Tools & Tips for Google Docs

Introduction

While it is easy to understand the uses of a Word-style online document format that auto-saves, there are a lot of hidden implications and features that many people don't know about.

While the simple document and formatting is easy and intuitive enough, just pick the font from the top bar and format correctly, there is a lot more to many documents.

Google docs has more formatting than people might realize. While it appears to have slightly less functionality than word, with the auto-saving seemingly a trade-off, it is mostly a matter of knowing the correct key combinations.

Features

For example, to perform a strikethrough, you have to press Alt + Shift + 5. Inserting equations and symbols, and tables is fairly easy. The only problem is the high abundance of symbols that tends to turn people off from searching from what they want, but it's important to know what you're looking for. Want an exponent? Go to Format-Text-Superscript.

A lot of people also have a tendency to mess up their document in some way, or perhaps someone else does, or you want to know what you did before you edited something. If you hit where the last edit was, 

then you can click it and check your version history.

From here you can choose to revert to a previous version, simply check what was on a previous version, merely view it, even comment on it. There is complete freedom and choice. 

Interaction

Another feature google docs has, the ability to edit the way others can interact with your content.

You can recommend something to someone without completely changing the content. When sharing, you can have it so others can only view or comment, instead of editing everything and ruining it. Commenting is also a useful feature for teachers who want to grade something online.

Thanks, Mr. Mosh.

And, if you don't know someone's email, it's easy to send them a link that lets them edit, comment, or just view the document.

Formatting

With google docs it's possible to insert images, format, change line spacing, add headers and footers, proper references and superscripts, even change the spacing of the page and flip it around.

Conclusion

Overall, google docs offers a lot of utility to both students and teachers, with many hidden features that may make projects that were exclusively done on pen & paper now possible online. The range of features and difficulty makes it so at its simplest, google docs is an easy, useful tool for writing documents, while at its most complicated, it can be used to create posters, designs, grading papers, properly formatted, colorful, different-sized and diverse documents. There is a lot one can do with google docs, so it's important to know how to do it.