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Deep in a maze of streets in Dar es Salaam, Gregory Mchopa picks up his paint brush and studies the empty canvas. He closes his eyes and visualizes his next painting, whether that be a group of Maasai women collecting water from a well, or villagers dancing before a brilliant Tanzanian sunset. For years, Gregory has been capturing the rich heritage of the Tanzanian Maasai with painstaking dedication. His delicate strokes against the canvas radiate a warmth and brightness unrivaled by his peers - one that had once never reached far beyond that maze of streets in Dar es Salaam.


It wasn't until the summer of 2007 that I first had the privilege of meeting Gregory Mchopa and witnessing his work. I had traveled to Tanzania to serve as a volunteer for google.org's SME training program called "Believe, Begin, Become", during which we met with local businesses in Dar es Salaam and gave presentations with the goal to spark local economic growth. We spoke before local entrepreneurs, established businessmen, and government politicians; but it wasn't until we met a young artist deep in that maze of streets that we truly recognized the potential for sparking local enterprise. After watching Gregory paint a brilliant work of three Maasai women carrying water over their heads to the backdrop of a sweeping red sky, he sat down to explain the difficulties of being an artist in Tanzania: a limited market, a lack of connectivity, and an absence of distribution channels.

Gregory suffered not for lack of passion or talent, but from the lack of technologies and services that could broadcast his work to a far wider audience. After returning to the States, I decided to take on an independent project and worked with BRUTE LABS (a non-profit I founded with several other Googlers) to build a simple website, www.mchopa.com, that would bring Gregory's work before a global audience. Using several Google tools that are free and easy to use - App Engine, Checkout, Spreadsheets, Gmail - we developed a website and interface for Gregory that serves as an open source model for other artists in the developing world seeking to showcase and sell their work.

Since the launch of mchopa.com in 2009, Gregory has sold 47 paintings and kept all of the profits. Perhaps more significantly, Gregory's web presence has connected him with gallery representatives and individual collectors in the US, Canada, and the UK, many of whom have requested custom works for display. The culture of the Maasai has now spread to people around the world.

Deep in that maze of streets in Dar es Salaam, Gregory Mchopa continues to faithfully wield his paint brush, capturing the heritage of his country and people. But through Google's online suite of tools, he now wields the power to broadcast his work far beyond that maze of streets to a global audience of buyers, suppliers, and admirers. The only question left for us now: who's the next Gregory Mchopa?

Posted by Joshua To, Program Manager

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Le pouvoir de la Toile

Quelque part au milieu du dédale de ruelles de Dar es Salaam, Gregory Mchopa, le pinceau à la main, se concente sur sa toile encore blanche. Il ferme les yeux et visualise la scène de son prochain tableau : peut-être des femmes Maasai puisant de l’eau au puits ou encore des villageois dansant dans la splendide lumière d’un coucher de soleil tanzanien... Voilà des années que Gregory capture soigneusement le riche patrimoine du peuple Maasaï de Tanzanie. Ses peintures délicatement exécutées émettent une chaleur et une luminosité qu’on ne trouve nulle part ailleurs chez ses confrères, chaleur et luminosité qui n'avaient jamais dépassé le coeur des ruelles de Dar es Salaam.

Ce n’est qu’en été 2007 que j’ai eu le privilège de rencontrer Gregory Mchopa et de découvrir son travail. J’étais venu en Tanzanie en tant que bénévole pour participer au programme de formation de google.org destiné aux PME et baptisé "Believe, Begin, Become" (Croire, Commencer, Devenir). Dans le cadre de ce programme, nous avons été en contact avec des entreprises locales de Dar es Salaam et fait des présentations pour booster l’économie locale. Nous nous sommes adressés à des entrepreneurs locaux, des hommes d’affaires établis, des hommes politiques. Mais c’est en rencontrant ce jeune artiste qui travaillait dans les rues que nous avons réellement saisi le potentiel disponible pour développer l’entreprise locale. Après avoir peint devant nous un magnifique tableau représentant trois femmes Maasaï portant de l’eau sur leurs têtes avec un immense ciel rouge en toile de fond, Gregory s’est assis et nous a expliqué la difficulté d’être un artiste en Tanzanie : marché limité, isolement et absence de canaux de distribution.

