Google Sheets gets data labels, customizable data points, and advanced filtering

Google is making several updates to Google Sheets, the company’s web-based spreadsheet service. Now you can add specific numbers to charts and change the look of specific data points in charts.

Your data points can also now be shown with circles, diamonds, squares, diamonds, pentagons, hexagons, or stars.

You can also preview formula results and apply filters with rules like “text contains” and “greater than,” according to a blog post Google issued today.

And the service can automatically inform people when they’re trying to edit certain cells that you might not want them to.

“With Sheets, you’ve been able to restrict editing to a specific set of users and a specific range, but now you can also warn folks who try to edit certain cells. This way you can collaborate with others, and remind everyone (even yourself) to edit with care,” product manager Dan Gundrum wrote in the blog post.

Google Sheets is a key part of Google Apps, and today’s updates make the service a more serious competitor to, say, the longstanding Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software — and also newer tools, like Quip.

The new features are all live today, Gundrum wrote. You can try them out here.