Google Apps update alerts

Sharing emails get a facelift in Google Docs

2009-12-10T05:53:00.000-08:00

The new HTML email highlights the sender's personal message, shows the type of shared document using icons and color, and presents multiple documents as a simple list.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/12/sharing-emails-get-facelift.html

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Google Groups launched in Google Apps

2009-12-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators can now enable the new groups functionality from the control panel by enabling the "user-managed groups" service.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
Groups interface: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English (UK), Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian, Vietnamese.

How to access what's new:
- If the checkbox 'Automatically add new Google services' is checked in the administrator Control Panel, then Groups (user-managed) will be visible in your Dashboard.
- Otherwise, in your Google Apps Dashboard, click 'Add more services'. Click the 'Add it now' button to enable Groups (user-managed) for your domain.

Note: To add user-managed groups as a service, your Control Panel needs to be in US English and have the 'Next Generation' option selected in 'Domain Settings'. It will remain as a service on the Dashboard after you revert your control panel language back to your chosen language. The Groups interface language is determined by your web browser settings.

For more information:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/join-this-group-google-groups-joins.html
Help Center: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=25838

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Export all documents, email as an attachment and improved search in Google Docs

2009-12-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

- Export All: You can now export all your Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations at once directly from the Docs list.
- Email as an attachment: You can now email the document directly to people as an attachment from the Docs list.
- Improved search: Improved search functionality to show the most relevant documents when performing a search. Up to now this was based on 'Last modified date'. Also includes searching by automatic stemming and synonyms.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what's new:
- Export All: Select one or more files and then click on "Export" from the "More Actions" menu. Next, pick the format (e.g. PDF etc) you want for your exported files. Here you now also have the option to "Export all your files" up to 2GB into a single zip file. It can sometimes take a few minutes to download so you also have an "email when ready" option to notify you when the zip file is ready. If your files are larger than 2GB then Docs will present a list of those that weren't exported and you can export them to a zip file as normal.

- Email as an attachment: In the Docs list, select an item, click "Share" and select "Email as attachment...". Then pick which format you want to use to send the item, compose your email, and click send.

- Improved search: Search for a document from the Docs list as normal. In the displayed results, click on the new button "Relevance" which lets you decide whether you'd like to sort your Docs list by "Relevance," "Starred" or "Last Modified"

Note: We are temporarily removing the existing "email-in" feature to upload documents. This is in order to improve functionality and expand the supported file types. You can still upload multiple docs at once by using the multiple file upload option in the Docs list.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/12/sort-by-relevance-export-all-and-more.html

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Ability to change the owner of a Google Spreadsheet

2009-12-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

You now have the ability to change the owner of a spreadsheet just like in docs and presentations. This is helpful if you are working in a group and the owner of the document leaves your group or no longer needs to work on that document.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what's new:
In the Docs List, select the document in question, click 'More Actions', then 'Change Owner' and enter in the email address of the person you are transferring ownership to. You can also change owner in the sharing dialog for a spreadsheet. Click on 'Is owner' when choosing what level of access permission to give to a particular user.

Note: You cannot change ownership of any document to someone outside your domain.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/12/change-owner-in-google-spreadsheet.html
http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92358

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Offline Gmail graduates from Gmail Labs

2009-12-08T02:37:00.000-08:00

Offline Gmail is now a regular feature of Gmail and is no longer enabled as part of Gmail Labs.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail

How to access what's new:
Click the "Settings" link in the top-right corner of your inbox. Click the "Offline" tab and then select "Enable Offline Mail for this computer." Click "Save Changes" and follow the directions from there.

Note: The option to make Offline Gmail available for the domain is controlled by the domain administrator.
Premier and Education editions only: In the control panel, go to 'Email Settings' and enable/disable the checkbox for 'Enable Offline Gmail for my users'.

For more information:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/offline-gmail-graduates-from-labs.html

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New version of Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes tool

2009-11-27T05:44:00.000-08:00

Release 2.1.0 now has the following new features:
- Calendars are now migrated using administrator credentials, removing the need to capture user passwords.
- Users can migrate contacts themselves when you send them a Contacts Migration form.
- The exclusion folder has been replaced by the option to explicitly include or exclude folders in your migration.
- Administrators can now reset migrations with a single click from the Administration database, rather than having to open individual mail files and perform resets there.
- Improved logging.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

How to access what's new:
Download from here

For more information:
Release Notes

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New version of the Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Services released

