Google announced a one-stop shop for new third party apps that can be used by Google Drive users in Docs and Sheets for different tasks within the services.
Google is focusing on cloud storage and its related services as people's reliance increases in that space. In an announcement Thursday, the world's largest internet company said that Google Drive users in Docs and Sheets will see an addition of a wide array of add-ons. These add-ons will help simplify various tasks from within the services, which until now required users to go through a bundle of hurdles. Like its other open source services, Google is letting third party developers to build tools for Google Docs and Sheets along with free online-based word-processing and spreadsheet services.
Google has already listed a few add-ons that can help users work on Docs and Sheets seamlessly. Functions like signing documents, creating customized email templates, citing different sources or making name tags, all from within documents and spreadsheets.
To get started, users need to have the latest version of both services. They will then need to select the new "Add-ons" tab that will appear within Docs or Sheets alongside other options like "File," "Edit," "Tools," and "Help." Under the new tab, users can choose "Get add-ons," which will then display a dozen apps available in both app stores. The installation process is just like installing a browser plug-in for Chrome from the app store. After installing the add-on, users can start using it from within any document in Google Drive.
"You use Google Docs and Sheets to get all sorts of stuff done-whether you're staying up late to finish that final paper or just getting started on a new project at the office. But to help take some of that work off your shoulders, today we're launching add-ons-new tools created by developer partners that give you even more features in your documents and spreadsheets," Google Product Manager, Saurabh Gupta, said in a company's official blog post, Tuesday.
Some add-ons currently available in the new marketplace include EasyBib bibliography creator, which helps users create bibliographies by searching the web for sources and citing them accordingly, without leaving the document. Other add-ons include Merge by Mailchimp, to help create customized email templates for Docs, and Avery Label Merge to import addresses and names from Sheets to Docs for printing, among others.
The new marketplace welcomes all developers to publish their add-ons, but since the feature is still in the preview phase, developers must seek approval from Google prior to publishing. On successful completion of the test phase, all developers can freely publish add-ons for Docs and Sheets.
