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Cut and paste is great, but for some purposes, it’s a tool of last resort. Gmail makes it much simpler to save your messages as documents and PDFs, keeping formatting intact. Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in to Gmail.
2. Click the gear-shaped icon near the top right, then select Settings.
3. Click the Labs tab near the top center.
4. Scroll down and click Enable next to Create a Document.
   Step 4: Select Create a Document.

   (Credit: Screenshot by Rob Lightner/CNET)

5. Scroll to the top or bottom and click the button labeled Save Changes.
6. The next time you want to save a message as a doc, just click the More button in the top center of the message reading pane, then select Create a document.
7. A new tab opens in Google Docs. From here, it’s easy to edit, save, and export as a PDF or some other file format.

That’s it! This feature is incredibly handy for tackling invites, e-mailed schedules, and all sorts of other problems that cutting and pasting just can’t solve.

Filed under: Google Apps, Google Apps for Business by Google Apps Guru

The last week has seen some interesting developments, Google made a major search appliance release with support for cloud systems. Microsoft released Windows 7 Mobile, and we knuckled down to some large apps migrations.  

Cloud Connect for the Google Search Appliance Google Search Appliance Update [Neil Rutherfoord]

Google released version 6.8 of the GSA firmware, which has brought in some beta features to the search appliance’ capability. It includes several new Google Search Appliance features in early stages of development, including people search, cloud connect, and dynamic navigation. Dynamic navigation has to be one feature that really has me excited. Having worked on a project which required a parametric search type functionality, this new feature will assist greatly in categorising search results based on the document metadata. While we are not recommending using this update just yet, in a produciton environment, we will be testing it out ourselves to get an idea of the quirks around this release.

Cloud Connect displays relevant, personalized results from Google Docs and Google Sites alongside results from more traditional repositories, like file shares and content management systems. Easier access to collaborative documents, spreadsheets, presentations and sites with Cloud Connect speeds up how quickly coworkers can complete projects. Cloud Connect also lets users search content from Twitter, as well as blogs and industry websites via Google Site Search.

More: here

Windows Mobile 7 [Neil Rutherfoord]

Hot on the heels of the latest Android release, Froyo, Microsoft have released Windows Mobile 7. A number of providers, like Telstra, are expected to provide the HTC 7 Mozart, which will use this OS. “The Start Screen on Windows® Phone 7 brings everything together. One glance tells you what’s going on, what’s happening next and what you’ve missed. The live tiles keep you updated and it’s easy to customise by adding apps, pictures and other favourites to the Start screen so they’re always at your fingertips.” While the live tiles may be slightly different, I personally think this is a last ditch attempt by Microsoft to get into the Mobile game. Good luck to them I say! While Android is creeping on Apple, the iPhone definitly has a stranglehold on the market.

• Automate repetitive business processes

• (e.g. expense approvals, time-sheet tracking, ticket management, order fulfillment, and much more)
• Link Google products with third party services (e.g. send custom emails and a calendar invitation to a list from a MySQL database)
• Create custom spreadsheet functions
• New! Build and collect user inputs through rich graphics interfaces and menus

• (e.g. a company could power an internal application for purchasing office supplies where users could shop via a customized menu interface)

 Google Apps Scripts

I think the biggest announcements for a while from Google, would have to be the inclusion of scripting within and accross the Google Apps suite. Google Apps Script is a JavaScript cloud scripting language that provides easy ways to automate tasks across Google products and third party services. With Google Apps Script you can:

More: here

Drag and drop images in Google Docs

 When writing a document, it often helps to augment text with images and diagrams. Google documents already has three ways to add images: you can choose them from your hard-drive, add them by URL, and you can find them using Google Image Search.

But sometimes the exact image you need is on your desktop and you just want to add it to your document quickly. Starting today, you can drag images from your desktop directly into your documents.

More: here

New Charts and Visualizations in Google Docs

Spreadsheet data can tell compelling stories when placed into charts and other visualizations. Today we’re excited to announce a new editor for charts, redesigned from the ground up as well as a set of new chart types. We’ve added annotated time-lines, organizational charts, gauges, our popular motion chart (which makes it easy to visualize data changing over time) and more to our chart types. 

Filed under: Cloud Assist, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Innovative Innovation, Managed Migration, Maximising Mobility, regular, Tech News, Technology by Neil Rutherfoord

Sorry we are a little late on this week with the update, but as I say every week we have been absolutly flat out. A couple more Google Apps roll outs and some custom developments, using different aspects of the Google offering, have kept us on our toes making it a really productive week. In terms of news, we have seen some cool announcements from Google, so on with the show.

Threaded email or not, now it’s your users’ choice in Gmail – Google Enterpise Blog
BIG NEWS! I feel this has to be one of the biggest announcements in regards to GMail in a very long time. Gmail’s conversation view has been one of most contested features for a very long time and it seems though Google has finally listened and realised that it’s not for everyone. You can now turn the feature off, so if you would like to turn off the conversation contact your Google Apps administrator and have the feature enabled.

More tools for viewing document revisions – Docs Blog
Google have provided another way to see the changes that have been made to a Google Document by anyone you may have shared the document with. Previously you could step back through a document’ history and see the changes were made, but the distinction between the current and previous versions were not as clear as it is now. Each user change can now appear inline in the document, and is highlighted in a different colour, so it is easy for you to distinguish who made what changes. Its a brilliant addition to the suite.