2009-11-24T11:22:00.000-08:00

Release 1.5 of the Google Apps Connector includes new features such as:
- Increased Capacity: Administrators can now run up to 500 users per Blackberry Enterprise Server.
- 64-bit Support: The Google Apps Connector now supports 64-bit Windows systems.
- Support for Blackberry Professional Software.
- Hosted Support: The Google Apps Connector now includes support for multiple companies on a single server.
- Enhanced Logging.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

How to access what's new:
Download Page

For more information:
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=154346

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Add attachments when using Offline Gmail

2009-11-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

When using Offline Gmail, you can now include attachments when composing new messages offline.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail Labs

How to access what's new:
If Offline Gmail is already enabled and you are working offline, you can add attachments as normal by clicking on the 'attach a file' link when composing new messages. The message will then be sent from the outbox when you are back online.

To enable Offline Gmail, go to 'Settings' in your inbox and select 'Labs'. Here, enable the Offline lab and click 'Save changes'. Note: The option to make Gmail Labs available for the domain is enabled by the domain administrator.

For more information:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/send-attachments-while-offline.html

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Ability to invite larger groups, keyboard shortcuts and new features preview in Google Calendar

2009-11-24T05:04:00.000-08:00

- You now have the ability to invite more than 500 invitees to events. The new increased limit is 25,000 invitees.
- New keyboard shortcuts have been added.
- Preview of some new features for the event scheduler.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Calendar

How to access what's new:
- To see what keyboard shortcuts are available, type the shortcut key ? when in normal calendar view. Alternatively, visit the Help Centre article below.
- To preview the new event scheduler features, when editing the event details, click on the link 'Check out a sneak preview of some new features'. You can turn it off at any time and go back to the old version by using the link 'Go back to the old version'.
Note: This preview is only available for domains that have 'New Features' enabled in the Control Panel by the domain's administrator.

For more information:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=37034

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Site templates launched in Google Sites

2009-11-17T02:45:00.000-08:00

New feature launched that enables users at a domain to access a gallery of site templates so that page layouts, navigation links, embedded gadgets, content, themes and other site attributes are already done.

Administrators also have the ability to upload custom templates that will be highlighted for users to see when creating a new site. Users can also create a site template and upload it to a domain template gallery so that everybody at the domain has access to the template.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
Control Panel: US English
Templates: Templates provided by Google are English-only initially. The templates feature is available for all languages supported by Google Sites.

How to access what's new:
Administrators: In your control panel under 'Sites settings', click on the new 'Templates' tab.
- You can choose to enable/disable custom templates using the checkbox.
- You can also choose which template set is highlighted to users, the default templates provided by Google or custom templates uploaded by you.
- To highlight your own custom templates, select the checkbox 'Highlight custom templates uploaded by you' and enter in the URL of the site you uploaded. This will highlight your custom templates to your users from the template gallery. Note that you must first create and upload your template site in order for it to be highlighted.
- To add categories to classify the custom templates when users are selecting a template, enter in a category in the 'categories' textbox e.g. project management.

Users & Administrators
To upload a site template to the domain's template gallery:
1. Open up the site you want to add to the gallery. Note, the site must be published and you must be an owner to submit the site.
2. Select 'More actions', 'Manage site', 'General', and choose 'Publish this site as a template'.
3. Choose a template name, a category, enter a description and click 'Submit template'.
4. Your site template will appear in the gallery for everyone to see within hours.

For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/11/better-web-powered-workspace-for-todays.html
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/11/get-started-with-google-sites-templates.html

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More control when opening and viewing docs in Google Docs

2009-11-12T01:31:00.000-08:00

You can now choose to open docs in a new window or not. You also have the ability to enable/disable the visual update indicators.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what's new:
- In the Docs list, go to 'Settings' and select your chosen option for 'Where items open' from 'In a new window' or 'In the current window'.
- You also have the option to enable/disable the update indicators checkbox to bold any updated items and mark new items with "New!".

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-additions-to-settings-page.html

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Google Apps updates: greatest hits from the last year

2009-11-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

In the past year, over 100 new features have been rolled out to Google Apps. Here are the ones customers have found most useful:

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook
Enjoy the reliability and affordability of Google Apps, but allow users to keep Outlook as their client if they want. Users can get their email, contacts, and calendars in Outlook while also being able to access all of their data in the cloud.

Start your free 30-day trial of Premier Edition to begin using Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook.

Mobile support for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile phones
With Google Apps, if you aren't in front of a computer, you can still access your data and be productive. Blackberry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile users can manage their email, contacts, and calendars from their mobile phones. And if you have a Blackberry Enterprise Server, be sure to take advantage of the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which adds administrative control and added security for BlackBerry access.

