Category: Google Sheets

Google Sheets, the spreadsheet app in the Google Apps for Work suite, has been updated with a long missing and much wanted feature:  Image support.  With this update, users will be able to view images and drawings with the Sheets app and not have to revert to the desktop version of the app to view them.  It is a nice addition for sure and closes the feature parity gap between the desktop and mobile versions of the app.  The update is rolling out now to the Google Play Store and given that this update also impacts the iOS version, the update is rolling out in the iTunes App Store too.

Google has released an update to Google Sheets for Android that brings some much needed improvements around charts in the spreadsheet app.  Right now you can insert a chart into a sheet on your Android phone or tablet with no problem but manipulating that chart is pretty limited.  For things like changing simple things like the legend location, you have to go to the file in your browser.  That, fortunately, is changing.

One of the challenges of working with spreadsheets is if you want to import text into that spreadsheet from another document.  Often times it is imported with no problem but getting it organized into columns can be a painful experience.  The Google Docs team is trying to make that process a bit easier with an update they have introduced to Google Sheets online.  Now when you import text, you can highlight the columns you want to separate the text to in your spreadsheet thanks to a new “split text to columns” option.

Following up on notifications coming to Google Drive, Google has announced that their productivity apps, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, all have the ability to send you and you can control push notifications from the apps.  The update to the three Android apps will be rolling out to the Google Play Store and should come to your devices over the course of the next three days.  While push notifications themselves are not necessarily new to the productivity apps, how you control them is in this update.  Previously, if you did not want push notifications from Google Drive, Sheets or Slides, you could only deactivate that feature from Google Drive.  That is now no longer the case.

As a Google Docs user and one who is constantly on the go, I find myself doing more document creating and editing on my Nexus 6 and Nexus 7 than I do within Chrome.  One glaring gap between the web version and the Android version however was document templates in all of the Docs suite:  Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets.  That gap is filled now in the latest update to all three apps, bringing to your phone or tablet templates to make your document creating faster and easier.

Starting now, when you go to create a new document, spreadsheet, or presentation on your Android or iOS device (by clicking the red “+” button in the bottom right corner of your screen), you’ll be given the option to choose a template. These templates will be the same as those available to you in Docs, Sheets, and Slides on the web, including a meeting agenda, pitch deck, expense report, and more.

No longer do you have to go to the website to do this – a big benefit if you are working offline on your phone or tablet and when you need to create new content.

If you are considering a move to the Google apps over Microsoft Office, you may want to take a look at my 4-part series on my transition over the summer.

My Migration to Google Docs Part 1 – The Setup

My Migration to Google Docs Part 2 – Google Docs on All The Toys

My Migration to Google Docs Part 3 – Between the Google Sheets

My Migration to Google Docs Part 4 – Sliding to Google Slides

Over the past several weeks I have been migrating my office productivity apps from Microsoft Office to Google Docs. This is part four of the four part series and will cover Google Slides, the presentation application of the Google Docs suite.

If you have not read the first three parts of the series, that may be a good place to start if you are interested in making a similar migration yourself. If you are only wanting to learn my thoughts & opinions on Google Sheets, this article will do it for you.

My Migration to Google Docs Part 1 – The Setup

My Migration to Google Docs Part 2 – Google Docs on All The Toys

My Migration to Google Docs Part 3 – Between the Google Sheets

With this final part of the series, I will be keeping the same format as I have on the other three parts:  Focusing on how Google Slides performs in Chrome, on a Chromebook and on Android devices.

As a reminder to everyone who is thinking of making this migration, a word of advice-meets-warning I posted as part of the first article.

Take your time.  You will find that the majority of features in Microsoft Office are in the Google apps but they will be in different places.  It may take you a few menu clicks to sort it out.  Be patient.  Give it a chance.  Sure it may turn out that it isn’t right for you and your needs but I would suggest trying the experiment over a week or two before you make a final verdict.  It isn’t as big a migration from say a PC to a Mac but it is similar to moving from Internet Explorer to Chrome in many ways.  Same thing, but bits in different places and this process or that process may be a little different.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and your migration to Google Docs won’t happen that fast either.  Patience is the word of the day.