New features in Google Docs

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What's new in Google Docs?

We're still working to make Google Docs a better place, and we're listening closely to your suggestions. If you have anything you'd like to tell us, don't hesitate to let us know, and keep checking back for additions and improvements.

Just launched!

• Add a table of contents to your documents
  Use the heading styles to title sections of your document (from the format menu, select Minor Heading, Sub-Heading, Heading). Then add a table of contents that will refer to those titled sections (from the Insert menu, select Table of contents). Learn more.
  

• "Look up word" (U.S. English only)
  Select any word in your document, then go to the Tools menu to look up the word in your choice of U.S. English dictionary, thesaurus or encyclopaedia. Learn more.
  

• Google search integration
  Again via the Tools menu, search the web for the word or words you have selected - either a regular text Google search or a Google image search. Learn more.

• New UI in presentations!
  Google presentations now has a completely new interface, increasing the size of the slide during editing and visibility of thumbnails.
  

• Slide Zooming
  Zoom in and out of your slides to see your content in detail. Learn more.
  

• Create forms in a jiffy
  Choose New > Form to create new forms straight from Docs Home. We've also improved form editing, starting with drag-and-drop to reorder questions. Learn more.
  

• Autosave for forms
  You don't have to lift a finger to use this new feature. Now, your form edits are automatically saved.

• Find and replace
  Use Ctrl + F to search for and replace text across your entire spreadsheet. Learn more.
  

• Two powerful new functions
  IMPORTRANGE() can reference data from any of your spreadsheets. SPLIT() cleans up text in a cell by splitting it into multiple cells at any delimiter you choose. Learn more about the importrange() function and the split() function.

What's been keeping us busy

• Bullet and Object Reveals in presentations
  Pace your presentations with the new reveals feature. Set objects to appear in a certain order and advance through them by clicking. Set textboxes to reveal one bullet/paragraph level at a time. Learn more.
  

• Analytics tracking on published documents
  You can now track how much traffic a particular published document is getting through Google Analytics. Learn more.
  

• "Form" tab
  A new "Form" tab gives quick access to tools for creating, sending, and embedding spreadsheet forms. Learn more.
  

• Scientific Notation Format
  Use Scientific Notation to represent bigger numbers - for example, enter 1.23E+15 when you want 1,230,000,000,000,000 or format large numbers ending in 000's explicitly in this format using the new option on the Format dropdown. Learn more.

• Expand gadgets to a full sheet
  Give your gadgets more love. A whole window's worth of love. Now, you can use the "Move to own sheet" feature to give a gadget as much breathing room as it needs. (You can publish this separately, too!) Learn more.
  

• Engineering Functions
  We've finally added functions to convert between decimal, binary, hexadecimal and octal - known as dec2bin, dec2oct, dec2hex, and, well, if you know these, you know the rest. Learn more.

• Custom colors in presentations
  Can't find that specific shade of blue you need for your presentations? Now you can define colors in the color picker, creating your own palette for backgrounds, text and shapes in your slides. Learn more.
  

• Upload, preview & share PDFs
  One of our top feature requests is now implemented: upload, preview and share PDFs in Google Docs! Click the Upload button in the Docs list to get started. While you can't yet edit PDFs, you can at least select text to copy & paste elsewhere. You can also share PDFs just like you can share your regular Google Docs. Learn more.
  

• View menu & options
  We've added a View menu into the document toolbar with two options: the normal view ("big open white space") and a new view that displays page margins and a fixed page width. Learn more.
  

• More form features
  Have some ideas, but looking for others? Now you can let people choose from your multiple choice options or type in their own. Also new: get code to embed a form in your own webpage. Learn more about embedding a form or editing questions.

• Help menu in document toolbar
  Help is now closer at hand! We've added a Help menu just to the right of the document Tools menu. Check out especially the "Learn from other Google users" option, which takes you straight to the Google Docs Help Group.
  

• Choose a size for embedded presentations
  One size does not fit all -- so we've added an option to choose a size for your embedded presentations. Learn more.
  

• Select multiple objects on a slide
  Ever been frustrated with moving and arranging objects on your slides, one by one? Worry no more! You can now select multiple objects at once -- then move them around, resize them, copy and paste them and more. Learn more.
  

• More sharing options in Docs list
  Now you can both add and remove people's access and set advanced permissions from the Docs list (not yet implemented for spreadsheets). Learn more.

