We’d really appreciate your thoughts on how we can make this newsletter work best for you.

- The G Suite Team

December 1, 2016

Featured launch: The new Google Sites

A totally rebuilt Google Sites — now available to everyone

What’s new: Earlier this year, we began previewing a completely revamped Google Sites with a select group of early adopters. In November, we made the new version of Sites generally available to G Suite customers. In addition to the intuitive technology, integration with G Suite apps, and attractive design that our early adopters have come to know and love, the new Sites now includes the ability to track performance with Google Analytics, six new themes, and other helpful features. Read on for more information regarding this launch, and check out the Help Center and Learning Center to learn more about the new Sites.

The classic version of Sites will continue to exist

The previously existing, classic version of Sites will continue to exist in parallel with the new Sites as we add capabilities that are similar to those found in the classic Sites. The classic Sites and the sites created with it will continue to follow the Sites-specific settings in the Google Admin console at Apps > G Suite > Sites.

Please note:

• In 2017, we’ll provide and recommend options to migrate your sites from the classic Sites to the new Sites.
• Beginning in 2018, we’ll send a timeline and instructions regarding the gradual process to shut down the classic Sites. The specific date for the shutdown of the classic Sites has yet to be set, but we’ll inform you at least one year in advance of that shutdown.

Turn the new Sites on or off for your organization

The new Sites is ON by default, but your users will not be able to create or edit sites in the new Sites unless you have both Google Drive and the classic Sites turned on as well.

To turn OFF the new Sites in your organization, you can do any one of the following:

• In the Admin console, go to Apps > G Suite > Sites > New Sites and select Users at [my domain] cannot create and edit sites.
• Turn off Sites entirely.
• Turn off Drive entirely.

The new Sites respects Drive sharing settings

The new Sites respects the Drive sharing settings in the Admin console (located at Apps > G Suite > Drive). It does not abide by the classic Sites sharing settings (located at Apps > G Suite > Sites). If you allow users to publish Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files on the web, they’ll also be able to publish sites created in the new Sites on the web.

Check out the new Sites today, and get started creating useful, beautiful sites that work across screens to deliver your content in the most effective way possible.

Work anywhere

Gmail and Google Calendar get a whole lot better on iOS

What’s new: We made some changes to the Gmail and Google Calendar apps on iOS.

The new Gmail app for iOS

With this update to the Gmail iOS app, you'll notice some exciting changes: The biggest overhaul of the app in nearly four years. It's the Gmail you know and love, with a fresh new look, sleeker transitions and some highly-requested features. It's a lot faster, too.

With the new app, getting things done on the go is a lot easier — whether you're trying to find a message your colleague sent you last month, or trying to get through your work inbox on a Monday morning.

Now, you'll be able to:

• Undo Send, just like you do on the desktop, to prevent embarrassing email mistakes
• Search faster with instant results and spelling suggestions (like when you type "flighht," but you really meant "flight")
• Swipe to archive or delete, to quickly clear items out of your inbox

Google Calendar: Updated for you

Based on your feedback (thank you!), the Calendar app on iOS has some shiny, new features:

• Month view and week in landscape view, so you have even more ways to see your schedule at a glance.
• Spotlight Search support, so you can search for events, Reminders and Goals in Apple's Spotlight Search and find what you're looking for faster.
• Alternate calendars. If you often look up dates in a non-Gregorian calendar — like Lunar, Islamic, or Hindu — you can now add that calendar to easily see those dates alongside your current calendar.

We'll continue to improve both Gmail and Calendar for iOS so you can be more productive on the go.

Notifications, trash view, and more in the Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps

What’s new: Check out the following new features in the latest versions of the Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps:

Android

• Notifications in Docs, Sheets, and Slides - Users who currently see notifications in their Google Drive Android app (for instance, when someone mentions them in a comment or shares a document with them) will now see notifications in their Docs, Sheets, and Slides Android apps as well. These notifications are specific to the app they’re working in and only appear if the user has an updated version of Google Drive installed on their mobile device.
  
• Resize rows and columns in Sheets - Users will find it easier to resize rows and columns in the Sheets Android app, which now features options to specify the pixel sizes of rows and columns and to fit columns to their data exactly.
  
• Create and edit data validation in Sheets - Just like they can on the web, users can now create and edit data validation criteria in the Sheets Android app.
  

• Change the color of sheet tabs in Sheets - Users can now differentiate between sheets in a spreadsheet by changing the color of their tabs in the Sheets Android app.
  
• Insert GIFs in Docs - Using the Google Keyboard in the Docs Android app, you can now search for and insert GIFs into documents.

iOS

• Trash view in the Docs, Sheets, and Slides iOS apps - You can now view and restore previously deleted files in the Docs, Sheets, and Slides iOS apps. Just select “Trash” from the menu on the left side of the screen.

Visit Google Play and the App Store to download the latest versions of the Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps.

Simple to use 

Save time with new custom templates in Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms

What’s new: We recently launched new tools in G Suite like Explore, Action items, and other features to help your teams save time and focus on what’s important: creating impactful work, quicker. We know time spent re-creating files in the workplace takes away from the time your team can spend collaborating and achieving results.

That’s why, with this launch, we introduced custom templates in G Suite for the Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms files your teams use the most.

Simply submit files to shared template galleries in the Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms home screens for your co-workers to adapt and use as needed. With these customizable templates, your teams can focus less on formatting and more on driving impact and sharing success.

