Google Docs: Basics

The following Docs Basics lessons will prepare you with a fundamental understanding of
Google Docs, its key features, and general benefits in the classroom. With a basic
understanding of Docs, you can create a more collaborative classroom, apply research
techniques in documents, provide students with real-time feedback and much more.
You will learn how to:

Use Docs to help students write collaboratively

Give feedback to students in various ways to improve the writing process

Research within Docs

Use offline mode to create and edit documents

Work with Docs on mobile devices

To start, review the Basic lessons below and conduct all activities. It is recommended you
have another browser or computer screen available to practice the step-by-step exercises.
Lesson 1
Introduction to Docs (20 mins)
The real-time collaboration of Docs in Google Drive makes it ideal for group assignments,
revision cycles, and shared notes. Built-in tools like autosave and revision history, comments,
and an equation editor are useful for students and teachers alike.
Some examples of how teachers are using Docs:

Collaborate and share lesson/curriculum plans

Consolidate notes for department or faculty meetings

Create a simple webpage with Docs publishing

Share and collect assignments without printing

Provide instant feedback to students

Tracking instructional interventions

Some examples of how students can use Docs:

Maximize efficiency with anywhere access

Improve writing skills through peer editing, feedback and publication

Collaborate on reports, research, or papers together with peers in different classes,

schools, countries

Keep a continuous, running log for assignments such as journal entries, writing
samples, etc.

There are different ways of getting started using Docs; you can create a new online
document, you can upload an existing one, or you can use a template from the templates
gallery.

Create a Doc
The power of Docs is truly apparent when you or your students do their work using Docs
collaboratively. Your students can do all of their work in Google Drive and they have plenty
of storage space (30 GB per user)!
To create a new doc, visit docs.google.com, and click the blue circle with a + in the lower left
of the page.

Add a document to Drive

Drag and Drop
You can drag-and-drop files directly from your computer into your Drive documents list, and
even straight into a folder. This feature is available only in the latest versions of Chrome,
Safari, and Firefox. If you are not working in the latest version of one of those browsers, you
can click the Upload button and select Files from the drop-down menu.
File upload
To manually select files from your computer to upload to Google Drive:
1. In your Drive documents list, click the New button and select File upload from the
drop-down menu.
2. Select the file you would like to upload to Google Drive.
o

To select multiple files, press Shift or Ctrl and click all the files to upload

3. Your file will appear in your Drive documents list.

Upload and convert
You can also upload a variety of file types into Google Drive and have them automatically
convert into a Doc for editing and collaboration:
1. Click on the Settings icon

2. Click Settings from the drop-down menu.

3. Check the box next to Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format.

4. Click Done.

Documents can be converted into Google Docs format from the following types: .doc,
.docx, .dot, .html, plain text (.txt), and .rtf.
When you upload a file, a dialog box that indicates the progress of the upload appears in the
bottom-right corner of your screen. You can minimize the box or move it to the left or right of
the screen. When you are done, you can click the doc title to open the uploaded file or close
the box by clicking the
in the upper right of the box.

Find and open Docs

Like all of the Google Apps, Docs has Googles powerful search technology built in. As you
create and are invited to view and edit docs, you can use the search box to find docs based on
words in the title or body of your files. Results from all of the file types in Drive will appear
in a list below the search box as you type your keywords, but when you press Enter, only
Docs results will appear on the page.

Rename a document
When you create a new doc, Google Drive will save it as an Untitled document.
To change the name of a doc:

Click the File tab from your doc, and click Rename

Edit the name by clicking the title displayed at the top of the page, and renaming the
document in the dialog box that appears

From Drive, click the More menu and click on Rename

Note: Titles can be up to 255 characters long.

Save Docs
Because Docs saves to a secure, online storage facility, you can create Docs without the need
to save to your local hard drive. You can also access your docs from any computer. In the
event of a local hard drive crash, you will not lose your saved content. Docs save almost
instantaneously.
If your browser or computer crashes, because your doc has been automatically saved, you
will be able to view the saved version when you are back online. Docs also keeps a complete
revision history of your document, so you can revert to any version, at any time.
The status of your document is displayed to the right of the toolbar menu at the top of the
document.

Spell check in Docs

There are two ways to check your spelling in Docs. First, if you misspell a word, it will be
underlined in red. For example, if I added an extra letter to the word these, it will be
underlined as
misspelled.

