We built Google Docs to help you create your best work — from work, school or home, and everywhere in between. We know crafting presentations, projects and reports takes time and energy. That’s why today we’re introducing Explore in Docs, Sheets and Slides to bring you insights, design tools and research recommendations so you can create better work, faster.

Explore uses Google smarts to help you create amazing presentations, spreadsheets and documents in a fraction of the time they used to take… so you can get on with what’s most important in your life. It’s like having a researcher, analyst and designer by your side.

Insights, instantly 
Today’s updates to Explore in Sheets help you decipher your data easily, 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 units were sold on Black Friday?,” “what are the top three items by sales price?,” or “what was the total cost of jackets last month?” Less time crunching numbers + crafting formulas = more time to find key insights and use them.

We’ve also added new formatting suggestions to help make your data pop. Explore in Sheets is available on the web, Android and now on iOS, too!

Beauty, baked in 
Crafting the perfect pitch deck or sharing your team’s story is hard enough without having to make it look great, too. Explore in Slides makes design polishing simple. As you work, Explore dynamically generates design suggestions, based on the content of your slide. Simply pick a recommendation and apply it with a single click — no cropping, resizing or reformatting required.

We’ve seen that people save over 30% of the time they would have spent on formatting when they use Explore. So even if design isn’t your style, rest assured you’ll have a beautiful presentation to be proud of. Instantly.

Research, made simple 
Explore in Docs makes researching and writing reports on the go a whole lot easier. Whether you’re writing about mobile retail trends or planning your next team offsite, you’ll get instant suggestions based on the content in your document. We’ll automatically recommend related topics to learn about, images to insert and more content to check out in Docs on your Android, iPhone or the web.

We know that it’s helpful to refer to other content when writing an analysis, summary or proposal. That’s why we’ve also made it easy to find a related document from Drive or search Google, right in Explore. Less time spent switching between apps more time to polish your ideas.

We designed Explore in Docs, Sheets and Slides to make creating and working easy and most of all, fast — all backed by the power of Google. Let Explore save you time so you can focus on what matters most.

Posted by Ritcha Ranjan, Product Manager

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

Warhol & Basquiat. Buñuel & Dalí. Rauschenberg & Johns. There are countless examples of artists collaborating to bring a shared creative vision to life. So we wondered: Could technology help bring together two artists who might not otherwise meet? What would they create…if their canvas were a spreadsheet? And how could we celebrate and share their work of art with the world?

In partnership with Refinery29, a lifestyle digital media company, we linked up with renowned illustrators Marina Esmeraldo in Barcelona, and Mallory Heyer in NYC. We gave them a simple creative assignment—to “break the grid”—which literally can mean pushing the “grid” of Google Sheets to its limits, but also taps into the idea of supporting and celebrating women globally who break free of confined roles and ways of thinking, which is core to Refinery29's mission.
The result was a bright, beautiful design that celebrates the diversity and strength of women, and we wanted to share their finished project in a BIG way.
The final step was to convert Marina and Mallory’s final piece from the cells of a spreadsheet to the bricks of a giant wall—to go from Sheets to the streets. So, we turned to Colossal Media, a Brooklyn-based company that hand-paints murals all over the world.
After hand-mixing each of the colors and prepping the artwork for large-scale painting, Colossal spent five days painting each cell, letter, and gradient by hand, to create a 13’ x 34’ mural of the spreadsheet. And that’s how art was #madewithGoogleSheets.

To see it for yourself, check out Marina & Mallory’s spreadsheet or head to Bogart & Thames in Brooklyn to visit the wall in person (until August 14). We're delighted by the creativity and imagination brought about by artistic collaboration, and proud to be associated with the work’s inspirational message supporting strong women everywhere.

Posted by Michael Bolognino, Product Marketing Manager

Cross-posted from the Google Apps Developers Blog

There was a time when office work used to be all about pushing physical paper. Computing and productivity tools have made things better, but workers still find themselves doing the same tasks over and over across the different apps they use: copying and pasting from a CRM app to a slide presentation, or manually exporting data from a project management app just to turn around and import it back into a spreadsheet. It’s the digital equivalent of pushing paper.
To make it easier to get the job done across multiple apps, without all the copy and paste, we’re announcing three new APIs and a new feature to help workers get to the data they need, when and where they need it.