Start your free 30-day trial of Premier Edition and try our advanced mobile options.

Offline access
Have your laptop but no Internet connection? Not a problem with Google Apps, which offers offline access to Gmail, Calendar, and Docs.

Shared contacts
Premier Edition admins can robustly manage shared contacts on their domains by creating a global address list for users accessible in both the Gmail web interface and Outlook. With this feature, users can access others' phone numbers, addresses, and custom fields that you define. As an admin, you can also use the directory sync service to connect Google Apps to your exisitng LDAP directory.

Start your free 30-day trial of Premier Edition to learn more about our shared contacts tools.

If you'd like to learn more about what's new in Google Apps, be sure to also check out the upcoming webinar:

Google Apps Premier Edition Innovation: Year in Review
November 18th, 9AM PST / 5PM GMT
Register now

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Multiple calendars and more in new version of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

2009-11-06T09:39:00.000-08:00

Version 1.6.155.1603 of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook has been released for new installs and updates.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
Available worldwide with US English interface

How to access what's new:
- Multiple calendars
You can now create new calendars in Outlook and they will sync with Google Apps. For any of your Google Apps calendars for which you have write permissions, and that appear unhidden in your Google Apps Calendar list, these will also now be synced to Outlook.

- Support for querying free/busy information for Exchange users
If you are using Google Apps Sync in a mixed Google Apps/Exchange environment, you can query free/busy information for Exchange users by implementing Google Calendar Connectors and adding a new registry key to each computer on which Google Apps Sync is installed.

Get information about the Google Calendar Connectors here. Get information about setting up the new registry key here.

For more information:
https://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=153463

Attend a webinar to learn how to get this feature and more with Google Apps Premier Edition
11/10 9AM PST / 5PM GMT Register now
11/10 1PM AEDT / 2AM GMT Register now

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Download options for Offline Gmail

2009-11-05T02:51:00.000-08:00

You now have more options to configure offline settings and manage messages for offline use.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail Labs

How to access what's new:
In your Gmail settings, go to 'Offline' if you have offline enabled.

- In 'Download options', select the timeframe for messages you want to download for offline use e.g. 4 days, 1 month etc. The timeframe that you choose will then show under the options when changing offline label settings.
- Click on 'Change label settings' to modify which labelled messages you download for offline use. For a particular label, choose between 'All', 'Timeframe selected' or 'None'.

For more information:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/choose-which-messages-get-downloaded.html

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More interface consistency launched in Google Docs

2009-10-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

Google Docs editors are now more consistent across each product. The links, title area, menus, menu terminology, and toolbar are now nearly uniform across documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-docs-now-more-consistent.html

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New export options and more launched in Google Docs

2009-10-27T02:08:00.000-07:00

We've added some new features to the Docs list:

- New export features which allow you to select multiple documents, convert them into your chosen format and download them as a zip file.
- Indicators to show if a document has been viewed already or not.
- A 'New!' indicator that shows you when a new document has been shared with you.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what's new:
-Select one or more files and then click on "Export" from the "More Actions" menu. Next, pick the format (e.g. PDF, Microsoft Word, etc) you want for your exported files. Finally, click "Continue" and it will create a zip file to download that has all your content. You can "export" up to 500 MB of content in a single zip file. It can sometimes take a few minutes to download so you also have an "email when ready" option to notify you when the zip file is ready.

- "Unviewed" files are in bold, while "viewed" files are not. You can toggle this setting by selecting the item and clicking on "mark as (Un)Viewed" in the "More Actions" menu.

- When an item is first shared to you, it will be bold ("Unviewed") and marked as "New!". Once you view this item, it's listed normally. If the item is updated by someone else, then it will be marked as "Unviewed" again.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/data-liberation-mark-as-viewed-and-new.html

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More features in administrator Chat settings

2009-10-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

Administrators now have more control over how their users use Chat and can:
- Enable/disable their user's ability to chat outside the domain.
- Enable a setting to automatically accept chat invitations between users in their domain.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
US English

How to access what's new:
Go to Chat settings in the control panel, and enable/disable the checkbox 'Users can chat with other users outside this domain'. This will also affect the ability to chat within the Google Network.

To set automatic acceptance of invitations to chat, enable/disable the checkbox 'Automatically accept chat invitations between users in this domain'. Please note that your users will be able to override this setting and it's a default setting only.

