A few years ago, as I was scrolling mindlessly through my Facebook News Feed, I found an article that told me I was using paper ketchup cups all wrong.

It turns out you're supposed to fan out the sides of the loving cup to increase ketchup capacity, like this. Who knew? Well, I recently applied that sense of adventure to some other matter I love -- Google Docs. And what I found was just every bit life-changing.

Sure, y'all may take been using Google Docs for years, just only as I institute, there are likely several useful features yous take yet to uncover. For example, did y'all know you can look at a document's unabridged revision history to figure out what was inverse and when?

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Here are 21 sugariness features Google Docs has to offer that aren't on many people's radar.

1. Add together Fonts

When you create a new certificate, Google Docs starts you off with almost two dozen native fonts you can cull from using the dropdown listing on your elevation editing toolbar. But, there are dozens more fonts and typefaces bachelor to you in that same dropdown.

To add together additional Google Doc fonts, open your document and click the fonts dropdown 3rd box from the left on your editing toolbar. Your default font should be Arial, equally shown in the screenshot below.

Add fonts option in a Google Doc

When your starting font list appears, click the "More fonts..." choice -- the first option downward, every bit shown in the screenshot above. This volition open a window of additional fonts, as shown below.

Window to add fonts in a Google Doc

From the window that appears, shown above, cheque off the fonts you desire to add together to your starting dropdown list of fonts. And then select "OK" at the bottom. Y'all tin can even explore new fonts by their full general theme and appearance using the "Testify" dropdown.

When you render to your certificate view, you lot should see your selected fonts included in the fonts dropdown.

2. Templates

Why start from scratch when you could utilize a template? Whether you're using Google Docs to write your resume, draft a project proposal, craft a business letter of the alphabet, formalize meeting notes, or design a brochure, y'all can bet there'southward a template for that. In fact, there are templates for most all your business organization needs. And for every category, yous'll find multiple templates to choose from.

This feature isn't exactly hidden, just information technology's often overlooked. You'll detect all these templates at the top of your Google Doc homepage. Click More at the meridian right to browse through all the options.

Google Doc templates

3. Tabular array of Contents Sidebar

Writing a long document with a lot of subsections that readers may desire to leap to? The handy "Table of Contents" addition automatically creates a navigation sidebar. Just click through the headers and subheaders in the sidebar to easily jump from place to place in your document. It tin be a little deadening if your certificate'southward actually long, merely it does the play a trick on -- and it'southward still better than scrolling.

To discover the improver, click hither or open up your certificate and click Add-ons from the bill of fare at the meridian of the folio. Choose Go add together-ons... and search for "Table of Contents."

Table of Contents sidebar in a Google Doc

iv. Create or Remove Header

Headers and footers are particularly useful when creating a Google Doc that has many pages. You can create a header that includes the document title, each folio number, or both on every page all at once.

To Create a Header

To create a header on Google Docs, double-click on the very top of one of your pages and begin typing your header text. You can also select "Insert" from the top navigation toolbar, then hover your cursor over "Header & folio number" for a slide-out choice that allows you to order your pages by increasing numerals.

Using either procedure, yous'll create a header that looks like the screenshot beneath. This will announced on every page.

Add or remove header on a Google Doc

To Remove a Header

But removing this header one time you lot've created information technology isn't equally obvious of an option. To remove a header from Google Docs, merely remove the text included in the header, then click out of the header space and dorsum into the document's body text.

To Modify the Header Size

To compress the size of a header from a Google Doc and use this infinite for more than body text, change the margins of the page. To exercise then, click "File" in your top navigation bar, then "page setup..."

From hither, you can narrow the page margins to a custom size, or using a preset "Paper size" from the options shown in the screenshot below. This will enable you to pull in or push out the header margins to your liking.

Page setup on a Google Doc

5. Articulate Formatting

If you lot've ever pasted text into a Google Dr. from another location, you lot've probably encountered formatting issues. It tin can happen for a variety of other reasons, likewise. Instead of editing that text manually to fit into the correct formatting, you can simply highlight the offending text and go to Format > Clear Formatting right in the toolbar. Blast: It'll format the foreign text to fit with the rest of your document.

