New look and feel for Google products #googleapps

Hello Apps EDU Administrators,

Google is rolling out a new look and feel (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/evolving-google-design-and-experience.html) across Google’s products, and these interface changes will also be released to Google Apps services, such as Gmail, Calendar, and Docs, over the next months. Following is information about the new rollout and steps to take for your account.

How will this affect my Google Apps users?

We’ll release interface update an ongoing basis initially to consumers, with some services offering an opt-in/opt-out option for Google Apps users, before the changes become permanent for all users. For example, you can start to preview the new Gmail look this week.

The rollout will follow the Google Apps Release Track process (http://whatsnew.googleapps.com/release-tracks). Administrators can choose the Rapid Release track to move to the new look at the roughly same time as consumers. Or they can choose the Scheduled Release track to receive changes later and take more time to prepare for the transition.

What do I need to do now?

See what’s new: The first updates to Gmail (http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/preview-of-gmails-new-look.html) and Calendar (http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=1351806) were released this week. We encourage you preview the new look over the next few weeks to gain familiarity with upcoming changes. See the What’s New (http://whatsnew.googleapps.com/new-look) site for instructions.

Review your current release track settings. Administrators who choose the Scheduled Release track will have more time after the Rapid Release date before changes become available to their users. Depending on your needs you may want to update the release track setting your Google Apps Control panel. (http://whatsnew.googleapps.com/choose-release-track)

How can I keep up to date?

On the Google Apps What’s New site (http://whatsnew.googleapps.com/new-look), you’ll find information about the release process, and instructions on how to try the new designs for Gmail and Calendar. We’ll keep this site up to date with information on the new look, how to give feedback, and resources for you and your users.

Sincerely,

The Google Apps Team

You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Apps account.

Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.

©2011 Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

Google Apps Education News: July 2010

Just got this email from Google and thought I would share...

Google Apps for Education - New Features!

On April 15th Google rolled out some new features for Google Docs. You can read about these new features here. Or you can watch the video below.

I was curious if these new features would be available in Google Apps for Education. After a little digging I found out that they are! You just have to enable them for your domain. You can follow the directions below to do this.

1. Login as an administrator for your account
2. From the administrative dashboard click on domain settings
3. About half way down check the option to enable pre-release settings

Now each user in your domain will have the option to turn the new features on. The steps to do this are listed below.

To turn on the new document editor:

1. Login to your Google Apps for Education docs account
2. Click on settings up at the top right
3. Click on the editing tab
4. Select new version of google documents

To turn on the new features for spreadsheets:

1. Login to your Google Apps for Education docs account
2. Create a spreadsheet
3. Click on new version up at the top right