Better Search Experience in Google Drive

Better search experience in Google Drive Posted: 09 Dec 2015 01:49 PM PST When you store important files in Google Drive they’re not only safe, they’re accessible from any device. Finding these files again from any device should be super easy, so we’re rolling out a new search experience to get you better results — even faster. Drive lets you search across all your files, regardless of the device they came from. To make that easier, you can use these new ways to find your files: Narrow your search to a file type from the search box on Android, iOS, and the web. Open advanced search instantly from the search box. Access recent files or search Drive from the home screen using 3D Touch on iOS.  Search Drive using the iOS search bar without opening the Drive app. Several behind-the-scenes improvements give your search queries even better results than they did before. And to get more specific results, anyone can now do the following: Search for shared files by file owner using their name or email address. Use advanced search options like the date a file was modified, words it contains, or who it was shared with. This is all part of an ongoing effort to make Drive the easiest place to find your files. See below for the specific rollout details.

Start of the Year Corner Turned...

Today, we had a district inservice day at Hannibal60. The technology department took advantage of this by spending 2/3 of the day working in TO2 (our shorthand for the 2nd technology office). This office is our work space for repairing and preparing computers and other technological devices for disbursement across the district. TO2 is key to the success of our department and is available to us through the kindness of Roger McGregor​, Director of the Hannibal Career and Technical Center, where the office is located. We moved out about 3/4 of the technology in the room in order to arrange it and get it onto pallets for either storage or pallets for recycle. The remainder we returned to TO2 in an organized manner and this equipment will be repaired and distributed as time allows. We also were able to image a laptop as a test to see if doing the same with a cart of like laptops is worth the effort or not. We were able to work through the rights issue for a nagging server share that we had working last year, but for some reason wasn't working this year. Finally, we were able to verify that the printer rollout via GPO was working at Stowell Elementary. A very productive day where several long-standing issues were finally put to rest. The work never ends and there are many many more things to be done, but I believe it is safe to say that the "start of the school year" issues have been corrected. For me, this means a little more time to dedicate to working with teachers and students in the classroom. So, teachers, if you have needs and would like me to visit to give your technology-integration needs the personal touch, send me an email! We'll get you on the calendar.

Download Microsoft Office files quickly and easily in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

The Office Compatibility Mode extension in Chrome allows people to view and edit Microsoft® Office files in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Based on feedback, we’ve added a new feature that makes it simpler to use those edited files on the web. This new download functionality provides a person with a local copy of their file instantly, making it easy to upload that file via a webform or to share it in a Microsoft Office format. This feature lives in two places: as an option in the File drop-down menu and as a button in the top right corner of the screen. Check out the Help Center for more information.

Create, edit, and grade assignments on the go with new Classroom mobile app features

In January, we launched a Classroom mobile app for iOS and Android, because we knew that students were increasingly relying on mobile devices to get homework done on the go. That app has now been downloaded more than 2.5 million times. This functionality isn’t just useful for students, however. We’ve heard from teachers that they also want to be able to keep track of their classes no matter where they are or what device they’re on. Today, we’re making that even easier with several new features. Teachers can now:

Create and edit assignments on the go, make copies of attachments, and attach new photos to assignments.
Grade assignments from their phones or tablets, and add private comments for students.
Snap pictures to create assignments, so whiteboard photos and class notes can be posted to the stream for students who are absent and/or assigned to the class for a deeper dive.

Google Drive: New Sharing Options, Android App

New sharing options, languages and more with the latest version of the Google Drive Android app

Posted: 4/16/2015

A new version of the Google Drive Android app is coming to Google Play over the next week. New features include:
After uploading a file, the ability to add people to sharing settings and share a link directly from the upload notification:

Ability to access a contact’s extended information from the sharing section of the details pane of a file in Drive. Ability to remove a parent of a file from the details pane when a file is multi-parented. Support for 23 new languages (Afrikaans, Amharic, Armenian, Basque, Bengali, Chinese (Hong Kong), Estonian, French (Canada), Galician, Georgian, Icelandic, Kannada, Khmer, Lao, Malayalam, Marathi, Mongolian, Nepali, Sinhala, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Zulu). PDF viewer improvements (better scrolling and handling of multi-layout PDFs). Performance and UI improvementsWe’ve also corrected an issue where Drive was not properly preventing uploads for accounts where Drive had been turned off by Apps admins.

Conditional Formatting in Sheets and More...

