Google Drive Blog
The latest news and updates from the Google Drive team.
Content & Color: An updated look for Docs, Sheets & Slides
Monday, September 30, 2013
Starting today, things are about to get cleaner—and more colorful—in Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms and Apps Script. First, you’ll notice each editor’s product icon displayed in the header, which doubles as a quick link back to all your files in Drive. Next, you’ll see that the header is more streamlined and compact, helping you to focus on what matters most—your content.
We hope these updates make your creation and collaboration experience just a bit more delightful. Enjoy!
Posted by Sarah Cooper, User Experience Designer
Freeing Quickoffice for everyone
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Everyone likes free stuff, which is why starting today we’re making Quickoffice available for free, for everyone. With Quickoffice, you can edit Microsoft® Office documents across your devices, giving you the freedom to work with anyone no matter what hardware or software they’re using. Quickoffice also integrates seamlessly with
Google Drive
storage so you can safely access your files from anywhere. And while the easiest thing to do is simply convert your old files to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, Quickoffice gives you another way to work with people who haven’t
gone Google
yet.
You can get the new, free Quickoffice app for Android and iOS phones and tablets on
Google Play
and in the
App Store
. Simply sign in with your Google Account to start editing Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets and presentations on mobile. You’ll also notice a number of new features, including a refreshed icon, the ability to create .ZIP folders, and view charts in Excel® and PowerPoint® files. Plus, the new app works across devices so you don’t have to worry about installing separate versions anymore when you go from using your phone to editing on your tablet.
While we’re on the topic of free stuff, if you sign in to your Google Account from the new Quickoffice app for Android or iOS by September 26, 2013, an extra 10GB of Google Drive storage will be added to your account for two years (look for it in the next few weeks). So don’t let your hardware or software differences get in the way of true collaboration -- download the new app and start working together today.
Note
:
Previous versions of Quickoffice have been removed from Google Play and the App Store.
Learn more
about how this affects customers currently using Quickoffice Pro, Quickoffice Pro HD. Users who have the Quickoffice for Google Apps for Business app will receive an update notification to upgrade to this new version.
Posted by Alan Warren, Engineering VP, Google
Four new ways to customize your Google Forms
Monday, September 9, 2013
From classroom pop quizzes to RSVPs for your family reunion, you can use Google Forms in tons of different ways -- which is why it's important to be able to customize each form to fit your needs. Starting today, you’ll be able to take advantage of four new features to create your perfect form: progress bars, data validation, embedded YouTube videos, and custom messages.
Guide respondents through your survey with a progress bar
Sometimes it’s helpful to give respondents a sense of how much of a survey still needs to be completed, and now you can by turning on a progress bar in your form.
To turn it on, just check the progress bar box in the Form Settings tab.
Get results the way you want them with data validation
Let’s say you’re using Forms to collect sign ups for an email newsletter. With data validation, you can now ensure that the email addresses are formatted correctly, and consequently avoid those unpleasant bounce-back messages.
To get started, create a new Text question in Forms, then click on the Data validation tab. Click the checkbox and select “Text,” then “Email address,” and voila, the survey taker will see an error message if they don’t enter an email address.
You can also set up data validation for maximum character count, numbers, zip codes, and
more
.
Embed YouTube videos
You can now embed a YouTube video right inside a form -- perfect if you want to get feedback or ask questions about a video.
This works really well for quizzes in class, especially if paired with data validation and the progress bar. Embed a video and then use data validation to give hints when students enter incorrect answers, and add a progress bar so they know how far along they are in the quiz.
Add a custom message to closed forms
Sometimes when a form is closed, you still want to make information available for respondents who weren’t able to complete it in time.
After you’ve switched your form to “Not accepting responses,” you can now add your own message and instructions for follow up.
Posted by Elynn Lee, Software Engineer
A completely new look for Drive on iOS
Thursday, September 5, 2013
One of the features you’ve told us you want on Drive for iOS is the ability to effortlessly browse and preview files, just like you can on
Android
. Today’s update delivers that same card-style thumbnail layout, along with a number of other upgrades that make it even easier to use Drive on your iPhone or iPad.
