8 Google Docs Hacks to Maximize Productivity
In this blog, I’m going to build a short business proposal while running through some Google Docs basics, as well as eight essential hacks that have helped maximize my efficiency. Trust me, you’ll want to stick around until the end of this one because I promise that hack number eight is a total game-changer.
Let’s get started! From the main Google Docs hub, you’ll find a vast selection of templates ranging from resumes to project proposals, newsletters, and more. This can be a helpful place to start if you’re unsure about formatting. I prefer to start from scratch, so I’m going to select a blank document.
so I’m gonna select a blank document.
The toolbar here should look familiar if you’ve used a word processor before. You’ll find a variety of simple features to choose your font, font size and formatting options like bold, italics, color, indents, and bullet lists. In the top left corner, there are some menu options including file, edit, and view.
Files where you go to save, print and share the documents you create. Edit has options for copying and pasting, as well as searching within the document. View lets you choose to go full screen and toggle features like the ruler or switch between editing, suggesting and viewing mode. Okay, now that we’ve got the fundamentals down, let’s dive in.
Hack No. 1: Building Blocks and Smart Chips
This feature allows me to automatically create notes for a scheduled meeting or draft an email directly from the body of a Google document. I simply type an @ symbol, and a list of options appears, enabling me to insert dates for booking meetings, create dropdown menus for status updates, or connect to my Google Calendar for easy tracking of meeting notes, agenda items, and assigning action items to meeting attendees. After meeting with my team, I’ve typed up the basic text I want to include in my business proposal for a retail expansion of my online bakery.
Hack No. 2: Voice Typing
All you need is Google Docs and a working microphone on your computer, and you can dictate your documents if you find that easier or prefer to pace around the office like I do. Simply head to Tools and select Voice Typing. A small microphone icon will appear, and all you have to do is click and start talking.
Hack No. 3: The Explore Function
If you’re struggling with what to add to your document or are looking for sources or reference material to include, go to Tools, select Explore, and Google will scan your document for suggestions on details you may have omitted or internet articles that can help you out.
While we’re on the subject of hacks, I want to take a moment to highlight the biggest hack of all: HubSpot’s incredible Google Docs master guide, a one-stop manual for everything I’m discussing today. I keep their cheat sheet by my side at all times, and it has been a tremendous lifesaver. Be sure to check it out in the description below!
Now, looking at my copy, I’ve realized that I want my vision section to come after my goal section. To do this, I will highlight the vision text, copy it, and paste it elsewhere. While I could do this using the Edit menu, here’s:
Hack No. 4: Keyboard Shortcuts
It’s as easy as hitting Control + C or Command + C on a Mac, selecting where you’d like the text to go, and then using Control + V to paste. There are numerous easy shortcuts like this, and the good news is you can even press Control + Forward Slash to bring up a menu that refreshes your memory. It might sound overwhelming, but with a little practice, it will become second nature.
I know what we have right now doesn’t look super polished, but thankfully, Google Docs has a variety of formatting options to customize your documents. First, I’m going to use the headers feature to delineate my sections. For the overall title, I’ll go to the dropdown menu and choose Title, then Heading 1 for the remaining sections. For any subsections, like those under milestones, I’ll use the slightly smaller Heading 2. To format my text, I simply highlight the words I want to change and use the options in the toolbar to adjust the font, size, color, italics, bold, or underline as desired.
For entire paragraphs, I can set left, center, right, or justified alignments and adjust the spacing between lines. I just highlight the desired paragraph and return to the toolbar for options to adjust alignment, indents, line spacing, and more. I can also create bulleted or numbered lists, which I will do under goals by highlighting the text and selecting it from the toolbar.
If I want to go even deeper, I can insert images by going to Insert, then Images, uploading from my computer or Google Photos. Google Docs has a fantastic feature that allows me to search for images from the web without leaving the document. So, I’m going to find a delicious cookie image and insert it here.
Finally, since I used the headers feature to separate my sections, it’s easy to create a table of contents at the top of my document. I simply go to Insert, then Table of Contents, and choose the style I like. Bam! Our document is formatted just how I want it. This leads me to:
Hack No. 5: The Outline Feature
If I go up to View and check Show Document Outline, I can see the left panel automatically uses my headings to create an outline for the document, making it easy to navigate between sections. This is especially useful for long documents.
Now that I have my document ready, it’s time for:
Hack No. 6: Streamlining Workflows and Collaborating
Sharing with collaborators so they can leave comments or make suggestions is incredibly easy. I just go to File, Share, and add the emails of anyone I want to send it to. I can also set different permission levels in case I don’t want everyone to be able to edit. If there are others editing, I can view the version history by clicking this little clock, which will display all the edits made since the document’s creation. If I need to leave a comment somewhere, I just right-click on the spot I want and click Comment.
Google Docs offers a variety of add-ons that you can find by going to Extensions.
Hack No. 7: The Translate Feature
Let’s say I want to share this document with a colleague who speaks a different language. This feature makes it super easy to translate your entire document into French, for example, just by selecting Tools, then Translate. This creates a copy of the document in the chosen language.
And finally,
Hack No. 8: Working Offline
This is a game changer, especially for me, as I’m often on the go. You can’t always rely on wifi on planes. Hack number eight is working offline. All I need to do is go to my Google Doc settings from the homepage and ensure the offline button is checked and blue. This allows me to edit documents without internet access, and my changes will sync to my Google Docs account once I’m back online.
Now that my business proposal is complete, it’s time to share it with investors and start my takeover of the national gourmet cookie market!
Google Docs is a robust, free resource for your business, packed with features that can simplify your life. Don’t forget to check out HubSpot’s Google Docs master guide for all the tips and tricks you need to make Google Docs work for you and your business. Let me know in the comments if any Google Docs hacks have boosted your productivity—I’d love to hear them!