For more information:
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60767

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New features added to Google Calendar

2009-10-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

Some enhancements to Google Calendar have been released:
- Snooze alerts: Ability to be reminded again after a pop-up notification.
- Hide calendar from the list: Ability to hide unwanted calendars from your list of calendars.
- Your primary calendar timezone is now synced to your display timezone.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Calendar

How to access what's new:
- When alerted to an event via a pop-up notification and dismissing it, the calendar interface will show you an option to remind you again shortly. Click on that link if you want to be reminded of the event again.
- If you want to hide a particular calendar from your list of calendars, click on the drop down arrow to the right of the calendar name, then select 'Hide this calendar from the list'.
- You can adjust your display timezone in 'calendar settings' then in the 'general' section.

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Shared folders and more in Google Docs

2009-10-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

The following enhancements have been made to Google Docs:

- Shared folders: You now have the ability to share entire folders with other collaborators.
- Upload multiple files: You can now upload multiple files to Docs simultaneously instead of uploading individually.
- Return of 'Items not in folders' section.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what's new:
Shared folders: Select the folder in your docs list, then select 'share this folder' beside the folder name. The sharing dialog is just like sharing an individual document.

Upload multiple files: Click on 'Upload', then click on 'Select files to upload' and use 'Shift' or 'Ctrl' to pick multiple files. Then press 'Start upload' to upload and convert the files to Google Docs all in one go.

Items not in folders: In the navigation on the left of the Docs list, Click 'More searches' and then 'Items not in folders'.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/shared-folders-and-more-in-google-docs.html

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Enhancements to Google Sites

2009-10-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

The following updates have been made in Google Sites:
- Page Templates: Lets you define default content as well as settings, like layout, that other collaborators can use when they create a new page.
- Ability to subscribe to an RSS feed from an 'announcements' page.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Sites

How to access what's new:
- To create a page template, create a new page with your template design and content, then from the 'More Actions' menu, select 'save as a page template'. This page template will now be an option when you create a new page or can change the page template type.
- To subscribe to an RSS feed from an announcements page, click on the 'subscribe to posts' link on that page.

For more information:
Read about these changes here

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New features for drawings in Google Docs

2009-10-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

You now have additional drawing features in Google Docs

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what's new:
In any document, spreadsheet or presentation, choose 'Insert Drawing' to see the drawing tools. The new features are:

Custom shapes and lines: Use the new 'Polyline' tool to create custom shapes, close shapes, fill them and reposition points.
Snap to Guides: Helps you align shapes with the canvas and other shapes when dragging and resizing.
Draw multiple lines: Start drawing a new line immediately after finishing a line, without having to re-select the line type.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-features-for-drawings-in-google.html

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Translation functions in Google Spreadsheets

2009-10-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

You can now use functions in spreadsheets that can automatically detect and translate languages.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Spreadsheets

How to access what's new:
To detect and translate languages on a spreadsheet, use the new functions:

=GoogleTranslate("field one","field two","field three")
=DetectLanguage("field one")

For the translate function, the fields should contain a combination of the text you want to translate, the two letter language code of the text and the language code you want the text to be translated into.

For the detection function, simply enter the text in the field and it will output the two letter language code of the text.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/translation-functions-in-spreadsheets.html

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Increased upload limit for Google Video

2009-09-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

You can now upload larger videos to Google Video. The individual video upload limit has been increased from 1GB to 16GB if you have Google Gears installed.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Video

How to access what's new:
- Install Google Gears from http://gears.google.com/.
- Upload a video as normal in Google Video by clicking on the Upload tab.

For more information:
Google Video Overview

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View online files using the Google Docs Viewer

2009-09-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

Google Docs Viewer allows you to view certain files online. Enter the URL of a PDF, Powerpoint or TIFF document in the Viewer and we'll display it directly in the browser with no download required.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
US English

How to access what's new:
Visit the Google Docs Viewer to generate the URL.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/09/view-online-files-using-google-docs.html

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New API for Google Sites

2009-09-25T07:06:00.000-07:00

There's now a new Google Sites Data API in Labs that allows client applications to access, publish and modify content within a Google Site.

With this new API, Google Apps administrators can:

- Retrieve, create, modify, move, and delete pages, comments, attachments and other content.
- Review the revision history across the Site.
- Monitor all, add, modify and delete activity for a Site.
- Upload/download attachments and files.
- Create customized gadgets for your users.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Team, Education and Partner Editions

Languages included:
US English

How to access what's new:
Visit the Google Sites Data API overview site to get started.

For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/09/import-export-and-more-with-new-google_24.html

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