I am happy to hear about new fonts; this seems overdue. Now, I'd really like Google Docs to allow setting a document's language. Currently, if you want spell-check in a foreign language, you have to change the language in your account settings, which then changes the UI language too. I want english language UI, with foreign language support in the document.
Well, at least users have to add them to the dropbox list manually. The cool thing of Google Docs, for me, was that it didn't allow many options, to avoid the mismash of informal, unchecked styles that happens in Word.<p>With this Office-ification of Docs I see a potential disruption. Maybe a LaTeX-like collaborative WYSIWYG editor? That is, one that has only four or five possible document types, and is very opinionated and consistent in how the document is styled. Like TeXmacs, but online and simpler.
Unfortunately, there have been a few other less welcome changes recently that weren't mentioned in the TechCrunch article. For example, I can no longer see the revision history of a very important spreadsheet at all: it seems to have become corrupted somehow a few days ago, and winds up half-drawn with no content showing any time I click on an older version now.<p>As much as I appreciate allowing more design features in Docs, I think they should first have addressed the glaring omissions in basic functionality (by which I mean things real spreadsheets did a decade or two ago, not "basic" things that are very important but only to 5% of the market) and the horrible reliability and backward compatibility.
I've never been able to figure out how to get my own styles. In particular I'd like a style named 'code' that I can then use for various code and API text in documents.
I liked the minimal font selection before, since it encouraged focus on content over style. Since there were so few options, all the offered fonts had to be crisp and professional-looking in any context. But I guess more is better…<p>On another note: the number one feature I want from Google Docs is a permanent setting for page size. My pages are always A4 - why should I have to change the default value every single time I start a new doc?
The biggest and most appreciated change for me is its stability. Gdocs was either crashing or down so frequently in previous few months that I thought they're abandoning it for some reason. It was so bade that I looked for alternatives like Zoho and others. Having had much trouble in the past month, hope they keep it up.
I am really starting to like Google docs as a possible Evernote replacement, as soon as they improve their offline editing support. One thing I can't figure out is how to change the default font for new documents. I try saving the "Normal Text" style with Ubuntu as my font, but new documents always revert back to Arial.
Google,<p>Please add a warning that when a serif font < 24px is used for the main text, readability is degraded on most screens (new iPad being a notable exception).<p>Sincerely,<p>The internet.