WebProNews

Tag: Google Docs

  • Google Docs Adds Option to See Non-Printing Characters

    Google Docs Adds Option to See Non-Printing Characters

    Google Docs has added an important feature to help fine-tune the layout of documents with the option to view non-printing characters.

    In complex documents, non-printing characters are often important elements that help establish the layout and visual characteristics of a document. Line breaks, page breaks, tabs, and spaces are just a few such characters.

    In the latest update to Google Docs, users now have the option of seeing non-printing characters.

    “When viewing or editing a Google Doc, non-printing characters such as line breaks, section breaks, tabs, and spaces are not visible,” the company writes in a blog post. “Starting today, you can choose to display non-printing characters in order to see how a document is laid out.”

    “This feature provides a visual representation of what controls the formatting in a document, allowing you to make appropriate edits much easier,” the company adds.

  • Facebook Data Transfer Tool Now Supports WordPress and Google Docs

    Facebook Data Transfer Tool Now Supports WordPress and Google Docs

    Facebook has updated its data transfer too, adding support for Google Docs and WordPress.

    Like many online platforms, Facebook gives users the ability to download their data. Such services can provide a useful backup, or make it easier to use the data and posts in other mediums.

    Facebook has expanded its service to include Google Docs, as well as WordPress and Blogger. The company is also renaming the tool to better reflect its new abilities.

    To give people more control and choice over their data, today we’re introducing two new data portability types, Facebook posts and notes. People can now directly transfer their notes and posts to Google Docs, Blogger and WordPress.com. These updates extend the reach of the tool that already enables people to transfer their photos and videos to Backblaze, Dropbox, Google Photos and Koofr. To better reflect the range of data types people can now transfer to our partners’ services, we’re renaming the tool “Transfer Your Information.”

    The tool is available in Facebook Settings > Your Facebook Information > Transfer Your Information.

     

    Data Portability Infographic - Credit Facebook
    Data Portability Infographic – Credit Facebook

  • Google Services Experiencing Outages

    Google Services Experiencing Outages

    Google services, including Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Classroom are experiencing issues Monday morning.

    According to DownDetector, users first started seeing issues around 9:30 ET, with users around the world impacted. Google has acknowledged the issue, and the company’s Workspace Status Dashboard shows all five services experiencing an outage.

    Google has also acknowledged the issues on Twitter, and says it is working to resolve them.

  • Daniel Miessler: Google Being ‘Left Behind Due to Horrible UI/UX’

    Daniel Miessler: Google Being ‘Left Behind Due to Horrible UI/UX’

    Respected cybersecurity professional and tech writer Daniel Miessler is making the case that Google is being “left behind due to horrible UI/UX.”

    While many think of user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) in the content of desktop applications, UI/UX design is an important part of web app development. Especially as web apps have rivaled desktop apps for power and abilities, the line between the two categories has become increasingly blurred, making UI/UX more important than ever.

    Unfortunately for Google, the company appears to be lagging behind in its UI/UX efforts, according to Miessler. While acknowledging that Google Analytics’ poor interface was at least partially excused by the engineering-centric nature of some of Google’s products, Miessler points out the problem is spreading.

    “But lately it’s just becoming too much.

    • Even Gmail is a cesspool at this point. Nobody would ever design a webmail interface like that, starting from scratch.
    • What happened to Google Docs? Why does it not look and behave more like Notion, or Quip, or any of the other alternatives that made progress in the last 5-10 years?
    • What college course do I take to manage a Google Analytics property?”

    Miessler highlights an important factor that should be a concern to Google, or any incumbent company: agile startups like Quip. Years ago the barrier-to-entry was much higher for companies looking to break into the software development market. In today’s industry, however, technologies, frameworks and APIs have progressed to the point where the barrier-to-entry is much lower. As a result, it’s important for companies to stay current, developing apps that people not only need, but also want, to use.

  • Mozilla Firefox 83 Sports Major JavaScript Performance Boost

    Mozilla Firefox 83 Sports Major JavaScript Performance Boost

    Mozilla’s latest Firefox release, version 83.0, boosts a major increase to JavaScript performance.