You can toggle between the new thumbnail view and the traditional list view with just the press of a button. Plus, in this latest version of the app, files and folders are grouped more intuitively instead of being mixed together, and you can view and edit files in landscape mode.
It’s also now easier to copy the link for any Drive file (great for if you need to include it in an email, add it to a note, or text it to a friend). Just visit the details pane of the file you want and select ‘Get link’ to automatically copy the link to your clipboard. And while you're in the details pane, check out the other things you can do, like moving the file into one of your Drive folders or sharing it with a friend.
And last, we brought search to the forefront of the app so you can find the exact file you're looking for, whether you're on a small iPhone or a larger iPad. And remember, Drive search recognizes objects in your images
and
text in scanned documents. So the next time you’re looking for photos of that trip to the Statue of Liberty, just enter the phrase “Statue of Liberty” and your photos will appear – voilà!
Head over to the
Apple App Store
now to download the app and see it in action.
Posted by Kelvin Chan, Software Engineer
Head back to school with Drive: Student Edition
Monday, August 26, 2013
Guest posted by Alex Nagourney
Alex Nagourney is a 2013 graduate of Wellesley College. She was a 2011 Google BOLD intern and a Google Student Ambassador from 2011-2013. She currently lives in New York City.
Summer is coming to an end, which for college students usually means the end of a grueling internship, a road-trip or cross-country flight back to campus, embracing friends you have not seen in months, and, oh yeah, that other tiny detail: the start of classes.
With so much else going on — friends, extracurriculars, sports — students today need to be as efficient and productive as possible when they dedicate time to studying and doing homework. In this age of internet transformation, Gen Y is more tech savvy than ever before, and we expect online education to meet our technology standards.
The purpose (and hope) of this blog post is to give a few examples of how I used — and benefitted from —
Google Docs, Slides, and Forms
in college.
Example 1: Have a group project? Stay calm, cool, and collected. Docs make collaboration easy!
If you have ever had to work on a group paper or project, you know how cumbersome and inefficient the process can be. There are two ways to go about accomplishing this task: (1) your group sends 173 emails trying to coordinate a time at which everyone is available to meet or (2) each person writes a portion of the paper and the group tries to synthesize uncoordinated chunks of different writing styles into one cohesive paper, which always ends with one Type A student editing the entire thing. Luckily, there is now an option 3, and it’s called Google Docs.
To start using Docs, just
open a doc
, share it with the group members, and write. It’s that simple. Having the ability to work together in the cloud means no coordinating schedules, no wasting time on multiple revisions, and no unequal division of group member contributions.
For example, when I had to complete a group paper for an Economics class, my two groupmates and I decided we would each write one-third of the paper. We put our respective portions into a single document and then went through each other’s writing, adding comments and correcting errors when necessary.
Example 2: Google Slides. Enough Said.
Presentations are an inevitable college assignment. Whether you are a history or physics major, you cannot escape this task. Before using Slides, the process of creating presentations was inefficient, awkward (so...what should we put on this slide…?) and time-consuming.
For one of my physics laboratory experiments, my partner was an exchange student from France. While we understood each other in the lab by scribbling Greek letters and numbers to solve problems, at times it was difficult to communicate since English wasn’t her first language. So when we had to create our presentation, it sounded like a grueling task for both of us.
We decided to use
Slides
, divide the work, add notes, and edit together from within the presentation. Our communication was clear and efficient when we typed comments to each other since we could take our time to be articulate, which virtually dissolved our language barrier. In the end, creating the presentation was quite enjoyable; we were proud of the final product and our professors were impressed by how well we worked together.
Example 3: Using Forms to organize information and make it universally accessible and useful...sound familiar?
Being a full-time student and an active member of an extracurricular activity (sport, club, fraternity/sorority, etc.) can sometimes feel like a full-time job. It requires teamwork, organization, time-management, and dedication.
