Google has announced a change to Docs and Spreadsheets within Drive. Users can now utilize add-ons, which bring more native functionality to your workflow. There is also a marketplace specifically for the add-ons, which can be found from within a document or spreadsheet.
Currently, we have many apps that do a variety of things for Drive utilities. We may have an email app, but it requires a lot of workarounds to make it happen. There are label apps, but again — you’re in and out of programs. With add-ons, all that functionality comes to the document or spreadsheet, so you can get more done in a timely fashion.
It’s pretty simple, too. Add-ons are like Chrome extensions for your documents and spreadsheets. If you need mailing labels, Avery (a launch partner for the program) has an add-on for you, which acts like a mail-merge. Sending personalized emails is also really easy now with the MailChimp add-on. The add-on store is already pretty robust, too.
Right now there are quite a few of the same type of add-ons, with many focussing on merging data in one way or another. Some are meant to make Docs and Spreadsheets your one-stop shop for all kinds of things, like dropping a map into a document or format search. Others are Drive apps that can be found already, just slipped into the Document via add-on. That makes things like HelloSign or HelloFax much easier to use, as we won’t have to jump through the hoops of saving and sending any more.
