Tag: productivity

Google Gemini Can Summarize Your Emails in Gmail. Should You Use It?

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Artificial intelligence is now busy tackling some of the biggest problems to face humankind: Speeding up drug design, tackling cancer detection, and finding solutions to climate change. However, none of these issues are arguably as daunting as the task Google has set its Gemini AI bot on.

Specifically, the task of staying on top of your inbox. Gemini is now a part of Gmail on the web and on mobile devices, and as well as using it to find the right words in your emails, you can also get it to summarize long emails and threads for you.

Here I’ll show you how these summary tools work and what else Gemini can do for you—and report on just how reliable it is at the moment. One caveat though: For now, Gemini in Gmail is only available if you or your employer are paying for Google One AI Premium ($20 a month), or for a Google Workspace account.

Get Gemini Summaries in Gmail

Gemini can summarize single emails, or lots of them.David Nield

There are a few ways to get Gemini summaries in Gmail, if the feature is enabled for your account. Most of them can be accessed through the Gemini logo, which is a distinctive black star shape. On the web, click the Gemini button in the top right corner of Gmail to bring up the side panel. There, you can see summaries for your inbox as a whole, or for the particular thread you have open.

In Gmail for Android and iOS, the Gemini button shows up in the top right corner if you’re looking at a list of emails, or in the center at the top if you’re viewing a particular thread. On mobile, there’s also a specific Summarize this email button that appears when you’re looking at a single email or a single thread of emails.

That Summarize this email button is the easiest way to get started, but you can also tell Gemini to “summarize today’s emails,” “summarize this week’s emails,” “summarize my unread emails,” or “summarize the emails I got last month”—anything along those lines. After Gemini spends a few moments thinking, you’ll get a response on screen, together with follow-up questions you might want to ask. (You can request a longer summary, for instance.)

The results will be presented as a series of bullet points, with Sources underneath: Click or tap on these sources to see the individual emails the information was pulled from. Using the icons alongside the responses, you’re also able to copy the text elsewhere, give thumbs up or thumbs down feedback on the Gemini response, or clear the AI chat history.

Ask Gemini Other Questions in Gmail

There’s more to Gemini than summaries.David Nield

I’m mostly focusing on the summary capabilities of Gemini in Gmail here, but there are plenty of other commands you can explore. In fact, you can ask Gemini just about any question you like about what’s in your inbox, and it will at least attempt to provide a response—scouring through the gigabytes of data in your emails looking for answers.

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December 9, 2024
How ChatGPT’s Canvas Can Help You Use AI More Productively

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With multiple AI platforms and bots competing against each other—there’s Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, to name just a few—we’re seeing new updates and upgrades appear on a frequent basis. One of the newest additions OpenAI has pushed out to ChatGPT is called Canvas, and it’s a little bit like an AI-powered Google Docs.

OpenAI describes it as “a new way of working with ChatGPT to write and code,” and it means you’re essentially collaborating with the AI on a text document or on program code. You can already do this in the main chat interface of course, but with Canvas it’s a bit more like having an AI coworker with you.

Right now, you have to be a ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Pro, or ChatGPT Plus user (from $20 a month) to access the Canvas model. You’ll find it in the drop-down menu at the top of the conversation screen, in the top left corner.

Getting Started With Canvas

The Canvas interface shows two side-by-side panes.

Photograph: David Nield

With Canvas selected as the AI model, you can start interacting with ChatGPT just as you would normally. Use the prompt box to describe the kind of code you need to write, or the type of text you need to generate. You do need to say something to indicate you want a new canvas to be created though—something like “create a document” or “start a canvas” somewhere in your prompt will do it.

When the ChatGPT Canvas interface launches in full, you’ll see the familiar chat conversation on the left, and whatever it is you’re working on on the right. You’ve got a few different options here. You can enter a new prompt to get more text (or code), you can manually type in something yourself in the canvas pane, or you can select something ChatGPT has generated and ask for revisions.

Those different options are what makes Canvas a more collaborative mode. Up in the top right corner you’ll find shortcuts for viewing earlier versions of your document, or copying the text elsewhere. Down in the lower right corner, meanwhile, you’ll find a pop-up toolbox that gives you a variety of options, depending on whether you’re writing text or programming code with ChatGPT.

If you’re writing, you can find tools for suggesting edits, adjusting the length of the output ChatGPT has created, changing the reading level of the text, polishing up the written output, or adding emoji to the document. For example, click Reading level, and you can use the slider to make the text more or less complex.