Being the leader of a group demands more: writing agendas, scheduling meetings, organizing fundraisers, and sticking to a budget. Keeping track of all of these items can be difficult, as each task requires different resources — email, documents, spreadsheets, polls, and more.
As the house president of a 165-student residence hall for two years, I struggled to keep track of it all, but after switching to Forms, the whole process became seamless.
For our fundraiser, my house sold over 300 t-shirts to the student body. Because of the high quantity, we utilized a pre-order process in which students could order their size/color and pay in advance. Before we had Google Forms, we used a paper form to collect pre-orders (I still try to block out all those hours spent inputting the paper orders into my computer!).
Not only did using a
form
make it easier to collect pre-orders, it also made it easier to distribute the order form. As a result, our pre-orders increased by 40% in one year! The form did all of the heavy lifting for me. Orders were seamlessly filed into a spreadsheet, and I simply had to click “Show summary of responses” to place the order, making my job easier and freeing up time so that I could focus on other aspects of my role as a leader.
So there you have it, three examples of how using Docs, Slides, and Forms in college made me more efficient, saved me time, and increased my productivity. For those of you about to begin a new semester, good luck!
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
Head back to school with Drive: Teacher Edition
Monday, August 19, 2013
Posted by guest blogger Wendy Gorton
Wendy Gorton is an education consultant for organizations around the world. She’s a former classroom teacher, Google Certified Teacher and Trainer, and is passionate about creating learner-centered environments using tools like
Google Apps for Education
.
Follow the
Drive Google+ page
this and next week for daily tips and suggestions for using Drive in the classroom.
Google Drive
is the all-in-one tool I wish I had my first year of teaching. It not only keeps all of your lesson plans, activities, and research organized, but it's an outstanding way to engage your students, give them feedback, and give their writing a real audience—like their peers or classrooms around the world.
Here are 3 tips to help teachers prepare for going back to school with
Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms
.
1. Use Slides to get to know your students
A great first-week introductory activity is to create a single slide deck, and then invite each of your students to share a bit about themselves on their own personal slide. It’s a fantastic get-to-know-you activity for the first week of school and you’ll be amazed by the creativity that comes out of your students!
The screenshot below shows how Google Student Ambassadors from 9 different countries used
Slides
to introduce themselves before gathering to meet each other at an event in Indonesia this summer.
Want to get this going with your students? Easy—
create a new Slides deck
on the first week of school, click the blue Share button to invite your students, and give them a little direction for their individual slide by
adding comments
.
2. Use Docs to create a classroom “Bill of Rights”
The first week of class is that precious transition from the “honeymoon” period of angelic children to learning the norms of your classroom culture. Help start the year off right by inviting students to co-create their ideas of citizenship and a happy learning environment,
Docs
style.
Start by
creating a copy of this template
and then invite students to join in with you to add their ideas, ratify by adding a comment, and use their editing prowess to come up with a final copy to live by for the coming year.
3. Use Forms to get to know your students (and their prior knowledge!)
Get to know your classroom as soon as possible, using
Forms
to gather information about their needs, interests, and abilities beforehand. Consider creating a simple Form for a survey for your students (and for your parents!) and have fun showing the data on your projector and learning about your class as a whole.
Forms can be used as a very quick getting started activity before any lesson as well—take this example from a social studies classroom before talking about population. By
placing a quick Form
on your classroom site or emailing your students the Form, you can quickly grasp your students' prior knowledge—before you start teaching.
In this case, our team was a bit off, but helped us not only talk about population but estimation and numbers in general (answer? 7.1 billion
and counting
. My favorite answer? One ‘goggle.’)
One last tip: Google Apps for Education
You know this is way easier when your school has its own
Google Apps for education
set up, right? It’s free, and no technical expertise is needed to
get started
.
I hope you give one of these ideas a try and let me know how it goes on my
Google+ page
.
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