Google Docs Headaches? This Update Might Just Have Fixed Them

The Google Docs family – that is, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides – is getting a pretty significant update today. Much of this update is focused on streamlining collaboration between you and your co-workers, especially in documents that are open to multiple editors. There are also some bonuses for folks who like to make use of Google Docs' templates and those who need to work across multiple Google services quickly.

To start things off, we have a few new ways to track changes in the Docs you and your team create. With this update, you can name different versions of Docs, Slides, or Sheets, allowing you keep a rather tidy version history that's accessible through titles alone. The "Revision History" menu has been renamed "Version History" with this update, and it's there that you'll find the "Name current version" option.

You can now also preview what Google calls "clean versions" of Docs – meaning that you can see your Docs without the added comments or suggested edits by simply heading into the Select Tools menu, clicking "Review suggested edits" and then selecting "Preview accept all" or "Preview reject all." You can take things one step further by accepting or rejecting all edits at once, the options for which are found under the same "Review suggested edits" sub-menu.

Next up we come to templates, which are getting new functionality today. Google saw that many users are using templates to quickly create new Docs and Sheets, while at the same time, developers are crafting add-ons that customize the functionality of those templates. Google is rolling both together in new templates that come with pre-selected add-ons.

You'll find five examples of templates with pre-installed add-ons in the general template gallery. If you want to customize templates even further, you can also create your own, selecting add-ons that are better suited for specific tasks.

Finally, we come to what is perhaps the most handy feature being added today: the ability to search across multiple Google apps in G Suite for Business and Enterprise. The thinking behind this feature is that by using Google Cloud Search within G Suite, you can quickly find the information you need to create your Docs and Sheets, whether that information happens to be in Gmail, Google Drive, or Calendar.

This update seems to be rolling out to now, so be sure to have a look for new tracking features and templates in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. If you'd like to read more about the update, you can check out the Google Blog for the Docs team's full breakdown.