Create apps
Write, Sheets, Slides, Whiteboard, PDF, Wiki, Notes and Records: the document and knowledge apps and how files move between them.
The Create family covers documents, spreadsheets, presentations, whiteboards, PDFs, a wiki, notes and a records app. Files are saved in your account, so any app that can open a file type can open it.
Which apps are in this family?
| App | What it does |
|---|---|
| Write | A word processor that opens and saves .docx files, with tracked changes, comments, tables, footnotes, tables of contents and PDF export. |
| Sheets | A spreadsheet with over 510 formulas, charts, pivot-style summaries and real .xlsx files, opening straight into a blank sheet with no sign-in. |
| Slides | Build, present and record slide decks in the browser with animations, charts, SmartArt and Presenter View. Works with .pptx files. |
| Whiteboard | An infinite canvas for sketching, sticky notes and workshops, with live shared boards, dot voting, polls, a timer and ready-made templates. |
| Edit, annotate, redact, sign, merge and convert PDFs in the browser. OCR for scans, fillable forms and export to Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats. | |
| Wiki | A team knowledge base with block-based pages, databases in table, board and calendar views, comments and live shared editing. |
| Notes | A free-form digital notebook with sections, pages, tags, handwriting and ink, tables, recordings and search across every notebook. |
| Records | Build tables of typed fields with linked records, formulas and grid, board, calendar, gallery, timeline or form views. Start from a template or a CSV. |
How do they work together?
- Shared files. Write, Sheets, Slides and PDF save to your files. Share them from Home or from inside the app; see Sharing files.
- Office formats. Write opens and saves .docx, Sheets opens .xlsx and Slides opens .pptx. Very complex files may differ, so check important ones.
- Live editing. Live co-editing of a shared document starts a small collaboration server the first time you share. If you see “still starting”, see Troubleshooting.
- Wiki. Wiki spaces can be shared by link with a role, and a page can be published as a public read-only link.
- Export. Export in Write, Sheets and Slides downloads to your device and asks where to save a new file.
What are the limits?
- OCR in PDF runs on your device and recognizes English only.
- Wiki email invites for people outside your teams are off by default.
- The AI assistants in these apps work with text only. See What AI features exist.