Embedded Files
The best interface is the one that doesn't get in your way. Enter the new universal @ menu.
Google Docs is gaining new collaboration features by the week. Now it gained a whole new way of controlling it: Without touching your mouse, by simply typing the @ symbol.
Besides being amazingly useful, it is a further element of the Smart Canvas strategy coming to life. Let's dive in.
Smart painters need a canvas, lots of brushes and a color palette. Smart knowledge workers only need a smart canvas.
Objects to insert
Objects to insert
Chips: For people, files, dates + links
Chips: For people, files, dates + links
Start by upgrading your documents by inserting people chips. If you are referring to someone, @mention their name in the document. This helps others know to who you are referring to and enables quick actions.
Your next stop are date chips. If you type @tomorrow or @oct 24, you will get a date chip. People can click it to open their calendar or schedule meetings at that date. It also looks distinctive and tidy. Several date formats are possible.
File chips are better versions of links. While you can link any text, file chips maintain the title of the file (so you don't have to) and an icon that corresponds to the file type. People will be able to get document previews if you do this. File chips work for Office files too, as long as you store them on Drive - in case you needed another reason to move your files over.
Pro tip: Type @goals to find that PDF called "Development Goals 2022" you created yesterday.
Links can be inserted using the @menu, too. Nothing has changed here, but it is very handy.
Media: Images, tables, drawings, charts
Media: Images, tables, drawings, charts
Not only are these handy, but some of them turn into submenus - try them yourself!
If you have appropriately named assets in Drive, quickly inserting images from the side panel is a delightful experience no desktop application can match.
Page components: page numbers, headers, footers, footnotes, breaks, watermarks, horizontal lines, tables of contents, bookmarks, equations, special characters...
Page components: page numbers, headers, footers, footnotes, breaks, watermarks, horizontal lines, tables of contents, bookmarks, equations, special characters...
Fumbling through menus stops now. If you want it, just type it - no searching or using the help function. You do not even have to be editing the footer to add page numbers, for example.
Page formatting
Page formatting
Headings
Headings
Shortcuts for headings were available before but quite cryptic. Now, you can just type the heading level (or normal text!) you want. That means that if you hide all menu bars to maximize your writing space, you can still format like a pro. Typing @heading will turn the current paragraph into the selected heading.
Lists
Lists
Integrated products allow you to work similarly everywhere: CTRL-SHIFT-7, 8, 9 will format lists in Gmail and in Docs. If you are not up to learning new shortcuts, you can insert them much friendlier now.
Building blocks: The Future
Building blocks: The Future
Google has announced that "building blocks" are being launched: You will be able to pick from templates for tables, voting lists, task lists and much more. The first building block is already live: Meeting notes inserts attendees, description, attachments etc. from any of your Google Calendar events. You can even attach your entire document to that event and share it with attendees. Integration is beautiful!
Why the universal @ menu makes sense
Why the universal @ menu makes sense
Discoverability
Discoverability
Docs has carefully added many features we have been asking for and recently went beyond what people expect from word processors. When you are new to Docs or don't know what a feature is called (or what menu it is under), seeing a plain list is helpful.
Hint: Help > Search the menus also allows you to search.
Speed
Speed
Shortcuts let you type faster - you do not have to interrupt your typing to reach for the arrow keys or even grab the mouse.
With the universal @ menu, you can ... just continue typing.
Even if you're hyper efficient and have hidden the menu bars.
Shortcuts
Shortcuts
Docs has many shortcuts (CRTL + ALT + 1/2/3... are my favorite - apply heading styles!), but there are only so many keys on a keyboard. This new menu allows you to access even exotic commands.
I prefer @table (or any fraction thereof) over memorizing cryptic combinations - don't you? The @ menu could be a new type of shortcut.
The only thing that does not make sense is that only Docs supports the universal @ menu! It would be very helpful in Slides, Sheets and Sites as well - and Gmail. Please start using the @ menu extensively and gush about it to your colleagues so that Google integrates it everywhere. Your friendly Sites-addicted neighborhood blogger thanks you.
I hope you enjoy this new form of controlling Google Docs as much as I do, and it makes you and your team even more productive. We are witnessing nothing short of a UI revolution, an additional way of giving commands besides menu bars, context menues and shortcuts. Go ahead and see if the Meeting Minutes block can help you be more productive, and whether you like writing @heading. Thank you for reading!
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#docsPublished 2022-01-04 by Holger Matthies.Modified 2022-01-04 by Holger Matthies.Written listening Ben Böhmer - Beyond Beliefs on repeat
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