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Google Docs adds a ton of new editing features, including suggestions from your phone

Google Docs adds a ton of new editing features, including suggestions from your phone

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Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Google is updating Docs, Sheets, and Slides today with a bunch of really handy new editing features — some of which are overdue, and others that are smart new improvements.

On the overdue side, we have the ability to add suggestions to a document from a phone or tablet. Until now, the suggestion mode has only been available on the desktop, which has been pretty annoying if you’ve ever wanted to make edits on the go. You can now enter into that mode by going to the “...” menu inside any of the three productivity apps. Google is also adding the ability to accept or reject all changes at once.

You can now name different versions of documents

The other big changes are around version history. You can now name specific versions of documents, making them easier to identify. So you could have a “draft one,” then Google will autosave dozens of times as you make changes, and then you could name “draft two” when you finally get through all your edits. When looking back through old versions, you’ll also be able to tell Google to only show named iterations, which should make things easier to find.

Google is also adding the ability to view a “clean” version of any document, without any editing marks on it. From the Tools menu, you’ll be able to choose to preview the document as it would look with all edits either accepted or rejected, which should make for a simpler reading experience for someone looking through it for the first time.

Other new features today include built-in templates that integrate with other services, like DocuSign, and improved search results for G Suite users when searching through things they have stored across many of Google’s apps.

Correction August 16th, 3:10PM ET: This article originally stated that custom templates are new, however those were added last November. Rather, Google has added new templates that take advantage of add-ons.