12 Days of Techmas 2023, Day 7
Most of us are very familiar with Google Docs, but in the hustle and bustle of daily life, we often don’t take the chance to appreciate (or even notice) when new features roll out.
Don’t worry, I’m here to help! Here’s a quick rundown of some of the best new features added to Google Docs recently!
Easy Templates
For my WPS friends: To create a WPS-branded document, go to File > New > From template gallery. Scroll down and you’ll see WPS letterhead as well as a set of WPS styled doc templates, ready to use!
Version History
This isn’t new, but is worth re-mentioning! You can see changes made to a document (and who made those changes) by visiting File > Version history > See version history. On the right, you’ll see dates for saved versions, and if you click the little arrow, you can review minute-by-minute changes.
Pageless Layout
I love to switch to a pageless layout when I make a doc that will never be printed, such as agendas, memos, quick docs for projecting, etc. It removes the unnecessary margins and page breaks and gives you access to use much more of the screen’s width.
It’s easy to do, and easy to go back if you don’t like it. To make a document Pageless, go to File > Page setup > Pageless.
Paste without Formatting
If you need to copy/paste text into a Google Doc, you often don’t want to copy over the font, color, size, highlight, background, etc. of the original text. So instead, copy your text from your source, go over to your Google Doc and choose Edit > Paste without formatting.
I use this all the time! I use it so much that I’ve memorized the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl-Shift-V
Find and Replace
Are you reusing a doc from last year and need to change all of the dates? Find-and-Replace to the rescue! Go to Edit > Find and replace. You can make the changes one at a time or in one fell swoop!
Smart Chips
For docs that are online-only (not printed), it’s sometimes handy to have little links or helper widgets for your viewers. There are some nice little widgets that you can insert directly into your doc, such as calendar events, voting chips, stopwatches, and links to other docs. These chips are interactive and make it easy for editors to make quick changes or view more details. The screenshot below shows a date chip, a file chip, and a voting chip.
Dropdowns
Similar in concept to Smart Chips, a Dropdown is a little interactive widget that lets editors quickly change a bit of information.
Building Blocks
Building blocks are bigger than a smart chip but smaller than a document template. It’s a premade document “chunk” that you can insert to get you started. In schools, some of these are more helpful than others, but teachers can get a lot of use out of a quick Meeting Notes block. When I’m drafting a long email (like a 12 Days post), I like to write it in Docs first using email template – partly because I use the Docs features, and partly so I have the draft saved in my Drive.
Emojis, Special Characters, and Math Equations
It’s easy to insert emojis into your docs via Insert > Emoji. You can also look for special characters such as musical notes, checkmarks, international characters, arrows, etc by going to Insert > Special characters. (I love the feature where you can draw what you’re looking for and it will suggest likely matches.)
You probably already know about math equations if you need them (and just ignore them if you don’t), but the built-in math editor is pretty useful.
Clear Formatting
Another one I use all the time! To get get of all font sizing, colors, boldface, etc., just select some text and choose “Format > Clear formatting.”
Notification Settings
If you are collaborating on a doc, it’s often nice to know when someone made changes. Open the doc and choose Tools > Notification settings. You can set it to trigger an email when someone edits or comments in the doc.
Starring
If you refer to a particular doc over and over again, click the little star next to the doc title. Afterwards, you can always easily find the doc in the Starred section of your Google Drive.
Paragraph Styles
Most of us see that “Normal text” widget in the Docs menu and don’t give it another thought. But it’s a super handy feature that you should use, partly because it makes formatting easier and partly because it enables more features (below).
Set the title, subtitle, and headings as appropriate in your document. It automatically styles them for you with default settings, but you can edit those settings easily. For example, all of the headings in this email (like “Paragraph Styles” above) are set to Heading 2, but I like my headings a certain font, color, and size, so I made one of them the way I like and then choose “Format > Paragraph styles > Heading 2 > Update Heading 2 to match. This means that all Heading 2s in my document and any I make in the future will match the set I just set.
Even better, earlier in the year I took a few minutes to set my Title, Headings, fonts, colors, etc. the way I like them (e.g. with official WPS fonts and colors) and chose Format > Paragraph styles > Options > Save as my default styles. Now every doc I make in the future has the same title and heading styles.
Document Outline
If you set the headings with Paragraph Styles (see above), you can view an outline of your doc with the headings shown, complete with links to help you jump to the sections. View this outline via “View > Show outline.”
Table of Contents
Similarly, if you have a long document, you can use Insert > Table of Contents to place a document outline box right in the doc. Once you insert it, you can adjust settings to manage the links, page numbers, and indenting. Note that it’s a snapshot, not “live” – if you change your headings, you have to update the Table of Contents to see the changes.
Phew! You made it this far down the post!? That’s awesome, thanks so much! I hope you found one or two features that will be helpful in your work!
Reeve EdTech Tips 