What’s new Google Sheets? – Jenny’s Weekly Tip #21

This week Google Apps announced their latest improvements for January 2014 with particular focus on Google Sheets.

Google have released a number of updates that kicks many of the old size and complexity limits in Google Sheets to the curbs. Now you can expect Sheets to be bigger, faster, more powerful and accessible offline. I have a feeling that this is going to be good news for all you Google Sheets users out there.

So if you are not entirely happy with the current Sheets functionality, then read below to see how these new features could make working in Sheets that little more pleasurable.

Here is the lowdown on the updates.

Bigger, faster spreadsheets

With millions of cells to work with and no limits on columns, formulas or the number of cells you can copy and paste, Google Sheets has got a whole lot bigger and faster.

You will also find that scrolling through big spreadsheets is MANY times faster and calculations loads almost instantaneously.

Filter Views

Google Sheets has introduced this unique feature, Filter Views, to enable you to quickly name, save and share custom views of your data.

This is particularly handy for when you are collaborating so you can sort a spreadsheet without affecting how others see it.

Function Help

The formula experience has been simplified. Whether you’re new or a whiz at running complex formulas, the new function help and examples guide you as you type making it easier for you to set up and perform calculations.

You will also find 20 new functions e.g.  AVERAGEIF, ISURL, ARRAY_ROW etc. More information regarding these functions can be found by clicking the link below.

Google Sheets New Functions

Time Saving improvements

– Text now automatically flows into empty adjacent cells which means no manual merge needed.

– With improved conditional formatting, you can add rules to change the colours and styles of cells in your spreadsheet based on custom formulas.

Work Offline

You can now access your Sheets offline just like you can with Google Docs and Slides. This is only available with Chrome

There are also a number of updates that are still in development and a number of existing features that will be retired. For more information simply click the link below.

Unsupported features in the new Google Sheets.

If this sounds like something you want, then you can enable the new Sheets by navigating to your Google Drive settings and selecting the box next to ‘Try the New Google Sheets’.

All spreadsheets you create in the future will use  the new Google Sheets. Your existing Sheets will continue  to open with the old version.

Enjoy using the new and improved Google Sheets!