Google Students Club

6 powerful Google Drive features you're probably not using

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Google Drive apps are loved for their simplicity and ease of use, but don’t let that fool you. There’s a whole lot of power locked up in these web apps. And while we’d never put the suite on a par with Microsoft Office, there are some impressive features in Docs, Sheets, and Slides that you’ve likely overlooked.</div>
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We’ve highlighted some of the newest features and hidden gems that can help save you time and anguish and create documents that are sure to impress your professors, colleagues, and most importantly, your boss.</div>
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Docs has research power</h2>
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In our mostly paperless world text is interactive, and readers often expect links to connect to related articles. Citing your sources correctly in an article or academic paper is imperative to provide a research trail and give credit to the authors whose work you reference. Google Docs has a couple of tools to simplify this otherwise cumbersome task. </div>
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Research Tool</h3>
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The Research Tool adds a quick citation system on top of Google’s search prowess. To launch the Research tool, click <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tools > Research</em>. You can also use keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl-⌘-Shift-l on a Mac and Ctrl-Alt-Shift-I on a PC.</div>
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The tool is blank when first opened, but it will begin to auto-suggest research topics based on what you write.</div>
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The Research Tool can be an excellent resource for writing in Google Docs.</div>
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The tool has seven search options: Everything (which conducts a Google search), Images, Scholar (which filters by academic resources), Quotes, Dictionary, Personal, and Tables.</div>
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To search, click inside the box, select your search option and start typing. When you hover over a selection, you’ll see three choices: preview, cite, and link. The cite feature can make inserting MLA, APA, or Chicago style reference citations a walk in the park. Select the style of citation and Docs will insert a superscript numeral and add the note to the bottom of the page. (You’ll get the most accurate preview if you do this in Print layout.)</div>
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This feature doesn’t replace a proper “Works Cited” section required of most papers, but it will give you the content in the right format and make the in-text citation process significantly smoother.</div>
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Power Linking</h3>
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Power Linking is even faster than using the Research Tool if you need to add a lot of links to an article or other document. To use it, highlight the target text and click Control-K or ⌘-K. The search menu will then auto-suggest a link. If one of the suggestions is what you are looking for, just click it, select <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Insert</em> and you’re done. If your initial search doesn’t yield what you need, change the text in the search box to more specifically match your target. </div>
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Conquer surveys and data with Sheets</h2>
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Unless you’re <span style="color: #25a7d7;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">an Excel power user</span></span>, Google’s Sheets is probably full-featured enough to handle most spreadsheet needs. The app also has some pretty cool capabilities when it comes to making sense of data.</div>
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Creating charts in Sheets</h3>
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You can very quickly create a chart from a Google Sheet and make yourself look like a data whiz.</div>
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Make sense of data by turning into a chart or graph.</div>
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To do so, select the Chart icon on the menu bar or choose <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Insert </em>><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Chart</em>. This will bring up the chart editor box. In the Start tab you can then edit the range of cells and choose from a variety of layout settings. It also suggests some recommended charts based on the type of data you have. If you don’t like any of those, select from the other options by clicking <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">More</em>. Click <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Insert</em> to put the chart in your spreadsheet.</div>
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Map It</h3>
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Another powerful feature that flies under the radar is the ability for Sheets to create a map out of location-based data. For example, if you have population data or other kinds of results from various countries, you can create a chart that will visually represent this. The data will need to include specific locations in the cells in order for the command to work.</div>
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To begin, click the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Charts</em> tab and select <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Map</em>. </div>
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Transform data from a Google Sheet into a map.</div>
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<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Next, choose the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">GeoMap</em> option. In the Customize tab, you can change the colors that appear on your map. There are many different kinds of charts and methods for representing trending data in Sheets. Once you have these two features down, you should be able to experiment and master any of the different options in this feature.</div>
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Slides solves the groupwork dilemma</h2>
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Google Slides doesn’t have the template offerings of PowerPoint or the visual elegance of Keynote, but it will make your life significantly easier when you’re saddled with that group project. You can collaborate on a Google Slide the same way you would with Docs or Sheets.</div>
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You can also upload a PowerPoint file, convert it to a Slides presentation, and work away—Drive does a very good job of keeping the look and feel of the deck consistent. To upload a PowerPoint presentation, locate the file on your computer and drag it into the Drive interface. Select the box that converts the file to the proper Google Drive format.</div>
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Embed a Google Slide directly into a Google Site.</div>
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Once you have your Slides presentation started, invite others to view and/or edit the presentation.</div>
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You can even embed a presentation on a Google Site. In Sites, click the select <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Insert</em> ><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Drive</em> > <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Presentation</em>. Anyone who navigates to your site can then click through the slides directly from the webpage.</div>
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To insert the presentation into your personal or company website, click <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">File > Publish to the web... </em>In the dialog box that pops up, copy the HTML from the box labeled ‘Embed code’ and paste it into the HTML of your website. Click <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">OK </em>when you’re done.</div>
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This feature also works with other Google Drive files, allowing you to quickly display any of your work to others.</div>
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Use Hangouts for face-to-face collaboration</h2>
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Google’s Hangouts shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to working together on a project. Google built Apps-specific widgets into Hangouts, so a team can participate in a video chat while editing a file.</div>
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To do this, launch a video hangout and click the Drive icon on the left-side of the screen. Then you and any of the other members of the hangout will be able to discuss specific contents of the file in real-time. </div>
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This screen-sharing capability is an excellent way to bring extra clarity to an issue that may be vexing a team or may make discussion easier face-to-face.</div>
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Hangouts also works across desktop and mobile, so you can reach out to a team member if they have the Hangouts app installed on their phone or tablet.</div>
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6 powerful Google Drive features you're probably not using

