Category: Google Sheets

A small update is rolling in the Google Play Store for Google Sheets that brings improved support for pivot tables.  The new build is version 1.18.232.03 for those keeping score at home and should be hitting everyone this week.  With the update, you can now expand and collapse pivot tables in the app.  This a pretty big deal for those who use pivot tables as you no longer have to go into the web version of Sheets to do this activity.

While doing this on your Android phone can still be a bit tricky simply because of screen size, if you are using the Google Sheets app on a Chromebook, this will be hugely handy.

To help celebrate Pride month, Google has put together a nice Easter Egg in Google Sheets.  Google has long thrown such hidden surprises in their apps and services and, as a long time supporter of LGBTQ rights and Pride month, it is only fitting that they have a special one for the month.

If you type in PRIDE in a Google Sheet, it will be painted with the six colors of the rainbow.  To do this, just put a “p” in cell A1, “r” in B1, etc.  Once you put the “e” in e1, the spreadsheet will automatically be changed.

A new Activity Dashboard has started rolling out to G Suite domains that allows admins and users to see when shared files have been viewed by others.  The idea behind the dashboard is to improve collaboration by letting users know when someone who is working with them on a file has actually viewed that file.  Think of it as read receipts for files.

The new feature works for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files and the feature will be rolling out in two phases.  First, admins will have the ability to enable or disable the feature starting today and only they can see the Activity Dashboard.

For the third month in a row, Google has begun rolling out menu tweaks to some of the G Suite apps today.  The update that is rolling out today impacts Google Docs and Google Sheets online and will be coming to all G Suite customers over the course of the next week or two.

Like the updates from last month, these tweaks are aimed at making navigation within Google Docs and Google Sheets easier by clarifying what a function does.  These are all visual changes and not changes in function.

Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides all have an update rolling out in the Play Store for Android.  The update brings the normal raft of bug fixes and performance improvements but also has some new editing tools.

There are new toolbar items will allow you to more easily format tables, images and drawings within your Docs, Sheets or Slide documents.  The editing features are tools that have been on the web-based versions of the apps so these updates bring feature parity between the platforms.

Google Sheets for Android has a small update rolling out to users that brings more advanced editing features to the mobile app.  The update will bring the ability to apply and to edit alternating row colors to your spreadsheets.  This is a feature that the web-based version of Sheets has had for some time and is just the latest feature to be added to the mobile app in Google’s effort to bring parity to the web and mobile device.  This new formatting features if found in the Formatting menu of the app.

The last several updates to Google Sheets, as well as their other productivity apps, have been focused on the parity between the desktop and mobile versions of the app.  The company continues to enable more functionality on mobile so as to limit the requirement of having laptop to get things done.  It is all in the name of productivity and meeting users where they are – likely on their mobile phone.