Posted by Zach Lloyd, Google Sheets Software Engineer (Cross-posted on the Original Google Blog and the Google Drive Blog.) Whether you’re crunching big data or tracking your team's budget, you don’t want to waste time waiting for files to load or re-doing edits that were lost because your Internet connection dropped. You can now get more done by
switching to the new version of Google Sheets. It’s faster, supports larger spreadsheets, has a number of new features, and works offline.
Bigger, faster spreadsheetsThe new Sheets supports millions of cells and kicks many of the old size and complexity limits to the curb. Scrolling, loading and calculation are all snappier, even in more complex spreadsheets.
New features based on your feedback and requests Filter views is a new feature unique to Google Sheets that lets you quickly name, save and share different views of your data. This comes in handy when you’re collaborating so you can sort a spreadsheet without affecting how others see it.
Whether you’re new to formulas or a whiz at running complex functions, it’s now easier to set up and perform calculations. New
function help and examples guide you as you type, and error highlighting and coloring make it easy to spot and fix mistakes.
As another time-saving improvement,
text now automatically flows into empty adjacent cells—no manual merge needed.
With the improved
conditional formatting, you can add rules to change the colors and styles of cells in your spreadsheet based on custom formulas.
No internet connection? Work offline with Chrome You shouldn’t have to think about whether you have a WiFi connection when you want to work. So just like Google Docs and Slides, you can now make edits to Sheets offline. When you reconnect to the Internet, your edits will automatically sync. If you've edited Docs or Slides offline in the past, then you’re already set up to edit Sheets offline. If not, follow these
one-time instructions for setting up offline in Chrome.
Ready to try it out? Turn on the new Sheets by checking the “Try the new Google Sheets” box in
Google Drive settings. From then on, all new spreadsheets you create will work offline and include these new features. We’ll be adding a small list of
missing features in the coming months, so if you rely on any of them, you may want to wait a little longer before opting in.
We hope you enjoy these and the many other updates that come along with the new Google Sheets, including
colored sheet tabs,
custom number formatting,
paste transpose and more.