Google Promotes Replacement for JPEG Image Format – DigitalTrends
Google has just announced a new image format, called WebP, which the company claims will result in smaller file sizes for commonly shared small image files. They say we will see a massive reduction in Internet traffic, as 65% of all traffic is image related. See a comparison of these image formats here http://code.google.com/speed/webp/gallery.html

301 Redirect – How to move your web server’s files without hurting SEO – Real World Business Solutions
Turning to the website front now. At some point in time 99% of companies are going to upgrade or move their website. A very important part of this process is managing the SEO during the change. This article gives a very good overview on how to manage this, a very important read for anyone considering to update or move their website.

No monkey business at Delhi Games
The Commonwealth Games will kick off in Delhi next week, and to protect the athlete village from hoards of monkeys, authorities there have turned to rented langurs. They are a giant monkey with a black face, and are a popular antidote to the monkey threat. Apart from monkeys, rats are a major concern in the city but the Municipal Corporation of Delhi launched a drive, armed themselves with 600 rat traps and 100kg of rat-killers, to clear the venues of the rodents. Good Luck to our Aussie Athletes!

Filed under: Cloud Assist, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Innovative Innovation, Managed Migration, Maximising Mobility, regular, Tech News, Technology by Neil Rutherfoord

All of us at Cloud Assist are enjoying the real time collaborative typing in Google Docs. June is the month of graduations and new beginnings for millions of students around the world. The Google Docs team is also continually learning and we’re happy to announce that the new documents and spreadsheets editors have both graduated. 

Documents
Beginning today and rolling out over the next couple of weeks, all new documents will be created using the new documents editor. Docs already created using the older editor will remain there. We will be sharing more information on how to move those documents to the new version soon. 

The new editor was built for faster real-time collaboration, better imports, and more control over your document’s layout. Since the preview, we’ve added lots of features including a table of contents, a special characters dialog, a dictionary, search as-you-type, and re-sizable images. You can learn more about the new document editor here.

Spreadsheets
The new version of spreadsheets is available as the default to everyone starting today. Since thelaunch of the new spreadsheets, we’ve added a lot of new features, including formula highlighting, sheet dragging, sheet menu, faster scrolling, an editable formula bar, and autocomplete in cells, copy sheet from one spreadsheet to another and range sorting.

GoogleLookup and spreadsheet gadgets, which will be added to the new editor shortly, can still be used in the old version which can be accessed by clicking on the “Old version” link in the top right of any spreadsheet. The old version will be available for a few more weeks..

Thanks to everyone who has tried out the new editors over the last couple of months. Your feedback has been very valuable as we prepared to make it available to everyone. The new editors also let us develop new features more quickly, so let us know what you think on the forums.

Finally, there’s also good news for Google Apps customers: these new editors will become their default soon as well. We’ll begin activating the new editor for documents on June 21 and for spreadsheets on June 30.

Source: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-google-docs-graduates.html

Filed under: Cloud Assist, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Innovative Innovation, Managed Migration, Maximising Mobility, regular, Tech News, Technology by Neil Rutherfoord

Since the launch of Google Docs drawings, we’ve been excited to see you not only create really impressive and useful drawings, but also actively share them with the world. In order to make it easier for you to share your drawings, we’ve added drawings to the Google Docs template gallery. Sharing via the gallery gives you categories, ratings, and even usage counts for drawings you’ve submitted.

Here are a couple examples of drawing templates currently in the gallery:

Some other examples already available include a coin puzzle, a series of United States maps, a business model example, isometrics, a floor plan, and an interactive learning object.

Go check out the drawings in the gallery, and please submit your best drawings to the public, so that everyone can easily take advantage of your hard work. And, let us know if you’ve made something that will blow our minds, and you’d like us to feature your drawing here on the Google Docs blog.

Source: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/06/share-your-drawings-with-google-docs.html

Filed under: regular by Neil Rutherfoord

Released on 5/20/2010

Some 24 new themes have been added to Google forms for subjects such as weddings, book reports, contact forms and parties.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google forms

How to access what’s new:
In your Google Docs list, select ‘Create new’, then the ‘Form’ option. When editing the new form, click the ‘Theme’ button at the top to see all the themes available.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-themes-in-google-forms.html

Filed under: regular by Neil Rutherfoord

Released on 5/26/2010

New features in new Google documents editor now available

- Faster find
- Headings in the toolbar
- Bookmarks in the link dialogue

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what’s new:
- Faster find: Press Ctrl+F (⌘+F on Macs) to see a dropdown box where you can type the word or phrase you’re looking for in your document. As you type, all the matches in the doc will get highlighted and you can press your’ enter’ key to jump to the next match. For more advanced options or to replace text, access the ‘Find and Replace’ dialogue from the ‘Edit’ menu.
- Headings in the toolbar: Paragraph styles have been added to the toolbar to quickly apply formatting changes to your text.
- Bookmarks in the link dialogue: If you’ve added bookmarks to your document, you’ll also see these bookmarks as options when you create a new link.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/05/faster-finding-and-other-document.html
How to enable the new editor

Filed under: regular by Neil Rutherfoord