Major updates to Google Docs
April 12, 2010
Back in October, I posted about some of the updates Google had made to Google Docs. Well, today they rolled out some additional features that I thought you might be interested in.
The one that is most important to me is that Google Docs will now allow you to see other Collaborators changes in real-time as they type. This may sound familiar to you if you are a Wave user, but what it sounds like to me is the chat feature that so many of us have been requesting in this app. You can get a peak of this character-by-character real-time function in the video below.
Additional features that you may be interested in are:
- Creating collaborative drawings from the Docs list rather than only from within a Google Doc
- Increased speed in Docs, so you should be able to edit with up to 50 simultaneous users (rather than the actual 10-12 synchronous users that most of us have experienced)
- You’ll notice a ruler within your document for help with adjusting margins
- Additional ease with moving images and formatting your documents
For additional information on the Google Docs improvements check out the Google Docs Enterprise Blog.
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I am a student in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama.
This is amazing! Dr. Strange uses Google Doc’s religiously for our class. Almost every assignment we have is sent to us via Google Doc’s. It is very useful and I am greatful that he uses this technology and is able to update it in real time rather than waiting for my next class to meet to hear about the update on any given assignment. Thank you for sharing this video.
My pleasure Matthew. You might also want to take a look at https://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=176442 to get to know the new version of Google Docs.
Lisa – These new features, just like many others, are not available in the corporate version of Google Docs. I imagine (and hope) they will be soon, but it seems strange that they would be rolled out to corporate users after individual accounts.
I understand what you are saying Justin. I didn’t realize that, nor did I realize that you can switch between old version and the new version of Docs once it’s made available to you by going into the Settings menu.
I hope these options come to you and the rest of the corporate version users soon. Thanks for your comment.
Jenny and I am in EDM310 and we have to learn all about new technology and google docs was a new one for me. My teacher told us about it and at first I was against it since all I have ever used is microsoft but since learning about google docs it is all I want to use now because it seems to be so much easier to use. Thank you for posting about the new things that have been added to google docs I think that you made it very easy to understand and also helps inform people like myself who do not always know the new features that have been added.
Jenny – Thanks for all of your comments as you left me quite a few. I think it’s fantastic that you are open to trying new technologies since taking EDM310. You will find the portability of Google Docs a great feature and I highly suggest looking at some of the other SmartPhones out there as they have some features that you may be interested in.
Best of luck with all of your course work.
Lisa