Build seamless integrations with the new Sheets and Slides APIs
Our new APIs let developers connect their apps—and the data within them—more deeply with Google Sheets and Google Slides.
The new Sheets API gives developers programmatic access to powerful features in the Sheets web and mobile interfaces, including charts and pivot tables. For example, developers can use Sheets as part of a rich workflow that pushes data from their app into Sheets and allows users to collaborate on that data before the updated data is pulled back into the original app, removing altogether the need to copy and paste.
Teams at Anaplan, Asana, Sage, Salesforce, and SAP Anywhere are already building interesting integrations with the new Sheets API. Check out the video below to see an overview of what’s possible as well as several example integrations.

Partner integrations with the new Google Sheets API
The new Sheets API is available today. Find the developer documentation as well as a codelab to help you get started at developers.google.com/sheets.

Similar to the Sheets API, the new Slides API gives developers programmatic access to create and update presentations. For example, developers can use this API to push data and charts into Slides to create a polished report from source data in other application, ready to present.
Conga, ProsperWorks, SalesforceIQ and Trello are all building integrations with Slides using the new API. Several examples of what’s possible are in the video below.

Partner integrations with the new Google Slides API
The Slides API will be launching in the coming months, and these partner integrations will be available soon after. You can sign up for early access to the Slides API at developers.google.com/slides.

Keep your data in sync with the new Classroom API
For developers building tools and workflows for schools, the Classroom API has launched new coursework endpoints to help you build stronger integrations that keep your data in sync. Read the full announcement on the Google for Education blog, here.
Sync assignments & grades programmatically with the Google Classroom API

Say goodbye to stale data with linked charts
Finally, to make sure we can help keep all this data flowing seamlessly from app to app, users can now also embed linked charts from Sheets into Docs or Slides. The result? Once the underlying data in a spreadsheet changes, whether that change comes from an action taken in another app via the API or a collaborator, an updated chart in the corresponding presentation or document is just one click away.
Linked charts allow for easy updates in Docs & Slides
For more information, see how to add a chart to a document or to a presentation.
We can't wait to see what you build.

Posted by Tom Holman, Product Manager, Google Sheets

Public speaking can be intimidating—even for veteran speakers with phenomenal ideas and experiences to share. Take Shree Bose, for example.

At just 17 years old, Shree took home the top prize at the first ever Google Science Fair for her research on drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Now, a senior at Harvard, she’s met with President Obama twice, crowdfunded a Minecraft computer program to support STEM education, and has given talks across the globe. But she still gets nervous every time she’s asked to speak at events.

When Shree recently visited our New York office to present to 200 middle school students, we invited her to try a new feature in Google Slides: Slides Q&A. This update—rolling out globally today—helps speakers connect with their audience and collect real-time feedback. With a simple link displayed on a Slides presentation, audience members can submit questions from their phones, laptops, and tablets—and vote on those they want answered the most.
Hear what your audience has to say 
Slides Q&A is great for audience members, too. During Shree’s talk, students submitted more than 170 questions and voted 800 times. They enjoyed being able to submit questions online the moment they thought of them instead of having to remember them until the end of the presentation. Some students also chose to submit questions anonymously.

At the end of her talk, Shree left time for Q&A, but she couldn’t possibly answer all 170 questions. So, she sorted the questions based on audience votes—and responded to the top ones. The question with the most overall votes was submitted by a seventh grader named Leila. She says, “I was so surprised when I saw my question was the most liked. I probably wouldn’t want to stand up and ask the question because I’m kind of shy.”


Focus on your ideas, not set up 
Slides Q&A makes it easy to interact with your audience—without having to worry about mics or moderators. Slides also helps you get your big ideas and stories on screen—without having to worry about wires or set up stress. Starting today, we're improving this "Show up, don't setup" experience in two ways:

• You can now present your slides to a Hangout from your iPhone or iPad. So with just your phone or tablet and the Slides app, you can present to any screen using Chromecast, AirPlay or Hangouts. 
• And for those of you who like presenting from a computer, we're introducing a new laser pointer on the web. Just in time for May the 4th (be with you). 

