U-M Google Updates

New Google Sites Goes Live on 11/21

11/11/2016

Google Sites is beginning the transition from classic Sites to a completely new implementation of Sites starting on November 21, 2016 by making the new Sites the default option. Google Sites is one of the most popular products offered by Google and with the introduction of the new Sites there will be more options for customization and functionality. Some of the new exciting features include:

  • Drag-and-drop design experience
  • Real-time collaboration
  • Easy access to all your Google Apps content (Drive, Maps, Calendar, etc).
  • New and stylish themes and layouts

Important notes:

  • In 2017, Google will provide and recommend options to migrate your sites from classic Sites to new Sites.
  • Beginning in 2018, Google will send a timeline and instructions regarding the gradual process to shut down classic Sites. The specific date for the shutdown of classic Sites has yet to be set, but Google will inform you at least one year in advance of the shutdown.

If you’re interested in more information about the new Sites, Google has put together a Google Sites Help Center to help with the transition to the new Sites as well as a Learning Center for more information about the new sites.

U-M Google October Updates

11/3/2016

Hello,

The monthly U-M Google Updates inform users about what is happening with Google releases for both Core Apps (Google applications that fall under the G Suite for Education agreement and do NOT require separate terms of service or privacy policy), as well as the Non-Core Apps (those that are not part of the G Suite for Education agreement). We will continue to communicate important information on Core Apps throughout the month as well. For a list of Core and Non-Core Apps, see the U-M Google List of Services.

Core Apps:

  • Learn about your co-workers in the context of the Android apps you use every day. When you tap on a profile photo, the information that’s available in the Google UMICH directory will be shown in the new “Directory” card, showing you more information about the person.

  • New! Page numbers are now an option for table of contents. To enable page numbers, select the numbered option when inserting a table of contents from the Insert menu.

Email Headers in Gmail

10/28/2016

Have you ever wanted to trace an email to see where it came from? In Gmail, you can can see where an email originated by looking at its headers. This includes showing how it got from the sender to the recipient's email servers.

Note: The Copy to clipboard feature includes the content of the message with the headers.

To trace an email in Gmail:

  • Open the email you want to trace
  • Next to Reply, click the Down arrow
  • Click Show original
  • The headers will show in a new window, including fields like authentication results

To trace an email in Inbox by Gmail:

  • Open the email you want to trace
  • Inside the message, click More. Click Show original.
  • The headers will show in a new window.

New ways to reach your goals with G Suite

10/21/2016

G Suite (formerly Google Apps) recently introduced new features designed to speed up and simplify the way you work.

  1. Action Items

    To help keep your projects moving, when you type phrases like “Ryan to follow up on the keynote script,” or “Andrea to schedule a weekly check in” on desktop, Docs will suggest an Action Item to assign to the right person, using Natural Language Processing (NLP).

    You can also manually assign an Action Item to someone in the Docs, Sheets and Slides desktop and mobile apps by mentioning their name in a comment and checking the new Action Item box. The assignee will get an email notification and see the Action Item(s) highlighted with a blue bar when they open the file.

  2. Badges

    The next time Action Item assignees visit Docs, Sheets, Slides (or Drive) from their laptops or mobile apps, they’ll see a badge on any files with Action Items assigned to them, plus any unresolved suggestions that others have made to their files.

  3. Forms

    Launching November 2, G Suite will predict the type of question you’re asking and suggest potential responses for you to choose from.

    Let’s say you’re planning an all-day event at the office and need to know which day works best for your team. When you type “What days are you available next week?” Forms will determine that “Checkbox” is the ideal question type, and generate related response options that you can add one by one or all together.

    Launching November 9, there will be a new “File upload” question type. Your respondents can now upload files from their computer or Drive — all of which are collected for you in a new Drive folder. Note: This feature is only available in Forms shared within the UMICH domain.

  4. Voice commands

    G Suite added more ways to format and customize content with commands for changing text color, deleting words, inserting links and comments, plus a number of other ways to format, hands-free.

Explore in Docs, Sheets and Slides makes work a breeze

10/13/2016

Today Google launches Explore in Docs and Slides (Explore is already available in Sheets). It is designed to bring you insights, design tools, and research recommendations. Explore uses Google smarts to help you create presentations, spreadsheets, and documents. It’s like having your own researcher, analyst, and designer.

Sheets

Explore in Sheets helps you decipher your data, whether you’re new to spreadsheets or a formula pro. Just ask Explore—with words, not formulas—to get answers about your data. You can ask questions like “how many students are registered for chemistry?,” “what are the top three careers by income?,” or “what was the total cost of employee benefits last fiscal year?” Explore in Sheets is available on the web, Android, and iOS.

Slides

Explore in Slides helps you polish the design of presentations. As you work, Explore generates design suggestions, based on the content of your slide. Pick a recommendation and apply it with a single click—no cropping, resizing, or reformatting required.

Docs

Explore in Docs helps with researching and writing reports. Whether you’re writing about molecular biology or planning your next team lunch, you’ll get suggestions based on the content in your document. It recommends related topics to learn about, images to insert, and more content to check out. You can also find a related document from Drive or search Google in Explore. It is available on Android, iPhone, or the web.  

Explore is gradually rolling out to the UMICH domain over the next week.