You can right-click on the word to select the proper spelling, and can even configure Docs to
autocorrect future misspellings if you are prone to spelling a word incorrectly the same way.
Alternately, you can click Tools > Spelling to see a list of the words that Google has detected
to be misspelled and correct or ignore them in sequential order.

Lesson 2
Customizing Docs with Formatting (20 mins)

Apply formatting to text

Editing text in Docs is similar to using editors in other word processing software.
The Styles toolbar menu at the top of your doc displays the styles and formatting that have
been applied to the text selection in a document (beveled view). Here you can apply other
styles or clear the formatting applied to your text.

To change the font or text size, simply select the text that you would like to change and click
either the Font drop-downmenu, which lists Arial as the default font, or the Font size dropdown menu, set to 11pt by default. Choose a new font or text size and the changes
are automatically applied to the selected text.
Note: Arial and Times New Roman only appear as options in the font menu if you have these
fonts installed on your computer.
To view a list of headings that are available, click the menu that appears right before the Font
drop-down menu, or click Format and select Paragraph styles. Then, choose one of the
styles, which range from Heading 1, the biggest, to Heading 6, the smallest.

The styles toolbar also lets you choose a text color or highlight color. To change the color of
text:
1. Highlight the text.
2. Click the Text color icon
, and in the drop-down menu, choose a text color, or
choose a highlight color (click Highlight button in drop-down).

Pagination
Pagination adds visual page breaks while you are editing your docs, so you can see how
many pages of that reportyou haveactually finished. With pagination, you are able to see

headers at the top of each page in your document, manual page breaks move text onto a new
page, and footnotes appear at the bottom of the page.

Hide page breaks

If you prefer editing docs with a continuous layout, you can hide page breaks by going to the
View menu and selecting Print layout.

Add images
You can add several types of images into your doc, including .gif (not animated), .jpg, and
.png. Images must be less than 2 MB.You can upload images from your computer or locate
images from Drive. You can also add images from the Google search option, LIFE magazine
photos or add images from the stock photos Google makes available.
To insert an image in your doc:
1. Click the Insert drop-down menu from the toolbar and select Image.
2. Depending on what image you would like to add to the doc, select from the following
options:

Upload: Choose an image from your computer and click the Select button

Take a snapshot: Use your webcam to capture an image to use in your

document

By URL: Type the URL of an image from the Web and click Select

Your albums: Choose an image from one of your photos albums stored on the
web

Google Drive: Choose an image stored in Google Drive

Search: Search the stock photography archive, or the Google and Life
archives, and select an image

3. Once you have found what you were looking for, click the image and the
Select button
Images can be edited from within the doc itself and can be annotated using the Drawing tool.
To delete the image from the file, click the image itself, and press the Delete key.

Add Drawings
Drawings can also be added to your Doc to support brainstorming, mind maps, and more.
To add a drawing:
1. Click the Insert drop-down menu from the toolbar and select Drawing.

2. Create your drawing using the shapes and options in the toolbar.

3. Add the image to your document, spreadsheet or presentation by selecting, Save &
Close.

Insert equations
You can easily insert mathematical equations into your docs, and collaborate on a single
equation at once with multiple people.
To add an equation:
1. Click the Insert drop-down menu and select Equation.

2. Select the mathematical symbol you want to add from one of these menus:
o

Greek letters

Miscellaneous operations

Relations

Math operations

Arrows

3. Click the symbol you would like to include, and add numbers or substitute variables
in the box.
4. If you delete the box by mistake, click New equation, and then select an option from
one of the menus.

5. If you would like to edit the equation afterwards, click the equation within the doc and
change it.
6. If you do not see the equation toolbar, click View and select Show equation toolbar.
Use automatic equation shortcuts
LaTeX is a document markup language that is often used by academics to quickly type out
complex formulas. In Docs, when you are inside an equation you can type \sqrt followed by
a space or a parenthesis to automatically convert the text into a square root sign . Other
examples of useful shortcuts are \frac for a fraction and shorthands like \epsilon for Greek
symbols. A full list of equation shortcuts can be found here.

Headers and footers

To insert headers and footers in your document:
1. Click the Insert drop-down menu and select Header or Footer.
2. Type the text for your header or footer in the area that appears above or below the
header/footer line.
3. To exit the header or footer, click anywhere else in your doc.

