How to use Google Docs · 12:43am Mar 1st, 2019

Ok, so an author I'm working for needed a bit of instruction on how to use Google Docs, and I thought, why not blog a tutorial? That'll help him, plus offer a reference for anyone what needs a quick guide.

So, once you've gone to Google Docs, you need to create a new file. This is an easy matter of choosing a new blank document from the templates at the top of the screen:

Once there, it's a simple matter of pulling down the File menu and selecting open which gives you a variety of ways to upload your file to it. That is assuming you've already created the file in a word processor on your computer, if not, simply start typing away.

What makes Gdocs so great for writers? It makes it easy to collaborate with co-authors and or proofreaders, editors and pre-readers. It gives you two methods to share:

At the top is the link that you can copy and paste to any cohorts, while at the bottom is a box to enter email address(es) into, allowing you to privately invite people to the document. Regardless of the method you choose, the most important thing is at the right, the access level, and there are three levels, View, Comment or Edit.

View is obvious, you can read, and that's it. Edit allows you to make changes, but there's no easy way to see these changes unless you choose to see version history from the File menu. The best when working with others is the Comment option. One confusing thing is that while the share dialogue calls it commenting, on the document it's displayed as Suggesting. No matter what you call it, Commenting does several things, it colour codes changes, striking out the original, and placing the correction next to it. Also a margin note is created on the right that offers two options:

As you can see, this tells you who made the change, what the change was, and most importantly, offers you the choice to accept (check mark) or refuse the change (X). There's also an option to comment on it instead which can be used by anyone working on the document, although once a decision is made, the note disappears.

Another great point is it's built in error finding system. This isn't just a spell checker, but a Grammarly like (Grammarly light just like Gdocs is MS Office light?). If it thinks you're wrong, it'll highlight it with a squiggly red line under the word, phrase or group of words...

and right clicking on the word will bring up what it thinks you should be using. It isn't perfect, but it can fix a lot of mistakes quickly and easily.

That's all there is to it. Once your done, you can cut and paste the document to FiM or whatever sight the story is bound for, or save it in a number of common formats (no DOCX though, the way M$ wants it).

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