• Browser right-click menu
  Hold down the Shift key while you right click to use the browser (rather than Google Docs') right-click menu in the Docs list and while editing documents.

• Old-style printing for documents
  Choose File > Print to webpage to print your documents directly from the browser. Print Settings - now a separate File menu option - only apply to regular printing (via PDF). Learn more.
  

• Edit CSS for documents
  Tech-savvy users can now apply CSS to documents. Select Edit > CSS to create your own custom styles. See our tips & tricks for using CSS.
  

• Presentation speaker notes
  You can now add speaker notes to your slides. These notes will be visible to you and your viewers in presentation mode or when you print your slides. Learn more.
  

• Insert videos into your presentations
  Adding videos to your presentations is now just a few clicks away. In the Edit toolbar you'll see the new "Insert video" option which allows you to embed videos into your slides. Learn more.
  

• Offline access
  You can now edit your documents and view your presentations and spreadsheets without an internet connection. Changes are saved to your browser while you are offline and automatically saved when Google Docs detects an internet connection. Learn more.
  

• Save presentations as .ppt
  Now you can save your presentations as PowerPoint files in addition to basic text and PDF. Learn more.
  

• More search options, savable!
  If simple search doesn't give you what you need, click on the Show search options link to the right of the Search Docs button just above the blue toolbar in the Docs list. Enter your search options, and then save your search for quick future reference. Learn more.
  

• Saved searches home
  Once you have saved a few searches, try clicking on the new Saved searches header in the left pane of the Docs list (just under the Trash icon). You can create a customized dashboard showing just the docs you want, for example docs in a particular folder + starred docs + docs owned by a specific person, etc. Try it out & let us know what you think! Learn more.
  

• Colored folder names
  Use colored folder names to make items in specific folders stand out in your Docs list. Learn more.
  

• Change document ownership
  If you create a document and later want to make someone else the owner, now you can! Select the document or presentation (not yet implemented for spreadsheets) in the Docs list and select More Actions > Change Owner. Learn more.

• Gadgets in spreadsheets
  Ever wish you could map your spreadsheet data? Pivot around it? Plot it on a fancy chart? Create any visualization you want by choosing from our existing library of gadgets, or writing your own. The power is yours. Learn more.
  

• Get spreadsheet updates by email
  When you want to know when collaborators are editing certain spreadsheets, set notification rules to be notified by email - you'll even get a link which shows you what's been changed! Learn more.

• Function improvements
  Do math faster. Function autocomplete helps you remember exactly how a formula is spelled and what parameters it needs. For example, typing "SU" lets you choose between SUM, SUMIF, and SUMPRODUCT. Parameters are faster, too. Now you get a hint when you select a formula name, and you can use arrow keys to select cells. Learn more.
  

• Historical quotes using GoogleFinance
  The GoogleFinance function can now be used to view historical prices of stocks. Just specify the stock and a date range (or number of days) and get values of open, close, volume etc. of stocks for those days. This is valid for the Nasdaq, New York, American and London exchanges. Learn more.

• New Functions to Sort and Filter
  If you want more options to filter and sort lists, try the Sort(), Filter() and Unique() functions. These are really powerful. Learn more.

• Most of Google Docs now in 40 languages
  We've added support for two right-to-left languages, Arabic and Hebrew, in all features of Google Docs except for spreadsheets. We figured that "most" support sooner is better...so that brings our grand total languages supported to 40 for most of Google Docs! Learn more.
  

• Forms: spreadsheet editing for the rest of us
  Create a form and invite people to fill it out. They won't need to sign in, and they can respond directly from the email message or from an automatically generated web page. Answers will be automatically added to your spreadsheet. Learn more.
  

• Keep track of forms and responses on your iGoogle page
  Add the Google Docs Forms Gadget to your iGoogle page to keep an eye on form responses. This gadget lists your most recently active forms, with new responses highlighted. Jump directly to the form results from your iGoogle homepage. Learn more. or

• Chart labels, clearly
  A picture is worth a thousand words, but only when the words on the picture look right. With improved chart labels, you'll be able to more easily describe your data with axis labels which are automatically formatted and rotated to fit. Learn more.
  

• Freeze Columns
  Freezing columns makes it easier to navigate a wide spreadsheet. We know many of you who were patiently waiting for this one - but we won't name names ;) Learn more.
  

