
Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More - quadrahelix
http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/02/google-updates-google-docs-with-450-new-fonts-60-new-templates-and-more/
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joejohnson
I am happy to hear about new fonts; this seems overdue. Now, I'd really like
Google Docs to allow setting a document's language. Currently, if you want
spell-check in a foreign language, you have to change the language in your
account settings, which then changes the UI language too. I want english
language UI, with foreign language support in the document.

~~~
jakevoytko
Does...

    
    
       File -> Language -> $language_name
    

do what you want?

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joejohnson
No. I can't tell what that does. If I create a new document, and then set File
-> Language -> French, and then begin typing, it will still spell-check in
English.

~~~
danmaz74
Maybe that depends on your browser spell-checking options?

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lolcraft
Well, at least users have to add them to the dropbox list manually. The cool
thing of Google Docs, for me, was that it didn't allow many options, to avoid
the mismash of informal, unchecked styles that happens in Word.

With this Office-ification of Docs I see a potential disruption. Maybe a
LaTeX-like collaborative WYSIWYG editor? That is, one that has only four or
five possible document types, and is very opinionated and consistent in how
the document is styled. Like TeXmacs, but online and simpler.

~~~
diffeomorph
I've considered writing something similar but I wasn't sure if there'd be any
demand. I want an online collaborative editor whose paradigm is more LaTeX
than Word. My original motivation was for collaborative academic writing in my
old lab, but I think it could be useful for a broader technical audience, as
well.

~~~
greeneggs
There is sharelatex.com for this, but I think using Google Docs with Google
Drive and compiling the LaTeX locally might be a better solution.

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Silhouette
Unfortunately, there have been a few other less welcome changes recently that
weren't mentioned in the TechCrunch article. For example, I can no longer see
the revision history of a very important spreadsheet at all: it seems to have
become corrupted somehow a few days ago, and winds up half-drawn with no
content showing any time I click on an older version now.

As much as I appreciate allowing more design features in Docs, I think they
should first have addressed the glaring omissions in basic functionality (by
which I mean things real spreadsheets did a decade or two ago, not "basic"
things that are very important but only to 5% of the market) and the horrible
reliability and backward compatibility.

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cloudwalking
I suspect "please add more fonts" is a feature more requested than "revision
history is sometimes corrupted, please fix."

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Silhouette
Sure, but if you compare Google Docs with even everyday, popular functionality
in say Excel or Word, it's sorely lacking. It's not really a competitor
product for a serious office suite, whatever the PR people would like you to
think. It's more a cheap and cheerful office suite but with real-time
collaboration features (which is just fine if that's what you need, but a very
different kind of product).

~~~
ceejayoz
> It's not really a competitor product for a serious office suite

How many people really use the "serious office suite" features in Office,
though?

Most of the users I've encountered just want to add clip art to their
PowerPoint. The folks writing an entire application framework in Excel macros
are going to keep Excel, sure, but they're pretty rare.

~~~
Silhouette
I reckon there are about 3-4 general levels of interactivity with a
"classical" office suite:

1\. Puts data in, and uses little else.

Word is a glorified text editor.

Excel is a table editor with built-in arithmetic.

2\. Puts data in, uses slightly more advanced features.

Word documents use some simple styles for consistent formatting. They get
spelling checked and word counted. They include the occasional picture,
numbered list or table.

Excel spreadsheets use named cells and some basic formatting. They might
include a few tabs, perhaps separating multiple input tables and adding some
summary tables/charts. Summaries calculate some basic statistics. Charts are
formatted to be useful instead of pretty.

3a. Uses "power user" features

Word documents are based on carefully constructed templates with comprehensive
sets of styles. Long documents generate tables of contents, indexes and cross-
references automatically. Collaborative documents have changes tracked and are
passed around for review/annotation.

Excel spreadsheets perform serious calculations, use conditional formatting,
etc. They are used to explore scenarios interactively.

3b. Uses automation and integration features

Word documents have custom macros to help when producing specific document
types. They might combine data from other sources outside the document into a
single place, use mail merge, etc.

Excel spreadsheets have custom macros to handle larger data sets, explore
scenarios automatically, etc.

My problem with Google Docs isn't that it doesn't support 3a and 3b, it's that
it barely supports level 2. You often _can't_ produce professional-level work
with Google Docs, because it lacks even the "slightly more advanced" features,
never mind the power user or automation/integration capabilities. And while
not everyone is a geek like me who wants to streamline everything and produce
perfect results all the time, I can honestly say that in every office I've
ever worked in, almost everyone operated on at least level 2.

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rogerbinns
I've never been able to figure out how to get my own styles. In particular I'd
like a style named 'code' that I can then use for various code and API text in
documents.

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korussian
I liked the minimal font selection before, since it encouraged focus on
content over style. Since there were so few options, all the offered fonts had
to be crisp and professional-looking in any context. But I guess more is
better…

On another note: the number one feature I want from Google Docs is a permanent
setting for page size. My pages are always A4 - why should I have to change
the default value every single time I start a new doc?

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codeka
That was added in the same update, I believe. Now in the "File -> Page
settings" dialog there's a "Set as default" button.

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korussian
Fantastic! Thanks for pointing that out; I don't know how I missed it.

Our printers are set for A4, so trying to print letter-size causes them to
beep and refuse to print without user intervention.

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tbundy
Docs already had Comic Sans. Why use anything else?

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fuzzythinker
The biggest and most appreciated change for me is its stability. Gdocs was
either crashing or down so frequently in previous few months that I thought
they're abandoning it for some reason. It was so bade that I looked for
alternatives like Zoho and others. Having had much trouble in the past month,
hope they keep it up.

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kyouens
I am really starting to like Google docs as a possible Evernote replacement,
as soon as they improve their offline editing support. One thing I can't
figure out is how to change the default font for new documents. I try saving
the "Normal Text" style with Ubuntu as my font, but new documents always
revert back to Arial.

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generateui
Google,

Please add a warning that when a serif font < 24px is used for the main text,
readability is degraded on most screens (new iPad being a notable exception).

Sincerely,

The internet.

~~~
hornbaker
Really? I find Georgia extremely readable on desktops and laptops, and the
NYTimes makes heavy use of it at 12px in article bodies. Looks a little
dated/old school, but I've never heard of Georgia (or Times for that matter)
having "degraded" readability.

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kevinburke
Is my browser's zoom setting supported yet?

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ephemient
As far as I know, it's an avoidance for a WebKit bug wherein elements' pixel
positions and sizes are simply wrong at non-default zoom levels; see
<https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=60318> and all related.

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xaa
Two words: citation manager.

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iRobot
A word count on the summary page would be nice for text docs

