This secret Google Sheets Pride hack will brighten up your day

Google loves an Easter Egg, and is known to hide all manner of weird and wonderful visual treats on its homepage (just try Googling 'DVD screensaver'). But the latest surprise is hiding on a platform not exactly known for its fun or indeed colourful aesthetic. We are, believe it or not, talking about Google Sheets.

In honour of Pride month, Google has added a delightful hack to help you inject a little life into your spreadsheets (now there's a sentence). Simply type PRIDE across the first five rows of a sheet, and the whole thing will turn into a colourful rainbow. Check out our best web design tools if you fancy creating a similar Easter Egg.

Google Sheets Pride Easter egg — Google's new Easter egg in action (Image credit: Future)

Who knew spreadsheets could be so fun, right? Twitter users have been loving the hack, and many have spotted that it works in other languages, and even formulae. Watch your back, PS5 – Google Sheets may have just become the most visually impressive tool in town.

I have just this second learned that if you type PRIDE in the top row of Google sheets then this fantastic thing happens. Yes. All of my spreadsheets will look like this from now on. pic.twitter.com/l98GATpGZgJune 12, 2021

Curious; it works with formulae as well:I added the actual characters in various rows and columns that aren't the homerow, and using `=[cell]` to map the characters back results in the same effect. Neato! pic.twitter.com/Tj6QNsJUvZJune 9, 2021

Henceforth, all of our calendars, reports and plans shall be rainbow-ified. In a world of corporate Pride celebrations, at least Google's is a little creative. That said, it isn't quite as joyous as Lego's new LGBTQ+ set.

From bouncing logos to floating ships, Google has been on form lately when it comes to hidden surprises. Check out the 13 best Google Easter eggs of all time if you're looking for more – and if you fancy creating a web design of your own, take a look at today's best Creative Cloud deals below.

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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles. He has interviewed leaders and designers at brands including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe. Daniel's debut book of short stories and poems was published in 2018, and his comedy newsletter is a Substack Bestseller.