Google Docs @ Feature Makes Your Day More Efficient

Google adds new features at a rapid rate, but the new @ feature is a game-changer. The Google docs @ feature will allow you to quickly and easily add and link items such as:

• People
• Files
• Notes
• Dates
• Headings
• Page Components
• And lots more

to your document in record time.

Here we have a demonstration document. And the tip I want to share with you today is that you have a new feature — the Google docs @ feature in here. It helps you pull in many different options into your document. So if you’ll just start by typing the @ symbol. It will pull up the list of things that you have access to.

Quick Access to People

The first thing that you can access here is People, and you’ll see it’s going to pull up me specifically, but as soon as I start typing a letter it’s going to pull in other people that are in my contacts or people who I have mentioned in documents or that are connected to my workspace. So you can pull people’s names in here. If you do actually click on them and pull them in, it will ask you if you want to give access to the document to those people. So you can either share or dismiss that.

Easily Linked Meeting Notes

Another thing that you can do with the @ feature is pull in Meeting Notes. If I click on Meeting Notes, it will ask me to search my calendar. I’m just going to type in something that I know is on my calendar and when I click on it, it’s going to pull in those meeting notes when I’ve used that @ symbol. So for instance, if you keep your meeting notes connected to your Google calendar, those are in your drive, but you can easily access them by clicking on meeting notes in the list of at mention options.

Pull in Referenced Files

The next feature we want to look at using the at symbol is Files. You can pull in any file that you want to link. For instance, I know I’ve got some eBooks in here. In fact, I’ve got a whole folder of eBooks, perhaps I want to link that folder from my drive to this Google document. It will put that link here in my document, easy for me to reference; easy for those that perhaps are going to receive this document to reference. That’s going to be a game-changer, I believe.

Fast Ways to Make Lists

The next feature I want to mention is the list feature. You have these options up in your toolbar, and that’s where we typically click on and use them. But if you’ll just type in @ List, it will give you some options and you can start your bulleted list there, your checklist, whatever type of list you need. Easy enough to do. Very fast and easy.

Adding Media Is a Snap

Another option with the @ feature, as you scroll down, is you have a way to add Media. So if you want to quickly add an image, you can just click @ image in your document. I’m just going to do “search the web.” Obviously, you have a lot of other options, but this is another quick and easy way to find images. I typed in “dog” here in my search and it brings up all these pictures from the web. So I can quickly click insert and it shows up in my document. So I’m just going to make that smaller.

Linking Dates From Your Calendar

The next feature using the @ symbol is Dates. I’m going to just type in dates here and you can do things like typing a specific date. Or you can actually tell it to use today’s date and it will put it in your doc. Now, notice it is linked. And when you click on the date, it gives you the option to book a meeting on that day. That takes you to your calendar. It tells you how far away the date is and that kind of thing. Again, if you click on the date, it will show you an option to move that date around. So let’s say you change your mind on that day. You just need to quickly click it and move it to a different date in the document.

Quick Add Headings

Next up after dates is Headings. I’m going to scroll down and show you, but you can simply type in @ heading and it will give you the options you have. This to me is a game-changer. For some reason, it takes me a while to add headings when I have to use the toolbar for options. Notice once I hit return, it goes back to the non-heading formatting. So just that single line is formatted to heading.

Page Components Made Easy

The next thing we’re going to look at here is page components. I’m just going to show you what those are in the list so you can see all the different page components. If you want page numbers, page count. If you want to put a header or footer, these are all available when you use the @ feature. Let’s say, I want to put a header. I can just click on “header” and it’s going to pop me right back up there and I can add my header. It’s very quick and easy to use.

Lots More Options

The next section of options is called “More” and it is a list of frequently used additions such as the horizontal line. Sometimes I want to add one in quickly. And instead of going up into the menu items up here, I can just quickly type in “horizontal line” with the @ symbol. Another option in the “More” section is to add a link. I can type my text and apply, and there it is. It redirects where I want it to go.

So hopefully this feature will give you a little bit more time back in your day. As we get used to using the @ feature, it will be a very helpful tool for you. I look forward to hearing how you’re using it.

For more information from Google, please visit their recent article on the new Google docs @ feature.

If you use Google docs to work remotely with a team, you might also enjoy reading this article.