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Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

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Re: Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

#11

Google, Please add a warning that when a serif font Sincerely, The internet.

Really? I find Georgia extremely readable on desktops and laptops, and the NYTimes makes heavy use of it at 12px in article bodies. Looks a little dated/old school, but I've never heard of Georgia (or Times for that matter) having "degraded" readability.

Re: Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

#12
I liked the minimal font selection before, since it encouraged focus on content over style. Since there were so few options, all the offered fonts had to be crisp and professional-looking in any context. But I guess more is better…

On another note: the number one feature I want from Google Docs is a permanent setting for page size. My pages are always A4 - why should I have to change the default value every single time I start a new doc?

Re: Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

#13
post #3

Well, at least users have to add them to the dropbox list manually. The cool thing of Google Docs, for me, was that it didn't allow many options, to avoid the mismash of informal, unchecked styles that happens in Word. With this Office-ification of Docs I see a potential disruption. Maybe a LaTeX-like collaborative WYSIWYG editor? That is, one that has only four or five possible document types, and is very opinionate…

I've considered writing something similar but I wasn't sure if there'd be any demand. I want an online collaborative editor whose paradigm is more LaTeX than Word. My original motivation was for collaborative academic writing in my old lab, but I think it could be useful for a broader technical audience, as well.

Re: Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

#14

I am happy to hear about new fonts; this seems overdue. Now, I'd really like Google Docs to allow setting a document's language. Currently, if you want spell-check in a foreign language, you have to change the language in your account settings, which then changes the UI language too. I want english language UI, with foreign language support in the document.

As a school student, I'd find this useful. I study foreign languages at school so it's handy to not have red underlines under every single German word. Some desktop text editing packages can't get language selection right, and ignore my document-wide settings (I'm looking at you, LibreOffice)

Re: Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

#15

Unfortunately, there have been a few other less welcome changes recently that weren't mentioned in the TechCrunch article. For example, I can no longer see the revision history of a very important spreadsheet at all: it seems to have become corrupted somehow a few days ago, and winds up half-drawn with no content showing any time I click on an older version now. As much as I appreciate allowing more design features i…

I suspect "please add more fonts" is a feature more requested than "revision history is sometimes corrupted, please fix."

Re: Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

#16

I am happy to hear about new fonts; this seems overdue. Now, I'd really like Google Docs to allow setting a document's language. Currently, if you want spell-check in a foreign language, you have to change the language in your account settings, which then changes the UI language too. I want english language UI, with foreign language support in the document.

Does...

   File -> Language -> $language_name
do what you want?

Re: Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

#18

Unfortunately, there have been a few other less welcome changes recently that weren't mentioned in the TechCrunch article. For example, I can no longer see the revision history of a very important spreadsheet at all: it seems to have become corrupted somehow a few days ago, and winds up half-drawn with no content showing any time I click on an older version now. As much as I appreciate allowing more design features i…

I suspect "please add more fonts" is a feature more requested than "revision history is sometimes corrupted, please fix."

And, I can only imagine, is a much easier fix.

Re: Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

#19
I am really starting to like Google docs as a possible Evernote replacement, as soon as they improve their offline editing support. One thing I can't figure out is how to change the default font for new documents. I try saving the "Normal Text" style with Ubuntu as my font, but new documents always revert back to Arial.

Re: Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

#20

Unfortunately, there have been a few other less welcome changes recently that weren't mentioned in the TechCrunch article. For example, I can no longer see the revision history of a very important spreadsheet at all: it seems to have become corrupted somehow a few days ago, and winds up half-drawn with no content showing any time I click on an older version now. As much as I appreciate allowing more design features i…

I suspect "please add more fonts" is a feature more requested than "revision history is sometimes corrupted, please fix."

Sure, but if you compare Google Docs with even everyday, popular functionality in say Excel or Word, it's sorely lacking. It's not really a competitor product for a serious office suite, whatever the PR people would like you to think. It's more a cheap and cheerful office suite but with real-time collaboration features (which is just fine if that's what you need, but a very different kind of product).
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