Google has always believed in listening to its customers; that’s why it is constantly evolving its Google Apps suite to add in more features as requested by us, the end user.

We’ve pulled together five of our favourite recent Google Apps updates, that could save you time and improve your productivity.

1.) Rich Text Signatures

Do you always sign your email in the same way, or include company contact details?

Auto-signatures have been possible for some time in Gmail, but if you wanted your signature to stand out or include images this was not possible. Although there were some ways around this, it’s only since in July of this year that Google has introduced rich text functionality, allowing you to personalise your signature by using different fonts, colours, alignments and images.

You can create a rich text signature by selecting Settings in the top right navigation, and then scrolling down to Signature under the General tab.

2.) Drag and Drop Attachments

In my last post, “5 Great Ways to Improve Your Gmail Experience“, I mentioned that it was possible to drag attachments onto the browser to attach them, rather than clicking on the Attach icon. Now, Google has made it just as easy to download attachments. Simply click and drag the icon of the attachment you have received and drop it in the required location to download it there!

3.) Updatable Dictionary

Don’t you just hate it when names and acronyms that you use regularly constantly appear with a squiggly red line underneath?

Now, you can add your own words to the Google Docs dictionary and avoid this irritation. Simply right click the word that is marked as incorrect and select Add to dictionary.

4.) Document Translation

Do you have a document in a language you can’t read, or need to create a document in another language?

Now, Google Docs can translate to and from 53 different languages. To do this, open the document you wish to translate and select Tools > Translate document. Now you can select the language that you would like to translate into. Once a language is selected you will be provided with a copy of your document, in the required language, in a separate browser tab.

5.) Dual Google Mail Login

Do you have multiple Gmail accounts for different purposes that you wish to access simulatiously in the same browser? Previously, this was only possible by using separate browser windows. However, this is now possible by going to google.com/accounts. First login to your Primary account and enable Multiple sign-in. Once you have logged into the first account, you can log into a further two accounts. They can all be accessed simultaneously in the same window by clicking the email drop down menu in the top right of the window.