“You can switch fonts, resize columns, sort data, and more,” says software engineer Shrikant Shanbhag. “And just like on your computer, you’ll be able to see other people’s edits in real time as they’re made.”

“Beyond spreadsheets, you may notice a few other tweaks to the Drive app, including better text formatting when you paste from one Google document to another,” says Shanbhag. “And from your Android device, you can edit text within tables in documents and add a shortcut on the homescreen of your device to any specific file in Drive.”

Earlier this week, Google added additional Google Drive functionality to Gmail, enabling users to insert files from Drive into their messages.

The iOS app has added the ability to edit documents, a feature that has been available on the Android app for some time. Additionally, on the iOS app, you can now view presentations on an iPhone or iPad and create new folders, move files into folders and upload files from your device directly in the drive app.

On Android, users can now add comments reply to existing comments and view tables in Google Docs. Users will also get the same presentation viewing and organization features as the iOS update.

Google says native editing and real-time collaboration for spreadsheets are on the way.

In collaborative efforts, users can hover over cells that have orange triangles in them to see full discussions, and or reply.

Comment numbers are tallied at the bottom of the screen on the sheet tab. You can hover over the icon to show all comments on the sheet.

“And just like you’re used to with comments elsewhere, you can +mention someone to automatically include them in a discussion and send them a notification via email – and they can even reply to the comment without leaving their inbox,” says Google software engineer Patrick Donelan in a blog post.

“Any comments that were created in spreadsheets before today are still available and saved as ‘Notes’,” adds Donelan. “These are shown in your spreadsheet using a black triangle in the corner of the cell to differentiate them from the new discussion-style comments. You can also create new notes from the ‘Insert’ menu if you need to leave a quick annotation on a cell.”

In other Google Drive news, it appears that Google Drive for iOS is about to get in-app editing and the ability to see presentations. Google accidentally leaked the news before withdrawing it, only to have it spotted beforehand.

"Whether you want to know how old your audience is, how many times your most-viewed video was rated last week, or which minute of your clip is most engaging, YouTube Insight can give you the answer. As we add functionality, we’re careful to preserve YouTube Insight’s clean and easy-to-use look and feel," says YouTube.

Last month, YouTube Insight got more focused on how viewers interact with videos. They added a community tab, which lets you view numbers related to ratings, comments, favorites, or all three.

Now you can take any information obtained through YouTube Insight a step further. A YouTube spokesperson tells WebProNews that they have added a feature that lets you export information as a CSV file, which means you can open it up in Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, or other spreadsheet programs.

"It basically means that from now on there is no limit to what users can do with their data!" the spokesperson says.

Examples YouTube gives of ways that this new feature might be useful include comparing view counts for different videos side by side, mapping out where viewers are coming from over time, or comparing discovery sources by country. Some others the spokesperson shared include:

- Combine data from all your Channels: That way, you can see how your content as a whole is doing on YouTube. This is especially useful for big partners with thousands of Channels.

- Discovery: Before, you could see whether YouTube Search or embedding drives most traffic. But what if you want to see whether the #2 search term drives more traffic than the top embed? Exporting your data allows you to do that.

As online video popularity continues to grow both in terms of content and advertising, video analytics are going to become increasingly important for getting the most out of your videos. The more freedom you have to analyze your data, the better chance you’re going to have of improving performance.

To use the feature, simply go to the sheet, and bring up the menu. You will find the option that says "Protect Sheet."

You will then get something like this:

"Say I’m throwing a party (a wild one, of course) and I’ve invited my friends Frank, Ian, Kev and Veronica to a spreadsheet to help with planning," explains User Experience Designer Joeseph Wain. "I know for sure Ian and Kev have good taste in music so I’ll let them select some choice tunes… but Frank should probably just stick to bringing chips and salsa."

Those who are restricted from a sheet will still be able to view it as long as they are a collaborator, but they will not be able to edit it.

Google has now made the same list view available for working on spreadsheets from desktop and notebook computers. It can be found in the View menu.

You can quickly sort and filter data without changing the underlying spreadsheet when in list view. Each sort and filter view has its own unique URL.

List view is also embeddable. You can add it to your blog or web site. Maybe in the future, there will be a Gmail lab like this one that lets you embed it in an email.

Google’s Eric Boggs suggests the following ways to use list view:

- Imagine that you collected 100 names and t-shirt sizes using a Google Docs form. You might share a list view of the form responses, allowing people to fix errors (such as someone entering the wrong size) without worrying about a novice user accidentally messing up other parts of the spreadsheet.

- Rather than embedding a published snapshot of a spreadsheet in your Google Sites page, you can now embed a read-only list view of the spreadsheet, which allows users to easily sort, filter and page through the data.