Ce dont Gregory manquait ce n’était ni de passion ni de talent mais de technologies et de services pour l’aider à diffuser son travail auprès d’un plus large public. De retour aux Etats-Unis, j’ai décidé de lancer un projet indépendant et j’ai travaillé avec BRUTE LABS, une initiative à but non lucratif que j’ai fondée avec plusieurs autres Googlers, pour créer un site Web, www.mchopa.com qui rende les oeuvres de Gregory accessibles au public dans le monde entier. A l’aide de plusieurs outils Google, gratuits et faciles à utiliser (App Engine, Checkout, Spreadsheets, Gmail), nous avons mis sur pied pour Gregory un site Web et une interface, lesquels serviront aussi de modèles en open source pour d’autres artistes des pays en voie de développement qui cherchent à montrer et à vendre leurs oeuvres.

Depuis le lancement de mchopa.com en 2009, Gregory a vendu 47 toiles et gardé tous les bénéfices de ses ventes. Peut-être plus important encore, la présence de Gregory sur le Web a permis de le mettre en relation avec des représentants de galeries et des collectionneurs privés aux Etats-Unis, au Canada et au Royaume-Uni, dont nombre d’entre eux lui ont commandé des oeuvres dans le but de les exposer. La culture Maasaï se fait ainsi connaître dans le monde entier.

Quelque part dans le dédale des ruelles de Dar es Salaam, Gregory Mchopa continue de manier son pinceau avec toujours autant de méticulosité, pour capturer l’héritage de son pays et de son peuple. Grâce à la suite d’outils en ligne de Google, il peut aujourd’hui se servir de la Toile pour diffuser son travail bien au delà des frontières de la ville et toucher un public mondial d’acheteurs, de fournisseurs et d’admirateurs. Il nous reste une seule question aujourd’hui : qui sera le prochain Gregory Mchopa?

Posté par Joshua To, directrice de programme

LONDON — A supermarket has defended selling squirrel meat as a "sustainable" form of food, amid protests by animal activists who accused him of cashing in on a "wildlife massacre".

"In a few years' time, it's going to become like rabbit," said Andrew Thornton, who introduced squirrel meat into his branch of the Budgens supermarket in north London this year.

"Squirrel is a very sustainable form of meat," he told AFP on Thursday, explaining that while it takes 15 tons of grain to produce one ton of beef, "squirrels feed from nature -- there are too many of them around."

Squirrel meat was once a common feature of the British diet and in recent years has returned, being sold by speciality game dealers and restaurants and endorsed by celebrity chefs, who have cooked up recipes for squirrel ragout and squirrel offal skewers.

It is increasingly seen as acceptable to eat grey squirrels, whose population has exploded since being introduced here in the 19th century.

Story continues below...

Some groups now advocate culling grey squirrels to protect the domestic red squirrel, which is now a protected species.

Although he is currently out of stock, Thornton said he had been selling about 10 to 12 squirrels a week, sourced from a game supplier in Suffolk, eastern England, and "we've had a number of customers asking for it".

His actions have provoked outrage from animal rights activists, however.

"Culls of thousands of grey squirrels by so-called conservation groups to boost populations of red squirrels are irrational, inhumane and destined to fail, so it is very sad that Budgens are allowing profit to be made from wildlife massacre," said Juliet Gellatley of Viva (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals).

En Français

Back in June, our Zurich engineering headquarters welcomed 100 of EMEA’s brightest computer science students to our annual Europe, Middle East and Africa Scholars’ Retreat. Recipients of the Google Europe Scholarship for Students with Disabilities joined Anita Borg Memorial Scholars and Finalists for three days of workshops, technical talks, poster sessions, networking events and, of course, lots of fun! As we announced in May, this year two scholarships and two finalist positions were awarded to female Sub-Saharan African students as part of the Anita Borg program. Check out our video below to hear from scholars and speakers in their own words:



Our academic scholarships are designed to support a new generation of talented, diverse computer scientists from all backgrounds. If you want to learn more, visit www.google.com/university/emea for a complete list of scholarships, grants and other opportunities available to students and academics.