How to clear formatting in a Google Doc

6. Create a Folder

Because Google Drive stores your documents on the cloud, multiple people often use the same Drive account for sharing files with one another. Over time, this tin brand it difficult to organize your own documents. To store them all in a neat, condom identify, make a Google Docs folder just for you lot or your team.

To create a new folder for your Google Docs, select the blueish "New" button on the pinnacle left of your Drive business relationship. This is also where y'all go to create a Google Doc, every bit shown below.

How to create a folder in Google Drive

From the options that appear, select "Folder" and title your folder with a label you lot'll remember. This folder will and then announced under the "Folders" section of "My Drive," as shown below.

A newly created folder in the My Drive section of Google Drive

7. The Research Tool

The Inquiry tool is a godsend for anyone writing something in Google Docs that requires online research. Why? Information technology allows you to research and refer to information and images online without every having to leave the document. That means no more clicking dorsum and forth endlessly between tabs.

You tin can open the Research tool on a computer in one of three ways:

  1. Open your document and open up the Tools carte at the top of your screen, then click Research from the dropdown menu.
  2. Right-click on a specific word and select Enquiry.
  3. Utilize the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Cmd + Shift + I (Mac) or Ctrl + Alt + Shift + I (PC).

Here'southward what it looks similar when I right-click the phrase "Welsh corgi" in my document:

The Research Tool in a Google Doc

When I choose "Enquiry 'Welsh Corgi,'" the Research tool appears on the right-hand side of my document. Information technology looks like this:

Research result on Welsch Corgis in a Google Doc

When you lot first open the Research tool, information technology might bear witness you topics related to what it thinks y'all're working on based on what you lot've written already. You can either research those suggested topics by clicking on them, or you can type in your own search terms in the search bar.

You tin also choose what blazon of content you desire the tool to spit back when you search a term. Use the dropdown menu side by side to the search bar to see the different types of data for that topic.

Here's what each type ways, co-ordinate to Google Back up:

  • Everything: Text and images related to your topic from any source.
  • Images: Images related to your topic found on the web.
  • Scholar: Educational data related to your topic that you tin can read, add to your file, or cite in a footnote.
  • Quotes: Quotes related to your topic that you can add to your file.
  • Lexicon: Definitions, synonyms, and antonyms related to your topic.
  • Personal: Results from your personal documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and photos that y'all tin open, cite, or link to from your file.
  • Tables: Data presented in tables related to your topic that yous can open, cite, or export.

Right now, the Research tool is only bachelor on computers and Android mobile devices. (Acquire how to apply the tool on Android devices here.)

8. Suggesting Manner

While the capability to edit and brand changes in a document is cracking, at that place are times when you lot only want to propose changes -- without actually making whatsoever. That'due south where "Suggesting" style in Google Docs comes in handy.

It works a lot like Comments in Microsoft Word. First, switch from "Editing" way to "Suggesting" way past clicking the pencil icon at the superlative right of an open up document, and then choosing "Suggesting."

Suggesting mode for editing a Google Doc

From in that location, annihilation you add, delete, or otherwise change will prove up equally colored marks in the document, accompanied by details on the righthand side such equally the name of the suggestor and a timestamp.

Green editing markup in the Suggesting setting of a Google Doc

Image Credit: Google Support

nine. Comments

If yous desire to ask questions about, make notes in, or highlight changes y'all've made in a Google Doc you're working on, you tin can exit comments directly in the document. The comments can act as a conversation thread, as people can reply to them and conduct on a conversation. You can close the annotate thread when it'south done. You tin can also edit or delete your comments at any time, or others' comments if you ain the document.

To add a annotate, highlight the text or prototype you lot'd like to comment on. And then, choose Insert from the menu at the top of your screen, and choose Comment from the dropdown menu.

How to Comment in the margins of a Google Doc

From there, a blank comment will appear on the right-hand side of your screen.

Tag People in Comments

Want to annotate on a document and get a specific person's attention? You can do that by tagging them in your comment. All you have to exercise is add an @ or a + sign, and and then begin typing their name or email address. Google Docs volition give you a couple options based on your Gmail contacts, and in one case you've submitted the comment, it'll notify that person you mentioned by sending them an e-mail.