Today’s Slides updates are rolling out globally on Android, iOS, and the web. So go on, share your stories and present with confidence.

And for a little inspiration, check out Shree’s full talk, #HowCanWe Make the World Better with Science? on the Talks@Google channel.

Posted by Michael Frederick, Google Slides Engineer

How many times have you found yourself with a great idea, but no easy way to jot it down for later? Or maybe you’ve got lots of notes scattered around, without no central spot to find them. Having a single place to capture what’s on your mind and save your ideas and to-do lists is what Google Keep is all about, and today's updates give you a few new ways to collect and manage the information that's important to you.

Keep is ready when you are
The next time you’re on a website that you want to remember or reference later on, use the new Keep Chrome extension to add it—or any part of it—to a note in Keep. Just click the Keep badge to add a site’s link to a note, or select some text or an image and create a new note from the right-click menu.
Same goes for Android—you can now create a note while you’re browsing or tapping away in other apps—without having to open Keep. Just open the “Share via” window and choose Keep to create a new note.

Organize your thoughts with #Labels
One of your top asks has been for a way to organize and categorize notes, and now it’s as easy as using a #hashtag. This should help you keep track of to-do lists for a #trip or a collect your favorite #recipes, for example.

You’ll also notice that some of the menus have been moved around to group similar options together, as pictured below.
So whether you’re researching a project at work, putting together details for your Science Fair submission, or collecting inspiration for your upcoming home renovation, give these updates a try on the web, or with the Keep app on Android and for iPhone & iPad.

Posted by Mario Anima, Product Manager

In the spirit of Basement Queens--an original song that was #madewithGoogleDocs, we recently caught up with SongCraft presents to chat about how they use Google Docs to power their super cool web series where they bring artists together to write a song in less than a day. 

We want to know how you use Google Docs, too, so share your own examples at +GoogleDocs or @googledocs with the hashtag #mygoogledocs. -Ed. 

Hi Mike! Tell us a little about yourself and Songcraft. 
SongCraft Presents is a web series about writing and recording a brand new song, usually in less than a day. In each episode songwriter Ben Arthur collaborates with a new artist - sometimes individuals, and sometimes a band- to write a song. Rob Reinhart, of the syndicated radio program Acoustic Cafe, usually hosts and narrates the show, and interviews the artists along the way. Al Houghton and me (Mike Crehore) of Dubway Studios, record the music, whether done in a studio or on the fly, and produce the finished product. Our director, Matthew Hendershot captures the process, and edits the footage into its final form.

2015 had us in 5 locations around the country producing a version of our series called “Songs of the Road,” as well as returning to SXSW 2015 to work with 3 more artists. You can see all those episodes at SongCraft Presents or at our YouTube channel.
How does Google Docs fit into the Songcraft process? 
We have been using Google Docs since its inception both individually and in various work relationships. Al and Mike started using Docs at Dubway Studios as a way to share information amongst both fulltime and part-time staff. The studio business has a lot of moving parts, and the ability to post forms showing what a producer or engineer needed for upcoming sessions, and that the support staff can look at for setup greatly streamlined the process. Last minute changes become less of a hassle.

As part of our “Songs of the Road” series, we had staff coming from all different locations around the country. We share all the data for our shoots - locations, contacts, directions, call times, etc - and keep everything up to date as it changes. All the staff members using their smartphones and Google Docs apps are able to log in and get or input any updates as needed on the fly. As we add staff, we just share access with them according to their needs.

What are 3 tips you’d give for other folks who use/would consider using Google Docs? 

1. Using the “Comments” function in real time is a great way to be able to make edits and give and take feedback about them with the rest of the members of your team. 
2. Share documents with the “View” function for those people who you do not want to give login access to, but want to share information with. 
3.  Organize your folders and color code to more easily find documents across multiple projects in Drive.

We launched a collection of templates in Docs, Sheets and Slides in September to give your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations the extra polish they deserve. Today, we’re adding to that collection with new templates designed by five experts in their fields. All templates are available on the web and on Android and iOS.


For a head start, at school and beyond 
Reading Rainbow, the third longest running children's TV series in US history and award-winning digital service, has been inspiring children to read for over 30 years. Reading Rainbow created a lesson plan and a book report template in Docs to help teachers and students get things done.

The Google Science Fair (GSF) is an annual online science and engineering competition open to teens globally. In the competition, young scientists have tackled issues like world hunger, life-threatening diseases and the energy crisis. Use GSF’s science fair template in Slides for a head start on your next project—or for this year’s GSF.

For your big ideas, at work and on the go 
Intuit's QuickBooks software helps small business owners get more out of financial planning with tools like automated budgeting, tax time reports, and payroll. Use the new annual business budget template by QuickBooks in Sheets to easily manage your budget so you can focus on building your business.

GV provides venture capital funding to bold new companies. In the fields of life science, healthcare, artificial intelligence, robotics, transportation, cyber security and agriculture, GV’s companies aim to improve lives and change industries.The new GV pitch template in Slides helps entrepreneurs share their vision, based on proven presentation tactics.

And, in the bestselling book, Made to Stick, brothers Chip and Dan Heath revealed that “sticky” messages of all kinds draw their power from the same main traits. In their big idea template in Slides, they use these principles to help you build and deliver your most memorable presentation yet.

Jump-start your next project with these easy-to-use templates in Docs, Sheets, and Slides—available on the web and on your Android or iPhone. Let us know what you create!

Posted by Brian LeVee, Product Manager

We launched Voice typing in Docs to help you capture ideas, compose a letter, or even write the next great novel—all without touching your keyboard. Starting today, you can also edit and format your documents with your voice.

To get started, select "Voice typing" in the "Tools" menu when you’re using Docs in Chrome. Say what comes to mind—then start editing and formatting with commands like “copy,” “insert table,” and “highlight.”

Check out the full list of commands in our Help Center or simply say “Voice commands help” when you’re voice typing.
It’s a quick and easy way to get ideas out of your head, and into a doc. So try out Voice typing (and editing and formatting) today!


Posted by Isaiah Greene, Product Manager

When Jim, one of the engineers on the Google Slides team, brought a zucchini chocolate cake into the office last week, we knew we had to get the recipe. 

So we asked him and his wife, Alison, to let us in on the family secret—just in time for Chocolate Cake Day. They worked together in Slides (mobile commenting across Google Docs just launched today!) to perfect the recipe. Alison writes: 


Growing up, my grandma made zucchini chocolate cake often, especially when there was a surplus of zucchinis at the local farmer’s market. The cake is ridiculously moist and pairs well with many different frostings, though cream cheese is my favorite.

Thanks to mobile commenting, Jim and I went back and forth on the recipe—Jim on his Nexus 9, me on my iPhone—until we had it just right:
Check out our family recipe in Slides. We call it Straka’s Zucchini Chocolate Cake—in honor of my grandma.

Happy Chocolate Cake Day, from our family to yours.


Posted by Alison Zoll, chemist, baker and wife of Jim Zoll, Slides engineer


Get the apps on Android and iOS (Docs, Sheets, Slides)

Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. Hall & Oates.

Some of the most popular songs ever recorded were the result of collaborations. Recently we asked ourselves: Could technology help bring together two musicians who might not otherwise meet? And if so: What would they create? With this in mind, we challenged two unique artists—burgeoning hip hop queen Lizzo and indie frontwoman Sad13 (Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz)—to write a song together in Google Docs.
Sad13 and Lizzo first connected in Hangouts—in Massachusetts and Minnesota, respectively—to hash things out. Within seconds they were inside a doc—riffing in real-time on ideas, then lyrics, then overall structure. And in just a couple of weeks they had a track they were really excited about.
The pair of women then flew to Brooklyn to meet for the first time IRL, and to record their new single, "Basement Queens"—a celebration of creating their own sound, on their own terms. And that's how music was #madewithGoogleDocs.
Watch the video for a behind-the-scenes look at the entire process, then download or stream the song for free from Google Play. We think you'll agree: Sad13 and Lizzo definitely earn their "reputation / for making magic from the basement."

Credits
Song produced by Computer Magic
Drums by Jordyn Blakely
Photos by James Chororos
Film by Mixtape Club
Recorded at Room 17
 #madewithGoogleDocs

Recently we heard about Movie Cram, an event where hundreds of people work together to create a feature-length film in a single day, organized—with the help of Google Docs—by comedy group Whale Thief. We got in touch with members Matt Klinman, Benjamin Apple, and Matt Mayer to hear more about the role Google Docs plays in powering this massive undertaking.

We want to know how you use Google Docs, too, so share your own examples at +GoogleDocs or @googledocs with the hashtag #mygoogledocs. -Ed. 

Hi Whale Thief! Tell us a little about who you are and what Movie Cram is.
Movie Cram is an annual event where we make a feature-length film—from pitch to production to screening—in just 24 hours. This year 200+ people participated, including 14 writers, 29 production teams, 10 musicians, and more than 100 actors. The event is run by Whale Thief, our six-member comedy group based in New York City.

Making a movie in a day requires a lot of parallel processes. The writers write their scenes simultaneously and then merge them into a single screenplay. The production teams shoot simultaneously, each with their own cast of actors. This whole time, musicians are recording an original soundtrack inspired by the script. Finally each production team edits their respective scenes and delivers them to us between 11 p.m. and midnight so we can quickly assemble them into a seamless playlist. At midnight, the finished product premieres in front of a live audience at  the UCB Theatre in Chelsea.

How does Google Docs fit into the Movie Cram process? 
We use Google Docs to organize the massive amounts of data required to pull off an event of this complexity. In the months leading up to each year’s Movie Cram we use Docs to keep track of everything—from who’s available to do the event, to who canceled at the last minute, to everyone’s contact info, to our to-do and done lists. On the day of the event, we use it to take notes on all of the movie pitches, keep track of who’s writing what and which actors are assigned to which production teams, and organize the soundtrack files.

What are three tips you’d give to other filmmakers who use/would consider using Google Docs?

1. Use formatting to your advantage. It sounds obvious, but if you take the time to bold your column headers, add section descriptions, and come up with a color-coded priority key, it will quickly pay off in the form of higher scannability—especially when you’re sharing docs with others. 
2. Use Docs to give and get notes! If you ask someone to look over an entire document and then give you their thoughts on it, chances are they’ll have forgotten half of their notes by the time they start emailing you. If they can give notes as they go by leaving comments or suggestions, the resulting feedback will be far more thorough. 
3. Get creative! Each document type is meant to display a different kind of information, but you never know what might happen if you try to subvert that intended purpose. For example, once when two of us were editing the same spreadsheet (one of us in New York, one in Los Angeles), we ended up using the spreadsheet itself as a chat room. When we wanted to indicate agreement, we just bolded what the other person had written, or increased the font size. We could write in any direction and follow our own digressions visually, or respond to individual lines before continuing. Eventually the spreadsheet looked like the wall of a gas station bathroom. It was great.

Thanks to the crew at Whale Thief for answering our burning questions about Movie Cram. For more, check out Movie Cram’s latest film on YouTube and read this New York Times article for details about how this audacious project works.

Many a person has said, “I’m going to write a novel someday.” Someday… as in, when your work slows down, or when you can go on a fancy writing retreat, or when your kids are grown up. Someday is usually a day that doesn’t ever arrive, which is why National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, founded in 1999 by Chris Baty and friends) exists: to help you realize your creative dreams today.

The idea is straightforward. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 p.m. on November 30. You don’t have to take a novel-writing class or read how-to books; you learn to write a novel by doing it. In the words of NaNoWriMo: “Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.”

If you are considering giving it a shot this November, here are five ways Docs can help you get cracking:

1. Write everywhere - Get the app for Android or iPhone/iPad, and add new paragraphs or make edits anytime an idea strikes—on the bus, while you’re walking the dog, or even those times you’re caught without Wi-Fi, like on a plane. Of course, you can also tinker with your burgeoning masterpiece from any desktop computer by signing in at docs.google.com, so you never have to worry about having the right machine or device with you. 
2. Know your word count - You’ve got one month to make it to 50,000 words, so it’s critical to track your progress as you go. To grab your word count, use the shortcut command + shift + C (mac) / Ctrl + shift +C (pc), finding it in the Tools menu, or by clicking the three grey dots in the Android app. Once you’ve got your tally, update your progress by pasting your wordcount into the NANOWRIMO header menu. 
3. Get & manage feedback - Wrimos, as they're known, like to get feedback from each other as they write, and Docs makes that easy. When you’re ready for input, hit the big blue Share button, set permissions to “Can comment,” and the people you've shared with will be able to add comments or make suggestions that you can choose to accept or reject. 
4. See previous versions - Docs comes with revision history built-in, so you never lose previous version of your novel. Click on “See revision history” in the file menu, and you’ll see all your edits, grouped by date, so you can easily go back in time—or even revert to a previous version that you prefer. If you do invite others to give feedback on your work, click the “See new changes” button at the top for an instant look at any edits they made. 
5. Share your novel - Once you’re finished (congrats, BTW!), you can choose to publicly share your novel for the world to read. Also in the File menu, hit “Publish to the web” and you’ll be able to share the URL of your novel far and wide—on your favorite social networks, in email, or however you’d like. 

Good luck, and godspeed!

Posted by Michael Bolognino, Product Marketing Manager

We want to know how you use Google Docs, too, so share your own examples at +GoogleDocs or @googledocs with the hashtag #mygoogledocs. -Ed. 

Hi Susanna! Tell us a little about yourself and what you do. 
I'm the founder & CEO of BridgEd Strategies, a consulting firm that works with education organizations to develop & implement strategy, communication, and change management plans that help them better serve low-income, first generation students. I'm a lifelong educator with experience ranging from being a K - 12 classroom teacher to a senior administrator at a technical college. Most recently I served as a program officer at a large national philanthropic foundation.

I returned home to New York City last year after a decade in Seattle.

How does Google Docs fit into your everyday work at BridgEd?
When I launched my consulting practice last year, I made the conscious choice to use Google Docs and other Google products instead of buying the other office software. I've had a Gmail account for over a decade and use Google calendar to organize (and keep a historical record of) my life.

I was nervous about solely relying on Google Docs- I was unsure how I would collaborate with clients who use the other office software. I initially gave myself six months to road test this approach. It's been seamless. I use Google Docs to write, collaborate, plan, and edit with clients and partners across the world. I’m able to access my clients’ Office documents with no translation issues.

I also chose to switch from an iPhone to an Android-based cell phone. Having all of my communications devices on the same platform makes it incredibly easy to access information, no matter where I am.

When my laptop recently stopped working, I wasn’t worried about whether I’d remembered to back everything up because all of my work was automatically saved to my Google Drive. As an independent consultant, I’m my own CEO, CFO, HR Director, and Director of IT. This peace of mind is a huge relief.

What are 3 tips you’d give for other organizations who use/would consider using Google Docs?

1. Google Drive is your most powerful asset for organizing and sharing information. A well-organized Google Drive will make collaboration and communication so much easier. Bonus: the search function means you don’t even have to be that organized. 
2. The “Suggest” feature in Google Docs makes co-writing easy and exciting. I have collaborated on two blog post projects with people I know only through Twitter-- and Google Docs made that process not only possible but easy as well. 
3. I’ve saved a photo of my signature as a .jpg in my Google drive to easily sign Google Docs.

Jarrett is a teacher and social entrepreneur based in West Philadelphia who uses Google Docs and Drive to power a student run organization that creates healthy snacks, called Rebel Ventures. 

We want to know how you use Google Docs, too, so share your own examples at +GoogleDocs or @googledocs with the hashtag #mygoogledocs. -Ed. 

Hi Jarrett! Tell us a little about yourself and what you do. 
I work for an organization called the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative at Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships. Over the past 4 years, I’ve worked with West Philly HS students to build a business that produces healthy snacks called Rebel Ventures. Our mission is to make good food affordable to everyone. Simply put, good food is good for the people who eat it, good for the people who make it, and good for the planet. Our goal is to create healthy snacks and healthy jobs for our community.

