Google Docs is a great app to use throughout your school career. Unlike Microsoft Word, it is completely free and you can access the document anywhere by logging in to your Gmail account. Here is a breakdown of some of the futures that you might not know and will come in handy.
For the common way to create a new document, you need to open your Google account, then type “Google Docs” or click on it, wait for the app to load, click on “new document,” and you will have a blank document.
But here is a simple trick: try typing in “doc.new” to avoid all that hussle and go straight to a new document.
(hint: it works for other applications like “sheet.new” or “slide.new”)
There are many occasions where you need to work together with your classmates. With school being online, it is hard to be clear about who is doing what. To avoid those issues, you can highlight the task they need to do and when you comment, just simply mention them by “@(username)”
You can add many add-ons (extensions) for your documents. For example, there are add-ons to type in math symbols, alphabets with accents, citation, and more.
If you need to find a specific document but you don’t know where you put it or titled it, you can search it through google drives. Open your google drive and click the search bar where it says “search in drive.”
For example, let’s just say you need to find your biology notebook, specifically about meiosis but you did not title it or put it in the proper location. You can just search “meiosis” and all the documents that include that word will pop up.
If your teacher is talking really fast or you want to write your essay quickly, go to “tools” and click “voice typing.” You can just talk to your computer and it will type it for you. It is not completely accurate, so you might need to go back and tweek it a little
If you are taking notes or anything that is a long document, outline features will pick up the title or heading and compile them into lists. To access this, just click the icon on the left of your screen. If you can not find it, go to “view” and click “show document outline.”
To be able to see your title or headings here, you must have them in a different style than your body paragraph, such as bolding and underlining them.
If you are writing an essay or notes that require research, a simple way to do so is going to “tools” and click “explore.” This will open a tab where you can search on the right side of the document. This can also be used to get images online quickly.
Can’t find the perfect shortcuts? You can make your own. Go to “tools,” then “preferences.” Create shortcuts that will work for you.
