Google Docs Rebuilt to Enhance Flexibility, Performance, and Feature Rollout Speed

docs As a student, Google Docs has been an indispensable part of my school work. Instead of paying a bunch of money for something like Microsoft Office, I’ve used Google Docs as a great alternative. With several hundred documents in my Google Docs list, ranging from spreadsheets, to word documents, to presentations, you’ll understand why I’m excited about this news.

Word Processor

The word processor has been pretty thoroughly revamped. It now features a margin bar at the top, and my personal favorite new feature, real tab stops (I can’t believe it took this long!). The word editor now has a whole new layer of ‘desktop’ feel to it in terms of responsiveness, and it still retains the great benefits that come along with it being web based.

Spreadsheets

I’m not a huge Excel/spreadsheet guy, but I do my fair share of spreadsheet creation and editing. With the recent improvements, Google has beefed up the performance and added several new features:

Spreadsheets load faster, are more responsive and scroll more seamlessly. We’ve also added a host of often requested features, like a formula bar for cell editing, auto-complete, drag and drop columns, and simpler navigation between sheets.

Standalone Drawing Editor

There is also the brand new drawing editor. For a while now, we’ve been able to create drawings and insert them into presentations, but now you’ll be able to create and publish drawings just like any other standalone document.

Massive Real Time Collaboration

The biggest thing here is the improvements to collaboration. Google Docs has always touted collaborative abilities as an important aspect of the service, and to that end, they now support real-time character by character” collaboration for up to 50 people! There is even a chat pane to talk in real time with everyone editing a given document. Very impressive if I do say so myself. This applies to all tools which is very good news.

More to Come

Maybe more than these features alone, Google rebuilt the underlying framework for Google Docs in order to enhance their ability to add new features in the future. I expect there is still lots more to come from the Google Docs team, and I should take this time to say thanks for making my life easier!”.

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