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July 30, 2007

More Sorting Options in Google Docs


The start page of Google Docs (or Google's basic file manager) brought back the option to archive files, but changed its name: now you can hide the files from all of the views. This is especially useful if you store personal information or if you rarely need some files.

An even more useful option if you have many documents is sorting. Just click on a column's header and you can sort the files by name, collaborator's name, starred status or by date. If you click on the header again, the files will be sorted descending. Unfortunately, the sorting options aren't persistent and every time you open a folder or the main view, the files will be sorted by date (the default option).

Google Spreadsheets also added a sortbar, so you can quickly sort the data in a single column without going to the Sort tab. And if you select some numeric cells from a sheet, you'll see the results of the sum at the bottom of the window, similarly to the quick sum feature from Microsoft Excel. Click on the sum to get other simple results: the average, the minimum/maximum value and the number of selected values.


{ Thank you, Jonathan. }

6 comments:

  1. I don't think there's any way to view "Hidden" documents if you're in a folder. Instead, you have to either search for your document or view "Hidden" items under "All items".

    That's a bit crap.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree Tony. I wish it worked more like the Archive feature in Gmail.

    Another note about the Sort Bar is it also freezes the rows above it as header rows, but can only go down 10 rows as far as I can see.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Why does Google Docs file explorer forget my settings though?

    I sort by name, and I hide the contacts at the left... next time I open the page, it's back the way it was, expanded contacts and default sorting!

    ReplyDelete
  4. the sort function in docs doesn't seem to work right if the folder names are digits. consider the following folders:
    2003
    2007
    2002
    Sorting by name will switch 2003 and 2007 back and forth.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Apparently, the issue is now resolved - everything works correctly.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 5 years and you still can't sort documents by creation date?

    ReplyDelete

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