Highlighted comment in the margins of a Google Doc

If that person doesn't already have access to the document, y'all'll be asked to choose permission levels for them.

A user's comment permissions in a Google Doc

10. Footnotes

Footnotes are quick and like shooting fish in a barrel things to add to your Google Docs, but not many people know well-nigh them. To add a footnote, put the cursor in the part of the certificate you want the footnote to appear, and become to Insert > Footnote. From in that location, but type in to your footnote whatever you'd like, and click onto the document to save it.

11. Find and Supplant

Did you e'er desire to locate multiple instances of an mistake in a text certificate and correct them all at the aforementioned time? Google has heeded your call with this nifty shortcut.

If you've e'er used "Observe and Supervene upon" in Microsoft Discussion, you lot're in luck: Google Docs makes it simply as easy.

To find something specific in your document, select "Edit" in your top navigation bar and click "Observe and replace" at the bottom of the dropdown menu. You can likewise type Control + F on an Apple keyboard (or Ctrl + F on a Windows keyboard), and so click the "..." icon in the box that appears to the top right of your Google Dr..

Either procedure will recollect the window shown below, where you tin type in the text you'd like to discover and replace it with corrected text. If the error appears more than once, click "Replace all."

Find and Replace window in a Google Doc

12. Revision History

Speaking of revising content ... have you always wanted to run across all of the changes yous (or someone else) made in a Google Physician? Better yet, take you ever wanted to go back in fourth dimension and revert to an earlier version of your document? Thanks to the Revision History feature, you can. And it's crawly.

All y'all have to practise is open up the certificate and go to File > View Revision History. A panel will appear on the right-hand side of your screen showing an overview of who made changes and when. For a more in-depth view of the changes that were made, click the detailed revisions button below the overview listing.

Revision history in a Google Doc

13. Voice Typing

Have Google Chrome as your browser? Have a working microphone either built in to your device or continued externally? So yous can "type" in a Google Doc using just your voice. To betoken a punctuation mark, merely say the proper noun of it out loud, like "catamenia," "comma," "exclamation point," or "question marking." To begin a new line or a new paragraph, say "new line" or "new paragraph" out loud.

To get to vocalism typing, open a certificate and click Tools from the menu at the top of the page. Choose Vocalization typing... from the dropdown carte du jour. When y'all're gear up to speak your text, click the microphone or printing Cmd + Shift + S (on a Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + Due south (on a PC) to begin recording.

Voice typing option in a Google Doc

Want to vocalism type in Google Docs on your phone? Voice typing only works for computers, but many iOS and Android mobile devices have born microphones you can use with a certificate.

14. Keyboard Shortcuts

There's something then satisfying well-nigh knowing the keyboard shortcuts for whatever application you're using, and Google Docs has a ton of them to choose from. A lot of them are the same as in other applications, such equally Cmd + C (Mac) or Ctrl + C (PC) to paste, or Cmd + B (Mac) or Ctrl + B (PC) to assuming something. Only information technology has a few unique ones, too. Here are a few of my favorites:

  • Shift + T = Create a new certificate.
  • Ctrl + Alt + Chiliad = Insert a comment.
  • Alt + I (in Google Chrome) or Alt + Shift + I (in other browsers) = Open the "Insert" menu.
  • Hold Ctrl + Alt, press N so H = Move to the next heading.

Run into the total list hither.

To display the list of normally used shortcuts while y'all're working in a document, press Cmd + / on a Mac, and Shift + / or Ctrl + / on Chrome OS or Windows. You tin also simply click the gear icon in the upper left paw corner of your screen and choose "Keyboard Shortcuts" from the dropdown menu.

15. Create Your Ain Shortcuts

Google Docs may have a lot of shortcuts available to us, but what if we want to brand a few of our very own? To create custom shortcuts, go to Tools > Preferences > Automatic Substition. You might find there are a few in there already (like irresolute 1/2 to ½), just feel costless to add in some of your own.

