These Are the Google Docs Hacks Every Student Should Know

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Throughout my world and nonrecreational journeys, 1 happening has remained my changeless ally: Google Docs. Not lone is having each your documents disposable nary substance wherever you are ace helpful, but the bundle itself is amazingly versatile and intricate. I person ne'er encountered thing I couldn’t bash with Google Docs, from signing a declaration to seamlessly moving with immense groups of collaborators. There are other, smaller hacks for the instrumentality that you whitethorn not adjacent cognize about, though. Its concern applications are plentiful, but let’s absorption connected what Google Docs tin bash for students, especially. 

Google Docs hacks for essays and notes

So overmuch of schoolwork centers connected writing, from essays to memos to notes, truthful present are the hacks that volition service you champion erstwhile you’re successful the portion connected a paper: 

• Easily alteration the capitalization formatting of thing successful the doc by highlighting it and choosing “Format,” past “Text.” At the bottommost of the menu, you’ll spot “Capitalization” and hovering implicit it gives you 3 options: “lowercase,” “UPPERCASE,” and “Title Case.” When you accidentally benignant successful all-caps oregon request to marque a rubric but don’t privation to rewrite what you already have, this is simply a little-known speedy hole that volition prevention truthful overmuch time. 

• Make note-taking successful people mode easier by selecting “Voice Typing” from the “Tools” menu. Once you click the small microphone icon that appears, thing your machine mic pics up volition beryllium enactment into the doc. It won’t beryllium perfect, but it volition beryllium editable, truthful you tin conscionable fto it jot down everything your prof says, past revise it aboriginal for notes that lucifer up with your lecture. 

• Check a dictionary wrong the doc by going to “Tools” successful the apical menu, past hitting “Dictionary.” You tin adjacent item a connection successful the doc and deed Command + Shift + Y to look it up close away. The dictionary appears successful the sidebar of the screen, truthful you don’t request to permission the doc to Google your word. Perhaps champion of all, the bottommost of the sheet shows synonyms that you tin swap into your doc to instrumentality your vocab up a notch, which is adjuvant for erstwhile you’re penning an essay. (Another dictionary tip: Add immoderate method presumption to your “personal dictionary” truthful the spell-checker stops flagging them by close clicking the connection and adding it. This works large for those of america with weird past names, too.)

• Find and regenerate substance successful Google Docs by hitting Command + F. The accustomed hunt barroom volition look successful the apical close of the window, but if you click the three-dot menu, you’ll get the enactment of not lone “Find,” but “Replace.” If you’ve been misspelling someone’s sanction implicit and implicit passim an effort oregon utilizing a connection excessively galore times, you tin regenerate it quickly. You adjacent person the enactment of doing a afloat “Replace All” oregon toggling from lawsuit to lawsuit and deciding if you lone privation to regenerate a fewer of them. 

• Insert a array of contents from the “Insert” paper if you request to support a agelong doc organized. This lone works if you format the headings connected your sections by highlighting them, selecting the “Format” fastener successful the menu, hovering implicit “Paragraph styles,” past selecting a header option, but it creates a large array of contents that automatically updates. If accusation you had connected leafage 2 ends up connected leafage 3 aft you insert a paragraph of substance supra it, the array of contents volition update connected its own, truthful you don’t person to bash it manually. You tin besides click the headers wrong the array of contents to rapidly navigate to that conception of the doc. 

• Find older versions of your doc by hitting “Version history” successful the “File” menu. I didn’t cognize astir this for a agelong clip and thought that since Google Docs updates automatically, immoderate revisions I made were permanent. Not so! I’m penning this successful Google Docs close present and the bundle has saved 2 antithetic versions successful the 45 minutes I’ve been astatine it. 

Google Docs hacks for everything else

You tin (and decidedly do) usage Google Docs for much than conscionable penning essays. Here are immoderate of the astir convenient things I’ve been capable to bash with Google Docs, which usually necessitate aggregate programs erstwhile utilizing different software. 

• Turn your PDFs into editable substance documents by uploading them to your Google Drive, past hitting “Google Docs” successful the “Open With…” menu. I didn’t cognize you could bash this until a fewer months ago, erstwhile my Adobe subscription lapsed and I was refusing to wage for it again connected principle, since I truly lone needed to edit 1 document. There can be immoderate formatting issues erstwhile doing this, but for the astir part, I’ve recovered that Google Docs seamlessly turns the PDF into editable text, making it casual to marque changes earlier saving, again, arsenic a PDF. 

• Sign your documents by adding a “scribble” successful Google Docs. I find the extensions for Word excessively analyzable and the online doc editors excessively expensive, truthful earlier I realized you could bash this close successful Google Docs for free, I was printing retired each my sign-able documents, signing them with a pen, and uploading pictures of them wherever they needed to go. Humiliating. To motion wrong Google Docs, spell to “Insert,” past “Drawing,” past “New.” A container volition look for you to gully in. Just spell to the paper enactment that says “Select Line” and deed “Scribble.” Now, scribble your signature successful the box, deed save, and you’ll beryllium capable to insert it close successful the document. Again, this is free. 

• Add in-text “tasks” to enactment connected track. This is adjuvant if you’re moving collaboratively with a radical oregon conscionable request to get a monolithic duty done connected a peculiar timeline. By typing @task into the doc, you’ll punctual a dialog container that allows you to sanction the task, delegate it to idiosyncratic (even yourself), and acceptable a day that it needs to beryllium completed by, truthful you’ll get reminders. It’s adjuvant to enactment a blank leafage astatine the opening oregon extremity of your afloat doc and adhd each the tasks there. Google Docs puts a small checkbox adjacent to each the tasks, too, truthful you tin tick them disconnected arsenic you go.