Google Drive Blog
The latest news and updates from the Google Drive team.
Visualize your data with charts in Google Sites
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Ever since we launched the
chart editor in Google spreadsheets
, many of you have asked us to integrate charts into Google Sites as well. Today we are making this possible. Now you can display charts in your Sites by going to
Insert Menu
and choosing
Charts
in edit mode.
Once you select a spreadsheet, the editor picks existing charts from the spreadsheet to embed into a Site.
You can also create a chart by specifying the sheet and range and customize the chart by changing various properties such as color, axes, labels and more. Choose which chart type best expresses your data or let the chart editor recommend one for you.
You can decide to choose between two modes
Live
and
Snapshot
to show the data.
Live
provides you with dynamic charts. Whenever the chart is loaded in the Site, the chart will display the most recent data in the spreadsheet. This is very useful in cases when the spreadsheet data is updated manually or using a script.
Snapshot
means just that. It’s a snapshot at a point in time, so the chart will store and display the exact same data, regardless of whether you make changes to the underlying data sheet.
Changes made to charts in Sites are independent to the specific chart, so the same spreadsheet data can be applied across multiple charts.
To learn more about how to express your data more visually with Sites, visit the
help center
. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments.
Posted by: Hillel Maoz, Software Engineer
Trying on the new Dynamic Views from Blogger
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
As you may have noticed, the Docs blog looks a lot different today. That’s because we—along with a few other Google blogs—are trying out a new set of
Blogger
templates called Dynamic Views.
Launched today
, Dynamic Views is a unique browsing experience that makes it easier and faster for readers to explore blogs in interactive ways. We’re using the Classic view, but you can also preview this blog in any of the other six new views by using the view selection bar at the top left of the screen.
We’re eager to hear what you think about the new Dynamic Views. You can submit feedback using the “Send feedback” link on the bottom right of this page.
If you like what you see here, and we hope you do, we encourage you to try out the new look(s) on your own blog—read the
Blogger Buzz post
for more info.
Posted by Meredith Blackwell, Google Docs Marketing Manager
This week in Docs: Import/export and paste special improvements
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Yesterday, we announced the
vertical merge
feature in Google spreadsheets, and today we’re happy to share two new features that we hope will make analyzing data a little more efficient.
More import and export support in Google spreadsheets
Now you can convert most
pivot tables
between Microsoft Excel files and Google spreadsheets for powerful data analysis in whatever file format you prefer. Additionally, filters that help you better visualize and organize your data are now supported in our import and export conversion tools.
To import a pivot table you created in Microsoft Excel, click the
File
menu in Google spreadsheets, and select
import
, then select the file from the import options, and click the
import
button. If you’ve created a pivot table in Google spreadsheets, go to
File
in the spreadsheet, then click
Download As
, and choose
Excel
.
More paste special options in Google spreadsheets
Sometimes you need to copy data in cells that have lots of formatting and formulas, but you don’t always want to paste everything in the cell. For instance, you may want to copy and paste the data in a range of cells, but not the borders that you placed around the cells.
We’ve added four new
paste special
options including: paste all cell contents except borders, formulas only, data validation only, or conditional formatting only. You can find these new options in a list under
“Paste Special”
in the
Edit
menu of Google spreadsheets.
We hope these latest features make working with Google spreadsheets more efficient and productive. As always, let us know what you think in the
forum
or in the comments.
Posted by: Dan Gundrum, Product Manager
Merge cells vertically in Google spreadsheets
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
There are many times when you want to format your spreadsheets in a certain way to make your data easier to read and understand. Starting today, we’ve extended the merge functionality to let you create
vertical merges
across several rows of data.
In the spirit of the NFL season, let’s say you want to host a football tournament for your friends. To make it easier for them to cast their votes on the winning team, you organize the NFL teams by conference and division in a Google spreadsheet. Using vertical merges, you can assign headers to sets of rows. Simply select the set of cells you’d like to merge, then click on the down arrow next to the merge icon, and select
Merge vertically
.
In the NFL spreadsheet, you’ll see that some of the team names don’t fit on one line in the width of the cells of Column C.
To improve the formatting, select the cells across all the rows of teams in the AFC (rows 2-17) and 2 columns (C and D) and click
Merge horizontally
. You’ll have 16 merged cells that span 2 columns for better formatting.
After applying vertical merges to all of the conference and division headers and horizontal merges across the team names in each conference, you’re ready to share with your friends for the tournament!
To undo a merge action, select a merged cell and click
Unmerge
in the drop-down menu.
