Level up your writing game with these google docs tricks

I know that you would scream at me when I say this ‘if you like to write, you should give Google Docs a try’ but I will still take the liberty to suggest you give it a genuine try. While there are many downsides, there are some benefits that once you understand, you will start appreciating Google Docs much more than you currently do. Some inherent benefits are (1) it is cloud-based and hence available everywhere on the internet; (2) it is multi-platform, available on computers, tablets, and mobile phones, making it ubiquitous to use.

And today, I am going to share some tricks, tips, and shortcuts that once you master will make you fall in love with writing, and will improve your writing effectiveness by a factor of at least 2x. So without much ado, let’s, deep dive.

Even if you are a pro at writing, you must go through this article, you will definitely find something new and helpful.

1. Shortcut for opening a new Google Doc

Open a new document superfast, just type docs.new in your browser. The browser that I use is Google Chrome, and I like to do the following every time the urge to write kicks in. I first like to open a new window, and then open a new google doc in the new window.?

• Ctrl (or Cmd) + N, opens a new Google Chrome Window, without disturbing me from my current work (you can use Ctrl + T if you want to open a new tab in the same window).
• Once in the new window or tab, I immediately type docs.new (for new document), and then start writing my brains out, in this new google doc window.

Also: this works for all G-Suite apps:

• sheets.new - for google sheets
• slides.new - for google slides

2. Make Google Docs available offline

The biggest enemy of productivity is distractions. To improve focus, turn off distractions. The simplest way to do this is by turning off the wifi connection. But, if you turn off the wifi, how do you use Google Docs, which requires an internet connection, right?.

Well, worry not, all you have to do is to make your google doc available offline. Follow this

• From the Menu bar, go to File
• In the File menu select Make available offline.

3. Dictate your thoughts through Voice Typing

In our life, there are times, when we feel lazy and we want to relax a bit. But, we should write even in this state, how do we do this? Imagine if you had a personal assistant, you can just dictate your thoughts, and your assistant would write those for you. Well, no need to imagine, google docs has got you covered. It has voice-to-text conversion. All you have to do is, turn on the voice typing and then dictate your thoughts.

Turn on voice typing by following this sequence.

• From the Menu, bar go to Tools
• In the Tools menu activate Voice typing.

Now just start talking to yourself. This is the best way to structure your thoughts.

Pro tip: now that you can convert your thoughts to a text by simply dictating, you can write even when you are not on your computer. You can write on your phone or tablet. This is super-cool, isn’t it?

You can also use simple English language commands to do much more with your voice, like

4. Table of contents and Document outline on the left panel

While working on a large document, you may get lost in the document. You may find it difficult to navigate from one section to the other section, resulting in endless scrolling, which makes you lose your focus, and the scrolling actually puts you off from writing. In such scenarios, you can navigate yourself out with help of two things?

a) Document outline on the side panel

You can enable the document outline like this.

• In the Menu bar, click on the ‘View’ tab
• In the View tab, click the option ‘Show outline’.

This will show the outline, as shown in the below image.

You can even hide and unhide the document outline if you want more space in your browser window. In the above image, just above the word ‘SUMMARY’, there is one arrow pointing towards the left. You can press this arrow and the outline will collapse into a small button, as shown in the below image. When you want the outline back, just click the outline button shown in the below image. This is cool, isn’t it?

b) Insert Table of contents

On the menu bar, go to ‘Insert’, scroll to the last option ‘Table of contents, and select one from any of the two options (1) With page numbers, choose this option if you or your reader will print your document ; (2) With blue links, choose this option if you or your reader will read this online.

The table of contents with page numbers (preferred for printing hard copy), will look similar to the one below image.

The table of contents with blue links (preferred for online reading of the document), will look similar to the below image

5. Text formatting made simple (1 of 2)

When we write, there are always going to be headings to structure our document properly, so that it’s easier for our reader to navigate through the document. Plus, we discussed inserting a document outline in the previous section. The outline will populate, only when we format our headings in a structured way.

Google docs make it very easy to format the headings with the following keyboard shortcuts

• Ctrl+Alt+0 -- Normal text
• Ctrl+Alt+1-- Heading 1
• Ctrl+Alt+2 -- Heading 2
• Ctrl+Alt+3 -- Heading 3
• Ctrl+Alt+4 -- Heading 4

Pro tips:

• Ctrl+Shift+8 -- For inserting bullets
• Ctrl+Shift+7 -- For inserting a numbered list

6. Text formatting made simple (2 of 2)

Do you want to change the font size? Use these shortcuts

7. Copying text formatting made simple

You know that you can easily copy the formatting from one line/paragraph to another line/paragraph, with help of the paintbrush. But what you might not have realized is that you can do this only once, i.e. every time you want to copy the format, you need to select the paintbrush.

However, there is a very simple way to copy the format, so that it stays on for multiple applications. While selecting the paintbrush, double-click the paintbrush symbol. That’s it. Now you can apply this formatting to as many lines/ paragraphs as you want. Isn’t this fun?

8. Reposition a paragraph or line with keyboard shortcuts

Many times, you need to move one line or the entire paragraph from one location to some other location of the document. In normal life, you will cut the line/ paragraph, scroll to the section you want, and paste it there.

In the superfast world, you can do this in two ways

1. Just highlight the line/ paragraph you want to move, then click and drag it with your mouse to the place you want to move to.
2. Even better, place your cursor at the beginning of the text you want to move, press Alt+Shift and then use your arrow keys to move the selected text to wherever you want. This is my favorite.

9. Never lose the train of your thoughts

Writing is a very creative activity, and many times ends up being a multiple sessions project. For example, It took me more than 6 sessions of one hour each to complete this article. After the break (even a short one), when you come back, you completely lose track of what you were writing and why. Due to this loss of track, your productivity goes for a toss. So, here is a quick fix for this problem.

Before taking the break add a note to yourself. Highlight the last sentence, add a comment, and jot down your thoughts. When you come back from the break, this comment will help you restart from where you left off, saving you 10 to 15 minutes that you would otherwise spend thinking about what to write next.

10. Word Count? Isn’t it simple?

If you want to improve your discipline of writing every day, you can start by simply writing something (maybe your daily thoughts) in a short article of fewer than 300 words. But wait, google docs doesn’t have word count enabled by default. To enable this, do the following.

On the Menu bar, click Tools >> Word count >> tick ‘Display word count while typing’, this will enable showing word count on the bottom left corner.

11. Love dark mode? You are covered.

Love dark mode? Install the ‘Google docs dark mode’ chrome extension on your chrome browser. Search for this in your browser search bar “google chrome extension google docs dark mode”. With this google chrome plug-in, you will be able to enable the dark mode and have some fun with the dark mode.

Well, that’s it for today. Here is a short recap of what you read. To be super-effective in google docs, you should use these shortcuts, tricks, and techniques.

1. Shortcut - docs.new - to open a new google doc
2. Make google doc available offline, to beat distractions
3. Dictate your thoughts through voice typing
4. Navigate like a pro with a Table of contents, and Document outline on the left panel
5. Shortcuts for changing text size, in a simple and fast way
6. Copy-pasting text formatting in a simple and fast way
7. Shortcuts for repositioning a paragraph or line with a keyboard
8. Never lose the train of your thoughts with a comment
9. Enable word count to write consistently
10. Dark mode, if you like it

In the comments below let me know which tricks and shortcuts did you find the most helpful.

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