For the ninth day of Google, we will focus on formatting tips and tricks. Have to admit, I did not know about any of these until most recently. It is all about unlearning what you have always done to learn something new. These tips will most certainly save you some time in the future.
Working with Text
Ever find yourself in a situation where you were typing and didn’t realize that you had the caps locks on and had to retype everything? Well, you no longer need to do such a thing. In fact, with text that has already been typed, you can change it to any of the following by highlighting the text:
- lowercase
- UPPERCASE
- Title Case
To make this happen, highlight text, select format menu, followed by text and capitalization menus. Very simple, yet extremely helpful.
The next text tip has to deal with copying text from one source and pasting it in another. The annoying part of this process is that the text font, size and other settings hardly ever match. Instead of copying and pasting the text, use the following keyboard shortcut:
Pasting on Mac: Command, Shift, V
Pasting on Chromebook: Control, Shift, V
By adding the shift key with the commonly used paste shortcut, the text you have copied will paste with the formatting options that already exist. Again, this is a very simple tip, however extremely helpful tip. Saves a little bit of time adjusting but all of that time adds up over the span of a school year. (In the gif below, you will find me copying text from a blogger post and pasting it in a Google Doc. You will first notice that the text pasted matches the blog post, however, I want it to match the settings in the google doc. Once I add the shift with the short cut, the settings are all set.)
Working with Shapes/Images
Ever find yourself in a situation where you wanted an ‘infinite’ number of shapes or icons? There is a shortcut to make this happen. In the gif below, you will see that a bingo table has been created. Looking to have multiple bingo chips. I made a circle. Selected it, copied it, and pasting the circle multiple times. With all of the chips highlighted, I right clicked. From the menu, I chose align vertically, followed by aligned horizontally. All of the circles overlap each other. Thus, if someone drags the circle on the top, another one shows up underneath, as if an infinite number of circles show up.
If you have any questions, you know where to find me. And that is my Spiel…
Craig M Sheil 