Google Drive apps are loved for their simplicity and ease of use, but don’t let that fool you. There’s a whole lot of power locked up ...

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Android L Update: Nexus 5/7/4/10, Moto X, Moto G, HTC One, LG G3, Galaxy S5, Note 3

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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 26px;">Google released the Android L preview build update right after the Google I/O developer conference. This not only gives developers a chance to test out their applications on the latest update, but it also gives OEMs a chance to see how their applications work on it too. Today, we’re going to go over the list of popular OEMs and see which ones we expect to see update their flagship with Android L first.</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Oxygen, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span><br />
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Who’s going to get the Android L update first?</h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Nexus</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s well known that Google’s Nexus devices generally get updated with the latest version of Android first. There are always exceptions to this rule and we’re <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">seeing it happen right now</span></span> with the LTE variant of the 2013 Nexus 7 tablet. It is still waiting on <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">Android 4.4.4 KitKat</span></span>. We’re expecting Google to release a new tablet soon and that will be the first device with Android L. Shortly afterwards, we expect to see the <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">Google Nexus 5</span></span> updated, followed by the 2013 Nexus 7, then the Nexus 4, the Nexus 10 and then the 2012 Nexus 7.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Motorola</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Motorola has been on a roll lately with very fast Android updates. It was one of the first OEMs to release an Android 4.4 update, 4.4.2 update and even the 4.4.3 update. <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">We know the Moto X</span></span> as well as the Moto X+1 will most definitely receive an <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">Android L update</span></span>. Devices like the Moto G and Moto E might not be so lucky, although we’re likely to see those updated as well. Motorola is able to do this because of their near-<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">stock Android</span></span> experience, so they don’t need teams of programmers hammering away at the keyboard for weeks at a time. We’re expecting to see Motorola push out their first Android L update within a month after it’s released.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">SONY</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sony is another company that has been doing a great job of pushing out Android updates to their device. Not only are their flagship smartphones getting updated, but they’re also updating dozens of their mid-range devices too. They’re also updating them pretty fast too. Sony is another one of the first OEMs to push out <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">Android 4.4.4</span></span> KitKat to their devices. Much like with Motorola, we’re expecting to see Sony push out their first Android L update within a month after Google releases the source code. With such a big update though, we could see both Sony and Motorola take two or even three months before the update gets pushed. We just don’t have any way to know exactly how much of the Android architecture has changed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">HTC</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">HTC has been one of the most transparent OEMs in the smartphone market over the past couple of years. They weren’t always this way, but recently we’ve seen them set new ground rules for themselves. This includes being as open and honest with their customers as possible, but it also meant giving an Android L ETA. HTC has vowed to push the Android L update within 90 days of receiving the source code from Google. We expect this to land on the HTC One M8 first, followed by the HTC One M7. Much like with Sony and Motorola, this all just depends on how much things change with this new version of Android.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Samsung</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The community likes to pile on Samsung for their slow software updates, <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">and we’ve discussed</span></span> why they take so long before. With dozens of Samsung devices being sold right now, it will take them a long time to get Android L onto them. We’re expecting to see the <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">Galaxy Note 4</span></span> updated with Android L first, followed by the Galaxy S5. Then we could see the <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">Galaxy Note 3</span></span> updated before the Galaxy S4, although this is really debatable. They could prioritize the S4 over the Note 3, so we could see the S4 receiving the update first. There hasn’t been any word from Samsung on when they hope to update their devices, so we will just have to play it by ear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">LG</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We feel that LG will be the last of the major OEMs to update their smartphones to Android L. It <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">took them a year and a half</span></span> before they updated the LG Optimus G (aka the G1) with <span style="color: #666666;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Android 4.4.2 KitKat</span></span>. We saw them skip the Android 4.3 update entirely, to go from 4.2 to 4.4.2, so anything is possible with LG. We have seen confirmation that the LG G3 and the LG G2 will receive Android L – we just don’t know when this will be. As soon as we hear something though, we will be sure to let you know.</span></div>
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Android L Update: Nexus 5/7/4/10, Moto X, Moto G, HTC One, LG G3, Galaxy S5, Note 3