Posted by Caitlin Pantos, University Programs Specialist

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Séminaires des boursiers EMEA 2010 : Les meilleurs étudiants en informatique partagent leurs impressions

Au mois de juin, notre site d’ingénierie à Zurich a accueilli les cents meilleurs étudiants en informatique de la région EMEA à l’occasion de notre séminaire annuel des étudiants boursiers d’Europe, du Moyen-Orient et d’Afrique. Les bénéficiaires de la bourse d’étude européenne Google destinée aux étudiants handicapés se sont joints aux boursiers et finalistes du concours Anita Borg Memorial durant trois journées d’ateliers, de débats techniques, de présentations, de rencontres avec des professionnels, et bien sûr de bonne humeur ! Comme nous l'avons annoncé au mois de Mai, cette année deux gagnantes de bourses et deux finalistes sont des étudiantes en provenance d'Afrique sub-saharienne, dans le cadre du programme Anita Borg. Découvrez la vidéo pour écouter les commentaires des boursiers et des intervenants.

Notre bourse d’études a été créée pour apporter son soutien à une nouvelle génération talentueuse d’informaticiens et d’informaticiennes venus de tous les horizons. Pour en savoir plus, retrouvez la liste complète des bourses, des aides et des diverses opportunités offertes aux étudiants et universitaires sur le site www.google.com/university/emea.

Posté par Caitlin Pantos, University Programs Specialist

The Deutsche Aids-Hilfe (DAH) is the leading German non-governmental organization that deals with the concerns of people living with HIV/AIDS and helps raise awareness of effective HIV prevention techniques.
As the governing body for more than 120 local AIDS service organizations, it supports this work at many different levels.

The DAH website, aidshilfe.de, is one of the organization’s main communication channels. It offers information on HIV and other sexual transmitted infections and covers the field of counseling for private matters. The website also provides contact information for local self-help-centers, a broad selection of free information material, workshops, community features, etc.

Work on the aidshilfe.de project was supported by many partners. Christoph Schüßler designed the website, which was implemented in Drupal by Berlin-based Werk21. The new aidshilfe.de is a step forward toward a future-proof system that features an attractive new design, interactive features, user-friendly community functionality and great usability.

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Document translation

You can now translate your documents in the new editor into one of the 53 Google Docs languages by selecting Tools -> Translate document.... From there, you can create a translated copy of the document by choosing a title for the translated document and selecting the language you want to translate into.


Undo smartquotes

When you type a quote character (') in Google Docs we automatically make it a smartquote (‘) which indicates its direction. If you don’t want a smart quote, you can press Ctrl Z (Cmd Z on a Mac) after you type it and the smartquote will become a regular quote. We’ll be adding a preference soon that lets you permanently disable smartquotes.

Let us know what you think on the forums.

Posted by: Lily Xia, Software Engineer

Have you been frustrated trying to find the populations or capitals of a list of countries? Would you like to easily get a list of the birthdays of all of your favorite musicians and actors? The GoogleLookup function in Google spreadsheets does all of the work, and in a matter of seconds you have all of the information you want. Using the information collected from the Web using Google Search, the GoogleLookup function finds the values for straightforward facts about specific things.

To use the GoogleLookup function, enter the following formula in the desired spreadsheet cell:

• =GoogleLookup(“entity” ; “attribute”) where “entity” represents the name of the entity you want to access and “attribute” is the type of information that you want to retrieve.

For example, I want to know the atomic number of gold. In this case, gold is the entity while atomic number is the attribute. In the desired cell, I enter =GoogleLookup(“Gold” , “Atomic Number”). Be sure to include quotation marks around both the entity and the attribute.

The atomic number of gold, 79, then shows up in the cell in which the formula was entered.

After experimenting with one GoogleLookup formula, I’d like to apply the formula to a larger list of elements, and also get information on the atomic weight. Instead of typing the formula out like before, I want to click the cell of the first entity in my list, in this case it’s gold. Next, I want to reference the cell in which I name the attribute I’m looking up, in this case, atomic number. Then I want to freeze the appropriate rows and columns with the “$” symbol.

Freezing the appropriate row and column allows me to drag the formula across to the “Atomic Weight” column and down the other rows to apply the formula to all of the other entities. When I apply the formula to all of the other cells, the results will show.

Keep in mind that while the GoogleLookup function knows quite a bit, it doesn't know everything. Although not all of the formulas you try will work, we encourage you to experiment. When GoogleLookup isn't sure if an answer isn't the best one for your entry, you'll see a dialog box with a handful of possible answers that you can choose from. Just select the cell and click More Options... to select a different value.

