Google is announcing some pretty major updates to it’s Google Docs service. They have done some under-the-hood updates to improve the overall speed of the document editor and spreadsheet editor. In addition, Docs is starting to look more like Wave as far as collaborative editing and discussion around documents. These updates come as a result of Google realizing they needed to make major changes to the foundation of Docs in order to provide more advanced features.
Multiple participants can now edit a document and see changes made by others in real-time, character by character. Each individual’s changes are color coded. In addition to watching actual changes being made, you can chat in the sidebar with potential participants and leave notes on the document, separate from the actual document content. It’s almost like putting a sticky note on it. Google has improved reliability and accuracy of the import/export functionality, added real margins and tab stops, and improved image layout within documents. You can drag and drop images freely within the document.
Spreadsheet editing is a lot smoother due to the updates on the back end. Your spreadsheets will load much faster, are more responsive, and scroll more seamlessly. They have added a formula bar which allows you to input formulas as well as edit cells. You can now drag and drop columns and save time with auto-complete within columns. Just like with the document editor, you can see changes being made by other people in real-time and color coded.
Google has added an entirely separate drawing editor. This will save you from having to open big and bulky third party drawing/diagram software. You will be able to access your drawings alongside the rest of your documents. You can also copy drawings to the web clipboard and past them into your spreadsheets, presentations, and documents.
This new version of docs is not compatible with Google Gears, which Google was planning to do away with anyway. After these updates roll out, offline mode will no longer be supported. On the positive side, they are working on a replacement for this functionality that takes advantage of similar features in HTML5.
These new features are coming to you within the next few days, but you can get them immediately by clicking New Version at the top of any spreadsheet or look for New Version of Google Documents under ‘Document Settings.’