Google released the Android L preview build update right after the Google I/O developer conference. This not only gives developers a chan...

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Google Updates Hangouts in Gmail; Revamps News & Weather App for Android

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsPvsWkKCvz5UyAriz9UKFsmVDSGozwTqmcnKAxqr8UlTHZLXTKNMoYBrOC8Z78wEWsFwZTeoRlT__aEdLpOi_QTd1ybaC1uBYg0da6rPHm1jKZJwL4ihPKbcnEZLkshjpKy3nrflMdzQ/s1600/google_gmail_hangouts_contacts_official_blog.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="hangouts" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsPvsWkKCvz5UyAriz9UKFsmVDSGozwTqmcnKAxqr8UlTHZLXTKNMoYBrOC8Z78wEWsFwZTeoRlT__aEdLpOi_QTd1ybaC1uBYg0da6rPHm1jKZJwL4ihPKbcnEZLkshjpKy3nrflMdzQ/s1600/google_gmail_hangouts_contacts_official_blog.jpg" title="Hangouts in gmail" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Google on Wednesday has added a new feature to its Gmail Web-interface, bringing a new Hangouts tab that allows users to see which of their contacts are online first, before the offline contacts. Alongside, the company revamped its News & Weather app for Android.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With the new Hangouts tab in <span style="color: #006699;">Gmail</span>, users can now also pin a contact to the top of the list. Like previous iterations, users will be able to send a message to offline contacts, which will be delivered to them whenever they check Hangouts on any device.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Google has <span style="color: #006699;">noted</span> that the update will be rolling out over the next few days. <span style="color: #006699;">Google</span> says users who haven't switched from Google Talk to <span style="color: #006699;">Hangouts</span> in Gmail, can do so via the 'Try the new Hangouts' option in chat settings.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoT42ZwD2zYiORHByJYKmRkM4zlmaYkv1tO_oc3G4kSifTJ_eg-8AmxCjw_OidcMvy5b9CRBpi_XQQ311D2f70srvKcMJTIX9ccKoMGRZq9JvXFl3yTSxb7IpC67gFBRIB9p6kwegkuDzj/s1600/google_news_and_weather_app_screenshot_google_play.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoT42ZwD2zYiORHByJYKmRkM4zlmaYkv1tO_oc3G4kSifTJ_eg-8AmxCjw_OidcMvy5b9CRBpi_XQQ311D2f70srvKcMJTIX9ccKoMGRZq9JvXFl3yTSxb7IpC67gFBRIB9p6kwegkuDzj/s1600/google_news_and_weather_app_screenshot_google_play.jpg" width="199" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Meanwhile, Google has also revamped its News & Weather app for all devices running <span style="color: #006699;">Android</span> 4.0 or higher. The updated version 2.0 of the News & Weather app is now available on <span style="color: #006699;">Google Play</span> in India. It brings a Google account sign-in option for personalised news along with improved support for tablet devices. The signed-in account and the news menu can be accessed from left slide-out navigation toggle, similar to the <span style="color: #006699;">Google Drive </span>interface.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Google adds that users can navigate sections with simple swipes. The update also brings a help & feedback option along with quick access for add and remove news sections, which can also be accessed from the top-right corner menu.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The weather information can now be seen on the top of headlines and users will also get detailed weather data when tapped. Users will also be able to 'expand stories for snippets and related articles' in the updated News & Weather app. The update also lets users change a country edition for the news, and get weather updates for multiple places.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: -0.699999988079071px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Google has also brought two new sizes of widgets for the News & Weather app - 4x1 and 2x3 widgets, while previous 3x1 widget has been removed in the update.</span></span></div>

Google Updates Hangouts in Gmail; Revamps News & Weather App for Android

Google on Wednesday has added a new feature to its Gmail Web-interface, bringing a new Hangouts tab that allows users to see which of th...

+ Read more »