In an update to code blocks on Google Docs, Google said it's adding support for 14 new programming languages and other code languages to visualize code easily and make it more readable.
In 2022, Google introduced a new Smart Canvas feature, allowing users to format and display code in Docs via code blocks. The feature helps to visualize code with industry standards and applies the required formatting to make collaboration easier.
It also eliminates the extra work of pasting code into the document and manually applying styles by highlighting text. This can help when documenting software projects, APIs, or coding tutorials, where code snippets are essential for providing examples.
However, smart canvas isn't just limited to code blocks. It lets you insert a variety of things, such as calendar invite templates, @-mentions, email drafts, AI summaries, and templates, and use a pageless format. It offers building blocks for project management tasks like review tracking, team directory, project assets, content launch tracker, and more.
With the new update, Google Docs code blocks support the following languages:
- C#
- Go
- Kotlin
- PHP
- Rust
- TypeScript
- HTML
- CSS
- XML
- JSON
- Protobuf
- Textproto
- SQL
- Bash/Shell
To display a code block in Google Docs, click Insert > Building Blocks > Code blocks. Here, you can choose the desired programming language. Workspace admins do not have any control over this feature.
Google said it started the gradual rollout of the update, which will take a few weeks to complete. It will be pushed to Workspace tiers, including Business Standard/Plus, Enterprise Starter/Standard/Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, and Education Standard/Plus.
The new language support adds to the new features Google is baking for Docs. It recently introduced an AI automation tool that works across its Workspace apps. For Google Docs, the search giant also ported the audio overview feature you already see in NotebookLM and introduced a text-generator feature called 'Help me refine.'
0 Comments - Add comment