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AI in Google Workspace – Sheets

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Gemini AI in Sheets

Google Workspace is a comprehensive and secure platform that empowers organizations to be more productive, collaborative, and creative. This series explores the power of AI built within Google Workspace across each of the workspace apps. In this post, we cover AI in Sheets.

AI in Sheets

Google Sheets is a spreadsheet and data analysis tool built for ease of use and collaboration. Using Gemini AI in Sheets, you can build spreadsheets, summarize your data, generate formulas, and improve your data skills.Gemini in Sheets helps you build more effective and efficient sheets.

Here are 3 Gemini features in Sheets you should know:

 

Create Tables
  • Gemini in Sheets helps you build contextually relevant, formatted, and styled spreadsheets in a snap. 
Create Formulas
  • You can ask Gemini to create formulas for you, combining and nesting functions for your desired results.  
Summarize Spreadsheet Data
  • Gemini in Sheets will automatically summarize the data in your spreadsheet. You gain a better understanding of your data, creating actionable information. You can also ask Gemini questions about the summary for deeper insights.

And More …

With Gemini AI in Sheets, you can also …

  • Build and enhance spreadsheets using content in other files and your emails.
  • Use prompts to edit your sheets with actions such as adding checkboxes or dropdowns, applying conditional formatting, and sorting data.

You can ask Gemini to create formulas for you, combining and nesting functions for your desired results.  

Summarize Spreadsheet Data

Gemini in Sheets will automatically summarize the data in your spreadsheet. You gain a better understanding of your data, creating actionable information. You can also ask Gemini questions about the summary for deeper insights.

And More …

With Gemini AI in Sheets, you can also …

  • Build and enhance spreadsheets using content in other files and your emails.
  • Use prompts to edit your sheets with actions such as adding checkboxes or dropdowns, applying conditional formatting, and sorting data.

We Will Help

At Cumulus Global, our priority is ensuring that you have productive, secure, and affordable managed cloud services. We work to ensure that you get the most value from the IT and cloud services you need and want, without overspending, to best support your business objectives.

Unsure of where to start? Check out our IT Assessment or schedule a meeting with a Cloud Advisor. We will help you adapt while keeping your IT services secure and cost-effective.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.

New Google Sheets are Here

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Google Sheets
Over the next few weeks, Google is rolling out the new version of Sheets to all users. Sheets include a many new features beyond offline access, speed, and no more limits on formula complexity and sheet size.

Spell check is not yet part of the new Sheets, but is coming soon.

You can click here to learn more about the new Google Sheets, and you can see Google’s announcement here.

For those that want to help users get the most from Google Docs, contact us about self-paced, integrated Google Apps training and other professional development options.

 

Easier Sharing of Google Docs; Watch Your Permissions

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google drive
Google is making it easier to share Google Docs, Drawings, and Slides (not Sheets) with people outside your Google Apps for Business domain.

  • Files shared outside your domain to an email address not linked to an existing Google Account can be viewed without having to sign in or create a new Google Account.
  • If a file is shared with edit or comment permissions, the recieving user must still sign in with a Google Account in order to edit or comment on that file.

This change actually reflects a new “invitation” model.  When a user directly shares with individuals who do not have Google Accounts, those recipients will be able to view the file without signing in. Because no sign in is required, anyone may view the file with this sharing link until the person who the file was explicitly shared with creates a Google Account and expends the invitation.

Once the person creates a Google Account two things happen: (1) the sharing link will no longer work for new users to access the file and the sharing dialog will indicate that the invitation has been used; (2) any user who accessed the file using the sharing link while it was open and signed in using their Google Account will be added to the sharing access list for that file and will continue to have access. Users with permissions to change sharing settings can revoke this access if desired.

While you can prevent this behavior by disabling sharing outside the domain to people who are not using a Google Account via settings in the Admin console, the change makes monitoring of Google Drive permissions more important to maintaining a secure ecosystem.

Tools, such as CloudLock, provide a means for monitoring and managing permissions, helping ensure that sensitive data remains secure.  Contact us if you would like more information.

 

 

Google Docs & Drive: Small New Features Make a Big Difference

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docsGoogle continues to enhance the Google Apps suite with updates to Google Docs and Drive.

In Google Docs:

  • A new spell checker runs in real-time.  Marking misspelled words, the checker lets you review spelling via a traditional style tool, see spelling suggestions as you type, and setup automatic correction.   You can learn more here.
  • New presets for numbered and bullet lists provide more formatting options in Documents.  You can now also change the color, size, and style of individual bullets, as well as customize your own bullet styles.  See this Google+ post for an animated demo.

google driveIn Google Drive, the current release (1.11) of Google Drive for Mac or PC includes two new features:

  • On Windows, you can now have shortcuts to Documents, Sheets, and Slides on the desktop or in the Start Menu — making it easier to use Google Docs as a primary (or strong secondary) productivity suite.
  • You may now also select where your Google Drive sync folder is located and choose your own name for the folder.

While major in scope, these updates reflect Google’s process of continuous improvement based on user feedback and requests.  These changes improve ease of use and the end user experience.