Summary
Google Docs is a free and convenient word processor that syncs changes to the cloud and keeps track of document history. Here are four keyboard shortcuts that can help you write and edit your docs faster.
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Google Docs is a highly convenient and free word processor. With all the changes synced to the cloud, it’s almost impossible to lose information when you’re using Google Docs. If you’re a Google Docs user, here are four tips that you can use to help you create your documents faster.
For Personal Tech Media, this is Two Minute Tech. I’m Jim Herman.
First, if you’re using a browser based on Chromium, which is now almost every browser other than Firefox, you don’t have to go to the Google Docs home page to create a new doc. You can start a new Google Doc instantly by typing docs.new in your address bar. This trick also works for Sheets (by using Sheets.new), Slides (which is Slides.new), and Forms (which is Forms.new). In fact, most Google products allow you to type the name of the product and .new to create a new item.
Second, pressing Control plus the up arrow will move you to the beginning of your current paragraph, and Control plus the down arrow will move you to the start of the next paragraph. You can also combine this with the Shift key to select entire paragraphs at once.
Third, if you’re looking for words flagged by the spelling and grammar checker, pressing Control and the apostrophe key will take you to the next error it’s found. If you’re wanting to work backwards, you can use Control and the semicolon to navigate to the previous error.
And fourth, if you have something you frequently do in Google Docs, go to Tools, Preferences, Substitutions. There, you can create personal keyboard shortcuts for your most common actions.