U-M Google Updates

U-M Google October Updates

11/3/2016

Hello,

The monthly U-M Google Updates inform users about what is happening with Google releases for both Core Apps (Google applications that fall under the G Suite for Education agreement and do NOT require separate terms of service or privacy policy), as well as the Non-Core Apps (those that are not part of the G Suite for Education agreement). We will continue to communicate important information on Core Apps throughout the month as well. For a list of Core and Non-Core Apps, see the U-M Google List of Services.

Core Apps:

  • Learn about your co-workers in the context of the Android apps you use every day. When you tap on a profile photo, the information that’s available in the Google UMICH directory will be shown in the new “Directory” card, showing you more information about the person.

  • New! Page numbers are now an option for table of contents. To enable page numbers, select the numbered option when inserting a table of contents from the Insert menu.

Email Headers in Gmail

10/28/2016

Have you ever wanted to trace an email to see where it came from? In Gmail, you can can see where an email originated by looking at its headers. This includes showing how it got from the sender to the recipient's email servers.

Note: The Copy to clipboard feature includes the content of the message with the headers.

To trace an email in Gmail:

  • Open the email you want to trace
  • Next to Reply, click the Down arrow
  • Click Show original
  • The headers will show in a new window, including fields like authentication results

To trace an email in Inbox by Gmail:

  • Open the email you want to trace
  • Inside the message, click More. Click Show original.
  • The headers will show in a new window.

New ways to reach your goals with G Suite

10/21/2016

G Suite (formerly Google Apps) recently introduced new features designed to speed up and simplify the way you work.

  1. Action Items

    To help keep your projects moving, when you type phrases like “Ryan to follow up on the keynote script,” or “Andrea to schedule a weekly check in” on desktop, Docs will suggest an Action Item to assign to the right person, using Natural Language Processing (NLP).

    You can also manually assign an Action Item to someone in the Docs, Sheets and Slides desktop and mobile apps by mentioning their name in a comment and checking the new Action Item box. The assignee will get an email notification and see the Action Item(s) highlighted with a blue bar when they open the file.

  2. Badges

    The next time Action Item assignees visit Docs, Sheets, Slides (or Drive) from their laptops or mobile apps, they’ll see a badge on any files with Action Items assigned to them, plus any unresolved suggestions that others have made to their files.

  3. Forms

    Launching November 2, G Suite will predict the type of question you’re asking and suggest potential responses for you to choose from.

    Let’s say you’re planning an all-day event at the office and need to know which day works best for your team. When you type “What days are you available next week?” Forms will determine that “Checkbox” is the ideal question type, and generate related response options that you can add one by one or all together.

    Launching November 9, there will be a new “File upload” question type. Your respondents can now upload files from their computer or Drive — all of which are collected for you in a new Drive folder. Note: This feature is only available in Forms shared within the UMICH domain.

  4. Voice commands

    G Suite added more ways to format and customize content with commands for changing text color, deleting words, inserting links and comments, plus a number of other ways to format, hands-free.

Explore in Docs, Sheets and Slides makes work a breeze

10/13/2016

Today Google launches Explore in Docs and Slides (Explore is already available in Sheets). It is designed to bring you insights, design tools, and research recommendations. Explore uses Google smarts to help you create presentations, spreadsheets, and documents. It’s like having your own researcher, analyst, and designer.

Sheets

Explore in Sheets helps you decipher your data, whether you’re new to spreadsheets or a formula pro. Just ask Explore—with words, not formulas—to get answers about your data. You can ask questions like “how many students are registered for chemistry?,” “what are the top three careers by income?,” or “what was the total cost of employee benefits last fiscal year?” Explore in Sheets is available on the web, Android, and iOS.

Slides

Explore in Slides helps you polish the design of presentations. As you work, Explore generates design suggestions, based on the content of your slide. Pick a recommendation and apply it with a single click—no cropping, resizing, or reformatting required.

Docs

Explore in Docs helps with researching and writing reports. Whether you’re writing about molecular biology or planning your next team lunch, you’ll get suggestions based on the content in your document. It recommends related topics to learn about, images to insert, and more content to check out. You can also find a related document from Drive or search Google in Explore. It is available on Android, iPhone, or the web.  

Explore is gradually rolling out to the UMICH domain over the next week.

U-M Google September Updates

10/4/2016

The monthly U-M Google Updates informs campus about what is happening with Google releases for both Core Apps (Google applications that fall under the G Suite* for Education agreement and do NOT require separate terms of service or privacy policy), as well as the Non-Core Apps (those that are not part of the G Suite for Education agreement). We will continue to communicate important information on Core Apps throughout the month as well. For a list of Core and Non-Core Apps, see the U-M Google List of Services page.

*Google has recently renamed their Google Apps services G Suite.

Core Apps:

  • What you love about Google Search - now for Drive! New features include:

    • Searching faster and with greater ease. Now you can search using Natural Language Processing (NLP), which is a way of saying “search like you talk.” You can type things like “find my budget sheet from last December” and Drive will understand what you mean and give you the option to click for those specific search results. Each query improves Drive’s NLP.

  • Help with spelling. Drive has a new autocorrect feature that suggests corrections to misspelled search items.

  • Updates based on your feedback:

    • You can now split your document into multiple columns in Google Docs. Select Columns in the Format drop-down menu.

    • When you open, convert, and edit non-Google files in Docs, Sheets, and Slides, a copy will be automatically saved for you. View or download the non-google source file in its original format directly from Revision History in Docs, Sheets, and Slides on the web.

  • Your emails are optimized for every screen with responsive design. You will be able to use CSS media queries with Gmail and Inbox by Gmail to check that your message is formatted the way you intended, whether it's viewed on a computer, a phone in portrait mode, or a tablet in landscape mode.

  • Historical GOOGLEFINANCE data is no longer accessible outside of Google Sheets. It will no longer be possible to download or access historical data outside of Sheets using Apps Script or an API.

Previously Communicated:

Note: Keep in mind that even when non-core apps are found in a core app (like Google Drive), they are not covered by the G Suite for Education agreement.

The Collaboration Services Team