    JavaScript, once mainly used for animations and menus, is one of the most important languages of the web. Thanks to JavaScript, developers are able to create complex web applications, many of which rival desktop applications for functionality.

    Unfortunately, running JavaScript-heavy websites is one of the most challenging aspects of a web browser’s duties. Every major browser manufacturer constantly works to increase JavaScript performance and responsiveness.

    Mozilla’s latest version of Firefox significantly boosts the browser’s performance thanks to a major update to its SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine. The new update, called Warp or WarpBuilder, makes changes to the Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers.

    With Warp (also called WarpBuilder) we’re making big changes to our JIT (just-in-time) compilers, resulting in improved responsiveness, faster page loads and better memory usage. The new architecture is also more maintainable and unlocks additional SpiderMonkey improvements.

    Traditionally, JavaScript is an interpreted language. That means the code is interpreted on the fly as it is executed. This can result in major performance issues, especially when code must be executed repeatedly, such as code loops. JIT compilers help solve this problem by compiling and storing frequently used code, speeding up operations.

    Firefox’s latest boost comes from significantly optimizing those JIT compilers, resulting in significant real-world gains over Warp’s predecessor Ion.

    Warp is faster than Ion on many workloads. The picture below shows a couple examples: we had a 20% improvement on Google Docs load time, and we are about 10-12% faster on the Speedometer benchmark.

    We’ve seen similar page load and responsiveness improvements on other JS-intensive websites such as Reddit and Netflix. Feedback from Nightly users has been positive as well.

    Although Firefox is no longer the leading browser, in terms of market share, it continues to be a major player. Its improved performance, not to mention emphasis on privacy, will hopefully help it gain some ground against its larger rivals.

  • Microsoft Continues Cloud Hiring, Freezes Other Areas

    Microsoft Continues Cloud Hiring, Freezes Other Areas

    As the global pandemic continues to take its toll, Microsoft is freezing hiring for many roles, but is continuing to hire for its cloud division.

    According to a report, employees told Business Insider that “Microsoft is still hiring for roles within its massive cloud computing business, and the company was holding virtual hiring events for software engineers as recently as last week. Some groups, one employee said, are ‘prioritizing consumer-facing and critical roles.’”

    The news should come as no surprise, given the impact of the pandemic. As governments have called on individuals to social distance and stay at home, and as companies have sent their workers home with orders to telecommute, the cloud computing industry has entered its heyday. From Slack to Teams, Office 365 to Google Docs, Zoom to Skype, people are relying on cloud-based software and solutions like never before.

    In view of that, it makes sense that Microsoft would continue hiring for its cloud division. It’s likely that any increase in Microsoft’s cloud personnel will be permanent and far outlast the current crisis, due to the fundamental shift in the workforce the pandemic is causing. The longer it goes on, the more likely current telecommuting trends will become the norm, resulting in a permanent demand for cloud-based solutions.

  • Coronavirus: Pandemic Boon to Cloud Providers, Doom For Legacy Companies

    Coronavirus: Pandemic Boon to Cloud Providers, Doom For Legacy Companies

    As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, it’s proving to be a defining moment for cloud computing. At the same time, it could spell doom for legacy companies.

    The coronavirus pandemic has forced countless companies across a wide range of industries to send their employees home to work. The unprecedented number of individuals telecommuting is already proving to be a boon to cloud-based businesses, as workers turn to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Docs, Office 365 and other cloud services.

    At the same time, however, the seismic shift in the U.S. workforce could spell doom for legacy companies. Companies like Oracle, Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise could be in particular danger, as these companies rely heavily on hardware and software sales to private data centers.

    Many of these companies are moving to the cloud, but as Business Insider reports, analysts believe they’re still vulnerable. According to BI, Brad Gastwirth, chief technology analyst of Wedbush told clients: “We see significant risk for traditional providers of IT hardware,” before citing HPE, Dell and NetApp as examples.

    “We see this trend as generally positive for cloud vendors and their supply chain,” Gastwirth continued. “We see legacy hardware vendors as particularly poorly positioned given limited to no cloud exposure.”

    One thing is certain: The coronavirus pandemic is going to result in permanent and monumental changes to the U.S. IT industry, changes that will greatly benefit cloud-based businesses.