We hope you enjoy customizing the formatting of your spreadsheets with this feature. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Posted by: Jakov Krolo, Software Engineer Intern
+1 button in Google Sites
Thursday, September 15, 2011
We have been thrilled with the response to the
launch of the +1 button
on websites all across the web, but we also heard that you’d like a simple way to add the +1 button to your own Google Sites. Adding the +1 button to your site will allow your visitors to recommend it to their friends and contacts, which helps more people discover it via their personalized search results.
Starting today, you can add the
+1 button
to any individual page by choosing +1 Button from the
Insert
menu, or you can add it to your site’s sidebar and have it appear on every page instantly by editing your
Site Layout
under
Manage Site
.
Try it out and let us know what you think in the
forum
.
Posted by: Michael Verrilli, Software Engineer
Improved Accessibility in Google Docs and Sites
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Today we
announced
some of the updates we’ve released recently to make Google’s applications more accessible to the blind community. For Google Docs and Sites, we’re pleased to announce new keyboard shortcuts and better screen reader support for our blind users.
Screen reader support in Google Docs and Sites
To help blind users read, edit and navigate content, Google Docs (including documents list, documents and spreadsheets) and Sites now support two
screen readers
:
JAWS
and
ChromeVox
. Here are a few examples of how screen readers work in Google Docs and Sites:
In
documents
, you’ll hear feedback when you format text or insert tables, lists or comments in your document.
In
spreadsheets
, you’ll hear the cell’s location, contents and comments when moving between cells.
In both
documents and spreadsheets
, you’ll hear feedback as you navigate to areas outside the main content area, such as the menu bar, chat pane and dialog boxes.
In your
documents list
, you’ll hear feedback when you upload or download a file, organize collections or move between files in your documents list.
In
Sites
, you’ll hear feedback as you navigate and manage your sites, create and edit pages, and navigate through menus and dialog boxes.
For a complete list of screen reader-supported features and instructions for how to use them, visit the
Docs
and
Sites
help centers.
New keyboard shortcuts
We’ve also added new keyboard shortcuts to make it easier to use Google Docs and Sites. In your documents list, for example, you can use the up and down arrow keys to move through the files in the list, and you can open the selected document by hitting Enter. For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, please refer to the help center articles for
spreadsheets
,
documents
,
documents list
and
Sites
.
With these new accessibility features, we hope to make it easier for everyone to use Google Docs and Sites. Please use
this form
to share your feedback directly with the accessibility team so we can continue to improve our products.
Posted by: Jeff Harris, Product Manager
This week in Docs: Format painter, Google Fusion Tables, and drag & drop images
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
This week in Docs, we’re introducing three new tools that put the fun in functional.
Format painter in Google documents
First, we’ve added a
format painter
to help you copy formatting within Google documents. The new format painter allows you to copy the style of your text, including font, size, color and other formatting options and apply it somewhere else in your document. To use the format painter, select the text for the formatting you want to copy, press the paintbrush button in your toolbar, and then select the text where you want to apply that formatting.
If you double-click on the format painter icon, you’ll enter a mode that lets you select multiple sections of text so you can apply the same formatting to each section.
You can also use keyboard shortcuts for format painting. To copy the style of your selected text, press
Ctrl+Option+C
for Mac or
Ctrl+Alt+C
for Windows. To apply any copied styles to whatever text you have selected, press
Ctrl+Option+V
for Mac or
Ctrl+Alt+V
for Windows.
Google Fusion Tables in documents list
With this week’s update, we’re also integrating
Google Fusion Tables
into your documents list. Google Fusion Tables is a data management web application that makes it easy to gather, visualize and collaborate on data online. Now you’ll be able to store and share your Fusion Tables with the rest of the files in your documents list.
Recently, people have used Google Fusion Tables to:
Visualize
evacuation zones for New York City
during Hurricane Irene
Host data sets
made public by the State of California
Gather data from local flu shot clinics for
Google Flu Vaccine Finder
Map
shelters
and
road status
during the tsunami crisis in Japan
Go to
Create new > Table
from your documents list menu to get started visualizing or sharing tables of data in .csv, .xls or .kml files.
We're working on making Google Fusion Tables available to Google Apps customers and will let you know as soon as they are.
Take a tour
to learn more about Google Fusion Tables.
Drag & drop images in Google drawings
We also made it easier to add images from your desktop to Google drawings. If you’re using the latest version of Chrome, Safari, or Firefox, you can now drag an image from your desktop and drop it directly in the drawing canvas.
Give these tools a try and let us know what you think in the comments.
Posted by: Micah Lemonick, Software Engineer
Updated 9/13 to add shortcuts for Windows
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