Posts

Breaking News: Google Voice for Business is Coming!

/in

According to a report by eWeek in the UK, Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard has confirmed that a business version of Google Voice will be released in 2010.

Back to the drawing board?

/in

Google recently removed the ability to email a document into your Google Docs account.  The little-used feature is being re-vamped to increase functionality and expand the number of supported file types.

Google Docs: Better Sharing, Export, and Search

/in

It is now easier to find, export, and share documents from Google Docs.  Here is how.

Export All as a zip file:

Select one or more files and then click on “Export” from the “More Actions” menu. Next, pick the format (e.g. PDF etc) you want for your exported files. Here you now also have the option to “Export all your files” up to 2GB into a single zip file. It can sometimes take a few minutes to download so you also have an “email when ready” option to notify you when the zip file is ready. If your files are larger than 2GB then Docs will present a list of those that weren’t exported and you can export them to a zip file as normal.

Email as an attachment:

In the Docs list, select an item, click “Share” and select “Email as attachment…”. Then pick which format you want to use to send the item, compose your email, and click send.

Improved search:

Search for a document from the Docs list as normal. In the displayed results, click on the new button “Relevance” which lets you decide whether you’d like to sort your Docs list by “Relevance,” “Starred” or “Last Modified”.

Offline Gmail Options Get Real

/in

Offline Gmail is officially out of beta.

Offline Gmail is a managed component of Google Apps that enables users to read, reply, and create messages when disconnected from the Internet.

Offline Gmail is one of several off-line options.  If you want to know more, contact us.

Google Spreadsheet Quick Tip

/in

Sharing one of your spreadsheets  with others, but want some else to own it?  You can now change the owner of a Google Spreadsheet.  Simply use the Change Owner option More Actions menu.

More Viewing Options for Google Docs

/in

Google recently added a few features to Google Docs that give you more options when opening and viewing documents.

You can now open documents in a new browser tab or window… simply set the “Where items open” option.

Also, if you prefer, you can turn off the “new” and bold indicators in your document screen when documents are added or modified.

You can learn more here.

Infinity Plus One

/in

Last week, Google made a huge announcement about the Google Docs service under Google Apps Premier Edition.  To summarize:

  • Users can now upload documents of ANY TYPE to Google Docs
    • If you upload a file that can convert to Google Docs, you have the option to convert or to maintain the native format
    • Documents you convert still have size and format/feature limitations
    • Documents you do not convert remain in their native format and may be up to 250MB in size
  • More Space
    • You now have unlimited storage space for documents in Google Docs format (Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Forms)
    • Storage for documents kept in native format has been increased from 500MB to 1GB
  • Even More Space
    • You will be able to purchase more space
    • While rumors abound about the cost, Google has not released final pricing and has not provided resellers with the ability to add more space for their customers … yet.

The impact of these changes amazing.  Google Docs can now be used as a virtual file server.  Over the next few weeks, we will be evaluating tools that leverage these new capabilities and will post our findings here.

Offline Gmail Continues to Mature

/in

While the not most-used feature among our Google Apps Premier Edition customers, offline Gmail is available and is no longer considered Beta.  Offline Gmail lets you compose and read your email without an Internet connection and without using other programs like Microsoft Outlook.

Recently, Google enhanced some of the features that let you manage messages for offline use.  You have more flexibility to download messages by time frame for offline use.  You can also manage download messages with specific labels — all or by time frame as well.

Click here to learn more.

Helpful Hints: Google Calendar

/in

Google Calendar recently benefited from a few small, but useful updates.

  • Snooze Alerts: You can now “snooze” a pop-up alert from the calendar, and be reminded again about an upcoming meeting or event.
  • Hide Calendars: Too many calendars in your list? Don’t want to see them all?  You can now hide calendars from your list.
  • Timezone AutoSync: Your calendar timezone is now synchronized to your display timezone.  If you travel much, this feature comes in handy.

You can click here to learn more.

Improved Sharing in Google Docs

/in

An enhancement that makes it easier to share groups of documents with co-workers and others, you can now share entire folders in Google Docs (learn more).

This update also allows you to upload multiple files into Google Docs with one command.  Note that when you upload MS Office documents into Google Docs, the document format changes and some features and layouts may be modified for compatibility.

Add OffiSync and you can more easily work in the MS Office apps you like while using Google Apps for collaboration.   With OffiSync Premium preserves the original MS format of your documents.