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December 6, 2024
The surprising barrier that keeps the US from building all the housing it needs

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Vice President Kamala Harris has offered an ambitious plan to build more: “Right now, a serious housing shortage is part of what is driving up cost,” she said last month in Las Vegas. “So we will cut the red tape and work with the private sector to build 3 million new homes.” Included in her proposals is a $40 billion innovation fund to support housing construction.

Former president Donald Trump, meanwhile, has also called for cutting regulations but mostly emphasizes a far different way to tackle the housing crunch: mass deportation of the immigrants he says are flooding the country, and whose need for housing he claims is responsible for the huge jump in prices. (While a few studies show some local impact on the cost of housing from immigration in general, the effect is relatively small, and there is no plausible economic scenario in which the number of immigrants over the last few years accounts for the magnitude of the increase in home prices and rents across much of the country.)

The opposing views offered by Trump and Harris have implications not only for how we try to lower home prices but for how we view the importance of building more and faster. Moreover, this attention on the housing crisis also reveals a broader issue with the construction industry at large: This sector has been tech-averse for decades, and it has become less productive over the past 50 years.

The reason for the current rise in the cost of housing is clear to most economists: a lack of supply. Simply put, we don’t build enough houses and apartments, and we haven’t for years. Depending on how you count it, the US has a shortage of around 1.2 million to more than 5.5 million single-family houses.

Permitting delays and strict zoning rules create huge obstacles to building more and faster—as do other widely recognized issues, like the political power of NIMBY activists across the country and an ongoing shortage of skilled workers. But there is also another, less talked-about problem that’s plaguing the industry: We’re not very efficient at building, and we seem somehow to be getting worse.

Together these forces have made it more expensive to build houses, leading to increases in prices. Albert Saiz, a professor of urban economics and real estate at MIT, calculates that construction costs account for more than two-thirds of the price of a new house in much of the country, including the Southwest and West, where much of the building is happening. Even in places like California and New England, where land is extremely expensive, construction accounts for 40% to 60% of value of a new home, according to Saiz.

Part of the problem, Saiz says, is “if you go to any construction site, you’ll see the same methods used 30 years ago.”

The productivity woes are true across the construction industry, not just in the housing sector. From clean-energy advocates dreaming of renewables and an expanded power grid to tech companies racing to add data centers, everyone seems to agree: We need to build more and do it quickly. The practical reality, though, is that it costs more, and takes more time, to construct anything.

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October 31, 2024
4 Useful Slack Features You May not Be Using Yet

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Slack has been keeping offices and organizations humming along since all the way back in 2013. And while it might not quite have fully replaced email, it’s certainly made an impact for business teams working together.

The software has gained a lot of new features across the decade-plus that it’s been around, and in the hectic day-to-day hustle of working life, you’d be forgiven if you haven’t kept track of them all. With that in mind, I thought it would help to highlight four of the most useful features Slack has gained recently.

From Canvases to Lists, you should be able to take advantage of at least one of these tips, and improve your Slack experience. With the time you save, perhaps you could turn your attention back to achieving inbox zero.

Create a Canvas

You can create all kinds of documents with Slack Canvases.

Open up Slack on the web or desktop, click the More link on the left, then choose Canvas: You can then create a new document inside Slack, combining text, images, links to other areas of Slack, file attachments, and more. It’s like having Google Docs or Notion built into Slack, and you can use Canvases in all kinds of ways.

At the most basic level, you can just jot down some notes that you need to refer to. If you’re off on vacation and you need to leave instructions about how everything is going to work in your absence, that can be saved inside a Canvas document rather than left in a channel or a conversation thread.

With the ability to add rich media and other elements though, you can easily upgrade your Canvas to create a team newsletter, a product brief, or a technical document. Sharing, tagging, and collaboration tools are built right into the Slack Canvas feature, which means you’re able to easily grant edit access to other people on your team so you can work on them together.

There’s a Canvas button in the top-right corner of Slack channels and Slack conversations too, giving you even more ways to use the feature. You can use these Canvases to record important notes from a chat, for example, or to create a checklist document that everyone in a particular channel can refer to.

