News

There is a Google Docs outage that is impacting a significant subset of users, including bConnected accounts. Google is working to resolve the issue and will post  updates on the G Suite Status Dashboard. 

The UC Berkeley campus community is invited to pilot test two early release Google products as part of the G Suite Early Adopter Program (EAP): Hangouts Chat and App Maker.

UPDATED 9/7/2017: The problem with Google Drive should be resolved. 

Google is investigating reports of an issue with Google Drive. Users have reported issues loading files that results in a 500 error. 

Check the G Suite Status Dashboard for up-to-date information. 

Create better Google Forms, more quickly, with Google's newest intelligent features in Forms:

• Intelligent response validation
• Cross-domain file uploads
• Preferences
• “Checkbox grid” questions
• Section reordering

Read on for more details.

Google Hangouts and Inbox will be available for all bConnected account holders starting today. 

Hangouts

Newly available features include:

Due to current contract obligations with Google, UC Berkeley Google Talk users will temporarily be unable to exchange instant messages with those outside of the Berkeley domain starting on June 26, 2017. Users who need the ability to communicate with individuals outside of @berkeley.edu or associated subdomains (e.g. @haas.berkeley.edu, @physics.berkeley.edu) will need to find alternate means. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and are working to resolve the contractual issues as soon as possible.

New Google Contacts Preview is launching for bMail users on Tuesday, May 23rd. Google Contacts Previewoffers the ability to import contacts from a wide variety of supported mail and contact sources, easily get rid of duplicate contacts, and supports high resolution photographs. Users can opt to switch back to the old version if desired. 

As mentioned in the Technology Global Phishing Alert announcement, UC Berkeley IT teams were able to identify the bMail accounts that were affected by the Google Docs phishing campaign, and revoked access to the malicious app on Wednesday, May 3rd.

Capitalizing a large portion of text or an especially long title can be a pain. Doing the opposite—converting capital letters to lowercase—is equally a waste of time. With this launch, Google is making those tasks quick and easy in Google Docs on the web.

Now you can simply choose “Capitalization” from the Format menu in Docs, and select one of the following:

Google Hangouts Meet is available to bConnected users starting Tuesday, March 28, 2017! With Meet, you can hold impromptu video meetings on the go, virtual training classes around the world, remote interviews, and much more. Learn how to use Google’s new video conferencing solution: Get Started with Hangouts Meet

Google has made the Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office more secure and easier to use. In particular, the plug-in authentication flow has been updated as part of Google's effort to modernize OAuth interactions in native applications. The new authentication flow requires users to authenticate via the default browser on their system, and not through embedded browsers known as "web-views".

Sending and receiving attachments is an important part of email exchanges. While Google Drive offers a convenient way to share files of any size, sometimes you need to receive large files as direct email attachments. Starting today, you will be able to receive emails of up to 50MB directly in your bMail account. 

Note: Sending size limits will remain the same at 25MB; however, just as before, you can use Google Drive to send larger attachments.

Receiving Limits in Gmail

Google Keep is now available to bConnected users as a core G Suite app. Keep allows you to capture your thoughts anytime, anywhere—with smart tools to help you easily organize your notes, ideas and to dos. Manage your ideas and notes in Keep, and easily add them to Docs for easier brainstorming.

It is now possible to preview password-protected Microsoft Office documents, presentations, and spreadsheets in bDrive. If you attempt to open one of these file types in Drive on the web, you will be prompted to enter the password and, upon doing so successfully, you’ll see a read-only preview of that document.

Read G Suite Update Alert

Google has been making it easier to focus on your content—not your formatting—with templates in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms.

Google has made scheduling meetings smarter in Google Calendar the web