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Google Presentations Getting Better with Master Slide

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masterslideSince its launch, Google Docs has often been criticized for its lack of maturity when compared to Microsoft Office. With major upgrades to Documents and Sheets, the gap has certainly closed quite a bit over the past 18 months.

This months, Google Slides takes a giant leap forward as well, with the addition of the Master Slide feature.  With the ability to create a master template, specific to your presentation, you no longer need to edit common elements on every slide.

This video from Google provides and overview and demo.

 

Easier Sharing of Google Docs; Watch Your Permissions

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google drive
Google is making it easier to share Google Docs, Drawings, and Slides (not Sheets) with people outside your Google Apps for Business domain.

  • Files shared outside your domain to an email address not linked to an existing Google Account can be viewed without having to sign in or create a new Google Account.
  • If a file is shared with edit or comment permissions, the recieving user must still sign in with a Google Account in order to edit or comment on that file.

This change actually reflects a new “invitation” model.  When a user directly shares with individuals who do not have Google Accounts, those recipients will be able to view the file without signing in. Because no sign in is required, anyone may view the file with this sharing link until the person who the file was explicitly shared with creates a Google Account and expends the invitation.

Once the person creates a Google Account two things happen: (1) the sharing link will no longer work for new users to access the file and the sharing dialog will indicate that the invitation has been used; (2) any user who accessed the file using the sharing link while it was open and signed in using their Google Account will be added to the sharing access list for that file and will continue to have access. Users with permissions to change sharing settings can revoke this access if desired.

While you can prevent this behavior by disabling sharing outside the domain to people who are not using a Google Account via settings in the Admin console, the change makes monitoring of Google Drive permissions more important to maintaining a secure ecosystem.

Tools, such as CloudLock, provide a means for monitoring and managing permissions, helping ensure that sensitive data remains secure.  Contact us if you would like more information.

 

 

Google Docs & Drive: Small New Features Make a Big Difference

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docsGoogle continues to enhance the Google Apps suite with updates to Google Docs and Drive.

In Google Docs:

  • A new spell checker runs in real-time.  Marking misspelled words, the checker lets you review spelling via a traditional style tool, see spelling suggestions as you type, and setup automatic correction.   You can learn more here.
  • New presets for numbered and bullet lists provide more formatting options in Documents.  You can now also change the color, size, and style of individual bullets, as well as customize your own bullet styles.  See this Google+ post for an animated demo.

google driveIn Google Drive, the current release (1.11) of Google Drive for Mac or PC includes two new features:

  • On Windows, you can now have shortcuts to Documents, Sheets, and Slides on the desktop or in the Start Menu — making it easier to use Google Docs as a primary (or strong secondary) productivity suite.
  • You may now also select where your Google Drive sync folder is located and choose your own name for the folder.

While major in scope, these updates reflect Google’s process of continuous improvement based on user feedback and requests.  These changes improve ease of use and the end user experience.