Here are a few more examples of entities you can access using the GoogleLookup formula, and a few popular attributes:

• Countries and Territories (like "Burkina Faso"): population, capital, largest city, gdp
• U.S. States (like "Tennessee"): area, governor, nickname, flower
• Rivers (like "Amazon River"): origin, length
• Cities and Towns (like "Chicago"): state, mayor, elevation
• Musicians (like "John Lennon"): date of birth, place of birth, nationality
• Politicians (like "Anwar Al-Sadat"): date of birth, place of birth, nationality
• Baseball Players (like "Wade Boggs"): games, at bats, earned run average, position
• Chemical Compounds (like "Isopropyl Alcohol"): chemical formula, melting point, boiling point, density
• Stars (like "Betelgeuse"): constellation, distance, mass, temperature
• Planets (like "Saturn"): number of moons, length of day, distance from sun, atmosphere
• Dinosaurs (like "Velociraptor"): height, weight, when it lived
• Ships (like "USS Chesapeake"): length, displacement, complement, commissioned
• Companies (like "Hewlett-Packard"): employees, ceo, ticker

Checkout the video below to see the GoogleLookup function in action and don't forget to give it a try to see what kind of facts you can find.



Posted by: Julia Harter, Consumer Operations Associate

TicketCake.com is an event ticketing and promotion start-up that recently launched using Drupal as its framework. The website features an innovative design by White Label Graphics which balances functionality and simplicity.

Because Drupal has many ways to display dynamic content, finding the right way to implement a design can be a problem in itself. To overcome this obstacle, the Ticket Cake team focused a significant amount of time creating wireframes for the project.

Drupal’s unique ability to display content in various ways made the process of developing wireframes a constant back and forth. With each iteration, the team updated price quotes, layouts, and site flow.

“Throughout the construction of the wireframes, we always looked to a keep it simple philosophy that ended up being vital,” said Joe Henriod, head of the Ticket Cake business development team. “Measure twice, cut once.”

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Grandiflora is a boutique florist based in Sydney, Australia. Although you might not have heard of them before, you've probably seen their work in the pages of Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and many other fashion magazines. They've also created the floral design for many celebrity weddings and events in the Australia's premier harbour city.

Recently Grandiflora were interested in updating their identity and marketing (including their website), so they tasked the team at House of Laudanum to create a custom online shopping experience to sell their products online. The previous website was a custom CMS written in Perl and while it did have some e-commerce facilities, it required updating to be a more integrated shopping solution.

Why was Drupal chosen for the project?

Although WordPress was considered early on in the decision making process, the team chose Drupal mainly because of the Ubercart module and some other contributed modules which laid the foundation for the integrated payment solution required for the project.

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After reviewing 240 sessions submitted for the conference, the track chairs, the Copenhagen team and the Drupal Association are proud to present the DrupalCon Copenhagen program.

The total of 94 sessions is made up of 83 regular sessions, 6 platinum sponsor sessions, 3 keynotes and 2 rounds of lightning talks.

The session selection accounts for many factors including attendee votes, addressing the breadth of interests of DrupalCon attendees, and providing a balanced and compelling program. For example, some sessions were picked because they were essential for introducing new developers to Drupal, other sessions were selected because they present important local Drupal business cases, etc.

If you proposed a session that didn't make it into the program, please consider presenting it at the Unconference on August 23rd or run it as a Birds of a Feather session. We will be adding more information about these options to the website in the coming weeks.

You can either see the sessions selected for each track below, or take a look at the program overview. Please bear in mind that this is not the final program and that sessions are likely to be moved around as we refine it.

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With new site templates being created every day, there are times when you find the theme you want after you have already created your site. Based on your feedback, we added the ability to apply a site template’s theme to any existing site. To choose from the 100s of themes in the public theme gallery, select Browse the theme gallery from the Themes page (Manage site -> Themes), and start browsing.



Try it out and let us know what you think on the forums.

Posted by: Eric Zhang, Software Engineer

At the Drupal Association retreat in San Francisco, the general assembly set the completion of the drupal.org redesign as its number one priority for 2010. The assembly agreed to fund five contracts to help eliminate obstacles that had prevented the community from completing the redesign.

