Use of Google Docs is growing mainly due to the growth of Chromebook sales. As a result, more and more people are becoming acquainted with the online Office suite from Google. Which – let’s be honest – was already known anyway. It is a nice online in-browser collection of commonly used office software.
Tired of those mega-office suites that explode with functionality and take up a lot of hard disk space? And keep having significant updates pushed down your throat? Then Google Docs may be tailor-made for you. It is a simple (but don’t be mistaken for that simplicity!) Office suite that does not require you to install a bit on your computer or, if necessary, a smart TV. Everything just runs in your browser and everything is safely stored in the cloud. You can access it anytime, anywhere with any device equipped with a browser. Or you install – if you can not resist – a mobile app.
It’s even easier for Chromebook users: shortcuts to the three parts of Google Docs are available. If you click on it, the desired application will open immediately. You don’t even have to log in with user data, because once you have logged in to your Chromebook, you are also logged in to the Google ecosystem. Of which Google Docs is a part.
Widely applicable
As mentioned, Google Docs consists of three parts: Documents, Sheets and Slides. The naming shows what exactly they cover in terms of functionality. We look at Documents in this article, but do not hesitate to subject the other parts to a thorough inspection. There is a good chance that you will be positively surprised.
Google has stripped all hardly used ‘noise’ from its online suite. It means that only the really (often) used functions remain. This not only ensures a clear user interface, but also provides a lot of peace of mind. And even with that leftover set of tools, you still have more than enough to choose from. Documents (and the other parts) are therefore without doubt suitable for pupils, students and also the business community. An extra advantage is that working together on papers and documents is a breeze. It is therefore not surprising that the aforementioned Chromebook is making a real breakthrough in Dutch education.
It is fair to say that Google Docs may be slightly less suitable for complex university theses with numerous references and specific structure. But that is partly also a matter of getting used to and perhaps also learning a slightly different way of thinking. Chances are that the current generation of students who will soon end up at a university will not turn around. There are also add-ons (see below) that override these restrictions.
On to a letter
For business and home use, something like Documents is usually more than sufficient. In terms of word processing, we are often talking about letters that, for whatever reason, really cannot be sent by e-mail. They do not require any complex underlying software, just a clear and tidy layout is sufficient. Even for something like a resume, documents don’t turn around. Partly thanks to the fact that all kinds of templates are available for this. That’s another handy feature of Documents: thanks to templates, you don’t have to think about formatting. To get started, log in to Google (or if you’re lucky enough to own a Chromebook, launch the Docs ‘app’).
Just go to Google.nl and click at the top right login. Once logged in, click on the button with the dot grid (also at the top right). Scroll down a bit and click or tap Documents (or any of the other Docs components). You can now choose a blank document or a template. If you want to see more templates, click on Template gallery. There are plenty of work and study / school related templates available to choose from. In this example we are going for it Formal letter. Which is somewhat illogical to find under the heading Application letters, because a letter template can of course also be used for other purposes.
Print and export
The actual word processing environment will now open. If you are working on a (supported) mobile device, you may see a message indicating that a mobile app is also available. Now let’s leave that for what it is and concentrate on the universal web interface.
The template speaks for itself: copy the sample texts and you have a sleek-looking letter. If you then want to print it, click in the menu File on Print. Something different than you expect (at least on our iPad) happens: a PDF is offered for download. Which you can still print after downloading. Not bad in itself, so you immediately have a local copy in PDF format available. If, for whatever reason, you also want a copy in .docx format (the file format of Microsoft Word), click in the menu File on To download.
In addition to .docx, a series of other file formats, including even ePub, are available. The latter for those who are writing a book or manual that should be read on e-readers.
Special characters
Be sure to go through the Documents menus. You will find a whole lot of useful options in it. As said, it must actually be very strange when you miss something here that is not useful for daily use. Do you want to enter a ‘strange’ character? Then click below Insert on Special characters. Funny thing is that you can search very efficiently for a special character. By simply typing in the name if you know it, but also to make a sketch of the desired character. There is a good chance that that sketch – no matter how clumsy – will lead to the desired character that appears in the plane above it. Click on the character in the search results and it will be inserted into your text, at the position of the cursor.
Charts and add-ons
The option to insert graphs is also not lacking, click in the menu for this Insert on Diagram and choose one of the chart types. It goes without saying that your spelling (and also your grammar) will be checked while typing. What makes Documents complete is the possibility to add extra functionality. So if you miss something, there is a chance that you can easily arrange it by clicking on the menu Add-ons and then Add-ons add. You will then see a mountain of modules that you can ‘install’. In short: this creates quite a tweakable whole!
Document name and logout
Finally, your document is automatically saved under a default name as soon as you start typing. If you want to change the name of your document, click the default name in the top left (in our example Business letter) and replace the text with something perhaps more logical. Do not forget to log out of Google after a Google Docs session, at least if you do not want Google to track your entire search history and subsequent surfing behavior. Logging out is a matter of clicking the Google Docs back button a few times until you’re back in the main window of the Docs app you’re using. Then click in the top right on the bubble with the usually first letter of your name or email address, followed by a click on Log out.
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