Opening Word Google Docs Free Alternative to MS WORD Google

Opening Word

 Double click on the Google Chrome icon on the desktop.

 Type www.google.com

 Click on the sign in button in the upper right hand corner.

 Log in to your Google account (Gmail) if you have one.

 If you do not, you will need to sign up for one before you can use Google Docs.

o Click on Gmail.

o Click on create account to create a new email.

o Click for myself.

o Type in your first and last name in the appropriate boxes.

o Type in a user name (you can use letters, numbers, periods).

o Enter a password and confirm the password (Use 8 or more characters with a mix of

letters, numbers & symbols).

o Click next.

o Enter your phone number, birthday, and gender.

o Scroll through the terms and agreements and click on I agree button.

o You will know have a Gmail account and a google drive.

o Click on the Google Apps button in the upper right hand corner.

o Click through the list of apps and you will find the google docs icon.

o Click on the Docs Icon.

Google Docs

Free Alternative to MS WORD

Google Sheets

Free Alternative to MS EXCEL

The Google Docs

Window

 When Google

Docs/Sheets is started,

the Start a new

document/new

spreadsheet screen

appears.

 From here, if you click

on Blank it will allow

you to create a new

document.

 You can access

your recent

documents beneath

the Start a New

Document Window.

You will have access to roughly eight items you have recently opened.

 You can choose a template such as a Resume, Letter, Brochures, To-do list, Annual Budget,

2021 Calendar, etc. You can click on Template Gallery to see other options for the Docs

templates.

 You can also upload documents that you have created using Microsoft word.

o Click on folder icon (file picker).

o Click on the upload.

o Click on select a file from your device.

o Browse for the file you want to upload.

o Click on the file.

o Click on open.

o The box will show it uploading which is represented by a bar.

o Then that document will automatically open on your screen with original name.

If you open a blank document and want to give a name, you click in where

it says untitled document and name it whatever you would like.

Google Docs is constantly saving anything you type. You will notice at the top next to the help that as

you type it says saving. Once you stop typing, it will say saved to Drive.

General info about Google Docs/Sheets:

1. There is a setting in Google Docs/Sheets that allow you to work offline.

 Click on the 3 lines on the top left of Google Docs/Sheets on top left.

 From the menu, click on the Settings Gear.

 In the Setting box, click the box next to “Create, open, and edit your recent Google

Docs, Sheets, Slides files on device while offline. Not recommended for public or

shared computers.” OR

When you are working in a Google Docs/Sheets, click on File and select Make Available

Offline.

2. There is a toolbar but” no ribbon in Google Docs/Sheets.

3. There is no quick access toolbar in Google docs. There are popular commands on the toolbar.

4. Undo and Redo are found on the toolbar that runs across the top of the document in Google

Drive.

5. In Google docs/Sheets, you have two different views Print Layout or Full Screen (hit Esc

button to show controls again) which are found under the View tab.

6. You can start a new file from anywhere you in browser.

 Open a new tab and type docs.new or sheets.new and you will be at a new blank

Google doc or Google Sheet. OR

 You can go to drive.google.com and Click on New to start a new Google

Docs/Sheets.

Under the File button in either Google Docs/Sheets, you will find Share, New,

Open, Make a copy, Download as, Email, Make available Offline, Version

history, Move to, Move to trash, Page Setup, Print among others.

 Share will allow you to email people either by using your Gmail contacts or

by typing in their address a link to be able to access this particular

document.

 Make a copy lets you make a copy of this current document, chose where

to save it, share it will same people, copy comments and suggestions.

 Download as allows you to decide what format you would like to download

this document in. There are seven different options.

 Email will allow you to send this document as an email right from Google

Docs.

 Make Available Offline will let Google Docs/Sheets that allow you to work

offline.

 Version history will give you access to the different versions you created

of this document and will let you restore an older version.

o Will allow you to see every time someone made changes to the

Docs/Sheets.

o You can see who the person is and when they made the changes.

o You can select any of the older versions to go to the previous version.

 Move to lets you move your file to another folder you may have created in

your Google Drive. Move to trash deletes the document out of your

Google Drive to your trash in Google Drive. The trash empties after 30

days but you can delete things permanently out of there either as a whole

or individually anytime you want.

Collaborating

When you share a document with one person or a few, you can collaborate with them in real time.

Once you create a document or sheet in Google, you will want to invite your collaborators to work on

your file.

 While your document is open, click the share button on top right.

 Type in names of people or groups.

 Click done.

 You can always add more people later by following the above steps.

 To work with your team, you probably want to make them editors not just viewer and

commenter.

Now at any point your team can open the file and work on it. They can use

comments or suggestions. Comments adds the ideas on the right of the main

body of the document/sheet. Suggestions shows as both “comments” and also

show on the main body of the file as crossed out text and newly typed

information.

