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Google Docs Gets Faster, More Collaborative, Adds Real Indents

by Terrence O'Brien on April 13, 2010 at 06:30 AM

Google is gearing up for a war with Microsoft. We all know that later this year the Office product standard bearers will unveil a new version of its flagship productivity suite that will be accompanied by a Web-based component. So today, not about to give up its turf without a fight, Google announced a major update to its Google Docs products.

Some changes are quiet and primarily under-the-hood, such as improved document compatibility and faster operation for spreadsheets. Others, however, will be much more obvious. For one, the sidebar chat present in spreadsheets has been incorporated into the word processor. Docs has also gotten real-time collaboration, so you can see, letter by letter, as collaborators make changes to a document. Both documents and spreadsheets are getting some welcome interface tweaks that will make editing easier, including a formula bar, margin rulers and honest-to-goodness tab indents (finally!).

The update will also see the debut of a new stand-alone collaborative drawing editor, similar to the one currently part of Docs.

The updates will be rolled out to users over the next couple of days, but switching over will be optional. The current version will continue its service for a period of time since the update will break compatibility with (the bound for retirement) Google Gears, and some users may rely on its offline capabilities. Eventually, HTML5 will be used to add those older offline features to the new Google Docs sometime in the future.

You can turn on the new service by going into your Google Docs settings tab and selecting "new version" under the editor tab. [From: Google Docs Blog, Via: DownloadSquad]


Tags: google, google docs, google gears, GoogleDocs, GoogleGears, html5, microsoft, microsoft office, microsoft office 2010, MicrosoftOffice, MicrosoftOffice2010, top, web

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