How to create your own keyboard shortcuts and macros in a Google Doc

16. Briefing Calls

Google Docs is a collaborative platform -- and the "UberConference" add-on makes it even more collaborative past letting yous comport an audio conference telephone call right from the document. All you lot have to practise is plow on the improver and invite your friends or colleagues. When they accept, everyone will be able to view and edit the document while participating in a conference call.

To observe the add-on, click hither or open up your document and click Add-ons from the menu at the top of the folio. Choose Become add-ons... and search for "UberConference."

Conference call sidebar in a Google Doc

17. Image Editing

One time yous've inserted an image into your document, you tin can notwithstanding edit it inside the certificate. Click the prototype in your document, and the toolbar at the tiptop will change to all the tools you tin utilise to edit your paradigm. Crop it, mask it, add together borders to it ... at that place are a lot of possibilities in there.

Below are 2 examples of peachy paradigm editing tricks: cropping and calculation a border. (And if you ever want to reset an paradigm dorsum to its original course, just select the epitome and click the "Reset Paradigm" icon in your toolbar.)

Cropping Tool

Select an image in your certificate and click the crop icon in your toolbar. From there, drag and drop the blue handles until you've cropped the image to your liking. To save it, click "Enter" on your keyboard or just click back into your document.

Cropping a picture of a puppy inside a Google Doc

Borders

To add a black or colored border to whatever prototype, select the epitome and click the line colour icon in your toolbar (which looks like a pencil). Select the color y'all want the edge to exist, and voilĂ ! To save it, simply click off of the epitome.

Formatting picture color in a Google Doc

image of a dog

18. Lexicon

E'er written a word and wanted to double-check you lot're using it correctly? What about writing a word that y'all desire to find a synonym for? Instead of opening up a new browser window, you can wait up the definition for that word right inside your document -- as well every bit go synonym suggestions.

All y'all accept to exercise is highlight the word, right-click on it, and choose Define. The Research tool will expect up the word on the internet for you, and its definition will appear on the right-hand side of your screen.

Dictionary sidebar in a Google Doc

19. Linguistic communication Accent Buttons

Gone are the days of memorizing accent shortcuts (and getting them wrong), opening up international keyboards and clicking keys manually, and copy/pasting from other documents. If you ever detect yourself writing in a linguistic communication other than English, the "Easy Accents" add-on could relieve you a lot of time. Information technology lets yous insert accents for twenty unlike languages directly from a sidebar in your document.

To notice the add-on, click here or open your document and click Add-ons from the menu at the top of the page. Choose Get add together-ons... and search for "Easy Accents."

Language accent buttons in a Google Doc

20. Add a New Page

If your Google Doctor doesn't automatically add new pages, y'all can add your own. To do this, scroll down, click and place your cursor where you'd like the page to intermission. And then go to Insert, click Break, and and so Page Suspension. Y'all'll run across i page end and some other begin.

Add a page in Google Docs21. Insert Today'due south Date

Unfortunately, at that place isn't a quick way to insert the date into a Google document. You'll need to use the certificate'due south Script Editor for this. Luckily, there are a number of pre-created codes online that you can insert into the Script Editor to make "Insert Date" popular upward on the folio's settings. Here's ane code from Quora, and another from SlackExchange.

To brainstorm the procedure, go into your document, click Tools so click on Script Editor.

Where to Find Google Script Editor

You'll be brought to a page where you tin can paste in script. Once the script you've chosen is inserted and you've saved your work, you should be able to refresh your document and see a new button on the tool bar with new items to insert, including the engagement. Google Script Editor with code inserted

Keep in mind that this push button might have different options depending on the code yous choose. While some codes may just as an "Insert Date" push button to your toolbar, others might add together a button that says something like "Utilities" or "More Tools."

For those who aren't super into coding, it might exist less time consuming to merely insert the appointment manually, or type information technology in a header and then information technology appears on all pages.

More Ways to Work With Google

I'll bet yous didn't know at least a handful of these ... Now that you practice, put them to good utilize in your side by side Google Doc. Want more ways to use Google to create an constructive marketing campaign? Download the costless guide below.

How to Run a Marketing Campaign with GSuite

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Originally published Aug seven, 2019 4:xviii:00 PM, updated October 15 2020