Google DOCS

Pictures/Online Pictures

 Can be found on the toolbar before the alignment options.

 It can also be found under the insert drop down under the image option.

 Once you insert your picture from whatever location you

chose you can crop the image, go to image options, or

replace the image from the toolbar.

Text Boxes inserting text boxes is a completely different process then in Microsoft Word.

1. You can insert a picture

that is saved on your

computer.

2. You can search the web for

an image.

3. You can insert a photo from

your Google Drive.

4. You can insert from your

Google Photos App.

5. You can insert a picture

from a webpage that is

licensed to you.

6. You can access your camera

from a phone, tablet,

laptop and take a picture

right then.

Google Docs

 Click on the Insert button on the toolbar.

 Click drawing.

 Click new.

 Click the text box button.

 Draw your text box and then type in your information in

this box.

i.You can add fill color, border

color, border thickness, and

border shape.

ii.You can change your font style, size, color, etc. from the

toolbar too.

 When you are done, click the save and close

button in the top right of the drawing box.

 The text box is now in your document.

 You can move it either by in line, wrap text, or

break text. In line is where the text box is on the

line with the typed text. Wrap text allows the text

box to be wrapped around by the typed text.

Break text gives you the ability to place the text

box anywhere on the page except in header or

footer space.

Page Numbers

 Click on Insert.

 Rest your mouse on page number and a drop out menu will open.

 Rest your mouse on page number and another drop out menu will open

 Choose where you want your number to be.

o The first option on the top left will have a page number on

every page in the upper right hand corner.

o The second option on the top right will skip the first page and

number starting with the second page as number 1 in the

upper right hand corner.

o The third option on the bottom left will have a page number

on every page in the bottom right hand corner.

o The fourth option on the bottom right will skip the first page

and number starting with the second page as number 1 in the

bottom right hand corner.

Spelling and Grammar if you mistype

a word or use improper grammar it will notify

you will a red squiggly line underneath the

issue. You can right click on the word and click

on the correct choice to fix you error.

You can also access spelling from two

different areas, from the tool bar or under the

drop down menu Tools then spelling. This

will take you through the whole document stopping on words that are

an issue and asking you to change it to the correct thing, ignore it, or

add it to dictionary.

The word you have selected will be defined but at the end of the

definition will be synonyms.

 Under Tools>Explore you can explore a specific topic that

you are writing about via the web, images, or Drive.

Comments

 Click or highlight the word/section you want to leave a

comment on

 Click insert.

 Click comment.

 The word/section will be highlighted and a box will open on the right with your name in it,

click below your name to type.

Once you are done with this comment, click the comment

button and it will look like what you see below

Once the author of this document receives it back

they will have some options. If they click the resolve

button, it will be hidden from discussion. If they click

on the comment box, a box will show at the bottom

to reply so you could have a conversation about

whatever the comment is referring to.

They can click the three dots in the upper right hand

corner and edit, delete or link to this comment. Link

to this comment will allow you to compose and

email referencing this exact comment.

Voice typing

 Google docs has a great voice typing component that will allow you to dictate your

letter, resume, etc. It can be found under Tools>Voice Typing.

Google Sheets Window

Google Sheets continues to grow into a viable alternative to Excel for most spreadsheet users.

And unlike Excel, Google Sheets is free. For many users with serious data analysis or

visualization, Excel remains the superior product as it has more built-in formulas and functions.

However, it can be a possible alternative to many of us who wants to use Sheets free of charge

for everyday use such as creating an inventory or shopping list or maintaining a household

budget. Keep in mind that any changes you make are automatically saved onto your Google

Drive. And most importantly, compared to Excel, Google sheet is a preferred application for

collaboration.

 You can start with a blank sheet or you can re-open previous worksheets you worked on.

 You can click on Template gallery and explore Google Sheets Templates.

 Like in Google Docs, commonly used commands will be on the Menu and on Tool bar which is

immediately below the main Menu. Clicking on individual menu on top will provide you more

options.

 A sheet looks similar to an Excel spreadsheet. On the top, you’ll be able to title your sheet and

access any menu items on the top bars. A sheet is made of rows and columns, and they’ll be

unformatted and empty when you open a new blank sheet.

Different ways to work with Microsoft Excel files and Google Sheets.

You can:

 Edit Excel files in Drive without converting them.

o Open an Excel file from Drive and edit it in Sheets. Any changes you make are saved in

the original Excel format.

o Chrome Browser only.

o Make sure the Office Editing for Docs, Sheets, & Slides extension is not installed:

a. Open Chrome Browser and in the top-right corner, click More>More Tools>

Extensions.

b. If you see the Office Editing for Docs, Sheets, & Slides extension, click Remove.

o In Drive, double-click an Excel file.

o A preview of your file opens.

o At the top, click Open with Google Sheets.

o You can now edit, share, view version history, collaborate in real-time with others, and

more. All changes you make are saved to the original Microsoft Office file.

