Writing together in Docs

Start a document

Open Docs. You can start a Blank document or import a file with Import .md, .txt or .html. You can also use Drive and choose New then Document. New documents go into My Drive, and the list shows each one's Owner and Last modified.

Give the document a name in the Document title box at the top. Your changes save automatically; a Saved indicator confirms it.

The toolbar

The Formatting toolbar groups what you need most:

• Text style menu: Normal text and Heading 1 to Heading 4.
• Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Inline code, Highlight and Clear formatting.
• Bulleted list, Numbered list, Checklist and Quote.
• Alignment: left, centre, right and justify.
• Link, Image, Insert table (with options to add or delete rows and columns), Code block and Divider.
• Undo and Redo.

The Outline panel lists your headings so you can jump around a long document. It fills in as you add headings ("Headings you add appear here").

Work with others at the same time

Choose Share (or use Drive's sharing) to give colleagues Viewer, Commenter or Editor access, exactly as for files. When several people edit, each person's cursor shows in a colour, so you can see where others are typing and avoid clashing. Everyone's changes merge as they go.

Comments

Select text and choose Comment to start a discussion. In the Comments panel, type your note; use @ to mention someone and they are notified. Reply in the thread, mark it Resolved when dealt with, or delete it. Filter the panel by name when it gets crowded.

Tip: Use comments for questions and edits for answers. Resolve every thread before you send the document out.

Version history

Open Version history from the toolbar to see earlier saved versions of the document. Pick one to view it and choose Restore this version to go back. This makes it safe to try a big rewrite.

Help me write

The Help me write button in the toolbar opens the writing assistant, which can draft or reword text. Always read what it produces before you keep it.

Getting a document out

• Download as Markdown, Download as HTML or Download as plain text.
• Print or save as PDF opens the print view so you can save a PDF.
• Make a card turns the document into a task card, linked back to it.

Practice

1. Create a blank document titled "Team handbook".
2. Add a Heading 1 and two Heading 2 sections, then open Outline.
3. Insert a table and a checklist.
4. Share the document with a colleague as Commenter and ask them to leave a comment that mentions you.
5. Resolve the comment and open Version history.