Five key roles were identified: Architect, Solr developer, Project module developer, and an infrastructure developer. The association also elected to upgrade Drupal.org code repository from CVS to Git to help maintain Drupal.org as the hub of Drupal development.

Hiring process:

Job descriptions were developed in conjunction with both the redesign volunteers and the Drupal.org project managers, Kieran Lal, Chris Strahl, and Lisa Rex. The job descriptions were then posted to groups.drupal.org for 3 weeks. Approximately 35 applications were received and a dozen interviews were conducted by the project management team. The contracts were negotiated with Drupal Association Interim General Manager Jacob Redding, to whom the project team reports directly. Contractors work day-to-day with the project management team. The association will pay for the contract work using the funds raised through memberships, advertising, partnerships, affiliates, and DrupalCon sponsorships.

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Have you ever tried looking for a document or spreadsheet from a particular time or from a certain person about a specific topic? Let’s say you’re a rocket scientist and you’re looking for the presentation about “Prototype rockets with lasers” that your manager sent you last year.

Normally, you’d just search for [rockets lasers prototypes]. But, lets face it, you’re a rocket scientist so you get lots of matching results; just about every document you have is about rockets or lasers.

You could narrow the search in the advanced search menu or you can use Search Operators and refine the search directly in the search box:

• Quotes for exact phrase matching. Example: [ "match this phrase exactly" ]
• OR to allow either one of several words. Example: [ "rockets" OR "shuttles" ]
• Items without a certain word: [ rocket -man ] will return docs that mention rocket, but not rocket man.
• Items you shared with, or had shared with you: [ from:ted@rocketsnlasers.com ] or [ to:ted@rocketsnlasers.com ]
• Starred or Hidden items: [ is:starred ] or [ is:hidden ]

And we recently added a some new search operators:

• Type of doc: [ type:{document, spreadsheet, presentation} ]
• Items edited before (or after) a certain day: [ before:YYYY-MM-DD, after:YYYY-MM-DD ]
• Items owned by Ted: [ owner:ted@rocketsnlasers.com ]
• Items with “rocket” in the title: [ title:rocket ]; [ subject:rocket ] does the same thing

Now you, the rocket scientist, should be able to easily find your boss’ presentation by searching for [ rocket laser prototypes from:overhead@rocketsnlasers.com before:2010-01-01 type:presentation ].

Posted by: Vivek Haldar, Software Engineer

In April, we launched a new version of Google spreadsheets. One new feature that helps organize your data is advanced sorting rules.

Sorting a selection
With the new sorting capabilities, you can sort a small selection of cells without affecting the rest of your spreadsheet. In my triathlon spreadsheet, for example, I could sort only the selection about running while leaving the biking and swimming sections intact. First, I highlight the range of cells in my spreadsheet about running.


Then, I go to the Tools menu and select Sort. Now I can set a sorting rule. In this case, I'd like to sort my running races by date.


Last, I click the Sort button, and my running times are organized by date.


Setting multiple sorting rules
The new sorting feature also allows you to set more than one sorting rule for any given selection of cells. If you select just the data about running again, you can sort first by distance and then by time to more easily see your average time. Click +Add another to add additional sorting rules.


Sorting the entire sheet
Alternatively, you can sort the entire sheet. Click the square in the top left corner of your spreadsheet to select all cells in your spreadsheet. Once you’ve selected all of the cells in your sheet, you can set your sorting rules in the same way as sorting a selection.


A detailed look at sorting
The title of your sorting pop-up will tell you what range of cells you have highlighted to be sorted. If it's wrong, click Cancel and try again. If your columns have titles, you'll want to check the Data has header row box. Next, you'll be able to choose what columns you'd like to sort by in the drop down menu next to sort by. If you'd like to add multiple rules, click +Add another until you're done setting your sorting rules. When you're done, click the Sort button, and voila!


Advanced sorting rules and other new features aren't available if you've switched back to the old version of Google spreadsheets. If you have switched, you can easily return to the new version by clicking 'New version' in the top right corner of your browser.

Posted by: Michael Schidlowsky, Software Engineer

Today, I’m happy to announce that we’ve added 24 new themes to Google forms, which take advantage of the new Google Font API and images from iStockphoto. As a reminder, when you're editing a form, click the Theme button to find the right theme and apply it to your form.