4. To remove your header or footer, simply delete the text within the header or footer
and then click anywhere in the main Doc editing space.
Lesson 3
Managing Docs with Multiple Editors (10 mins)

Benefits of collaboration
Docs enables multiple people in different locations to collaborate simultaneously on the same
Doc from any computer with Internet access.
Here are some classroom examples of how collaboration can benefit learning:

Teachers can work together to develop curriculum or lesson plans at school or home;
sharing knowledge and contributing ideas to make them better

Students from different classrooms around the world work together in Docs making
time zones irrelevant for learning from each other

Students can use Docs to create scripts for skits or other demonstrations of learning
and the teacher can provide feedback in real time

With everyone working on the same document, there is no back and forth of versions and
edits. This can accelerate the feedback and revision process, allowing teachers to provide
quick comments and students to incorporate changes as they are writing.

View and edit together

If you and another collaborator are editing the same Doc at the same time, a box with the
number of collaborators appears at the top of the screen. If you hover your cursor over one of
the boxes, the name of the collaborator will be displayed if the user is signed in. Otherwise,
you will see a random animal name to represent each user.

If you expand the viewers list, the animal names become evident.

If other people are editing a doc simultaneously with you, you will see their edits in real time.
You can also see the text that other editors are highlighting as they select it. If someone is
about to delete something on your screen or drag text somewhere else, you will see them
highlight that text before anything changes.

You also have the ability to see their names listed at the top of a Doc. Click the arrow to the
right of the names to open a tab where you can chat with other editors within the doc.

Note: Up to 50 people can edit a doc at the same time. You can share a doc with up to 200
people.
Lesson 4
Improving the Writing Process with Docs (10 mins)

Access anywhere
Google Drive provides teaching and learning opportunities for writing including: creation,
revision, feedback, collaboration, and publishing. Anywhere, anytime access allows students
and teachers the ability to connect and continue the writing process at their convenience.
Using Drive to save files online removes the concern of lost flash drives and computer
crashes. Files can also be accessed and worked with, offline. To learn more on how to work
offline, check out the Google Docs suite lessons in the Learning Center.

Feedback and revision

With Google Drive, files are accessible from any computer connected to the Internet. This
opens up many possibilities for starting and continuing the writing process.
Online docs take out the hassle of remembering thumb drives or having to use the same
computer to access a file. There is no risk of forgetting or losing the document, because
everything is stored online.
With access to your files readily available wherever you are, it is easy to find time to create or
revise docs and share it with others. It does not matter if your collaborators are in the same
room or the same country, everyone can edit at his or her convenience.

An advantage for teachers is to take part in the writing process earlier. When a doc is shared,
teachers can provide feedback whenever it is important in the revision cycle not just at
designated due dates.

Track progress
Comprehensive Doc revision history made possible by nearly continuous autosave is
helpful for both teachers and students.
When a student shares a doc with a teacher, the teacher can look at the doc and understand
how it has evolved from early drafts or how peer reviews and comments were incorporated
into the final product.
Students themselves can compare different versions to reflect on the changes and lessons
learned throughout the process that they can apply to future assignments.

Publish work
Sharing your final written work with the school has much more weight than simply printing
out a paper that is submitted in class.
Teachers might encourage students to publish their work, so that anyone in the school can
find and read it, to provide external motivation beyond an assignment grade.

Lesson 5
Creating a Central Archive with Docs and Drive (5 mins)

Types of Doc archives

Docs that repeat the same format and are used on a regular basis can benefit from a central
Doc archive created in Google Drive.
For example, meeting notes taken weekly or monthly can all exist in a single document,
making it easy to review past notes and top issues. It is much easier to keep track of a single
Doc then to hunt for emails or search for one of many files.
Daily or weekly journal entries can also be saved in a single document, making it easy for
others to review the latest work but still have the option of viewing previous entries. If the
doc is being assessed on a regular basis, a single Doc archive simplifies the process. Teachers
can always open the same Doc to go in and review the latest contents.
Other types of docs that could be kept in a single doc:

Progress reports

Project status updates

Behavioral reports

Observation feedback

Lesson 6
Accessing Docs Offline (5 mins)
Even if you have intermittent Internet access, or no access at all, you can still access your
Docs, to view and edit any docs that you or your students may be working on. Google offline
access makes it possible for you to stay connected to your work even when you are
not connected! With a few changes to your Google Drive and Docs settings, you can access
your Docs offline on a desktop or mobile device.
To learn about activating and using Google Offline, check out more in the Support Center.
Lesson M
Using Docs with Tablets and Mobile Devices (25 mins)
As a teacher, it is extremely important that you and your students have access to your work
anytime, anywhere. In the world today, the importance of mobile access is undeniable. In that
respect, there are various ways to access Docs, and in some cases even create new docs and
edit existing ones. Once again, collaboration is a key feature of Google Apps, and even on a
mobile device, there are ways to communicate and collaborate with Docs.