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September 22, 2024
4 Tools That Make It Easier to Write While Traveling—Wherever You Go

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The shift to remote work has made it easier to stay productive while traveling. We have Slack and Zoom, and there are time zone calculators on our shared calendars. But more than ever, it’s especially easy to work remotely if you job involves a lot of writing. Whether that means sending hundreds of emails, reporting and writing articles, or composing newsletters for your subscribers, a laptop and an internet connection are all you need to feel properly set up.

But if you think about it, it’s not always that easy. If you’re working while traveling, this time spent writing on your computer isn’t happening behind a neat, tidy office desk where you feel focused and comfortable. It’s happening while you wait around at the noisy airport, sit in the back of a lurching car, or lounge in some soulless hotel lobby with terrible music.

But there are ways to make writing on the road more comfortable for your body and your brain. Here are four must-have items to help you successfully keep those words flowing, no matter where you are.

A Portable Power Bank

Every writer’s worst nightmare is your device powering down when you’re in the middle of tapping away on the keyboard. Did it save? Is your work lost? Most airports, hotels, and other public spots have charging ports available, but these outlets are often scarce, crowded, broken, or difficult to get to. I’ve had to swallow my pride plenty of times and sit on a dirty airport floor just to access the plug socket.

It’s best to plan for the worst by keeping a charged power bank on you at all times. The one I travel with is a hefty red brick with two USB ports that takes hours to charge up completely, so I make sure to fill it days before a trip. I’m willing to endure the weight and bulk of the battery in exchange for the power to completely charge my devices multiple times. The best power bank for you will vary depending on your needs, but we have a list of options here to help you choose.

A USB Hub Rich With Ports

I have yet to meet a laptop that had enough USB ports built in. Until someone engineers that unicorn into existence, take a hub with you to ensure you can plug in everything you need no matter where you are. USB hubs are generally small and portable, so you can comfortably carry one with the rest of your peripherals.

I prefer a hub with four extra ports to accommodate my backup drive, microphone, headphone charger and other necessities, but you can find hubs that have more or fewer ports, SD card readers, and even headphone jacks. When you’re counting how many ports you’ll need, add one or two to the total in case a port goes bad later; it’s better to be overprepared than to be lacking in USB ports at a critical moment. Check out some USB hubs and docks here if you aren’t sure what’s best for you.

Noise-Canceling Headphones to Make the World Go Away

When writing on the road, silence is at a premium. Some people can put poetry together even with a screaming toddler three feet away from them, but I am not one of those people.

Having noise-canceling headphones has meant the difference between being able to focus on the writing at hand and being stuck listening to everything but my own thoughts. When I’m on a deadline and need quiet, I lean into noise-canceling technology. Sometimes, I turn my headphones on and just listen to the silence, no music or podcast required. I prefer the over-ear type of headphones since they thoroughly encase my ears in blissful peace—and I’m not a fan of things being inside my ears. If you’re not sure what type of noise-canceling technology is right for you, check out our list of options here.

A Way to Record Thoughts on the Move

The best ideas rarely strike when you’re sitting comfortably at your laptop, hands on the keyboard. They usually come when you’re racing through a train station or waiting in line for a bagel. You can tell yourself “don’t forget this,” but chances are good that the idea will slip from your mind before you have a chance to write it down. To prevent this tragedy, arm yourself with a way to record your thoughts on the fly.

I use a speech-to-text app on my smartphone, which is always within reach. In seconds, I can be the person at the coffee shop mumbling “bluebottle jellyfish, medicinal uses” urgently into her hand, and then the idea is safely preserved in text form on my phone and backed up to the cloud. If you don’t feel comfortable voicing your ideas in public, a notes app or even a pocket notebook can work, but hands-free is often the more flexible choice when you’re out and about.

If you have to write anything for your job, you’re a writer. If you’re a writer, you write, no matter where you are. Be sure you’re prepared for every train station, grocery store, and long-haul flight with the tools to help you assemble incoherent thoughts into successful messages.

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September 15, 2024
The Best Paper Notebooks and Journals, Tested and Reviewed (2024): Leuchttherm, Moleskine, Midori

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Is there such a thing as the best notebook? Probably not. Notebooks are not a one-size-fits all commodity. If none of these quite tilt your pen, here are some general things to look for in a paper notebook.

Paper quality: High-quality paper will improve your writing experience. That said, what constitutes high-quality paper depends a lot on your writing device. For example, heavy ink pens, like fountain pens, will require thicker paper to avoid ghosting (when the ink soaks through), while coarser paper might be better for sketching with a soft pencil. (Much of this depends on personal preference, too.) If you’re mainly jotting notes with a ballpoint pen, pretty much any paper will work.