  • Google and Microsoft Reigniting Browser Wars

    Google and Microsoft Reigniting Browser Wars

    Some things are too good to last, and it appears Google and Microsoft’s BFF cooperation on the browser front is one of them, as both companies are taking swipes at the other.

    Microsoft’s current browser, Edge, uses Google’s Chromium rendering engine. Chromium is an open-source rendering engine that a number of browsers, including Chrome, are powered by. Microsoft retired its own HTML rendering engine in favor of the move to Chromium in an effort to improve compatibility and reliability. Basing Edge on Chromium also lets Microsoft focus more resources on the browser’s front-end and user experience. Microsoft has even added a number of significant features to Edge that have made, or are making, their way into Chrome.

    The cracks started to show up when Google began using user agents to warn Microsoft Edge users they should “upgrade” to Google’s Chrome. User agent strings are the method by which web browsers identify themselves. In the early days of the web, when Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator were vying for dominance, webmasters would routinely code their websites to primarily work with one or the other browser. Webmasters would check a visiting browser’s user agent, or identity, and warn users they needed to “upgrade” if they weren’t running the browser their website was designed to support. Eventually, as the web started becoming more standards-compliant, the practice largely fell out of favor, with webmasters focusing on creating websites that adhered to standards and worked for everyone.

    Now Google seems intent on going back to those dark days of the early web. According to Windows Latest, “Google services are still targeting Edge with scary warnings. In the past, Google has displayed a warning when users opened services such as Google Teams, Gmail, Google Docs and YouTube Music in Edge.”

    Interestingly, if Edge users change their user agent to Chrome, the warning goes away. Google is also not targeting other Chromium-based browsers, such as Opera.

    Microsoft, in turn, has been warning individuals who try to download extensions from the Chrome Web Store that downloaded extensions from “unverified” sources may not be safe.

    Chris Matyszczyk, with ZDNet, reached out to both companies, as well as did a bit of his own investigating.

    “My sniffings around Google suggest the company may have been taken aback by the positive public reaction to Edge,” writes Matyszczyk. “Oddly, Google doesn’t seem to be offering these scary messages to users of, say, the Opera browser.

    “My nasal probings around Redmond offer the reasoning that, well, Microsoft hasn’t tested or verified extensions that arrive from places other than they Microsoft Edge add-ons website. Why, they’re far too busy to do that. And, well, it’s the Chrome web store. Who knows what you’ll find over there? Oh, and Edge gives you more control over your data, so there.”

    Whatever the motivations of both companies, the back-and-forth, tit-for-tat needs to stop. Dragging users back to the ‘90s-style browser wars that emphasized protecting turf over supporting standards is a losing recipe for everyone involved—especially the end user.

  • Workona Launches Desktop For The Cloud; Raises $6 Million in Seed Funding

    Workona Launches Desktop For The Cloud; Raises $6 Million in Seed Funding

    Workona has announced “the launch of their cloud desktop, a work management platform that allows users to access and manage resources across more than 75 popular cloud apps from a single unified system.”

    The company recently completed “a $6 million seed funding round, led by K9 Ventures and August Capital, to accelerate its product development and user acquisition.”

    Recognizing that “modern teams run on cloud software,” Workona is trying to bring the disparate pieces of a cloud-based workflow together in a productive, intuitive manner. Workona’s cloud-based desktop connects to the most popular cloud apps in use today, such as Amazon, Asana, Basecamp, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Docs, Outlook, Zoom and more. Each app can be accessed and worked with inside Workona. Shared workspaces take collaboration up a notch, increasing productivity even more.

    “So many people spend their days working in the cloud, but there was no platform to manage that work. That’s what Workona does,” said Quinn Morgan, Workona co-founder and CEO. “Previously, all of your cloud apps, projects, and documents were scattered across the web. Workona’s cloud desktop pulls them together into one powerful system.”

    Having a central location to access different tools and platforms significantly increases a user’s efficiency.

    “Workona is a force multiplier because it impacts every level of your work,” Morgan said. “Your apps and projects are at your fingertips, so every action you take is significantly faster.”