I first got involved with themes at Google when I designed a few templates for the Google Page Creator launch in 2006. Since then, I’ve worked on a number of theme projects in my 20% time, as they presented a far different design challenge compared to my regular projects as a webmaster at Google. You can see my “Spring/Zen Branches” in a number of products.

When I learned about the Google Font API, I wanted to give it a test drive by creating some new Google forms themes. Forms seemed like a good place to start, since they have a pretty standard structure, which makes them fairly simple to style. Initially I was just playing around with different font combinations, but when we added in imagery from iStockPhoto, things really took off. For example it made sense to create a wedding theme using cake imagery and the script font Tangerine, or a digital theme using binary number imagery and the monospaced font Inconsolata. And what better way to present a stack of old books than a font like Crimson Text, which brings to mind classical serif fonts from print? I had a lot of fun combining imagery, colors and font styles to match each other, and I hope you have fun using these themes on your forms.

Posted by: Melissa Louie, Webmaster

If you’ve been holding off on trying our new editors or know a friend who has never tried Google Docs because they don’t have a Google Account, you can now take Google Docs for a test drive with the new Google Docs demo. This lightweight demo includes a sample document, spreadsheet and drawing and works even if you aren’t logged into a Google Account.

Instead of trying to explain to friends how real-time collaboration in Google Docs works, now you can show them. All you have to do is go to docs.google.com/demo, share the link over chat or email, and start typing. Real-time character by character co-editing in documents, cell presence in spreadsheets and instant updates in drawings are all seconds away.



Take it for a spin and let us know what you think in the comments.

Posted by: Peter Harbison, Product Marketing Manager

June is the month of graduations and new beginnings for millions of students around the world. The Google Docs team is also continually learning and we’re happy to announce that the new documents and spreadsheets editors have both graduated.

Documents
Beginning today and rolling out over the next couple of weeks, all new documents will be created using the new documents editor. Docs already created using the older editor will remain there. We will be sharing more information on how to move those documents to the new version soon.

The new editor was built for faster real-time collaboration, better imports, and more control over your document’s layout. Since the preview, we’ve added lots of features including a table of contents, a special characters dialog, a dictionary, search as-you-type, and re-sizable images. You can learn more about the new document editor here.

Spreadsheets
The new version of spreadsheets is available as the default to everyone starting today. Since the launch of the new spreadsheets, we’ve added a lot of new features, including formula highlighting, sheet dragging, sheet menu, faster scrolling, an editable formula bar, and autocomplete in cells, copy sheet from one spreadsheet to another and range sorting.

GoogleLookup and spreadsheet gadgets, which will be added to the new editor shortly, can still be used in the old version which can be accessed by clicking on the “Old version” link in the top right of any spreadsheet. The old version will be available for a few more weeks..

Thanks to everyone who has tried out the new editors over the last couple of months. Your feedback has been very valuable as we prepared to make it available to everyone. The new editors also let us develop new features more quickly, so let us know what you think on the forums.

Finally, there’s also good news for Google Apps customers: these new editors will become their default soon as well. We’ll begin activating the new editor for documents on June 21 and for spreadsheets on June 30. Watch the Google Enterprise Blog for more information.

Update: Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback on the new editors. While the new editors are the default for both documents and spreadsheets, based on your feedback we have modified the roll out of the new documents editor to give you the option to opt-out and stay on the older version. You can do this by unchecking the “Create new text documents using the latest version of the document editor” box on the Editing tab in Google Docs settings. We will update you again when we have gathered additional feedback and have new timing regarding the deprecation of the old editor.

Posted by: Jeff Harris, Product Manager

The ability to share my Google Docs is crucial to my productivity. My teammates and I often add comments to docs, collaboratively organize our feature-planning spreadsheet, and send links of interesting company presentations to each other. Like anyone, I want to make sure that I can share these materials with my colleagues easily and efficiently. This is why I’m happy to announce some improvements that make sharing your Docs easier while giving you even more control:

• Improved visibility options indicating how private or shareable a doc is: Google docs can now be identified as: private; anyone with a link; or public on the web.


• Private: Docs start out as private. When you first create a doc, you are the only person with access to it. From there, you can give access to other people.
• Anyone with the link: If you set your doc to “Anyone with the link,” it’s like an unlisted phone number. In the same way that anyone who knows an unlisted phone number can call it, anyone who knows the web address or URL of that doc can view it.
• Public on the web allows anyone the ability to find and access that particular doc on the web. For example, you could create a flyer for a concert, save it as a public doc, post a link to it on your blog. Public docs are automatically indexed by search engines like Google, so they may appear in search results as well.