Google Apps update alerts

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• Conditional formatting improvements in Google Sheets
• Google+ Photos coming to Google Drive
• Combined inboxes, smarter search and more with the new Gmail app for Android

Conditional formatting improvements in Google Sheets Posted: 30 Mar 2015 02:58 PM PDT People using Google Sheets will now have more powerful conditional formatting options. This launch will add the following features: Ability to add gradient conditional formatting rules (e.g. green -> orange, where the lowest numbers are shaded green and the highest are shaded orange, with gradient shades in between) More style choices like bolding, striking through, and italicizing text based on conditional formatting rules A new look for the conditional formatting editing pane Import/export of color scale conditional formatting Conditional formatting can be added by highlighting the relevant cells and selecting Format > Conditional formatting from the menus. Release track: Rapid release and Scheduled release For more information: Help Center Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted Launch release calendar Get these product update alerts by email Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Google+ Photos coming to Google Drive Posted: 30 Mar 2015 02:42 PM PDT Google Drive allows you to store and access your files anywhere—on the web, on your hard drive, or on the go. We’re now making it easier to store and organize your photos and videos in Google Drive as well. Moving forward, people using Google+ Photos will see their photos and videos automatically in Google Drive. They will appear in a new menu item called Google Photos, and can be shared, moved, and renamed like any other Drive file: This feature will start rolling out for consumers today in Drive for Android, iOS and the web, and will roll out gradually to Apps customers in the coming weeks. A notification in Drive will give people the option to add a Google Photos folder to My Drive, allowing them to manage their photos and videos alongside other types of files if they so choose. Existing Google+ Photos users will notice their photos and videos available in Drive in the coming weeks. Note: photos and videos backed up to Drive via Auto Backup will not count towards storage quota, but Apps users may want to review their Google+ Photos Auto Backup settings to avoid inadvertent syncing to their corporate Drive account. See the Help Center for more information on organizing, syncing and deletion options. Release track: Rapid release (gradual rollout) starting in the coming weeks, with Scheduled release to follow two weeks after rollout to Rapid. See the release calendar for specific dates as they are available. For more information: Help Center Get the latest Google Drive apps from Google Play and the App Store Drive blog post Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted Launch release calendar Get these product update alerts by email Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Combined inboxes, smarter search and more with the new Gmail app for Android Posted: 30 Mar 2015 02:11 PM PDT A new version of the Gmail app for Android is now available on Google Play. New features include: All your inboxes in one place―view all your mail at once, regardless of whether it’s from your work or personal accounts, using the new “All Inboxes” option. This way you can read and respond to all your messages without having to hop between accounts. Conversation View―if you’ve set up separate inboxesin Gmail for your Yahoo, Outlook.com and other IMAP/POP accounts, messages in these accounts will appear neatly stacked as one conversation, just like your Gmail messages. Smarter Search―searching in the Gmail app for Android now comes with better auto-complete, so you can find what you need even faster. Other helpful features―larger attachment previews to help you see what’s inside, the ability to save to Drive with a single tap, and new animations that make opening and closing conversations more smooth. Note: The search auto-complete feature is not available for Google Apps for Government customers

Customizable headers and footers, page numbers in Google Docs

Update from Google:

People using Google Docs can now use different headers and footers on the first pages of their documents, which comes in handy for:

§ Following academic formatting guidelines (e.g. MLA, CMS, APA)

§ Starting page numbering on the second page

§ Making a title page without headers or footers

After inserting a header or footer in your document you’ll see a new checkbox―just tick it and you’ll be able to set a different header and footer on the first page:

There’s also a new Insert > Page Number menu that lets you customize how and where you start your page numbers―like on the bottom of the second page, for example.

Custom themes, mobile app improvements for Google Classroom

Updates from Google:

Today we announced several improvements to Google Classroom. On the web, teachers can now bring their own personal touches to Classroom by uploading their own images to use as themes. They can add their own custom images, or choose from our gallery of options, which has been updated with 18 new images and 30 pattern themes.

For the Android and iOS Classroom apps, we added the ability for students and teachers to view the class resource page, and a few other features for both Android and iOS.

The Classroom app allows students to do their work anytime, anywhere and is designed for schools with iPads or Android tablets and students' personal devices. If you are a Google Apps for Education admin and your school is using managed Android tablets, iPads, or ChromeOS devices, please consider installing the Classroom app centrally, as students may not be able to install it themselves. To make sure students have a great experience using the Classroom app, be sure to install the Drive and Docs apps (Docs, Slides, and Sheets) to the devices at the same time.

To learn more about our native mobile apps, please visit the Classroom Help Center.

New Google Docs Android App!

New version of the Google Docs Android app Posted: 18 Feb 2015 11:23 AM PST A new version of the Google Docs Android app is now available on Google Play. New features include: · Support for selecting, cutting, copying and pasting text along with images, tables, and charts in Office Compatibility Mode · Ability to insert links in Google documents Release track: Rapid release and Scheduled release For more information: Download the latest Google Docs app on Google Play Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted Launch release calendar Get these product update alerts by email Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates