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.