How does Google Docs fit into your workday? 
The Rebel Ventures Google Drive folder is the foundation of our job training model. Our business is divided into 6 departments (accounting, operations, sales, marketing, design, r&d) and high-school students rotate through each department, learning and developing a diverse set of skills by running the business activities within that department. The more skills HS students master, the more more money they earn.
We store all our files in our Drive, no matter what software is used to create them. All HS students with smartphones download Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc for their phone so they can access and manipulate the content at all times.

We use Slides to create all the tutorials that students use to teach themselves specific Rebel skills when no one is available to train them. Our entire accounting and sales systems are built in Sheets called Master Accounts. Every week a HS student opens and updates our Future Sales tab, which is transcribed on a whiteboard, carried into our kitchen, and the rest of the crew work on fulfilling orders.

We also use Sheets to improve our product quality in the Research and Development department. Every time we create a new flavor or product, we conduct a crew-wide taste test, where each individual ranks the products in a variety of set categories. A HS crew member is responsible for entering the data from the paper taste test forms into a spreadsheet, and then uses different functions to analyze and visualize the data so we can make informed recipe development decisions.

Our performance management system is based on peer evaluation. Every two weeks all Rebel crew members (high school, college, staff) fill out an anonymous Google Form where they rate their colleagues in 3 categories, and provide comments to justify the ratings. Our high school Rebel crew leaders are responsible for analyzing this data and then using it to co-plan SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) goals for individual improvement.

What are 3 tips you’d give for other organizations who use/would consider using Google Docs?

1.  Trust your team and let them play. We give our high school students free access to computers as well as their phones during work, trusting that if they are using this technology they are working with Drive and Docs. The apps are simple enough that the students can self direct their activities, and they know to look to their peers and mentors if they need help manipulating a particular doc. 
2. Build and keep building. We usually don’t have any idea what the final form of any of our docs, spreadsheets, presentations, or forms will look like before we start making them. We have a goal in mind, but otherwise just start building from the ground up until we’ve created a tool that is useful. We test the tool and continue building. If more than one person is working on a doc at a time, we make sure they have their own device to access the doc so we don’t stifle creativity, independence, and cooperative communication. 
3. Be organized and be transparent. We do our best to keep our Drive organized through folders, and regularly train our staff on how to navigate the system. We also put everything our staff needs into Drive so there is open access to the information we need to do our jobs.

Bodie is an award winning writer and director of short films and other projects that have aired on MTVu, Logo, and the Sundance Channel, and has collaborated with DJ ShyBoy to create music videos for his debut album Water on Mars. Currently Bodie’s video work can be seen as part of the Los Angeles Public Library’s exhibit, “To Live and Dine in L.A.” exploring food culture and issues of food justice in and around L.A. 

We want to know how you use Google Docs, too, so share your own examples at +GoogleDocs or @googledocs with the hashtag #mygoogledocs. -Ed. 

1. Hey Bodie! Tell us a little about yourself and what you do. 
I see myself as a jack-of-all-trades film/media maker/storyteller/… . Although my background is firmly rooted in traditional forms of storytelling--like theatre and film--I’m fortunate that over the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of all things new-media related. 

Currently I’m an assistant professor of cinematic practice at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts’ division of Media Arts + Practice. I teach documentary film production, web design, installation-based storytelling, and everything in between. The incredible group of faculty, staff, and students in our department are exploring all types of media (interactive, immersive, web-based, etc.) and how it can be used to critically engage with the issues most pressing to our culture and society. It’s an exciting place to be and, even though I’m a professor, I feel like I learn more than my students every day!

With my newfound awareness of the possibilities inherent to these emergent modes of storytelling, I’m now collaborating with many artists and designers to develop stories that will harness these technologies. This doesn’t mean I’ve completely turned my back on narrative feature films (in fact, I’m in various stages of the writing process for three), but because every project can take such a long time to gestate, I’m a firm believer of casting as wide a net as possible to keep the artistic practice in tip-top shape.