    “Workona solves a problem that is staring us in the face, but we haven’t noticed it yet,” said Manu Kumar, Workona board member and K9 Ventures investor. “Microsoft and Apple used to put an enormous amount of engineering power into optimizing the desktop, but all that was forgotten when we transitioned to working in the browser. Workona has picked up where they left off by bringing the best features of a desktop to the cloud.”

    The company says that early users come “from both startups and Fortune 500 companies, and include industry leaders like Twitter, Salesforce, Amazon, and NASA.” It’s a safe bet that list will continue to grow.

  • Google Docs Gets New Outline Tool

    Google Docs Gets New Outline Tool

    Google launched a new outline tool in Google Docs on the web and Android.

    As a spokesperson for Google tells us in an email, “Displayed in a pane to the left of the page, the outline features headers for each section of your document, making it simple to quickly jump from section to section. If you haven’t manually applied headers, no worries—we’ll do it for you, intelligently detecting the logical divisions within your work. You can then edit or remove these headers as necessary.”

    outline

    “This launch will also allow you to move through documents on your Android phone or tablet at super speeds,” the spokesperson says. “When you begin scrolling on your mobile device, a small navigation handle will automatically appear. Touching that handle will display the entire document’s structure, allowing you quickly skip from section to section, instead of slowly swiping up and down.”

    service-module

    In other Google Docs news, Google has also made it easier to view documents in most e-readers.

    Google said on its APps Updates site that it has launched the ability to export Google Docs files as EPUB publications. Do do so, just go to the file menu, select “Download As” and select EPUB Publication (.epub).

    Images via Google

  • Google Sheets & Slides Get New Business Templates

    Google Sheets & Slides Get New Business Templates

    In September, Google announced a bunch of new templates for Docs, Slides, and Sheets. In December, these became available on Android and iOS.

    Building on these offerings, the company just announced even more templates, and some of them are specifically geared toward businesses. The new templates are designed by experts in their fields. This includes Intuit, GV, and Made to Stick authors Chip and Dan Heath.

    Intuit’s QuickBooks contributed a new annual business budget template in Sheets to make it easier to manage budgets.

    “GV provides venture capital funding to bold new companies,” says product manager Brian LeVee. “In the fields of life science, healthcare, artificial intelligence, robotics, transportation, cyber security and agriculture, GV’s companies aim to improve lives and change industries.The new GV pitch template in Slides helps entrepreneurs share their vision, based on proven presentation tactics.”

    “And, in the bestselling book, Made to Stick, brothers Chip and Dan Heath revealed that ‘sticky’ messages of all kinds draw their power from the same main traits,” LeVee adds. “In their big idea template in Slides, they use these principles to help you build and deliver your most memorable presentation yet.”

    On the educational side of things, there’s a new Reading Rainbow-designed lesson plan and book report template in Docs and a Google Science Fair-designed Slides template for science projects.

    Google discusses each of the new templates in a blog post here.

    Image via Google

  • Search on Google Drive Just Got A Lot Better

    Search on Google Drive Just Got A Lot Better

    Google announced some new search features for Google Drive on Wednesday, significantly improving users’ ability to find things more quickly.

    “As part of an ongoing effort to make Google Drive the easiest place to find your files, today we’re rolling out a new search experience to get you better results — even faster,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews.

    You can now narrow your search to a file type from the search box on Android, iOS, and the web. You can also open advanced search instantly from the search box. You can access recent files or search from the home screen using 3D Touch on iOS. From the iOS search bar, you can also now search Drive without opening the Drive app.

    “Several behind-the-scenes improvements give your search queries even better results than they did before,” says product manager Steen Andersson.

    You can search for shared files by file owner using name or email address, and you can use advanced search options like date a file was modified, words it contains, or who it was shared with.

    This will all be rolling out in the coming weeks.

    Images via Google

  • Google Adds Features To Docs, Slides

    Google announced some feature updates to Google Docs and Slides over on Google+. In Docs, you can now merge table cells together and customize images from within documents.

