google docs

Let's say you have a rambling manifesto scrawled out in a Google Doc and you'd like to share a particularly illuminating passage with your friends or followers. You could share the entire document and add a message in which you explain where to find the crux of your argument. Or you could add a Bookmark and share a link that takes someone to a specific point in your document.

To add a bookmark, first move your cursor to the spot in your Google Doc where you'd to place the bookmark. Next, from the Insert menu, choose Bookmark. … Read more

Microsoft enlisted former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Rob Schneider and disgraced baseball star Pete Rose to denigrate Google Docs in two new videos that posted to the Web Friday.

The videos posted on Microsoft's Office 365 blog suggest that users gamble every time they trust their productivity to Google Docs.

Of course, it's a time-tested strategy for Microsoft, which rolled out its Gmail Man videos two years ago, broadsiding Google's email service for its contextual advertising program.

In one of the new videos, two buddies hit a casino. One asks if they should play … Read more

Some Google Drive users discovered their list of documents to be empty on Friday, though the documents themselves appeared to remain intact.

Several readers reported the problem, in which the Google Drive page was devoid of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files as well as other files stored in Google's cloud-synchronized, Web-based tools.

However, at least in some cases, open documents still worked, new documents could be created, existing documents could be found through the Web page's search bar, and local search on a person's computer could retrieve files stored on local hard drives.

Google's status … Read more

Google users should once again be able to access their apps, files, and e-mail.

Following a service disruption earlier today that took down Google Drive, Google Apps, and Gmail, all three appear to be back in business. Google's Apps Status Dashboard page shows all three as accessible, with comments that the problems should be resolved.

Service disruptions also had affected Google Groups and the Google Admin Control Panel used by organizations to manage their Google Apps services. But the status page points to both of those as accessible once again.

The status page updates show that the disruptions were … Read more

I'm a cloud-computing, Chrome OS fanboy for the most part. But today was one of of those days I was glad to have old-school Mac and Windows PCs lying around my home office.

I'm no power user, but Google Docs suits me for word processing, while Google Sheets works fine for creating spreadsheets. However, when it comes to importing and editing files from the incumbent power, Microsoft Office, Google just isn't meeting even my low-end needs.

Google handles such documents -- in either the older .doc and .xls formats, and the newer .docx and .xlsx formats -- … Read more

Do you have a workplace or have to communicate with one that is still using an older format of Microsoft Office from 1997-2003? Well, if you spend a lot of time writing, sharing, or collaborating on documents through Google Docs, you're probably aware that Google has discontinued support for these older formats.

You could try to encourage your workplace to upgrade its software, but that's probably not the most realistic or speedy option. Thankfully, there are a few options for dealing with this formatting change.

Save your documents in any format and use an online converter. … Read more

Quick question: do you use Gmail or Google Docs more frequently?

If you answered the former, this handy trick may be of interest. It allows you to add data to a spreadsheet in Google Docs from a form you can quickly access from your Gmail inbox. This form can even be accessed on your phone (at least in my case, using an iPhone 4S and both the native Mail app and the Gmail app).

Here are the steps needed to set it up:

1. Create a spreadsheet in Google Docs.

2. From the Tools menu, select Create a form.

3. … Read more

Wednesday's top headlines are served with a low-fat triple shot of mobile news:

You may wonder why it matters that Square partnered with Starbucks. Customers could already pay for coffee by using the Starbucks app and show their phone screen to the barista. And how much time does that really save compared to taking out your wallet?

This deal is all about awareness. Seeing the Square logo in stores will help people get more comfortable with the idea of phones being a wallet replacement. Apple will also be pushing this concept in iOS 6 with the Passbook app that … Read more

Google has added a new feature to its spreadsheet product that enables users to lock down particular sections.

According to Google, the feature, called Protected Ranges, is intended to stop cells being modified accidentally when several users are working on the same spreadsheet.

Protected Ranges creates designated sections of a spreadsheet that cannot be changed by users that don't have editing rights.

The feature works like this: highlight the cells you want to lock down, right-click to bring up the menu, and then choose "Named and protect range." Then, click "protect" and "done." … Read more