5 Google Docs Surprises

This is the 4th post of Penn Olson’s Google Docs Series. If you know it, use it and love it, please send this post to your friends and help them get started!

Google has produced products with the aim to improve our quality of life and work efficiency. One of them is Google Docs and like its brothers, there are many hidden surprises waiting to be discovered and explored into.

The reason? Google is constantly upgrading its products with new features for users’ to keep up with for boundless benefits.

1. GoogleLookup

Google Docs spreadsheet is getting more amazing as it can now do what MS spreadsheet can’t. With this syntax =GoogleLookup(“entity”,”attribute”), you can sync data from Google database with your Google Docs spreadsheet. This makes the data real time as Google auto-updates its figures from its database. All these, without hassle.

2. GoogleFinance

A syntax for the Finance people: =GoogleFinance(“Quote”,”Attribute”). Giving real time data, users can very well build a decision model within the spreadsheet.

3. Revision History Check

Without having to turn on any track changes, Google Docs automatically keeps track of all the changes made, including the name of the person who edited and the time it was done.

No more track changes clutters. This function can be found under “File” or “Tools”.

4. Free PDF Converter

No biggie for Mac users but it is certainly something exciting for all PC users. Yes, Google Docs is able to convert your doc, ppt and xls to PDF for free.
This function can be found under “File” >> “Export” >> “PDF”.

5. Adding Gadgets in your Spreadsheets

Due to MS Excel complexity, it is pretty time consuming to create your own data dashboard. Users usually have to do some tweaking before they could achieve a dashboard effect.