• Images in spreadsheets
  A picture is worth a thousand words (oh - did we use that one already?). Now you can include photos, logos, icons, or any other images in your spreadsheet. Learn more.
  

• Insert shapes to your presentation
  Basic shapes: circles, rectangles, arrows, and comment bubbles. Create basic diagrams and annotate your slides using simple, elegant shapes. Learn more.
  

• Save presentations as PDF
  Easily save a copy as PDF for presenting offline. Learn more.

• More print options for your slides
  Now you can print 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, or 12 slides on a single sheet of paper. Save trees and still get useful handouts to share! Learn more.

• Charting improvements
  We've added a new chart type. Use an area chart when you want to color the area beneath a charted line.
  

• Corrected logic for Cut/Paste
  If you were ever frustrated when you cut and pasted a cell and the formulas which pointed to that cell didn't reflect that change, then you'll be happy to know that we finally fixed this. Now, the cut and paste action will also update formulas which depended on those cells which were moved. Learn more.

• Drag & drop cells
  You can now drag and drop cell(s) as a shortcut for moving them from one location to another. Just select the cell(s) you want to move, position your mouse pointer over the edge of the selected region and drag the whole range to its new location. Cell formulas pointing to those cells should change to reflect the move - and don't forget to use UNDO (ctrl-Z or cmd-z) if you moved something incorrectly. Learn more.
  

• Hierarchical folders
  Create sub-folders...and sub-folders of sub-folders...and sub-folders of sub-folders of sub-folders... get organized for the new year! Learn more.
  

• Renaming docs and folders
  Rename documents and folders from the Docs home toolbar (the new Rename option is now between Delete and More Actions).

• New printing features in documents
  Get more control over your printed documents - set page orientation, change paper size (A4 or 8.5" x 11"), choose whether to include page numbers and customize your margins. Learn more.
  

• Rearrange slides more easily
  Select multiple slides and drag to move or duplicate (by holding down Ctrl while dragging) No more having to move them one at a time. Learn more.

• Customize the background
  Change your slides' background to an uploaded image or a variety of solid colors. You can change the background for the whole presentation or just a single slide. Learn more.
  

• Embeddable presentations
  Embed your slideshow anywhere: use the embed code on the "Publish" tab to put your slides on any website, including your blog. Learn more.

• Import slides from another presentation
  Easily insert slides from other presentations: select slides from PowerPoint files or other Google presentations to add to your current presentation. Talk about reusing slides! Learn more.

• Add images to your presentation from any website
  Easily drag images into your slides: just go to any website and drag the image directly onto a slide. No more saving to the desktop and inserting it. Learn more.

• Support for 13 more languages
  Now you can use the Google Docs interface in even more languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Filipino, Greek, Hindi, Latvian, Lithuanian, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian. Learn more.

• View Google Docs on your mobile phone
  Point your phone's web browser to docs.google.com/m to view your documents on the go. Check what team you're playing against as you head to the soccer fields or reference your latest guest list as you meet with your in-laws-to-be.
  Learn more. about Google Docs on mobile devices.
  

• Hide data to eliminate clutter
  You can now hide (and unhide) rows and columns in your spreadsheets. Just highlight the range you'd like to hide, right-click, and choose the Hide Rows or Hide Columns option from the drop down menu. Learn more.
  

• Conditional formatting
  Need to keep track of a complex or quickly changing spreadsheet? Now you can format the text and background colors of spreadsheet cells based on rules. Learn more.

• Create and share presentations
  Presentations are finally here. With this new feature you can create and collaborate on presentations with your colleagues and friends - your days of consolidating email feedback on storyboards are over. And since the presentation is online you can share and view it in real time with anyone at anytime. Finally, since "Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations" was a mouthful we also updated the name to be "Google Docs". Learn more.
  

• Use Google Docs in 10 more languages
  We've worked hard to make Google Docs more accessible to people around the globe. You can now use the Google Docs interface in Danish, Czech, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Learn more.

• Type less, get more
  Autofill lets you drag the special handle to fill in cells with existing patterns such as numbers, words, or dates. For a bonus, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Alt (Mac) to get answers from Google Sets. Learn more.
  

• New advanced functions
  For those of you who love advanced functions, we've added five new functions that can pull in data from Google Reader and from filetypes such as: xml, html, csv, tsv. The data you receive automatically updates every few hours. Learn more.