U-M Google Updates

U-M Google December Monthly Summary

The monthly U-M Google Summaries inform the university community of Google releases for Core Apps as well as the Non-Core Apps (those that are not part of the G Suite for Education agreement). We communicate important information on Core Apps throughout the month. Core and Non-Core Apps are listed on the G Suite website.

Core Apps:

Google has added new options to recently released features in new Google Sites. You’ll now be able to:

  • Add captions to images in an image carousel
  • Set a transition speed for an image carousel
  • Hide headings from a table of contents
  • Choose between different styling options for buttons
  • Dark mode available for Google Tasks on iOS

Google Tasks will now automatically follow the system default setting when it’s set to “Dark” on iOS 13. This feature is already available on Android. You can use Google’s Help Center to learn how to enable dark mode on your device.

Google is starting to add version history for sites created in new Google Sites. Version history will roll out over the course of 2020 for both users creating new sites, as well as for previously existing sites.

Version history allows site editors to easily:

  • Revert to previous versions of a site
  • Restore deleted site content
  • View the history of who has made changes to a site

Use Google’s Help Center to learn more about using version history and restoring the earlier version of a site.

Before publishing changes to your new Google Sites, you can now compare the currently published site with the soon-to-be-published draft site in an annotated, side-by-side view. You’ll automatically be prompted to “Review changes and publish” on every subsequent update after a site is initially published. You can turn this feature off on a per-site basis. See Google’s Help Center to learn more.

Google has added limited Hangouts Meet support in Microsoft Internet Explorer 11. You will need to download and install the latest version of the Google Video Support Plugin for Meet to run on Internet Explorer. See Google’s Help Center to learn more about supported browsers and some of the limitations of using Hangouts Meet with Internet Explorer.

Previously Communicated:

Change to the view of rooms in Google Calendar events

Google has made a change to where you can find rooms and resources in a Google Calendar event. When looking to see what rooms or resources you have booked for an event, you’ll now see this information within the guest list and no longer in the location field.

Screenshot of how room resources will not appear in Google Calendar (not shown in location field)

This change prevents duplication of the room or resource in your event and allows you to clarify the geographic address of the event in the location field, giving your guests a clearer understanding of where they should be.

Note: If you wish to see an event location as part of your calendar view summary, you must add it manually to the location field.

According to Google, this feature should begin showing up in U-M Google on January 6 and could take 15 days or longer to become fully visible.

U-M Google November Monthly Summary

The monthly U-M Google Summaries inform the university community of Google releases for Core Apps as well as the Non-Core Apps (those that are not part of the G Suite for Education agreement). We communicate important information on Core Apps throughout the month. Core and Non-Core Apps are listed on the G Suite website.

Core Apps:

Google now supports live captions on the Hangouts Meet iOS app. Currently, live captions are only available in English. Additionally, captions will not appear in a recording of a meeting. Check out the Google Help Center to learn more about how to use captions in a video meeting.

You can learn how to organize information and analyze data using Google’s new Coursera course, “Getting Started with Google Sheets.” This course is ideal for users who are new to Sheets or are looking to sharpen their analytical skills. This course is free for all users with the option to pay an additional fee for access to additional content, projects, quizzes, and an official course certificate. Visit the Coursera website to access the Getting Started with Google Sheets course.

You can now insert collapsible text boxes into a new Google Site, which site viewers can then click to expand. Collapsible text boxes can help condense large blocks of text, like content on FAQ or Help Center pages, allowing viewers to quickly navigate to the most relevant information.

Google has updated their My Devices page. You can go to the page to see the devices you’ve used to log in and then manage those devices. It includes detailed device information, an option to log out of the device, and an option to wipe the device. There is a new URL for the page - mydevices.google.com - and it now includes both mobile and desktop devices. 

In Google Docs, you can now customize which sections to add page numbers to and which number to start counting from. To access this feature, go to Insert > Page Numbers > More options. Visit Google’s Help Center to learn more about page numbers in Google Docs. 

Dynamic email is now rolling out within the Gmail app on Android and iOS devices. Dynamic email allows you to take action directly within a message, such as responding to a comment in Google Docs, RSVPing to an event in Google Calendar, and more. To learn more about dynamic email in Gmail, visit Google’s blog post. 

Note: If you previously turned off dynamic email within Gmail when it was turned on for the U-M Google domain, it should remain turned off for your individual account in the app. When you receive dynamic emails they will not appear as dynamic within the Gmail app. To find out how to disable dynamic email for your account, visit Google’s Help Center.

We previously communicated in April the ability to embed MP3 and WAV audio files from Google Drive into Google Slides presentations. Shortly after our communication, Google delayed the feature’s rollout. According to Google, the feature is finally rolling out to the U-M Google domain and should now be available. 

To insert an audio file into Slides:

  • Insert > Audio and select from your audio files in Drive
  • Hover over the icon to see playback controls

Once the audio file is inserted, you can find audio settings by selecting Format options in the toolbar. From there, you can set playback options, volume, and looping. You can also hide the audio icon or replace it with an image of your choice. The ability to add an audio file into Slides is currently only available on desktop, though audio will play on all platforms.

Previously Communicated:

Right-to-left language support for new Google Sites

Google has added right-to-left language support in new Google Sites for the following languages:

  • Arabic
  • Farsi
  • Hebrew
  • Urdu

When you have your language set to one of the above, the site editing experience will adjust to place the editing sidebars and menus on the left-hand side of the screen instead of the right. Similarly, once a site is published, site viewers who have their default language set to one of the above will see navigation elements like menus reversed to match the right-to-left language.

Screenshot of new right-to-left language support for new Google Sites

According to Google, this feature should have begun to show up in U-M Google on November 12 and could take three days or longer to become fully visible.

More Comprehensive Sent Gmail Retention

By default, certain emails (sent via Google Calendar, Drive, or other G Suite products) do not appear in the sender’s Sent Gmail folder. Google recently announced the option to enable comprehensive mail storage to include these emails in your Sent folder. This new feature allows UMICH users to more easily track, organize, and archive all their work-related communications across core G Suite services.

The Collaboration Services team enabled the comprehensive mail storage option in the UMICH domain on November 4. You will now begin to see the emails sent from Calendar, Drive, and other G Suite products in your Sent Gmail folder. Previously sent emails, however, are not included.