Tips for Google Docs

Suggesting Mode

Change from editing to suggesting to facilitate collaboration or to save your own ideas for later. When suggesting, any edits you make become comments on the side of the document that can be approved or rejected at a later time. You can also reply to comments directly to discuss individual changes easily. When sharing a document, selecting the Commenter role for someone will limit them to making suggestions.

1. Click the editing mode button in the upper right of your screen, just below Share.
2. Select Suggesting.
3. Start editing the document. Changes you make will be shown with colored text and a strikethrough will appear on sections that will be removed.

Use the check mark on a comment to approve the changes, or the X to reject them.

Use the text box on a comment to leave a reply. You can also use @ to add others to the conversation; you will be prompted to provide access to the document if the new person does not already have it.

Insert a Date Picker in Google Sheets

If you find yourself working with dates frequently, you can insert a date picker in your spreadsheet using data validation rules.

1. Highlight the cell or cells that should contain a date. In this case, we'll use the whole A column.
2. Click the Data menu, then Data validation.
3. Change the Criteria to Is valid date, and select Reject the input.
4. Click Done.
5. Double click in a cell with the new rule applied to open the date picker.

Use Dropdown Menus to Limit Choices

When you want to limit another user's choices, dropdown menus are a great way to save you and others some time. In this example, a dropdown menu is used to limit lunch orders to three choices.

1. Highlight the cells that should contain a dropdown. In this case, we'll use the whole A column.
2. Click the Insert menu, then Dropdown.
3. Enter the options that should appear on the menu. You can change an item's color to make a cell's value obvious at a glance.
4. Click Done.
5. Use the dropdown menu to pick items.