Google adds 5,000 more stock images for Docs, Slides and Sheets

Those using Google Docs, Sheets and Slides now have a wider variety of stock images to choose from - a good 5,000 more! In an official blog post, Adah Berkovich, User Operations Specialist at Google shares that the update is a result of suggestions from users, about expanding the selection of stock images in Google Drive, while also adding to the categories that they’re most inclined towards. Their suggestions have resulted in 5,000 new photos of nature , weather, animals, sports, food, education, technology, music and 8 other categories. These images will be available for use across Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. Interestingly, over 900 of these stock images were picked directly from user submissions.  

A nice, bright image on an otherwise text heavy page could do wonders!

To begin with these images, users will have to select Insert > Image, click on Search, filter to Stock photos, and search for the images that they want. A nice bright image on an otherwise text heavy page could do wonders!

Following a recent update to Google Drive for mobile devices, users can make and edit spreadsheets. Google has launched an update to Google Drive that includes a new native editor that lets you create a new spreadsheet or edit an existing one right from the Drive app on your iPhone, iPad or Android device. You can switch fonts, resize columns, sort data and do much more in a spreadsheet. And just like on the online service, you will be able to see other people’s edits and comments in real time.

The update also includes a slew of functionality improvements to the Google Docs editor. You can now edit the contents of tables in the Google Docs editor. The updated editor also preserves the formatting of content when copy/pasting content within Google Docs. You can also enter the ‘Edit’ mode in Google Docs by single tapping, instead of having to manually switch between the edit and view modes.

The Send Link option for files and folders has a new option that lets you copy links to the clipboard, in addition to giving you the usual roster of services and applications you can use to share links.

More interestingly, Google Drive now lets you create a shortcut to Drive files and folders on your homescreen. This will allow you to directly access frequently-accessed files and folders from the shortcuts on the homescreen instead of having to navigate to the Drive app, opening it and then browsing to the desired file or folder. This feature can be quite useful if you have a truckload of files and folders stored on Drive.

This is only the latest in the improvements that Google is rolling out for Google Drive in a bid to increase the integration between its various services and the cloud storage solution. Only recently, it also announced that Drive has been integrated into Gmail, allowing you to directly attach files to emails from Google Drive. This feature allows you to attach a maximum 10 GB worth of files to your emails. Google explained that since the files being sent are stored in the cloud, this feature would let the recipients access the most recent version of the file.