Google’s word processor might seem like a simple tool, but Docs is actually full of useful features that will make your writing experience better and more efficient. The company usually makes announcements when big updates are on the horizon, but some functionalities inevitably fly under the radar for a lot of users. Luckily for you, we found some you might have missed. Note that both of these trend tabs display only numbers, not names, so if you were thinking about using this feature to call out your coworkers on something, that’s not going to work. Fortunately, Google Docs now has the Compare documents feature, which you can find under the Tools menu. This functionality allows you to fuse two files together, and Google will highlight the differences between the two. But there are still people who insist on using locally saved files, which eventually result in a handful of slightly different versions of the same thing, with names like “Final_report_my_edits,” or “Final-report-FINAL.” And if you’re the one in charge of consolidating those documents, well, good luck to you. To use it, open a document in Google Docs—it can be a native file or a converted Word or PDF file. Then go to Tools, Compare documents, and use the emerging explorer window to dive into your Google Drive and find the file you want to compare the current one with. Docs will then open a fused document in a new tab and will underline the changes as if they were added suggestions. If you need to consolidate more than two documents, you can do so from the new, combined, file and repeat the process until you’re done. It’s the perfect tool for an utterly tedious task. Now go try to convince your colleagues to start working in the cloud. You can still do that, but the “@” character has become a lot more useful, and you can even use it as a sort of master shortcut for many popular actions within Google Docs. The moment you type it, you’ll see an emerging menu with a list of possibilities that start with the classic mentions. The platform will show you two names you can click on and insert into the body text, but you can click the arrow next to People to get six more recommendations—usually people you’ve been in recent contact with. The menu continues with other elements such as Meeting notes. This function shows Google Docs’ integration with Google Calendar and will allow you to choose from a list of events in your personal calendar. Once in your document, this content block will include links to the event you picked, the date on your schedule, and the names of everyone in attendance. Finally, you’ll see a space for the notes and action items you can fill out with what you discussed at the chosen meeting. You can also insert shortcuts to recent or important documents in your Drive. This is useful if you’re submitting a report with links to other files, for example. If you keep scrolling down the @ menu, you’ll find more elements to personalize your document, like a link that’s always updated with today’s date, calendar events, horizontal lines, checkboxes, headings of various sizes, drawings, tables, and more. This menu is especially useful if you like intricately designed documents and use actions that don’t have a keyboard shortcut (like adding images). It also comes in handy if you simply are not a keyboard shortcut kind of person. Now that you know how quietly some useful features find their way into Google Docs, make a habit of checking the main menus on the navigation bar. Be on the lookout for a blue label that says New. This is how Google labels new tools, and who knows, maybe the next one you find will change the way you work on the platform forever. At the beginning of the year, the company announced Docs’ new pageless feature, which allows users to use the space in the platform’s interface more efficiently. This mode can come in handy if your writing will live online instead of print, and it will prevent you from seeing page breaks in the middle of your text. Google Doc’s pageless mode will also allow you to insert wider pics into your document, or even insert full-sized images side by side without constraints. To activate the pageless feature, open a new document and go to File, then Page setup. On the emerging window, click the Pageless tab, followed by OK, to make your choice stick. You can also click Set as default to make every new Google Docs file a pageless one. As a fun extra feature, the Page setup menu also allows you to easily change the background color of your screen—or your page if you decide to stick to the old-school style. Just open the Background color or Page color dropdown menu, and choose whatever hue your heart desires.
