hi my name is siti and welcome back to
the channel where we make educational
technology easy for you in today's video
I'm going to be looking at 15 top tips
for Google Docs so let's dive into it
with another flipped classroom tutorial
now this is very personal and these are
my top 15 tips for when you're using
Google Docs now you might have your own
and I would love to hear them in that
comment section below so you scroll down
and let me know your favorite features
or tips in Google Docs now the first one
on my list is a voice typing now voice
typing can save you a huge amount of
time and Google Docs a built-in
dictation tool is actually really good
you can use all sorts of punctuation and
it picks up on even slight variations in
your accent so I would highly recommend
that you try it out now in order to find
it simply go to tools voice type now
once you've opened it you get an extra
little microphone symbol and that
microphone symbol will allow you to
start recording you can change the
language and once you've clicked it and
given access to your microphone it will
turn red
once it's read it means it's listening
to everything you say you can dictate
things such as period or full stop and
it will also add that punctuation in
addition to that there's some advanced
features where you can change the font
size or font color and I will link to
the instructions of those commands below
in that description when that was the
first now that brings me smoothly into
the second one because we all like a bit
of formatting the way we'd like to
format our documents is not only with
different font sizes but also different
fonts and this is my second tip Google
Docs has a vast library of extra fonts
that you can add into your Google Docs
in order to get access to these extra
fonts you need to first add them now
where do you add them we'll simply click
on the drop down arrow next to your font
and then click on more false this will
open up the Google Fonts library and
here you can now select fonts and add
them into your short lists the short
list is the list that will show up and
you can then quickly find them in the
future
which brings us to the third tip now the
third tip is to not only insert an image
but also do some very basic edits within
the Google Docs editor so let's go ahead
and insert an image we're going to go to
insert
image you can now choose how you're
going to insert that image now I'm going
to upload an image from the computer but
you can also do in Google search and
there we go now that that image is here
we can simply click on the image once
and two new options appear at the top we
can replace the image or we get some
image options so go ahead and click on
the image options and this is where we
can do some very basic editing we can
now recolor this image we can adjust the
brightness or contrast but we can also
crop the image now in order to crop the
image you will have seen that a new icon
appeared next to image options and
that's the crop tool so go ahead and use
the crop tool crop your image and then
I'd like you to try and recolor it using
these very basic tools we can make our
document look even better now this
brings us to the fourth tip and this is
very closely related to insert an image
but this is where you're going to insert
a drawing now what's great about the
updates that Google Docs has been
rolling out over the past couple months
is that now when you insert a drawing
you have two options you can either have
a standalone drawing within your Google
Docs or you can link to an external
Google drawings file and whenever that
files updated you can update your image
inside Google Docs now let's have a look
at this by clicking on insert and then
drawing you will see new or from Drive
new is where you create an image within
your Google Docs and this will be
editable only within Google Docs if you
select from Drive you can select any
drawing and once you've selected this
drawing you can now choose to link it or
unlink it when you leave it linked
whenever the file is updated you will
see an update button in your Google Docs
I love this feature and it's a feature
that many of us are unaware of and it's
very useful for graphs charts or all
sorts of learning materials now talking
about using it in classroom tip number
five is collaboration collaboration is
at the core of every Google product and
Google Docs is no different so simply
click on share at the top and this gives
you the option to now collaborate with
others now you have various different
settings and you can also share the file
not allowing others to print copy or
edits that is three main sharing options
you can either give permission to edit
you can give them permission to comments
or permission to view it you can also
prevent editors from changing the access
rights or you can disable people from
downloading and printing
the documents and once you are
collaborating that brings us to tip
number six and that's leaving a comment
or directly commenting people that you
are collaborating with so when you are
leaving a comment in the text you can
simply right click add a comment but
let's say that you want to add a comment
and you need it actions by someone that
you're collaborating with well you can
either add a plus or @ symbol once you
do that you can then type their name and
they will be notified of this comments
they can be assigned to this comment and
that means that they actually have to
click on done after action against it's
a very useful feature for documents that
you're collaborating on with many
different people but only one person has
to be notified of a change which brings
us to tip number 7s email your
collaborators now instead of rish airing
the file with all the people you want to
notify of changes there is an option to
simply email a select few people within
Google Docs file email collaborators now
once you do that you can now type up
your email message and you can tick or
untick the people that will receive this
email this makes it a much more user
friendly experience and instead of
always re sharing the file and maybe
accidentally giving the wrong rights are
changing the rights you are emailing
your collaborators about the change
without touching in these sharing
permissions tip number eight page
settings now we all use different paper
formats and different printers but our
page settings can be changed so we can
change the paper size but we can also
change our margins and this is something
I do a lot especially when working with
tables or adding design into my
documents the first thing I would do is
set up my margins so go to file page
setup and then we're going to change the
margins you have a top bottom left and
right margin then you can change these
here you can use a 0.0 smaller margin as
well or you can make the margins very
big in addition to that you can change
the paper size and this allows you to
use different sizes of paper when
working with different printers tip
number 9 header styles use your header
styles and don't worry you're not
limited to the header styles that are
built into Google Docs because you can
apply your formatting to a header style
the first thing you do is simply select
the text that you would like to change
the header style
for we're going to go to the Heather
Styles drop-down menu and now we select
our style now let's say that you're not
happy with the styles available no
problem simply do the formatting of your
text first highlight your text go to the
Heather Styles and when you hover over
one of these header styles you have the
option to update it now when you click
on update that new formatting will be
applied to the old header style this is
very useful because it not only makes
sure that all your text is using the
same formatting and that there are no
discrepancies it also helps you later on
