Category: Docs

If you’re like me, you can hack Google Docs to do almost everything that it should do, but doesn’t do.

That includes – or, did include – making a table that has a variable number of cells in each row. 

Let’s say you have a rubric where most rows require just 2 options – 0 points or 1 point – and then you have a row where you need three options – 2, 1, or 0 points. Well, in the past, the hack was to make each row have 3 columns for those options, but in all of the 1 point rows, merge them together.  It worked, but it certainly wasn’t elegant.

Well, now we don’t need that hack – You can now split table cells into any number of rows and columns.

1 cell in a table can have multiple rows and columns. This works for the example that I gave, but you can likely find a ton of other reasons you might use this! Maybe you need subheadings underneath your headings… you need to add units into a table… or you need to add some information with an asterisk. Now you can.  Just right-click the cell > click Split cell > enter the number of rows and columns you want > and click Split. Voila! 

This is available in all Google accounts, even free ones.

[GIF Source: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2022/10/split-table-cells-in-google-docs.html ]

Continue reading Split Cells in Google Docs Tables

Auto-generated summaries in Google Docs!? Let’s talk about it…

Several blog posts ago, I shared about adding summaries to your Google Docs—you do that in the left-side menu where the document outline is. Those summaries also show up in other locations, like in Google Drive.

What I did not share (or realize) at that point, was for some of you those summaries will be auto-generated, at least if the document is long enough. Yup, you did all of the work on the doc itself, why should you have to do all of the work on the summary as well?  You’ll find what Google calls a “suggested summary” in that same location and you can then edit them if you’d like!

Here’s an example of what that looks like in your Google Docs workspace:

The announcement says that these are available to Education Plus users but not Education Fundamentals users.

Now, you might be thinking, “Jake, aren’t there 4 education account types!? What about Education Standard and Education Teaching & Learning users?”  Well, dear reader, I have no stinking idea. Because does Google make their communication about their accounts clear? NOPE. There are now more than a dozen account types, when you count non-eduation ones, and some updates clearly list whether they apply to all of them or not, while this one only lists some of the account types.

So, help me out, if you know what kind of Google Workspace for Education account you have – Plus, Fundamentals, Standard, or Teaching & Learning Upgrade – I’d love to hear if you get summary suggestions. And if you work for Google, I’d love for you to tell someone to make your account level and feature availability messaging clearer.

Seriously, just add a chart, the same chart every time, with checkmarks or X’s to each announcement.  This account type has it, this one does not.  Sheesh. Is it really that difficult?

[Image Source: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2022/02/new-smart-canvas-features-in-google-docs.html ]

Continue reading Auto-Generated Summaries in Google Docs!

“@:mind blown”🤯! “@:thinking face”🤔!

Am I speaking a new top secret language? No, I’m talking about the new capability to insert emojis in your Google Docs without clicking around in any menus or using any Chrome Extensions.

Built into the Smart Chip menu (that they released a year ago) is the ability to add emojis now! If you type, for example, the “@” symbol and brain you’ll be able to get to the brain emoji from within that smart chip menu and then you’ll be able to select the brain emoji. 🧠

Unfortunately, you’ll have to sift through some other results like Google Drive files and Google Maps locations that also  involve the word brain. To make it quicker, follow that @ symbol up with a colon :.

That tells the Smart Chips menu to just look at emojis.  When you do that you’ll see matching emoji results, and you can click “enter” to accept the one at the top of the list. If you type a word in that has multiple results, like smile or heart, you may have to use the arrow keys or mouse to get to the one you want. You can also click on the right arrow in the top right of the smart chips pane to see the full menu of emojis to search or scroll through.

It won’t enhance your pedagogy but it might make you a little more efficient, or make your docs—and your students’ docs, a little more fun. I’m here for each of those things!

This update is available to ALL Google users and is out now. 

[GIF Source: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2022/08/inline-emoji-insertion-Docs.html ]

Continue reading Insert emojis inline with text in Google Docs!

Wait, what’s this Google Doc for?

Earlier this year, Google added the ability to type up your own Summary for your doc in the left sidebar where the doc outline appears.

The outline is autogenerated by your use of headings, titles, subtitles, and other items in your doc, but the summary is something that you type in manually. 

There doesn’t appear to be a limit to how long it can be, but you’re unable to do any formatting within it. You can use Shift+Enter to add line breaks though.

This summary will appear in that left sidebar for all viewers and it also shows up in other places, like the details pane that you can see in Google Docs. That’s a nice way to tell people what the doc is before they open it.

[Image Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/789838/how-to-add-a-document-summary-in-google-docs/ ]

Continue reading Adding Summaries to your Google Docs…

Need to know as soon as someone adds something to the meeting agenda? Eagerly awaiting a student starting their first draft of an overdue paper? Want to keep a watchful eye on a super important doc? Well, Google has a new feature that can help you!

You can now choose to be notified via email if a file is edited.

And it’s on a per-file basis, meaning you can have this setting on for your staff luncheon list, but off for your assessment schedule doc.

The email that you receive will tell you the what, when, and who, of any changes that were made. You can set them from within the doc by clicking Tools, then Notification Settings. Or you can access it by clicking the comments button in the top right and then the bell.  Once you’re in there you can choose to be notified of all comments, no comments, or just comments that tag you.

And, the major new feature, you can choose to be notified about added or removed content. You’ll also see these same options in your Gmail when you receive a notification about a doc, including the ones that we’ve been receiving for years about comments.  Now there’s a notification dropdown with these additional settings.

This is available on ALL Google accounts now!

Continue reading Get Notified of Edits to a Google Doc

I just used Google Docs to write a blog post referencing my book, Educational Duct Tape, and while proofreading it I noticed I totally forgot to italicize the book title each time I referenced it. I could fix one of them and use the paint format tool to apply that fix to all of them . . . or I could fix one of them, copy it, and then paste it in place of the other ones or . . .

💡I could use the new multiple-text selection option in Google Docs.

📺 Check this out in video form on TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts. 📺

You can now highlight a set of text–or double-click a single word–and then hold down control (or command on a Mac) while highlighting other text or double-clicking other words, and they’ll all be selected!

I can now use this to select multiple instances of the phrase Educational Duct Tape and make them all italicized!  You can also do this to delete multiple chunks of text at once or even copy them. 

The copy option is weird because it just copies those words and then you paste just those words. It’s interesting.

You can also use it with pasting.  For example, suppose I want to add the book’s subtitle – An EdTech Integration Mindset – each time the title is referenced. In that case, I can copy the full title with the subtitle, select all instances of the title, and click paste, and it’ll paste it in each place! Pretty cool stuff.

This feature should be active in all Google accounts at this point. 

📺 Check this out in video form on TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts. 📺

[GIF Source: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2022/05/multiple-text-selections-in-google-docs.html]

Continue reading Making Multiple Text Selections in Google Docs