Google Docs is the modern standard for word processing. Everyone works here: editors write articles, copywriters make prototypes, marketers come up with strategies, and students do their homework. Our article will help you get the most out of Google Docs with non-obvious features.
Here are some top tips for students in using Google docs to improve productivity.
Improve Productivity Using Google Docs for College Students
Quickly apply formatting
Not all students know how to format their papers correctly. If you are one of them, it is better to hire someone to write college essays. As a result, you will receive papers that are formatted correctly in accordance with your requirements.
If you work with large text, then you probably use different styles: headings and subheadings, body text, and captions for illustrations. Each style has its own characteristics: size and style, line indents, highlights, and sometimes even font. To avoid manually changing the style of twenty subheadings each time, you can apply automatic formatting.
How to apply inline styles to a specific piece of text: hover over it, and then open the Format → Paragraph Styles tab in the top menu. Select the appropriate style and click on it.
To work even faster, apply styles using hotkeys. For example, to make a second-level subheading, press Ctrl+Alt+2 (Cmd+Option+2 on Mac). All hotkeys are written directly in Google Docs opposite the desired style.
View change history
One of the advantages of Google Docs over Microsoft Word is the ability to track all changes in a document. Even if a hundred people worked on the document and each of them made twenty edits, you can see each correction and, if necessary, “roll back” to the desired version.
To do this, hover over the top menu and click on the “Last edit was made …” tab. In place of the ellipsis will be the time when the document was last changed. For example: just now, today at 16:15, a week ago. All versions of the document will be listed in the right column. If you click on one of them, all changes compared to the previous version will be highlighted in green in the text.
Compare two documents
Sometimes changes are made to two identical documents at once – because of this, it will not be possible to track them through the change history. To compare these documents, it is not necessary to manually check each word. Instead, open the desired document, click Tools → Compare Documents, and select the object to compare.
Make voice input
If you often need to transcribe voice recordings, this feature will help you out. To turn audio into text, turn on voice typing with Ctrl+Shift+S (Cmd+Shift+S on Mac) or Tools → Voice Typing. Then allow access to the microphone. And that’s all – you can record a speech at a conference, a lecture by a teacher, or an interview with an expert.
Unfortunately, you will not be able to upload the finished audio file to Google Docs. To decrypt it, you have to go around. For example, turn on the recording on another device and bring it to the microphone.
The function is convenient but not ideal. So, in order to put down punctuation marks, they need to be pronounced in a voice: “In the essay comma, I will tell you how to use the program even faster and more efficiently a dot.”
Call a teacher to a document
If several people work with the file, any of them can be asked a question directly in the document – and the person will receive a notification about this by mail.
To call a teacher, select the desired piece of text and click on the “Add comment” icon on the right. Write whatever you think is necessary, and then enter the teacher’s mail through the @ symbol. There is a second way to address a person: to do this, press @ and select a person from the list. For a person to receive a notification, share the document with them.
Make a bookmark in a document
This is another way to help a teacher: make navigation easy and draw the person’s attention to a specific part of the document. Click Insert → Bookmark. A blue checkmark and a menu labeled “Bookmark” will appear on the page. The link can be copied and sent to another user. If you save the flag in the document, the person will follow the link directly to the selected place.
Add a watermark to a document
A watermark in Google Docs will not protect the file from copying, but it will help to add a company logo to each page or design a document in corporate style.
Go to the “Insert” tab → “Watermark.” Write the desired text or use an image. When the watermark is ready, you can customize it: specify the proportions, color, transparency, border type, etc.
Download all illustrations from the document
To download images, click File → Download → Web Page. A ZIP file will download to your computer. Inside it, you will find an HTML file with the text of the document and a folder with all the attachments. There will be not only illustrations but also gifs. Of course, you will see them only if you have them in the document.
Sign a document
The function is useful when you urgently need to sign an agreement or act, but there is no possibility to print and scan documents. The method will only work if you are using a laptop – you will need a touchpad to sign.
Click “Insert” → “Drawing” → “New” and draw your signature on the touchpad. It will automatically turn into a PNG illustration. The signature can be moved like any image. When you’re done, save the document as a PDF.
Translate text into any language
If you work on documents in different languages, it is not necessary to copy the text and go with it to the translator – Google Translate is already built into Google Docs. To translate text, click Tools → Translate Document. A new file with text in the selected language will appear on Disk. Of course, you need to monitor the quality of the translation – after all, the capabilities of such programs are limited.
Hope these tips were helpful to improve productivity when using Google Docs. Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions regarding Google Docs.