Check out this month’s “What’s New in Google Apps” newsletter for a roundup of all Apps launches from June 2014.
New Drive for Work offering
Unlimit your business with Google Drive for Work
At Google I/O, Google announced Google Drive for Work—a new premium offering for businesses, designed to keep all your work safe, available everywhere, and easy to share. Google Drive for Work combines the familiar storage, sync, and share experience of Google Drive with new admin controls, advanced file audit reporting, and eDiscovery services. Key features include unlimited storage, new audit reporting, new security controls and content encryption at rest and compliance search and discovery with Google Apps Vault.
Work together
Move to trash directly within Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides
Owners of a document, spreadsheet, or presentation are now able to move it to the trash from within its own File menu. Use the File menu > Move to trash option within the file that you’re editing, rather than doing it from the Drive home page. Editors and viewers can see the option in the File menu, but it will be inactive and grayed out. For more information on how Trash works.
Suggested Edits in Google Docs
Now in Google Docs, any user with “Can comment” access to a document can use the new Suggested Edits feature. The suggested edits will appear in the document along with a comment explaining the edit.
Work anywhere
Activity view, link sharing, and more in the Google Drive mobile app
The Google Drive mobile apps for Android and iOS now have a cleaner design, more responsive animations, and faster background syncing. Sharing your files is also simpler and faster. Key features include activity view (stream of changes to your files and folders, accessible through the details panel) and Link sharing (Easily share files and folders directly from the mobile app using a link). Get the Google Drive app on Google Play and the App Store.
Google Slides mobile app for Android and iOS
The Google Slides app makes it easier for you to quickly find, edit, and create presentations on the go—online or offline. The Slides app includes support for editing Microsoft PowerPoint via Quickoffice.
Seamless editing of Office files in Google Docs and Sheets apps
Quickoffice has been integrated directly into the Google Docs and Sheets apps on Android and iOS, allowing for seamless editing of Microsoft Word and Excel files. Get the Google Docs & Sheets apps.
Edit Office files in Chrome and ChromeOS
Google Apps users can now edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly from Google Drive, Gmail, and the new Docs, Sheets, and Slides home screens, without needing Microsoft Office. Chrome users for Mac and Windows can install the Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides extension and you’re good to go. Check out more about Edit Office files in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
Simple to use
Improved editing, ease of use, and accessibility in Google Sites
Several improvements were made to Google Sites—ranging from new keyboard shortcuts for editors to image and header editing enhancements—giving users more control over the overall look and feel of their Sites.
Universal analytics, Maps engine, and other integrations in Google Sites
Google launched several features aimed at improving integration between Google Sites and other products such as Google Analytics, Google Map Engine Lite and sharing feature on social media site.
More options when opening attachments in Gmail
When previewing Gmail attachments in Chrome, certain Chrome extensions can now be queried to determine if they are enabled for Drive. If the user has Chrome extensions enabled for Drive, the extensions will be included in the list of apps available as choices in the Open with menu in the attachment viewer.
A faster, redesigned Google Drive
Google Drive has a new look and speedier performance on the desktop, making organizing and sharing files faster and easier than ever. Users can now right-click a file to see recent activity, set sharing permissions, and enable files to be accessed while offline. When selecting multiple files, users can take actions on the entire group in three ways—right-click the selection, use the menu above the file area, or simply drag the group to move to a new folder location. Learn more about the new Google Drive and how to opt-in.
Dedicated desktop home pages for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides
Google created new home screens to help you do that with direct access points for Docs, Sheets, and Slides. To access these home screens (once the feature has been fully deployed), use the following URLs:
http://google.com/docs
http://google.com/sheets
http://google.com/slides
Improved attachment viewing experience in Gmail and Google Drive
The toolbar has moved to the top (and disappears when not in use) and the document/image frame is now wider, providing a more streamlined experience.
Braille display support for Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings
If you use a Braille display, you can now enable Braille support in Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings to read and enter text. This option is currently available for Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.
Business ready
Deeper insights with the redesigned Admin Reports
Google introduced new redesigned Reports section to the Admin console to make it easier for admins to not only manage Google Apps, but gain insights that help their entire organization run more efficiently. The new reporting section offers domain highlights, user-level reporting, custom filtering and sorting on data, and new audit streams (Login Audit).
Enabling Google+ Premium features for everyone
Google+ Premium features are now automatically enabled for any new customers that enable the Google+ service.
Additional audit-logging for Marketplace apps usage
In an effort to maximize visibility for domain admins, Google started logging admin actions related to Google Apps Marketplace (GAM) apps in the Admin console.
GAMME tool now supports Outlook 2013
The Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange (GAMME) tool now supports Outlook 2013 (but not Click-to-Run editions). This latest release also included several bug fixes.
Exclude email drafts from Google Vault search with one click
Admins can now easily exclude email drafts from searches in Google Vault. Simply check the Exclude drafts box in the search panel to exclude draft emails from your search.
SMTP relay service enhancements
Several enhancements to the SMTP relay service were launched including Multiple authentication configurations, SMTP AUTH, IP range description field and Selective enable or disable of IP ranges.
Better spam management with Message Center
Message Center is a web-based spam management system designed for Google Apps customers who relay some or all of their email traffic to on-premise SMTP servers. Message Center provides the following features:
- Ability to view and search 30 days of clean/spam mail
- Ability to mark single or multiple messages as spam or not spam
- Delivery of messages that are not spam to the on-premise mailbox
- Addition and removal of contacts for whitelisting purposes
- Bookmarkable URLs for searches and individual messages
Google Apps Vault now searches Google Drive content
Google Apps Vault’s robust functionality now includes another data source—Drive—so that organizations can find even more business-critical content. Vault for Drive comes at no additional cost for Vault customers and works with existing Drive content in users’ accounts. Postini customers transitioning to Vault can also use Vault for Drive at no additional cost once the transition is complete. With Vault for Drive, organizations can search for specific users’ Drive files (including both Google documents and other stored files), preview search results in Vault to make sure customers find just what they need, and create copies of search results and export them for future use.
Restore a user’s Google Drive files
To avoid unintended data loss, admins can now restore a given user’s deleted Google Drive files for a specified date range.