Note that if you disabled template submissions to the old Google Drive templates gallery in the Admin console, users in your organization will not be able to see and use the new galleries when they launch. You can enable the new galleries for your users in the Admin console (Apps > G Suite > Drive and Docs > Templates). You can also configure the categories available for your organization’s templates from that same section in the Admin console.

In addition, G Suite for Business and Education customers can require templates be approved before they appear in the galleries, or prevent end users from submitting new templates altogether. These features are not enabled by default, so you’ll need to update your settings if you want to moderate or restrict template submissions to the galleries.

The old templates gallery will be shut down in early 2017, giving you and your users time to transition to the new galleries. We’ll let you know the exact date with a message in the old gallery, but it will not take place before February 1st, 2017.

Note: this feature is currently available to all customers on the Rapid Release track, and will be available to customers on the Scheduled Release track starting on December 7th, 2016.

Check out the Help Center for more information: Enable templates for Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms | Create a file from a template

Export presentations in OpenDocument Presentation (ODP) format from Slides

What’s new: Being able to save Google Slides in the OpenDocument Presentation (.odp) file format has been a popular request from the open-source community and organizations that use open-source office suites, such as LibreOffice and OpenOffice. With this launch, you can now download your Google Slides presentations in the ODP file format.

From a Google Slides presentation, click File > Download as > ODP Document (.odp) to download your presentation as an ODP file. The file will be saved to your default download folder.

You can now import and export all three major OpenDocument file formats: .odt files for documents, .ods for spreadsheets, and .odp for presentations.

Please note that some formatting (e.g. tables and complex shapes) may be lost during file conversion.

Check out the Help Center for more information.

Business ready

Build data-rich presentations in seconds with integrated apps and the Slides API

What’s new: Presentations are a staple in business communication. When done right, they help tell a story that can captivate, persuade, or inspire audiences. But crafting that story can be tedious, especially if you’re constantly flipping between screens to copy and paste charts, images, or figures into your slides.

If only there was an API for that….

This launch marks the general availability of the Google Slides API which gives developers programmatic access to create and update presentations in Slides from any data source. We previewed the Slides API at I/O earlier this year to change how business presentations are built. Now, your teams can use a number of ready-to-go integrations to turn your business data into presentations, with just a click.

Build beautiful, up-to-date presentations in seconds using Conga, Trello, Lucidchart and Zapier

Whether you’re looking to populate a quarterly business review (QBR) deck, add specs for weekly design review slides, or refresh event registration data for your daily update, the third-party apps below let you quickly and easily build beautiful, data-rich presentations.

• Generate your next QBR deck with Conga: Conga makes document creation and reporting for Salesforce easy. With its Slides API integration you can create a quarterly business review presentation in Slides from your standard Salesforce Account records in seconds. Read more here.

• Create vivid project updates with Trello: Trello helps you organize and prioritize project information in highly visual ways. With its Slide API integration, you can turn any Trello board or set of cards into a Slides presentation with just a click. Read more here.

• Review complex visualizations with Lucidchart: Lucidchart helps you create complex diagrams and visuals easily. With its Slides API integration you can export flowcharts, mockups, and other such visuals, break them into slides to cover specifics in more detail, and rapidly iterate on the content. You can find Lucidchart on the G Suite Marketplace and read more about the integration here.
  
• Create and respond to custom proposals requests with Zapier: Zapier lets you create and automate business workflows. With its Slides API integration you can create, collaborate, and share dynamic presentations using Slides with just a few workflow rules. You can get started with the Slides integration on Zapier or learn more about it here.

All of these app integrations are available to try today — and this is just the beginning. We’re working with many other software vendors, including ProsperWorks, AODocs and Form Publisher to help you do more in less time in all sorts of ways.

Developers can start using the Slides API today. Documentation and demos are available at developers.google.com/slides and they can read more about it here. 

New apps for the ‘Recommended for G Suite’ program

What’s new: While G Suite helps your teams communicate and collaborate more easily, we get that you also rely on third-party apps to manage other aspects of your business including sales, marketing, and operations. We want to make it easy for you to integrate these solutions with G Suite, and that’s why we introduced the Recommended for G Suite program last year. The program selects market leading applications, built by independent software vendors (ISVs), in a range of categories like project management, customer support, finance, and accounting.

With this launch, we added seven new apps to the program that can help you be more productive. These apps solve critical business problems and offer deep integration and direct support with G Suite. Each app also goes through rigorous security testing and quality measures to qualify for the Recommended for G Suite program.

Our new recommended partners include:

• Asana for project & process management
• DocuSign for eSignature
• Freshdesk for customer support
• LumApps for corporate & social portal
• Virtru for encryption
• Xero and Zoho Invoice for finance & accounting

Since we launched this program with our first eight apps last year, we’ve seen many examples of how our customers have incorporated them with G Suite to drive more value for their business. We’ve created a webinar series to show first-hand examples of this, and you can you can sign up here if you’re interested in attending. In addition, if you’re an ISV that’s interested in becoming a Recommended for G Suite partner, please submit your application here.

Learn more about G Suite

Google Cloud Connect (GCC): The official community for G Suite Admins

Feature Ideas in Google Cloud Connect (GCC)

What’s New for G Suite Admins videos

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We’d really appreciate your thoughts on how we can make this work best for you.