when you're building a table of contents
where it's automatically going to pull
in the various titles tip number 10 the
explore button that the explore button
is incredibly powerful but in Google
Docs it's probably one of the most
powerful tools that we have because the
explore button allows us to not only do
research it also allows us to find
images to cite our sources and do so
much more so let's go ahead and click on
the explore button this brings up a
field and we can now search for any term
now I'm going to use the term Tiger it
brings up three different menus now the
first of the web second images and then
the third one that's where they go into
my Google Drive and find that search
term great for when you're looking for
documents to link now I'm going to stick
to the web and let's say that I want to
use some text from the Wikipedia page I
can simply click on that link and that
will open up in a new tab now the reason
they do that is because they don't want
to close down the Explorer window you
can now find the paragraph you'd like to
use and let's just simply copy/paste a
paragraph and there we go I've now
pasted it in that paragraph but I do
want to cite my source and because I
have that Explorer window still open I
can now cite the source the first thing
you have to do is decide the citation
format that a citation format can be
changed by clicking on the three dots
and then select MLA APA or Chicago now
I'm going to select APA and then I'm
going to hover back to that link that
I've clicked on and you will now see
those quotation marks so simply click on
that and automatically your citation is
brought into your documents as I'm
simply going to tap return and now I'm
going to go to the Images tab when you
click on an image you get a large
version and then you can insert at the
top or if you already know that the
image will work for you you can simply
hover over it and then
Plus and there we go I have a paragraph
it is sited and an image all by using
the explore function now stop for a
minute scroll down and leave in that
comment section which one has been your
favorite up to now and then we're going
to continue on to the eleventh tip or
trick that you need to know in Google
Talk and that's using a templates now
you can use a template by either going
to docs.google.com and selecting from
the template gallery or when you're
already in a Google Documents you can go
to file new from templates when you do
that you get two different windows now
the general one these are old templates
generated and created by Google and you
can use these and then just tweak them
to your needs the second one you see
here this is my domain this is my G
suite for Education domain and these are
templates submitted by users in my
domain that then can be shared with
other users in my domain so let's say
that I have a certain format for
invoices or planning or for meeting
minutes this is where you can submit
those templates so when you click on
your domain name you will see there is
nothing there at the moment but you can
submit a templates back to general you
can use any of these templates now using
templates can save you a huge amount of
time so I highly recommend that you have
a look at the different templates
available and then just select those
that you would like to use yourself now
tip number 12 allows you to
automatically replace a predefined text
into anything you'd like it to be it
could even be a full paragraph so what
I'm going to do now is I'm going to set
it up so that whenever I type F T web it
is automatically going to put the full
URL of the flipped classroom tutorials
website first thing you have to do is
click on tools preferences here you can
now add your own preferences so in the
left hand box you will put the original
text and in the right hand box you put
the text you'd like to see it replaced
with so left we're going to replace FD
web and we will be replacing that with
the full URL go ahead and click on OK
and let's test it out we're now going to
type ft web as soon as I press space or
return this is replaced now this is
great for when you have certain
paragraphs that you'd like to use over
and over again or long parts of text
that you'd like to use again and again
and again we'll simply set up your own
shortcuts which brings me to tip number
13
downloading your document now Google
Docs allows you to download your
documents in a range of different
formats now the way you can do that is
by going to file download as and now you
can select the format you'd like to use
you can use a Microsoft Word format a
PDF or even in epub formats this is
great when you're creating your own
manuals and you want to publish them or
share them as ebooks similarly we can
email our documents not emailing your
document means that you're not sharing
it out but you are going to email it
with another person let's say that
person has a yahoo email address and no
access to the Google ecosystem well no
problem simply go to file email
documents you can now choose the file
format you'd like to email it as add
your subject line and then also the
message my email a document will only
give them access to this one file and it
does mean that they will not see any of
the updates that you add into your
document later on so make sure that you
only use this when it's absolutely
necessary and the 15 tip is Apps Script
now Apps Script allows you to add extra
functionality into Google Docs that is
not currently available now I've done a
number of videos on some of these
features in Apps Script and I will link
them in the cards at the top and in
order to find the script editor you go
into tools and then script editor this
will open up a contained script editor
that means that this EPS script is part
of your Google document and not separate
from it and this allows you to add some
extra functionality such as pop-up
windows which I will link in those cards
at the top and those are my 15 tips for
Google Docs but I do have two bonus tips
now the first bonus tip is using the
spell and grammar check now Google Docs
has recently done an update and they now
have grammar checks as well as spell
checks the spelling grammar track can be
found in your tools bar again tools
spelling grammar check and I simply go
through this spell and grammar check
they will ask you if you'd like to keep
the original or if you'd like to replace
it with their a I suggestion and the
second bonus tip and this is a little
workaround it's going to show you how
you can insert a video into a Google Doc
now at the moment inserting video is not
supported in Google Docs however it is
supported in Google slides
sort of
first thing we're going to do is we're
going to open up a Google slides file
here we're going to insert video and
then just simply paste a YouTube URL
this will insert this video into our
Google slides and we're going to now
click on this ctrl C to copy it and make
our way over into Google Docs
now this is not the end you can't just
simply paste it we're going to have to
insulate drawing because drawing can
interpret these links so what we're
going to do is we're going to click on
insert drawing and we're going to create
a new drawing so we're not linking to an
external drawing at the moment paste in
your video and you now have your video
inside your Google document it cannot
play inside the Google Docs editor so
you do have to double-click and then
click on the video inside that built-in
drawings window but this is a great way
of adding more contents into a Google
Documents I hope you found this video
helpful scroll down into the comments
section below let me know your favorite
feature which feature did I miss and
which feature do you like to use best in
Google Docs I would love to hear your
thoughts in that comment section below
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