• Access viewable at a glance: Visibility options for your docs now appear next to every doc title and in the docs list. You can easily see the full list of editors and viewers by clicking on the visibility option next to the doc’s title or on the Share button


• A cleaner, simpler interface: We’ve removed the three tab interface and replaced it with one dialog that lets you see who has access, manage access and invite others.


• Resettable doc URL: For a doc set to anyone with a link, you can reset the doc’s URL at anytime, which helps you better control who has access to your doc.


• Bulk changes in the docs list: You can now modify the sharing settings of multiple docs at a time by selecting multiple docs and selecting Share > Sharing settings.

To learn more about how these new visibility options work and for an overview of sharing in Google Docs, check out the videos below:





These changes are rolling out now and should be available to everyone in the next week. These improvements have really made a difference in my Google Docs experience. I can share much more quickly and always tell at a glance who has access to my docs. I hope you find them helpful too. Let us know what you think in the forums.

Posted by: Vikki Chou, Software Engineer

Cross posted on the Google Mobile Blog

Last week, we announced that the Google Docs viewer supports .doc and .docx attachments. Today we’re also releasing a mobile version of the Google Docs viewer for Android, iPhone and iPad to help you view PDFs, .ppt, .doc and .docx files you’ve uploaded to your documents list, without needing to download the file.



With our mobile viewer you can switch quickly between pages and pan/zoom within a page. On your iPhone and iPad, you can pinch to zoom in or out.

You can try it out by going to docs.google.com on your Android-powered device, iPad or iPhone and select any document in these formats that you've previously uploaded. Let us know what you think in the Mobile Help Forum.

Posted by: Mickey Kataria, Software Engineer

As anyone working on a term paper, project plan, or party invitation will tell you, there’s a lot of truth in the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” With the new Google Documents editor, you can easily find and insert the perfect image into a document and it will behave exactly as you’d like it.

To get started, select Image from the Insert menu. In Google documents, you can import images from your computer or from a URL. But sometimes you don’t have the image you want to use on hand. Whether it’s a map of the Roman Empire or a photo of a golden retriever, you can now insert an image directly from Google Image Search.


You can add any .gif, .jpg, .png, .bmp image file, up to 2 MB in size.

Wrapping it up
It can be important for images in your document to interact in certain ways with your text. Maybe you want your term paper’s sentences to wrap around a country’s flag? Or perhaps you want images to embellish the lines of your restaurant’s menu?

In the new version of documents, we’ve added a new setting for images -- Inline or Fixed. An Inline image will behave like text -- as you add or subtract words and lines, the image will move around the page, just as words within a certain paragraph do.


Meanwhile, a Fixed image will stay anchored to a specific paragraph, and your words will wrap around it.


You can drag and drop the image around your document if the Fixed position is selected. Or, for an Inline image, you can copy and paste it as you would move around the text within your document.

Resizing images
To resize an image within your document, you can click on it, and a resize box will appear. You can maintain the aspect ratio of the image by dragging from the corner of the rectangular resize window. If maintaining that ratio isn’t important, you can click one of the boxes on any side of the image and drag until you’ve resized the image to your liking.


These advanced image options are available only for documents created in the new version of Google Documents. Let us know what you think in our help forum.

Posted by: Michael Thomas, Software Engineer

Last year we published Getting Started Guides for spreadsheets, documents, and presentations -- because using a product for the first time can sometimes be challenging. People have found these very helpful, so we’ve created a Getting Started Guide for drawings.

This guide covers the basics about Google drawings and gives you all the information you need to start creating, editing, formatting, and sharing your drawings. It also includes some tips and tricks about features you may not know too much about. If you already use Google presentations, but aren't so familiar with drawings, you can read this guide to learn, for example, how to embed your drawing into a presentation.

Don't forget to share this link with your family, friends, and coworkers who may want to get started with Google drawings.

After you're finished reviewing the guide, check our Help Center for more information. And if you have questions or want to share your suggestions and comments, visit our product ideas page.

Posted by: Bryan Carroll, Consumer Operations Strategist