We live in an era of cloud computing, where word processing applications are free, available online, and available wherever there is an Internet connection. Now is a good time to get creative.
While Microsoft is trying to break into the cloud-based word processing market with Office Online, it is Google that drives its Office Suite in this area. Their platform gets even better with add-ons that further enhance the usefulness and functionality of the service.
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Google Docs
Accessing add-ons in Google Docs is extremely easy. Just go to the Add-ons menu at the top of your screen and select Get Add-ons. When you install some of them, they will also appear in this menu, where you can access them. easy.
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The ones in the screenshot above I especially like and use them on a daily basis. But I especially recommend:
Better word counts: Google Docs already has a word count feature tucked away in the menu, but if you want to see the word count update in real time as you type, you need to improve the word count.
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Extensis Fonts: By default, Google Docs only provides a certain number of fonts. But if you’re a designer, typeface fan, or just picky, you may want a wider selection. Extensis Fonts is what you need. However, if someone else viewing your Google Doc doesn’t have the font installed, it will default to something else like Arial or Times New Roman.
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OneLook Thesaurus: Stephen King once said that you should never use words you want to find in a thesaurus. However, there are times when a thesaurus can come in handy. This add-on places the thesaurus search engine in the sidebar. Now you can intimidate everyone with your amazing and flawless language.
Translate: This sidebar app powered by Google Translate API gives you powerful translation capabilities if you are typing a document in two or more languages. Just enter words or phrases in one language and they will instantly translate into another language. It won’t be 100% accurate, so don’t rely on it completely.
WordPress.com for Google Docs: There is a strange group of people who prefer to type their blog posts into Google Docs and then upload those posts to WordPress (instead of just typing directly into WordPress).
This add-on will make it easy to transfer a Google document to your WordPress site, where it stays in draft form until you’re ready to publish it. Despite the name, this also works on WordPress.org sites if Jetpack is enabled on it.
Google Sheets
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For many people, the very idea of ??spreadsheets is terrifying. Spreadsheets are very cool learning, but once you figure it all out, they have some very powerful abilities. Google Spreadsheets provides add-ons that try to reduce the learning curve somewhat.
Here are the top five.
Remove Duplicates: It can be easy to have duplicate records in a large spreadsheet, so in the interests of keeping it neat and tidy, Remove Duplicates will do just that. It has saved me more times than I can remember.
Template Gallery: Quite often, a standard spreadsheet layout is more than enough. But there may be times when you need a spreadsheet for a very specific purpose (like payroll or business taxes). In that case, in this template gallery you can find layouts for every imaginable situation.
Save as Document: This addon converts a Google spreadsheet into a Google Doc. This is useful for tables with a lot of text that might be clipped to fit the cells.
Advanced Find and Replace: If you need to replace something in your spreadsheet, it can be extremely tedious going through cell by cell and changing elements one at a time. Advanced Find and Replace will do it for you right away, saving you tons of time.
Add Rows and Columns: If you want to add any additional rows and columns to your spreadsheet, the default method is to go to the top menu. There you can add as many as you like, but only one at a time. This sucks.
What if you want to add ten lines? Or twenty? Who has the time and patience to do the same thing twenty times? Add Rows and Columns lets you specify how many rows and / or columns you want, and does it for you with one click.
Google Forms
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Google Forms is increasingly being used to collect information by small businesses, groups, charities and employers. Forms provides an easy way to query and map information without having to code any complex pages.
To access add-ons in Forms, you need to click the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the screen.
Email Notifications for Forms: If you are submitting a form with high response rates, you will find this add-on extremely invaluable. It will send you an email when responses are sent to you, so you don’t have to always check.
Form Translator: The Internet is breaking international boundaries and you will inevitably run into someone who speaks a completely different language. Therefore, it makes sense to have your forms in other languages. Form Translator will take care of this for you.
123RF Stock Photos: Who wants to see a boring shape without eye candy? That’s why you have to add a couple of images to brighten this place. 123RF is one of the places to find something to beautify a joint.
Add Contacts to Forms: When replies start coming in, you will receive many email addresses from the people you contacted. This add-on allows you to add email addresses to your Gmail contacts with the option to add them to a specific email group.
Timify.me: If you need to set a time limit for filling out a form, timify.me allows you to do that. Using this add-on, you can create and distribute student exams using forms and complete the exam at specific times using timify.
Conclusion
There are so many other add-ons available in the Google Suite Marketplace that these recommendations don’t touch the surface. But if you start with the recommended ones above, you can see how powerful the Google Suite really is.
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