Thursday, April 18, 2019

Work smarter in Sheets with several new features for objects

Update (April 30, 2019): We previously stated that a full rollout for these features would begin on May 2, 2019 for Scheduled domains. 

This was incorrect — Scheduled domains will follow the same track as Rapid domains, meaning these features began rolling out gradually (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 18, 2019.

What’s changing

We’re launching several new features and tools that will help you create more compelling and stylized reports in Sheets:
  • Guides 
  • Multi-Selecting Objects 
  • Enhanced Pivot Table Insertion 
  • Copy and paste images into Sheets 
  • Formula backed charts inserted from Answers

Who’s impacted 

End users

Why you’d use it

We hope these tools will help you make more engaging and informative reports by making it easier and faster to format charts, pivot tables, images, and more.

How to get started 

  • Admins: No action required. 
  • End users: See below for how to use each new feature in Sheets.

Additional details

Guides 
  • You can use guides to help you align, size, and position various objects within your sheets. Guides are also helpful in making sure multiple objects within the same sheet are in proportion to one another. 
Multi-selecting objects 
  • To select multiple charts, drawings, and images to move, resize, or delete in bulk, hold down the Control or Shift key and select. 



Enhanced pivot table insertion 
  • When adding a new pivot table, you’ll now have the option to either place it in a new sheet or in a custom location on an existing sheet. 
    • To create a new pivot table, go to Data > Pivot Table and select a data range. 
    • In the dialogue box, under Insert to, select New sheet or Existing sheet, and click Create. Note that if you select existing sheet, you’ll have to select a specific cell location for the pivot table. 


Copy and paste images into Sheets 
  • Recently, we made it easier to add images to your spreadsheet by inserting images into cells. Now, you can copy images from other websites and paste them directly into your sheet. 
    • Simply right click on an image and hit copy, then in Sheets right click and hit Paste to insert the image over the grid. 
Formula backed charts inserted from Answers
  • Now, when you use Sheets Explore to create charts, the charts you insert from the Q&A feature (Answers) will be backed by formulas. This means that charts will automatically update if the underlying data changes, ensuring you always have a fresh chart with the latest information.

Helpful links 

To learn more about charts and graphs in Sheets, see here. 
To learn about adding and editing a chart or graph, see here. 
To learn about adding an image to a spreadsheet, see here. 
To learn about creating and using a pivot table in Sheets, see here. 
To learn about editing and formatting a spreadsheet, see here.

Availability

Rollout details
G Suite editions
  • Available to all G Suite editions. 
On/off by default? 
  • These features will be ON by default.
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