.
Gotta run--I’ve got another ferry to catch!
Posted by:
By Vadim Gerasimov, Software Engineer
Updates to Google Docs app for Android: Offline access and improved tablet experience
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
There may be times when you don’t have an Internet connection on your Android device, but you still want access to a file you’ve saved in Google Docs. Now you can select any file in Google Docs to make it available offline. So regardless of whether you’re connected to the internet, you’re always connected to those files.
Even better, Google Docs automatically updates your offline files when you’re on Wi-Fi. You can also manually update files anytime you have a data connection by opening the file or tapping ‘Update’ from the Offline section of the app.
Make file available offline
Update online file
Make file available offline
Update offline file
For those of you with Android tablets, we’ve also improved the Google Docs reading experience. Now, when you open a Google document on your tablet while online, you’ll get a high-resolution version of the document. Swipe left and right to flip between pages, or use the slider at the bottom to page ahead quickly.
New reading layout on Android tablet
You can learn more about
offline capabilities
and the
new reading layout
in our Help Center.
Whether you’re offline or online, these improvements will make it easier to be productive from anywhere.
Posted by: Freeman Liu, Software Engineer
An enhanced Google Docs experience on mobile tablets
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Earlier this year, we introduced the
Google Docs app for Android
. Since then, many users have downloaded the app and enjoyed the benefits of being able to access, edit and share docs on the go.
Today’s update to the app makes Google Docs work better than ever on your tablet. With an entirely new design, we’ve customized the look to make the most of the larger screen space on tablets. The layout includes a three-panel view, which allows you to navigate through filters and collections, view your document list, and see document details, all at once.
Looking at the details panel on the right side, you can see a thumbnail to preview a document and its details before opening it. From the panel, you can see who can view or edit any doc.
New 3-panel view for improved browsing
Autocomplete makes sharing with others on the go even easier
These features are now available in
46 languages
on tablet devices with Android 3.0+ (Honeycomb) and above.
You can download the app from the
Android Market
and let us know what you think in the comments or by posting on the
forum
. Learn more by visiting the
help center
.
Posted by: David Loxton, Product Manager
Introducing the new Google Docs app for Android
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Increasingly, people are using mobile phones to access information -- from email to web browsing to
editing documents
. Part of getting work done on the go is being able to easily access, edit and share content, which is why we’re happy to announce the new
Google Docs app for Android
.
With this new app it’s easy to filter and search for your content across any Google account, then jump straight into editing docs using the online mobile editors. The app also allows you to easily share items with contacts on your phone, right from within the app.
The Docs app also allows you to upload content from your phone and open documents directly from Gmail. You can also add a widget to your home screen for easy access to three core tasks: jumping to your starred documents, taking a photo to upload, or creating a new document with one tap.
And my favorite feature: Using the app and your phone’s camera, you can turn photos with text into editable Google documents with the power of
optical character recognition (OCR)
. Just create a new ‘Document from Photo' or select the camera icon from the widget, and your converted document will appear in your documents list shortly after you snap the picture. You can also convert photos already stored on your phone by
sharing
them with the Google Docs app. OCR does a pretty good job capturing unformatted text in English but won't recognize handwriting or some fonts - stay tuned, it will get better over time!
The Google Docs app is currently available in English and works on Android 2.1+ phones. Try it out by scanning the QR code below or by visiting
Android Market
.
Let us know what you think of the new Google Docs Android app in our
forum
.
Posted by: Reuben Kan, Software Engineer
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