Size and shape: For writing, I like vertically-oriented notebooks, roughly A5 shape, but for sketching and watercolors I prefer landscape-oriented notebooks. I know people who like the exact opposite. You’ll have to find out what shape you like, but once you do you can narrow the field considerably. Also keep in mind that if you’re carrying a notebook around all day, weight matters. Everyone has their own sweet spot between page count, weight, and size. You’ll have to experiment to find what works for you.

Binding style: This might seem obscure, but how a notebook lies when it is open is very important, and how a notebook lies is largely determined by the binding. For example, some people (especially left-handed writers) love lay-flat notebooks because they lie totally flat, making them easier to write in. Other people like spiral binding because you can fold the entire notebook in half, and it’s easy to tear out pages. Perfect-bound notebooks (the most common binding, think Moleskine) are much more sturdy than spiral bound but don’t lie flat, and it’s hard to tear out pages.

Page ruling: There are four common types of ruling: lined, dotted, grid, and none. The ruling is mostly a matter of taste, though I find dot grid essential for some project planning, especially anything involving measurements (like woodworking projects, for instance), so I always have a dot grid notebook around. Dot grid is also a popular choice for keeping a bullet journal.

Reusability: I’ve come to think of notebooks as two parts: the cover, and the pages. Notebooks with hard covers, like our top pick Leuchtturm1917, combine both in a single package, where softcover notebooks, like Field Notes or Moleskine Cahier notebooks, lend themselves to being slipped into an additional cover. What I like about keeping the two things separate is that my notebook always looks the same. The leather cover never changes, I just keep inserting new notebooks inside. There are covers for Leuchtturm notebooks, so you can do both if you want, but I find this makes the notebooks rather heavy.

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September 5, 2024
Best Distraction-Free Writing Apps: iA Writer, Ulysses, FocusWriter, Google Docs, Obsidian

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iA Writer has dark mode and shortcut integration for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Plus it’s just plain pretty. Given the high price though, you have to be pretty dedicated to the idea of a distraction-free working environment to spring for iA Writer.

Ulysses

The basic layout and feature set of Ulysses isn’t terribly different from iA Writer. There’s a sidebar for navigating and organizing your files, and a large main pane for composing. But it’s definitely more feature-rich, including tools for goal tracking and proofreading. Thanks to its simple but thoughtful organization system, you could probably even use Ulysses as a note-taking app in a pinch.

Like iA Writer it has a typewriter mode with line highlighting and text scrolling. But you have to turn on the various parts of it individually the first time. One of its bigger draws is its styles that allow you to export documents using templates customized for scripts, novels, blog posts, and more.

The knock against Ulysses is that it’s available only as a $40 annual subscription. And it’s strictly for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. If you’re a Windows user, you’re out of luck.

FocusWriter

This is perhaps the most bare-bones of the bunch, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. FocusWriter has all the basics you’d expect from a text editor, including spell check and the ability to have multiple documents open simultaneously. It also has tools for serious writers, like stat tracking and goal setting.

Unlike most of the other apps here, FocusWriter uses rich text (RTF) for formatting instead of Markdown. It probably has the most customizable interface of the bunch, though. You can meticulously choose the interface colors, fonts, and background.

One of the biggest draws will be that it’s free and open source, though right now it’s available for Windows and Linux only. While you can probably get it running on macOS if you know your way around a command line, it will take some legwork, and there’s no mobile client or file syncing.

OmmWriter

The idea of distraction-free writing is, inherently, kind of gimmicky. But OmmWriter is probably the most gimmicky of the bunch. It doesn’t just strip away the extraneous nonsense; it aims to immerse you in an environment conducive to a flow state. That includes gentle soundscapes to help you focus and even various typing sound effects to enhance the vibes.

If you want more audible feedback while typing, but don’t want to invest in a nice mechanical keyboard, this might do the job. Though, the very slight lag between your fingers hitting the keys and the sound coming out of the speakers bugged me.

Otherwise, the UI is pretty bare, with a resizable text box in the center and a few buttons to the right for changing settings. It’s the cheapest of the commercial options here at $9.93 for macOS or Windows. But you can also give it a whirl in your browser by playing with a stripped down version for free.

Scrivener

Scrivener has a dedicated following among long-form writers, and for good reason. While the app does have an excellent distraction-free mode, complete with typewriter-style scrolling, it also sports advanced organizing tools that you’re sure to appreciate if you’re working on a book or a screenplay. It’s made specifically with longer writing projects in mind.

