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Smarter Google Forms to save you time

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Google Forms makes it easy to collect information, plan events, solicit feedback, and more. Today, we’re adding new features and using machine learning to make Forms work better for your business. Read on for more details.

Intelligent response validation
When you know the specific type of answer you’re looking for, it’s often helpful to validate responses in Forms. For example, if you’re asking for a website, Forms can double-check that the answer provided is a URL. Following this launch, when we can, we’ll suggest response validation based on the question you ask. If you ask respondents for their age, for instance, we may recommend validating that the answer they provide is a whole number. (Note that this feature is rolling out gradually and may take several weeks to appear in your domain.)

 

Intelligent response validation

Cross-domain file uploads
Oftentimes, when you use Forms, you’re not collecting data from your colleagues you’re gathering information from third parties, customers, and more. To guarantee you get the information you need, we’ll now allow users outside of your domain to upload files as responses to your questions—provided both of your organizations allow cross-domain sharing in Google Drive. Based on usage patterns, total uploads to new forms will be capped at 1GB, with an option to increase that limit to 1TB. Uploads to existing forms will be capped at 1TB.

Preferences
If you use similar settings across all of your forms, you can now save time by assigning default settings to apply to any new forms you create. For instance, you can choose to always collect email addresses, make questions required every time, and assign default quiz point values.

Preferences 1

Preferences 2

“Checkbox grid” questions
Sometimes a question is more complex than multiple choice or checkbox answers alone can satisfy—you need to be able to select multiple options from multiple categories. Going forward, you can use the “Checkbox grid” question type to get the answers you need, like dates and times that work for an upcoming meeting.

Checkbox grid 1

Checkbox grid 2

Section reordering
We heard you loud and clear—you need an easy way to organize (and reorganize) your questions in Forms. In response to your feedback, we’re now making it possible to reorder whole sections quickly and easily.

Reorder 1

Recording section

 

Create better forms, more quickly, with these new and intelligent features in Forms.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming in two weeks

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

 

Reference by Google.com

 

 

 

 

Users with legacy Android devices can now access work apps in Google Play

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Recently, we announced that your organization’s private apps would move from the “Private Channel” (i.e. the “domain.com” tab) to the “Work Apps” tab in the Google Play Store. We envision this Work Apps section as a single destination where users can find all of the applications they need to be productive on mobile. Using Google Mobile Management, G Suite administrators can offer a curated set of both public and custom apps to their employees in the Work Apps section of Google Play.

Previously, however, employees with Android devices that did not support work profiles could not see the Work Apps tab and the apps their admins had curated. This included any users with Android devices running 5.0 Lollipop or less. With this launch, employees with these older devices can now access the Work Apps tab in Google Play (in their personal profile) and the apps their admins have curated.

Google Play for Work on Legacy Devices

Note that on devices that do support work profiles, the Work Apps tab can only be accessed from Google Play in the work profile.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

 

Reference by Google.com

Support for rotated text, accounting number formats, and more in Google Sheets

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We’re working hard to ensure that Google Sheets meets your business needs. As part of that effort, today we’re introducing several enterprise-friendly features that you’ve been asking for in Sheets on the web, Android, and iOS:

Rotated text
You can now rotate the text in a cell in Sheets (Format > Text rotation). This is especially useful when you need to fit long header names into thin columns, or when you simply want to fit more text on a single screen.

 

Rotated text 1

Accounting number formats
We’re making it easier to read your budgets, expense reports, and other spreadsheets containing monetary amounts by aligning the currency symbols within them (Format > Number > Accounting). We’re also making improvements to the way numbers, decimal points, and repeated characters line up to make them simpler to scan and analyze.

Accounting number formats 2

More border styles
You can now choose from several new border styles in Sheets, including various thicknesses and double borders, which are commonly used in financial statements like balance sheets (Toolbar > Borders > Border styles).

Additional improvements on mobile
In addition to the features described above, we’re also launching the following improvements to our mobile apps:

  • Support for using a mouse with the Sheets Android app
  • Ability to view and select existing custom colors in the Sheets Android app
  • Ability to drag and drop rows and columns in the Sheets Android and iOS apps
  • Formatting suggestions in Explore in the Sheets iOS app

For more details, check out the Help Center articles below.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

  • All mobile features
  • Additional border styles on the web

Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming on March 6, 2017

  • Rotated text on the web
  • Accounting number formats on the web

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

Reference by Google.com

Launch desktop applications from Google Drive Preview in Chrome

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In November 2014, Google Drive added the ability to open files from Google Drive directly into the compatible application installed on your computer. Today, this capability will be extended to the Drive viewer as well, which means you can now launch apps from preview mode and more easily access your files. This includes apps like advanced image and video editing software, accounting and tax programs, or 3D animation and design tools. So, no matter what you keep in Drive, using the web to access and manage files doesn’t mean you’re limited to applications that only work in your browser.

comprompt-google-update

To get started, install the latest version of the Drive app for Mac or PC (version 1.23+) and sync your files. Then, visit Google Drive in your Chrome browser. Open a file in Google Drive preview mode and click on the “Open with” menu on top to see a list of compatible applications on your computer that can open it, or simply select “Open” for the default application. For example, you can choose to open a PDF file with Adobe Reader, or a .psd with Photoshop, make your edits and save back changes to Drive which will sync across all your devices and other collaborators.

