Last year, Google launched Smart Canvas in Google Workspace, its productivity suite. Smart Canvas provides a layer of context and collaboration around Google Docs, Sheets and Slides with a set of modular tools. Today, Google is rolling out a series of updates that make Smart Canvas a little smarter, including making it possible to automatically summarize content from Google Docs.
Smart Canvas also features a pageless format for Docs, a new email draft template for Docs, and a Google Maps chip allowing users to preview a Maps link directly in Docs. Google will also soon launch smart suggestions in Sheets to help users correct formulas.
Google presented some statistics to illustrate the interest that customers have for Smart Canvas. Its use now exceeds that of comments in Docs, the company says — more than six million checklists and six million smart bullets are added to documents every week via Smart Canvas.
Quickly understand shared documents
Now, with automatically generated summaries in Docs, users will be able to quickly understand shared documents of which they are not the authors. Although summaries are generated with built-in AI, users can also edit them manually.
Google also introduces the pageless format in Docs. This format removes traditional page breaks and margins, creating a document that adapts to the device or screen you’re using. If a user wants to print a document or convert it to PDF, they can switch back to a paginated view.
Google is also expanding the use of Smart Bullets – clickable smart bullets or clickable objects that surface relevant information directly in the collaboration canvas. WYearscan previews a Google Maps link in Docs. With the new Google Maps chip, when you click on the chip, a thumbnail appears with information such as an image of the location in Maps and the address. A click on the thumbnail opens a preview in the side panel of Docs.
New email draft template in Docs
Google is also making it easier to collaborate on emails, thanks to a new email draft template in Docs. When the message is ready to send, the user just clicks a button to export the content to a draft email in Gmail, with all relevant fields automatically filled in. These models will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Finally, Google is adding a service for correcting formulas in Sheets to Smart Canvas. This new feature helps detect errors and suggest ways to fix problems with formulas. It builds on the Formula Suggestions feature that Google launched last year to recommend formulas and functions based on analyzed data.
Source: ZDNet.com