Its project outlines make it simple to collect research or rearrange ideas until you find what clicks. When it comes time to actually write, the full screen composition mode gets rid of everything but the text box. It’s the most minimal of editors.

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August 21, 2024
I Tried These AI-Based Productivity Tools. Here’s What Happened
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I’ve used only one image that I created with Midjourney, for a blog post. It was a fun process, but the image itself is low quality and has random elements that make no sense. With Midjourney, you get four square images as output and can ask to regenerate different versions of each of them. I got frustrated thinking that I couldn’t make a small change to an image I otherwise liked, or that Midjourney seemed to generate only square images, which is not what I needed for blog posts.

I found out later that adding image dimensions to the prompt creates nonsquare images, and when doing research for this article I learned that Midjourney released Inpainting at the end of August 2023, allowing you to select parts of the image and edit them separately. This is what happens when non-techy people use tech; I can’t fault AI for that.

The most controversial subscription I’m happy to pay for is ChatGPT+, for $20 a month. ChatGPT recently crossed the 100 million active user mark, and has completely transformed the AI landscape. I’m surprised how many writers publicly deride ChatGPT, while almost every writer I know uses it—just not for writing.

By definition, you can’t use ChatGPT for truly creative work, because its output is “based on existing data and programmed algorithms.” It can only summarize, distill, copy, and paste. I use it to learn the basics about concepts, devices, time periods, or events that I write about, and use that basic explanation as a starting point for research. I use ChatGPT to find synonyms and alternatives to whole phrases. I can narrow down research studies and articles quickly because I can search with highly specific prompts rather than simple keywords or terms. Unfortunately, ChatGPT’s knowledge data isn’t up-to-date, so it won’t find the most recent studies. I love it for brainstorming titles, and chapter and section headings. It’s also great for checking title case and correct citation formatting. In other words, ChatGPT is my one-stop assistant instead of toggling between Google, my thesaurus, research database, and CMOS formatting tool.

As a ghostwriter, I regularly record interviews with authors to collect book content, so I started using Otter.ai to transcribe these calls. The transcripts are generally good, but the tech is glitchy, keeps signing in and out, and transcribes only up to 90 minutes at a time, even with a paid version. Worse, Otter joins your meetings even if you don’t. This is the default setting, and even when you disable it, the function still sometimes glitches and leads to the Otter assistant showing up uninvited. The default setting also allows the platform to email everyone in the meeting the transcript and invite them to start a free trial, which has weirded out some of my clients. I’m still looking for the perfect automated tool that records video and audio separately and provides a transcript without being creepy AF.

My initial FOMO ended up costing me quite a bit of time and money, but gave me some clarity, too. Turns out that while I’d like to sit at the cool table, I do care more about looking like me than looking poreless. I trust my own voice over ChatGPT’s edits, and you should too. Not everything has to be captured, as the CEO of Otter argues. In fact, it’s the ephemeral nature of undocumented moments that makes me feel most alive. But that doesn’t mean I’ll get tired of learning about the newest AI tool promising the closest thing to magic I’ve ever seen.

So, here’s my super official ranking of all the tools I’ve used so far:
1. Most ridiculous: Aragon.AI for headshots
2. Most expensive: AdCreativeAI for ads and social posts
3. Most value: Canva for designing anything
4. Most work to get good outputs: Midjourney
5. Most glitchy and frustrating: Otter.AI
6. Most consistent use: ChatGPT
After I put the vacation snapshot back up as my profile picture, I called the friend who always has an eye for my best angles while capturing my most recognizable facial expressions.

Turns out, yes, she’s for hire as a photographer.
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April 28, 2024
10 Best Computer Monitors (2024): Budget, OLED, 4K, Ultrawide

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You might not think about your monitor too much, but whether you’re working or gaming in your home, that array of pixels blasting light at your face is important. A computer monitor can vastly improve your productivity if you’re currently working off a laptop, and a dual display setup can take things further. It can also make your games or movies look much, much nicer (or much worse). The folks on the WIRED Gear team use these large external screens every day in a variety of arrangements as we write our reviews, and naturally, we decided to review those too.

These are the best computer monitors of the many we’ve tested so far. There are hundreds of different kinds of PC monitors out there, so we’re continually testing and updating this guide. You’ll also find monitor buying advice at the bottom that explains any jargon you might not know. Be sure to check out other home office guides, including Best WFH Gear, Best Laptops, and Best USB Hubs and Docks.

