14 DAY TRIAL // Google keeps updating the latest addition to the Docs editors, the drawing tool. Now, the developers have introduced a Curves tool which will make it a lot easier to create curves in drawings. The team also introduced a new way of converting documents to the Docs native formats.
“Sometimes scribbles just don’t cut it and you need more powerful curve tools in Google drawings. Well, we’ve just released a tool that does just that, based on cardinal splines,” Gabe Cohen, Product Manager at Google Docs, announced.
“The new curves can be left open or closed, and can be filled or unfilled. You can also adjust points on the curve after drawing it,” he explained.
Splines are a simple way of creating vector graphics for your drawing. They can also be modified and adjusted after you first draw them to get the figure just right. Depending on how you regularly use the Docs drawings editor, the tool could come in handy. The older Scribble tool is still available in the Insert > Scribble menu.
“Today, we’re happy to announce that you can now convert files already uploaded to your documents list into a Google Docs format. Previously, this option was only available on upload,” Jim McMaster, Software Engineer at Google, wrote.
“This addition includes converting image and PDF files to text using our recently added Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology,” he added.
Ever since Google Docs introduced the option to upload any files, users could store Word documents and other types of files without converting them to the Docs format. Only native documents can be edited in Google Docs so, until now, users would have had to upload them again if they wanted to make changes.
In the document list, choose the files you want to convert and select “Make a Google Docs copy” from the right-click menu. Supported file types are: .xls, .xlsx, .ods, .csv, .tsv, .txt, .tsb, .doc, .docx, .html, plain text (.txt), .rtf, .ppt, .pps, .jpg, .gif, .png, and .pdf.