    In Slides, you can now add slide numbers. Here’s the announcement post with more details:


    Google made a separate announcement about editing Office files:


    Google is currently using Google Drive to help increase Chromebook sales this holiday season. They’re currently offering 1TB of free storage to those who buy new Chromebooks.

    Image via Google

  • Google Docs Makes Sharing Files Easier

    Google announced a new sharing experience for Google Docs aimed at making it easier to share your files with other people.

    You can still click the big “Share” button at the top of an open file lis usual, and you can share from the Drive list by clicking the person icon at the top of the page after you have one or more file selected.

    Now, after you do that, and the box appears for adding people, you can also get a shareable link, which you can then share with anyone – kind of like you might do with a YouTube link to an otherwise private video.

    “The shareable link will be set to view-only by default,” Google says. “And if you are ever wondering whether you’ve already made the link shareable, just look at the icon next to the button. Green means yes, grey means no, just like on your Android device.

    “If you want anyone with the link to be able to do more with your file, like leave comments and suggestions or make edits, just change ‘can view’ to ‘can comment’ or ‘can edit’ in the dropdown,” Google adds.

    The updates should be available within the next couple of days.

    Image via Google

  • Google Now Lets You Delete Documents From The Editor

    It’s hard to believe this wasn’t already a thing, but Google announced in a Google+ post on Wednesday evening that you can now delete files from Docs, Sheets, and Slides without having to leave the editor. Just go to file, then move to trash, and you’re all set.

    There’s not much else to say about this, but it’s certainly a useful and welcome addition.

    Image via Google

  • Google Launches Add-Ons For Docs And Sheets

    Google announced the launch of add-ons for Google Docs and Sheets. These are third-party apps that add features to the programs.

    You’ll find an “add-ons” menu at the top of your screen when you have a document or spreadsheet open. From there you can browse available add-ons by going to “get add-ons”. There is also an option to manage the ones you’ve already got. Once you install one, it will be available across all documents and spreadsheets (only in the new Google Sheets).

    So far, available add-ons include: EasyBib (for automatic bibliography); Workflows (automated approvals); Avery Label Merge (address labels and name badges); Table of Contents; HelloSign (secure electronic signatures); Thesaurus; Track Changes (review and approve changes made to documents); Messenger (discuss and see changes to documents); Lucidchart (diagrams); Supermetrics (business reporting system for analytics, social media, and online marketing); Kaizena Shortcut (makes Kaizena compatible with teacher workflow automation tools); HelloFax (send and receive faxes online); Translate (use Google Translate to translate text in documents); VexTab Music Notation (add music notation, drum notation and guitar tab to documents); Gliffy (diagrams); SeamlessDocs (complete and esign documents); Charts; Ultradox Template Editor (generate, send and print personalized documents); PandaDoc (add legally binding electronic signature to Google Docs); MindMeister (turn bullet point lists into mind maps); Social Drop (connect docs to social media, keep track of retweets/favorites); Twitter Curator (find and collect tweets inside docs); Uberconference (create conference calls with all document viewers); WebSequenceDiagrams; DocumentMerge (produces multiple docs from single template); Abbreviation list (define and automatically generate table of abbreviations); Template Gallery; Merge by MailChip (send email directly from doc); iRise Requirements (load visualizations into docs); Consistency Checker (check consistency of formal docs); ProWritingAid (check for consistency, plagiarism, acronyms, cliches, redundancies, grammar mistakes, etc.); Highlighting Tools; Easy Header and Footer; and Maps for Docs.

    Take a look at what some of these can do:

    Google says there are “lots more” of these on the way.

    Image via Google

  • Google Drive Gets Activity Stream So You Can Keep Track Of Changes To Files And Folders

    Google announced on Tuesday that it’s rolling out a new activity stream feature for Google Drive, enabling users to see all changes made to and actions taken on files and folders. This should be ideal for collaborations, making it easier to see who did what, and when.

    Specifically, the activity stream will show when files are moved or removed, renamed, uploaded, shared and unshared, and edited or commented on.

    Google Drive activity stream

    “Drive makes group projects easier because everyone can share files and work together. But in today’s busy world, it’s tough to track the changes to all your shared to-do lists, budgets and presentations, especially when content changes so often,” says Google Drive interaction designer Ian Gunn on the inspiration for the feature.