2. How does Google Docs fit into your filmmaking and teaching?
Google Docs is integral to all that I do; I use it to keep track of any ideas I have for future projects, my artistic partners and I use all of the Docs tools for our collaborations, and I use it in my classes as a space in which my students can ideate for group projects.
Re-reading that paragraph I find it amusing because I don’t think I have ever thought of word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations as artistic tools, but the way Google has designed them (and continually improved them) they’ve truly become a key part of my creative process.

3. What are 3 tips you’d give for filmmakers who use/would consider using Google Docs?

1. Try to think outside of the box - I’ve adapted Sheets to a 3x5” index card technique I learned at UCLA as a way to map out my screenplays, Slides has become a good pre-visualization tool for my video shoots, and Docs can be adapted to use for almost any idea! 
2. Sync to your devices - I use the entire suite on my phone, laptop, and desktop at school. The mobility it allows is incredible and saves me from having to make multiple copies of documents for each device. 
3. Collaborate - the fullest potential of Google Docs is only revealed once you use it to work with others.

Forget fumbling with sticky notes or trying to recall that last item on your to-do list. When you’re trying to capture a moment or remember a task, Google Keep can help. And starting today, the things you love about Keep on the web and Android are now available on iOS:

• Find what you need, quickly by searching and filtering your notes by color and type like images, audio and text. You can also add labels to help you organize your thoughts. 
• Set time or location-based reminders so you won’t forget to swing by the dry cleaners or miss an item on your shopping list. 
• Do more, together by sharing your notes so you can divvy up the packing list and watch as the items get checked off in real time. 

Posted by Genevieve Cuevas, Software Engineer

School’s in! As you settle into your classes and start to juggle soccer practice, club meetings and homework, we’re here to help. We’ve been spending the summer “break” creating new tools to help you save time, collaborate with classmates and create your best work—all for free.

Schoolwork, minus the work 
With Voice typing, you can record ideas or even compose an entire essay without touching your keyboard. To get started, activate Voice typing in the Tools menu when you're using Docs in Chrome. Then, when you’re on the go, just tap the microphone button on your phone’s keyboard and speak your mind. Voice typing is available in more than 40 languages, so we can help with your French homework, too. Voilà!
Do more, together
We’ve made it easier for you to tell what was added or deleted in Docs—and who made the changes. Now when you’ve left a document and you come back to it later, you can just click “See new changes” to pick up right where your classmates left off.

Meet Ben Hundley--a fraternity president who keeps his chapter moving with a little help from Google Docs. 

We want to know how you use Google Docs, too, so share your own examples at +GoogleDocs or @googledocs with the hashtag #mygoogledocs. -Ed.

Hi Ben! Tell us a little about yourself and Delta Upsilon WSU. 
 My name is Ben Hundley and I am the current President of Delta Upsilon WSU. We are a small chapter between the size of 30-40 guys currently and we are based off of the four founding principles of: Promotion of Friendship, Development of Character, Diffusion of Liberal Culture and the Advancement of Justice. Our organization recently celebrated 120 years on our campus and we are extremely proud of the continued tradition and benefit our members offer to the community.
How does Google Docs fit into your chapter’s day to day? 
We as a chapter use Google Docs primarily with our executive board and recruitment team. The executive board has 8 sitting members and the recruitment team has 5 sitting members. For the executive board, we are able to keep documents saved via a house Google account. This allows us to ease the transition each year during officer elections.

This summer we have been using Google Docs heavily in order to allow the executive board to give input on the restructuring of our organization's bylaws. It has made it significantly easier for us to discuss changes and execute those changes in a timely manner because we can have multiple people addressing the same issues or action points without having to be in the same city or state. Our recruitment team is able to coordinate our recruiting efforts through Google Sheets. The lifeblood of any collegiate organization is recruiting new members and therefore, having an easily accessible spreadsheet to track who is calling who and which people have already been contacted is vital.

What are 3 tips you’d give to other fraternities & sororities who use/would consider using Google Docs? If our chapter had to give 3 tips to other greek life, they would be:

1. Host a training session!! Although Google Docs are easy to navigate, it is still essential to ensure everyone is on the same page. 
2. Don't forget to learn the ins and outs of privacy and sharing documents 
3. EXPERIMENT! Try out features and see if they can be adapted to your chapter's needs.