Updated April 2024: We’ve added the Philips Creator Series 4K, LG MyView, Acer Predator X27U, and LG DualUp as new recommendations. We’ve also added notes on the BenQ PD3225U.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

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April 19, 2024
The Best Google Docs Keyboard Shortcuts for Boosting Your Productivity

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Knowing your way around some keyboard shortcuts—whether for Windows, macOS, or individual programs—is perhaps one of the best time-saving productivity hacks there is. You don’t have to reach for the mouse or trackpad to navigate to a new place on the screen, and you don’t have to hunt through menus to find options for formatting images and text: Just press the right key combination and you’re done.

There aren’t many places where keyboard shortcuts are as useful as they are in Google Docs. When you’re head-down in a document, these quick key presses can save you a serious amount of time, added up over the course of a day—and it means your brain stays in its creative groove.

These are the most important Google Docs keyboard shortcuts you need to know about, with variations for Windows and macOS. (The macOS shortcut is usually the same as the Windows one, with the Cmd button replacing Ctrl.) To bring up a full list of keyboard shortcuts while you’re in Google Docs, hold down Ctrl or Cmd and press / (the forward slash).

Switch Between Modes

Hold down Ctrl+Shift+Alt (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+Option (macOS), and you can then tap Z to switch to editing, X to switch to suggesting, and C to switch to viewing in the doc.

Paste Without Formatting

Use Ctrl+Shift+V or Cmd+Shift+V to paste whatever text is on your clipboard, but without any of its original formatting attached—so you don’t suddenly find your document layout ruined.

Extend Text Selections

When you already have some text selected, keep Shift held down and you can extend your text selection by a character at a time with the Left arrow and Right arrow. Hold down Ctrl or Cmd as well, and you go a word at a time.

Insert or Edit a Link

Highlight any text and press Ctrl+K or Cmd+K to add a link to the text. The same shortcut works for editing links. Hover over a link with the cursor to find the delete link option.

Get the Word Count

Press Ctrl+Shift+C or Cmd+Shift+C to bring up the total word count, page count, and character count. Check the box on the dialog to have these permanently displayed.

Create Lists

Keep Ctrl+Shift or Cmd+Shift held down on the keyboard, and you can then create a numbered list by tapping 7, a bulleted list by tapping 8, and a checklist by tapping 9.

Commenting on Documents

There are a few keyboard shortcuts you can use when a comment is selected: R to reply to it, J and K to move up and down through comments, E to resolve a comment, and U to exit a comment.

Find a Tool

Google Docs has a handy tool finder that you can use to search through all of the options on the menus and in the toolbars: Hold Alt or Option then tap / (forward slash) to show it.

Go Back … and Back

You probably already know that Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z can undo your last action and correct mistakes. But you can also keep tapping the shortcut to go further back, and even undo everything from the current session if needed.

Same Again

Here’s one that comes in handy in a variety of situations: Press Ctrl+Y or Cmd+Y to repeat the same action again, whether it’s inserting a particular character or deleting a sentence.

Find and Replace

You can bring up the find and replace dialog by pressing Ctrl+H or Cmd+Shift+H. If you just want to find something (without replacing it), then it’s Ctrl+F or Cmd+F instead.

Resize Images

You’re able to manipulate images with keyboard shortcuts too. Select an image, hold down Ctrl+Alt or Cmd+Ctrl, then tap K to make an image larger or J to make it smaller.

Format Text

With text highlighted, hold down Ctrl or Cmd, then tap B for bold, I for italics, U for underline, Shift+X for strikethrough, . (period) for superscript, or , (comma) for subscript.

Applying Heading Styles

If you want to apply a set heading style to text in your document, hold down Ctrl+Alt or Cmd+Option, then tap a number (from 1 to 6) to apply that particular heading style.

Switch to Voice Typing

Sometimes you can get your words down more quickly if you’re dictating them. Press Ctrl+Shift+S or Cmd+Shift+S and the voice typing dialog should pop up onscreen. Your browser should prompt you to give Google Docs permission to use your microphone; grant that permission and you can start dictating.

Insert a Page Break

You don’t need to navigate around the menus to drop a page break into an open document—Ctrl+Enter or Cmd+Enter will insert one at the cursor’s current position.

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April 15, 2024