    “You’ll see a rundown of what your team has been doing, such as editing and commenting on team notes, adding a new spreadsheet, renaming a presentation, sharing with your boss and more,” he says. “It’s also easy to only see what you’re interested in. Select any file or folder and the stream will change instantly to show information relevant to just that item.”

    Google recently added the ability to take quick actions on folders (renaming, sharing, etc.) from a new drop-down menu at the top of each shared folder. Now, below this, it will show the entire folder hierarchy to make it easer to jump from one folder to the next. It will also show profile pics for who has access to it.

    The Activity Stream feature is in the process of rolling out, and should be available to all within the next week.

    Image via Google

  • Google Adds Handwriting Support To Gmail, Docs

    Google announced today that it has added handwriting input support to Gmail and Google Docs. You can now input words directly into Gmail and Google Docs with your mouse or trackpad.

    First, you’ll need to enable input tools in Gmail or in Docs, and then select the handwriting input (which is shown with a pencil icon) of the language you wish to use.

    Handwriting

    “Handwriting input makes the internet easier to use by people worldwide and is also part of a larger effort to break the barrier between languages,” says Google product manager Xiangye Xiao.

    The feature will let you write single or multiple characters at a time in the panel , so you can see them in your message or document.

    The feature is available for over 20 languages in Google Docs and for over 50 in Gmail.

    Images: Google

  • Google Now Suggests Search Results For You To Link To While Creating Documents In Google Drive

    Google is now suggesting actual search results for people to link to while they’re creating documents and slides in Google Drive.

    Google has already had a feature that lets you find results to link to, but now it’s adding the power of suggestion.

    The company explains in a Google+ post:

    Google Drive

    Google Drive21 hours ago

    You can hyperlink text in Docs and Slides when you want to attach related information to a word or sentence — for example, when writing a paper on Athens, you can highlight “Acropolis” and link it to a Google search result, a specific website, a heading or bookmark in your document, or even another file in Drive. 

    Starting today, the link tool now offers you suggestions based on the text you are hyperlinking just in case you don’t have the URL you need offhand.  To try it out, select the text you want and click the “Insert link” icon from the menu bar (or use Ctrl K). 

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    The top results in this example do appear to be the top organic search results Google shows for a search for “acropolis”. Something tells me that WIkipedia is going to start getting a lot of links in documents.

  • Apple Announces iWork For iCloud, Its Answer To Google Docs

    At its Worldwide Developers Conference today, Apple announced its answer to Google Docs, iWork for iCloud. This is a browser-based version of Apple’s productivity suite, iWork, which works on a Mac or a PC.

    Pretty straight forward. It’s iWork, but cloud-based. It works for Pages, Numbers and Keynote. It also works on non-Apple browsers, and on Windows. Public beta will be available this year.

    Ahead of the unveiling, CEO Tim Cook said that iCloud is the fastest-growing cloud service ever. It’s up to 300 million accounts since launch.

    “It took Facebook five years to reach this many accounts,” he noted.

    iTunes for iCloud users have re-downloaded their content 35 billion times. Game Center, has 240 million users, he said. There have been 800 billion iMessages sent, and 7.4 trillion push notifications delivered.

  • Rob Schneider IS The Latest Microsoft Anti-Google Spokesperson

    Microsoft has come out with a new attack-on-Google ad. You’re shocked right?

    This time it’s an Office ad called “Google Docs isn’t worth the gamble,” where Google Docs (which you might know better these days as Google Drive) is somehow equated with a shady casino game in which Rob Schneider is the swindler. Yes, that Rob Schneider:

    Now here’s Microsoft’s ad as hosted on Google’s YouTube:

    Good timing, as Google Drive experienced a brief service disruption today.

    As an added bonus, Pete Rose makes an appearance at the end to say that Google Docs is too big of a gamble for him. Get it?

    It’s always nice to see Pete Rose in ads, but it’s hard to top this one:

    Update: This one exists too:

    Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s Kid.

    So far the YouTube comments on that one consist of:

    “Not realliy funny,” “Maybe why I identify with Google Docs so much,” and “racist”.