Google Docs has been around for 16 years, providing anyone with free web-based access to collaborative word processing. Within the last year, Google has put a major focus on enhancing that collaboration and providing more features and opportunities that go well beyond word processing. This week, I'm going to focus on five new features and three that are coming soon!
Smart Chips
Smart Chips are designed to embed information directly into your document, which eliminates the need to have multiple tabs or windows open. For example...if you have an assignment sheet for a project and you want to reference the slide presentation you used to introduce the topic or the spreadsheet that you use for your rubric, you can type in "@" followed by the name of the file. It will insert a small link, which you can hover over to see a preview. This preview can be opened in a new tab or opened in a small window within your document! This also works if you copy and paste a link to a YouTube video into your document. You can add a Smart Chip that lets you preview the video right in the document. Want to see it in action? Check out this quick video.
Meeting Notes
When you schedule an event/meeting in Google Calendar, you now get an option to add meeting notes. Here's how it works: Let's say you advise a club and you want to schedule a meeting on Tuesday. In Google Calendar, create the event and invite the members of the club. You can add a description and/or location to the event too. If you have an agenda, you can even attach that! When Tuesday comes, click on the event in Google Calendar and select "Take Meeting Notes". It will create a new document for the notes, which will include Smart Chips for the event, the attendees, and any attached documents. At the end of the meeting, if you decide to schedule another meeting, you can easily do so right in the notes by typing "@ date" and choosing a date. Click the Smart Chip and choose "Book Meeting". Want to see it in action? Check out this quick video.
Checklists
Help your students stay on track or assign tasks to specific people by adding checklists to your documents! The checklist feature works just like the bullets and numbering feature - insert the checkbox, type some text, hit enter, and you'll get another checkbox. The difference is that you can actually check off the box, which will also gray out and strikethrough the attached text - essentially marking it as complete.Want to see it in action? Check out this quick video.
Document Summary
You may have previously noticed that Google Docs automatically creates an outline based on the content of your document. Well, now you can also include a summary that provides a quick description of what the document is about. In some cases, Google can even "read" your document and create its own summary! This feature could be useful for students who are doing research and want to see a summary of database articles before determining whether to read the entire thing. Just copy and paste the article into a blank document and click the + next to Summary! Want to see it in action? Check out this quick video.
Pageless Documents
Do you have documents that you never intend to print? Then why do you have to squeeze everything into the standard paper size with specific margins? Now - you don't! The new Pageless Document feature adjusts to the individual viewer's screen size. It can be wider or taller than the usual 8.5x11". No more worrying about page breaks or images that are too wide or needing to make font smaller to squeeze into a table that fits on the page. If you do decide later that you want to print the document, you can always switch back to page view right in the document's page setup. Want to see it in action? Check out this quick video.
Coming Soon:
Link Google Form Charts
This one has already been officially released, so if you aren't seeing it yet, you should see it soon! You can already copy a chart from Google Forms responses, but if the responses change, you have to copy the chart again. Coming soon, you can link a live chart into a document (or slideshow or drawing). Viewers just click "Update" to see the current responses.
Table Templates
Google plans to offer templates for tables so you don't always have to start from scratch. The first one they plan to release is called a "Topic-Voting Table" which will include an "up-vote" or "thumbs up" feature. This will be a great way to get feedback within, for example, a meeting notes document!
Google Meet within a Doc
Wouldn't it be nice if you could have a conversation with your collaborators while you are working on a shared document? Coming soon, you will be able to start a Google Meet directly in Google Docs to have live conversations while you edit!
There are also new features and experiences with the other apps within Google Workspace, but that's a post for another day! Or you can check out Google's own blog post to read up on your own!
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