Google Docs app for Android Tablets and mobile devices

The Docs app can be found in the Google Play Store.

Tap the Google Docs app icon from the Apps List or a home screen shortcut to get started.
To open an existing doc, tap its name in the list.
To create a new doc, tap the blue plus (+) button in the bottom-right corner of the app.

Clicking the Docs button in the upper-left corner of the screen will slide the main menu into
view. If you have more than one Google Account added to your device, you can switch
between them by selecting the account from the left-hand corner of the menu. You can
change your view of your docs to just the Starred files, or the files stored on your device, as
well as access Settings, view Help for Docs, or launch the Google Drive app.

Tapping the Docs icon again, or one of the view options in the main menu, will expose the
list of docs. Along the top menu bar, there are buttons for searching your docs by name or
keyword, switching between list or grid view, sorting the list, and opening a file from Google
Drive or the local device storage. Additionally, if you have enabled Create files in other
formats in the Document Creation section of Settings, you will see New Word (.docx) as an
option. This will enable you to generate a Word file in Office Compatibility Mode.
Selecting the menu button
for an individual file will expose options for managing the file.
Files can be removed (deleted), renamed, shared and exported, and stored on the device.
The Details option will open the info panel additional information and management options
for the file. The Share & Export option can be used to add collaborators by email address,
export the file as a PDF or Word (.docx), or print.

Once you have opened or created a doc, you can begin editing or adding new content to the
doc. While editing a doc, the menu bar will display buttons for undo and redo, text and fill
color, bold, italics, underline, text, paragraph, and table formatting options, inserting a table
or comment, and the menu. Selecting text will open a menu with options toSelect
All,Cut,Copy,Paste, and add aComment.
The text formatting options:

bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough

style

font

text size

text color

highlight color

The paragraph formatting options:

left align

center align

right align

justiy

decrease indent

increase indent

numbered list

bulleted list

The table formatting options:

insert column

insert row

row height

column width

The menu button has options for Find and replace,Share & export, Details and Help.

Tapping Details will open the info panel for the doc. Beneath a thumbnail view of the doc,
there are buttons for managing the file.

Share

Share link

Star

Move

Send file

Download

Rename

Print

To store the doc on the device for offline viewing and editing, tap the gray OFF button so it
changes to a blue ON button.
You can view the Kind of file it is (Google Docs or Word), the folder Location in Google
Drive, when it was last modified and by whom, and the file creation date.
Who has access shows the permissions for the doc. By default, only the doc creator has
access to edit and view the file. Tapping the Link sharing icon will enable view permissions
for the file and copy the link to the device clipboard for pasting into other apps. Tapping it
again will open an options panel for enabling additional sharing permissions for users in your
Google Apps school account including edit, comment, and disabling link sharing.
Tapping Add people opens a panel with sharing options for adding people or groups to the
file for collaboration. Again, you can assign permission to edit, comment, or view rights to
the doc. Once you have given permission to collaborators, you can click on their names to
revoke their rights to the file.
The Google Docs app for Android is a robust, mobile document management and editing
tool. Using the app allows students to collaborate using their own tablets or other mobile
devices anywhere they go.

Using the Google Docs app for iOS tablets and mobile devices
The Google Docs app for iOS can also be used to create, edit and collaborate on docs on the
go from your iPhone or iPad. The Docs app can be found in the iTunes store.
There are a few differences between the Docs app for iOS and the app for Android. Settings
is a gear button at the top of the main menu next to the Google Account. While viewing the
list of docs, there is a search field instead of a button. While editing a doc, pressing the menu
button reveals a slightly different layout for the panel.

There is no option to create Word documents on iOS. You can open existing Word
documents and edit them. To collaborate on the doc, the file has to be converted to Google
Docs format.