Did you know we only need a pea-sized amount of toothpaste for effective cleaning? 

While most advertisements feature long rolls of toothpaste the size of the brush, this is only done because it looks nice, and makes you use more toothpaste. The wonders of blogs and websites that give you this kind of information – such as telling you you’re overusing toothpaste – can be applied to things like Google Doc features as well. 

A lot of us have been using Google Doc for years, but there are a lot of hidden features in the versatile cloud-based app that we have yet to uncover. Some people are yet to make the switch to it due to the fear of losing core functionality by moving into cloud-based.

However, if it’s making this shift, or learning more about how you can use cloud-based apps to better your digital marketing, this post will help put some of Google Docs’ greatest productive features (both for personal and professional use) on your radar: 

Keep An Eye On Your Collaborators

While veteran users may be rolling their eyes at this, do hear us out. All collaborators can edit the document in real-time, and the Doc will make sure to keep a time-stamp for the latest corrected version, with the old version in the revision panel (file > see revision history). You can look at the “Activity” folder (the i icon on every folder page), which is extremely helpful when you have a group of overeager or confused colleagues editing away only to find the entire document deleted, but you can hunt them down with this folder. It’s also useful to review what everyone has been working on. 

Inserting Maps

It might not be the traditional image you need, but in the Research tool (Tools > Research), performing an “everything” search for an address/location will give you a map result. You can scroll down for more information about the address, and edit it to change how it’s displayed on your document before adding.

Publish/Embed A Document

Even when you share a document or folder, it’s only visible to you and your collaborators. To make it publicly viewable, you can publish your document online, or embed it in a page. To do so, open “File” on the menu bar, and hit “Publish to the web…”. It’ll give you a public URL or embed code, and any future edits you make will be updated on your URL within five minutes, too.

Keyboard Shortcuts

There’s something very satisfying in knowing keyboard shortcuts to help speed up editing. The app provides a list of all its Docs shortcuts, accessible from the “Help” menu. Besides the usual Cmd + B (Mac) or Ctrl + B (PC) to bold text, you can also create your own shortcuts (Tools > Preferences > Automatic Substitution). 

Translate Your Entire Document

Google Docs can translate your document into dozens of different languages (Tools > Translate Document). But while Google’s translations aren’t perfect, this is useful to understand a document written in a language you aren’t familiar with and need some help. As a side note, translating a document creates a new, translated version of the original document, and doesn’t change the original (but there’s an add-on app if you want that).

Type With Your Voice

Sometimes, it’s easier (and faster) to talk about a subject than to write about it. If you’re using Google Chrome as your browser and a built-in working microphone on your device, you can initiate voice typing (Tools > Voice Typing or Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + S) and start recording. You can indicate punctuation marks (say “comma”, “period”), and begin new lines and paragraphs too (say “new paragraph”). 

Adjust Page Setups

Want your page to be in landscape orientation? Maybe with a green background? Smaller margins? Docs’ page setup option (File > Page Setup) lets you change color, margins and orientation to best suit your needs and really put you in the mood to work.

Make Conference Calls

The UberConference add-on (or Add-ons > Get add-ons > UberConference) takes Docs’ collaborative features a step further by letting people make audio conference calls right within a document. It’s easy to use, too; all you need to do is turn on the add-on and invite your colleagues. They accept, and viola, everyone can view + edit the document. 

You can also look at what we consider the top apps for social media marketers here. 

We’ll bet that some of these will come in handy in the future, so you can work more seamlessly with Google Docs. It isn’t always easy to know how to create and use Google’s apps to create effective digital marketing campaigns, but we’ve got your back. Tribe of Brands can help you stay on top of trends to effectively navigate the complex waters of the internet. Our marketing agency can help you with further ideas of how to design world-class websites, seamless user journeys and digital marketing campaigns.