Google has starting rolling out the major Google Docs and Google Sheets updates it outlined at Google I/O last month.
At its annual developers’ conference in June, Google announced that its Google Apps would be able to edit Microsoft Office documents within its own apps.
Many thought it would be months before the changes started rolling out, perhaps in line with the Android L release in the autumn, but it looks like Google has started releasing the updates today.
Along with the welcome changes to native Office editing there are some other new features that are going to make it easier to use the Google Apps.
For example, there’s a brand new floating button to open a new document, making it easier to quickly open up an entire new project.
Google has entirely revamped the editing UI for existing files. It’s now clear which existing files are Word or Doc natives and then you can also send your documents as PDFs or Word files.
Files can also now be opened from a flash drive or hard drive within Google Docs too and Google has streamlined the status bar so that it only displays the most important icons continuously.
As for Google Sheets, there are similar changes to be made with the update, but the most important is the ability to create and edit charts within Google Sheets documents.
This was never possible before and was always a sticking point for those thinking about making a permanent move to Google Sheets over Microsoft Excel.
Formulas are now integrated into the Sheets app too, rather than you having to enter each manually. Auto-fill has also been added, allowing you to choose from data already entered into previous cells, which makes everything a little easier.
If you haven’t noticed the updates on your Google Drive account yet, don’t panic. The updates will be rolling out in stages to users, so you should see them arrive in the near future.
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