Workplace Tools: Learn It 4

Collaboration with Google Docs

Google Docs has many desirable features, but one of its biggest strengths as a word processing software program is its ability to facilitate collaboration among multiple users. People like to use Docs for the ease of sharing documents, tagging contacts, and inserting internet-enabled comments because these features make working together easy. Microsoft Office has these capabilities as well, but because Google is free to use, many people and small businesses prefer it. Nevertheless, many businesses use both because some features function better in one product, and other features function better in the other. Google’s collaboration features have been part of the apps from their inception. These features allow real-time edits to be seen by other users.

Recognizing Collaborators

The collaborative power of applications today is unparalleled. Internet capabilities have spurred new ways of working together and applications have incorporated these capabilities to provide collaborative features across a range of suites, including the two discussed in this textbook, Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. You can leverage not only the embedding capabilities across these suites, but you can also then create and modify these files and documents across individuals and teams.

While ease in this collaboration is well-established, less obvious is how to credit collaborators who are contributing to these files. Internet-enabled collaboration makes recognizing collaborators easier because user histories and versions can be tracked. Depending on the purpose of the document, you may or may not be listing its authors and contributors. It is important to follow your company’s established protocol when identifying and recognizing collaborators formally; regardless, one should always at a minimum recognize contributions informally. This may come in an email when presenting the file or verbally during a presentation.

Tools Menu and Collaborating

The Tools menu options include spelling and grammar, citations, the Explore command, tools for reviewing changes in Suggesting mode, and the dictionary. The Docs Tools menu contains some of the same tools that are found on the Review tab in Word. These are tools and commands to make your document professional and polished, as well as enable collaboration. These tools make collaboration between cowriters and coeditors possible, as everyone can review the suggestions and comments, tag others in the comments, and add citations and references.

Spelling and Grammar

Before sending or sharing any document in the workplace, you want to make sure it is as error-free as possible. You can do that by accessing the features of the Spelling and grammar command in the Tools menu. The dialog box  has the same functionality and overall feel as Word, and it operates in the same way, too, resolving each incident one-by-one.

The words “thelocated” are highlighted orange in a document. Editing mode is selected with options for: Spelling and grammar, and Change thelocated to: (a blue bubble displays with they located inside).
The spelling and grammar checking tool in Docs is similar to Word’s. Always check that the suggestion is correct before accepting it. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)

As in Word, Docs offers users the option to add words to a Personal dictionary, so that they are not flagged as errors by the spell-checker tool. To access the Personal dictionary, go to the Tools tab and hover your cursor over the Spelling and grammar command. In the drop-down menu that appears, select Personal dictionary. You can manually add words to it from there.

Suggesting Mode

When you share a document with your colleagues for their input, you need to make sure that everyone’s individual edits are captured in a clear way, similar to Track Changes in Word. The way to do this is through Suggesting mode. To turn on Suggesting mode, go to the top right of the Docs window and look for the drop-down menu that says Editing. As you click on it, select Suggesting. In this mode, every time you add text, it will be surrounded with a bracket. If you delete something, the text will get a strikethrough. All of these changes will be accompanied by a comment box that shows a check or a cross. To accept the change, choose the check; to reject, choose the cross.

The key to making sure your colleagues can make these suggested changes in the first place is to make sure they know to turn on Suggesting mode when they begin working on the document. You can either inform your colleagues about this manually or share the document with them in Comment-only mode by selecting Commenter when you share the document with them.

(a) Suggesting mode is open with options for: Editing, Suggesting, Viewing. (b) Words highlighted in the document link to a comment box with image, name, time/date of comment, and the comment.
(a) Google’s version of Track Changes is called Suggesting mode. (b) When you make an edit to the document, you can also add comments to other users about the edit. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)

Reviewing Suggested Edits

You may want to create a document outlining the processes and workflow of the changes to your document, particularly if there are multiple people working on it. You may want your report to be edited in a certain order, perhaps with differing levels of access to the document. Or, you might want several people to work on it at the same time. In the end, because you are the person in charge of producing the report, you will likely want to review the overall result, after all changes have been added by others, so that you can accept or reject all of the changes. This is where you will use the Tools menu’s Review suggested edits command. If the document is filled with suggestions, it might be hard to read, so this feature is highly recommended, as it simplifies the process of reviewing.

The drop-down box will display the options of Preview Accept All or Preview Reject All. This is like the Track Changes feature combo box that says All Markup and No Markup. If you Preview Accept All, you can see the document as if all the suggested edits were accepted. This will also make the document easier to read. If you are satisfied with the changes, then you can just select Accept All. In contrast, the Preview Reject All shows the original document before this version, without the current version’s changes, and it doesn’t show brackets or strikethroughs as well. This way, you can control whether the document is progressing properly or communicate with some collaborators if there is an issue with their additions or edits. Although this function is available, it is not advisable to simply accept or reject all suggested edits in the document. You should plan to review each suggested edit throughout the document and make the determination about the edits one by one. You can review the suggested edits individually by using the up and down arrows in the Review suggested edits tool in the Tools menu.

Editing is visible in a Google Doc. Suggested edits is selected (with Show suggested edits); forward and backward arrows are highlighted. At the right, Accept All and Reject All buttons are visible.

3 Tips for Success in Google Docs:

  1. Notifications: You can set up email notifications for any comments or changes by clicking on the comment bubble in the toolbar, then clicking the three dots and selecting Notification settings.
  2. Shortcuts: Make use of keyboard shortcuts to save time. For example, Ctrl+K (Command+K on Mac) will quickly add a hyperlink.
  3. Organization: If you’re working on a long document, consider using Headings (found under the “Format” menu) to create a navigable outline in the left-hand sidebar.

With these steps, you’ll be ready to collaborate seamlessly in Google Docs, ensuring your group projects, feedback loops, and revisions are smooth and efficient.