Users of list view can easily get full spreadsheet functionality if they click the "Go to Spreadsheet View" link.

Previously, you could only view your spreadsheets on mobile devices. Now, they basically have full functionality.

User Interface Software Engineer Eric Bogs shares a couple practical uses for spreadsheets on the go at the Google Docs Blog. "Last week I was trying to find some Broadway tickets to surprise my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day. A friend of mine at a ticket agency publishes an online spreadsheet with a list of last-minute available tickets. From my iPhone, I was able to quickly access his spreadsheet to see upcoming shows,"explains Bogs.

"From here, in just a few taps, I was able to filter down to tickets available on Valentine’s Day," he continues. "I could see only the rows that matched my filter, and I eventually found a show that I knew that my boyfriend would like: ‘Billy Elliot The Musical’ at 7pm with orchestra seats."

He then illustrates another example for wine rating. This enhanced access to spreadsheets is available on Android, iPhones, iPod Touches, and Symbian S60. This can be a great productivity booster. See more on that subject here.

Update: On another Google Docs-related note, the Google Student Blog shared this story from a student who uses Docs and Forms to bring concerts to his campus:

The One Laptop Per Child XO currently doesn’t have a spreadsheet, but the simplicity and small footprint on client or server of SocialCalc may give it one.  As Dan blogs, Socialtext is supportive of this very good project:

The One Laptop folks had been encouraging me to make wikiCalc and then SocialCalc run on their machines for a long time, but it wasn’t until now that I finally had the software in an architecture that was appropriate for the OLPC and a machine of my own on which to test. (I think that because the G1G1 campaign got a lot of these lovable computers in the hands of developers a thousand new flowers are sure to bloom…)

I showed my testbed application to SJ Klein of the OLPC project and he reacted favorably and encouraged me to continue. The executives at Socialtext encouraged me to follow through and are supporting what I’m doing.

I’ve now packaged the code I have a little better and am making it available for others to see. I’m calling the project "Sweet SocialCalc" because when we are done I hope we will have native OLPC code driving this (written in Python) so the JavaScript integrates with the OLPC user interface environment (which is called Sugar, hence the word "sweet"). (See my video of a presentation about Sugar and OLPC from last June.)…

One Laptop Per Child News writes about the need for a spreadheet solution:

Currently, the XO laptop from OLPC does not have spreadsheet software. The One Laptop Per Child developers did not think there was a need for it when they designed the initial Sugar activities, and to an extent, they are right.

Children do not need the ability to run macros on numeric data – that’s an adult request. But it is an opportunity for children and adults to bond over basic math, as the Thailand pilot showed:

One of the most engaging project that has involved both students and parents is the family accounting initiative. For six years, many families have recorded their income and expenses in order to better manage their spendings. It was originally done using a simple balance card written on paper.

Later, many had switched to Excel (via desktop PCs at the school’s computer lab and the help of their children). It was a case where the benefits of technology was clear and well appreciated. Thus, having a spreadsheet on the XO has been one of the most widely requested features from the parents. Being able to do their accounting at home through the help of their children is extremely attractive.

Dan is looking for feedback and volunteers to help advance the project.

Comments

• Cell colors based on your custom rules (like “text contains: …”). Just right-click any cell and pick “change format with rules…” from the context menu that appears.
• The ability to hide columns or rows. Right-click a row or column header and pick “Hide…” from the context menu.
• Printing now works based on a PDF for more precise results.
• A new function called IfError to do some error-handling for friendlier error messages. (The Google guide said IfError is explained in detail on the function overview page, but it’s not there at the time of posting.)

[Thanks Veky and Pau Tomàs!]

Comments

Speaking of addition, Google coded a new feature called Quicksum into the Spreadsheets. By selecting cells, Quicksum displays their total in the lower right corner of the page. Garett Rogers at Googling Google noted how this allows for calculations without having to write a formula first, which should benefit new spreadsheet users.

Google also added what they call a ‘sortbar’ to Spreadsheets. The sortbar is a draggable, horizontal break between column headers and data, they noted, with each column having a place in the sortbar for fast sorting without leaving the Edit tab.

By dragging that sortbar down, users have the option to freeze rows in Spreadsheets, a feature that makes editing a lengthy spreadsheet document much easier. Dragging and releasing the sortbar performs the freeze, with rows below the sortbar able to scroll freely.

Collaborative editing will be color-coded by user. As multiple people edit a spreadsheet, each cell a person edits will be assigned a color, making it easier to tell who has done something on a sheet.

Google expanded the viewability of Spreadsheets to any browser, but only supported browsers will be able to edit a spreadsheet. Their product team also fixed uploading issues with data and graphs that had been reported by users of the service.