Reference By Google

Better email security and compliance with attachment scanning and file type detection

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Email compliance settings allow Google Apps admins to set policies to regulate the delivery of both internal and external email for their organization. Today, we’re announcing two different policy improvements to further enhance email security:

Attachment scanning
The Content compliance setting enables admins to specify what action to perform for messages based on predefined sets of words, phrases, text patterns, or numerical patterns contained within their content. Similarly, the Objectionable content setting enables admins to specify what action to perform for messages containing specific word lists that they create

Previously, each of these policies supported the scanning of the body of email messages and text attachments only. With today’s launch, the policies will also scan the content inside common attachment types―such as documents, presentations, and spreadsheets from different productivity suites―for increased security.

File type detection
The Attachment compliance setting enables admins to specify actions to perform for messages with attachments based on file type, file name, and message size. Previously, the policy relied solely on the file type extension when identifying matches. With today’s launch, we’ll start scanning and identifying the actual file type of attachments, preventing the renaming of most file type extensions to circumvent attachment policies.

Check out the Help Center links below for more information on these security improvements.

Reference By: Google

A new look for the Google Drive on the mobile web

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Google Drive, To create a consistent experience across the Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides viewers on the web on mobile, today Google introducing a simpler, more uniform interface for each.

Comprompt-Mobile Web Editors (Final Version)

In addition, we’re encouraging people to edit their Google Docs files in the mobile app, which is easier to use and offers more robust functionality. Going forward, when users open Docs files on the mobile web and attempt to edit, they’ll be taken directly to the app or given the option to download it. Like with Google Sheets and Slides files, they’ll no longer be able to edit Docs files on the mobile web.

Comprompt-Google Drive Mobile Web Editors UI Refresh (Promo)

Reference By – Google

iOS Account Wipe and new features in Android for Work MAM

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This week, we’re introducing iOS Account Wipe (i.e. Selective Wipe), which allows Google Apps admins to safely delete an employee’s corporate account and data from their iPhone or iPad without impacting that employee’s personal space (e.g. their personal photos). The existing Remote Wipe functionality, which allows admins to wipe an employee’s entire device, will remain unchanged.

Account Wipe

In addition, as part of an ongoing effort to make Android even more valuable to our customers, this week we are launching enhanced functionality for Android Mobile Application Management (MAM), a core capability that we introduced with our initial support of Android for Work. These new features can help admins get their employees up and running on Android for Work faster (with auto-install into an employee’s Work Profile) and stay productive (by preventing employees from uninstalling certain apps)—while at the same time keeping data protected (with widget control).

Android MAM

The Google Apps Device Policy app for Android is concurrently updated to display additional information about the device when the employee is using a Work Profile (e.g. the unknown sources status, developer options status, and domain names of other accounts added to the Work Profile).

Reference by google.com

More options for charts, cells, and collaboration in Google Sheets on the web

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When working with spreadsheets, it’s important to take raw figures and turn them into a story. Today’s update to Google Sheets on the web allows people to do just that, offering even more ways to visualize and analyze data.

Customized charts, made easier
Charts can make even the largest data sets digestible, so we’ve made a few improvements to help people highlight what’s most important. With this launch, people can now:

  • Use data labels to display the exact values of bars and points in charts.
  • Choose different shapes and symbols for data points in both line and scatter charts.
  • Move and resize charts more easily.

Charts-Data-Labels_Shapes

Data, displayed right
Today’s launch also includes new tools for analyzing spreadsheet data. For example, people can:

  • Preview the results of a formula, including any formula errors, instantly as they type.
  • Filter rows and columns by conditions, including “less than,” “greater than,” “text contains,” “date after,” and more.
  • Add calculated fields to pivot tables in order to apply formulas to pivot table data.
  • Use the GETPIVOTDATA function to retrieve data from a pivot table.

Docs-Sheets-Formula-V2-7

Collaborate, confidently
Collaborating in Sheets can greatly improve the end product, but it’s important to avoid making accidental edits. Currently, people can restrict who can edit an entire worksheet or range of cells using the protected sheets and ranges feature. To reduce the number of unintended changes (e.g. typos) made by people who do have permission to edit, today’s launch includes the ability to warn individuals who attempt to edit certain cells. This will facilitate increased collaboration, as owners won’t need to set complicated permissions in order to allow others to work on the document.

Heads Up

Try these updated Google Sheets features on the web today, and start telling better stories with data.

Release track:
Rapid release and Scheduled release:

  • Calculated fields in pivot tables
  • GETPIVOTDATA functionality
  • Protected cell warnings

Live on Rapid release, with Scheduled release to follow on June 29th:

  • Data labels in charts
  • Custom data point shapes in charts
  • Moving and resizing charts
  • Formula previews
  • Filter by condition

Reference by google.com

Insert images into Google Sheets when offline

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We’re making it easier for your employees to work on the go—and without Internet access—in Google Sheets on the web. With this launch, people can now insert images into Sheets even when they’re not online, provided they’re working in Chrome and have turned on offline access. Those images will be synced once the person gets back online. Try it out in Google Sheets today.

Release track:
Scheduled release and Rapid release

Reference by google.com

“Last seen” indication in Hangouts

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To make it easier to know when people using Hangouts are available to chat, we’ve added timestamps as part of status (e.g. ‘last seen 2h ago’), indicating when one was last using Hangouts.

Comprompt-Google-Hangouts

Individuals can control whether this info is shared from Hangouts chat settings.

This feature is now available on Hangouts in Gmail (gradual rollout), as well as on the latest versions of the Hangouts Android and iOS apps.

 

 courtesy:google apps