Last week Google released a preview of improvements to its increasingly popular Google Docs office productivity suite, bringing the set of software even closer to what consumers have come to expect in competitors Microsoft Office and Apple's iWork.The set of changes was announced on the Google Docs' development blog, where the company unveiled a yearlong project to completely rewrite the software's underlying code. It is the first rewrite since Docs was released four years ago.
Now available inside of the document editor are features such a ruler to adjust margins and indentation, more fine-tuned line spacing and alignment, and greater control over formatting.
In addition to expanding word processing features, Google has improved the collaboration tools that have made Google Docs popular. Users now see other's edits appear live, character-by-character, in the document, and Docs can now handle multiple people inserting text without error. Google Chat has also been integrated into the sidebar.
Docs' spreadsheet program has also undergone a face lift, with extensive performance improvements and changes that bring it closer to an Excel-like experience.
GW students wishing to use the new tools may be out of luck, however; the "preview" of the new versions are not currently available to those using GWmail accounts. Those using Gmail accounts may enable the preview through the settings tab in Google Docs.
As of Wednesday afternoon Google had not responded to a request for more information on a release for enterprise and university clients.
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