 Import Excel data into Sheets

o If you had worked with Excel Sheets before and would like to use

Google Sheets from now on, you can upload your Excel sheets by

using File>Import function.

o You can also simply copy block of cells in Excel and directly paste into

Google Sheets.

 Convert Sheets files to Excel or other formats.

o You need to collaborate or simultaneously edit with your team.

o Your dataset is 5 million cells or fewer.

o Instead of importing data, you can convert an Excel file to Sheets and keep working on it

in Sheets. Your Excel file won’t be changed.

o Open Drive and double-click an Excel file.

o A preview of your file opens. Right-click on it and use Open with>Google Sheets.

(You may or may not see at the top, click Open with Google Sheets; if you do you can

click on it too.)

o Click File Save as Google Sheets.

o To automatically convert all future uploads of Office files to Google Sheets:

a. In Drive, at the top, click > Settings.

b. Next to Convert uploads, turn on Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor

format.

c. Note that previously uploaded files will not be converted.

d. In Drive, you’ll see the Excel file and the new Sheets file. You can keep the Excel

file or delete it. If you keep the Excel file, to avoid confusion, you can rename it to

something like [Archived] My doc.xls.

Tip: Use these icons to quickly differentiate Sheets and Excel files in your Drive.

 Share a copy of a Sheets file in Excel format

You can work on a spreadsheet in Sheets and then send a copy by email as an Excel file (or a

PDF).

o In Sheets, open the file.

o Click File and then Email as attachment.

o Under Attach as, choose Microsoft Excel.

o Enter the email address, subject, and message.

o (Optional) Check the Send a copy to myself box.

o Click Send.

You can also download a copy of the Sheets file in Excel, PDF, CSV, ODS, or other formats.

o In Sheets, click File and then Download as.

o Select the file format you want to download.

o Download a spreadsheet and open with Microsoft Excel program

Some Basic Tips for Google Sheets

 On the bottom bar of the page, you’re able to create more sheets under that same sheet. By

hitting the + button on the bottom left. If you want to create a new sheet that is a completely

separate document, go to File > New spreadsheet in the top left menu.

 For basic entering of information, type any text or numbers in the empty cells by clicking on

the cell and typing on the keyboard. To go from one cell to the next, you can navigate using

the keyboard arrows or hit Tab to go right one cell or click using the mouse.

 Wrap text: Just like in Excel, you can wrap text (without making the column wider) by

selecting Format>Text Wrapping>Wrap. OR while editing a cell, you can insert a line break by

pressing Ctrl+Enter to move to the next line without changing

cells width.

 Insert Rows or Columns: Just like in Excel, simply select the

entire column or row you wish to insert a row/column

above/below –

o you can either right-click your mouse and select insert

1 above/below for row and insert 1 left/right for

column from menu OR

o use Insert function from menu and use insert row

above/below or insert column left/right

 Merge Cells: Do you need to combine cells in the spreadsheet? You can

merge cells both vertically and horizontally. Simply highlight all of the cells

you plan to combine and then click merge on the toolbar. There should be

a drop-down menu that will give you additional options. If you want to

Merge and Center, after you merge cell across, use the alignment function

to center text in merge cells.

 Saving your Google Sheets in a specific folder: Next to your Google sheet name,

click on the folder and from the drop-down “move-to”, select any specific folder you

wanted to save your new sheet or click on a folder with + sign to create a new folder

and save in there.

 Free or Unfreeze Google Sheet Rows: If you want to see a certain row or

column while you scroll, you need to freeze it in place. Lay your mouse on those

gray lines, left of Column A and right above Row 1. When mouse changed into

a hand sign, drag your left mouse button lower to freeze as many rows as you

want. For column, drag the line to the right side into column area for as many columns you

want to freeze. Or click “view” and then “freeze or unfreeze.” It will also give you an option to

select how many rows or columns you want to freeze in place.

 Using a Formula: Just like in Excel, in a

cell, you can type in the equal sign with the

function you want to use and start typing in

the cell address or click cell address(es) to

include in the formula. Once you fill in a formula by using a simple

math calculator (+ - / *) in a cell and hit enter, if Sheets sense there

are rows below that the same formula can be applied, suggested

autofill appears and you can select the check mark to accept. You

can also use Fill Handle, which is at the bottom right of cell with the

formula to fill in the remaining rows with the same formula.

There are many other functions available under Insert>Function

menu where you can choose from the list and the wording for each

function, and an example of how to use it.

 Using Google Sheets Explore to quickly analyze your Sheets.

Google Sheets can quickly analyze your data without you needing to

draw or pick any charts or graph. Just click on the Explore on the

bottom right of the sheet and you will see the graphs and charts

depicting different variables to give you a visual analysis of your sheet.

You can even grab charts and graphs out of that area onto the sheet

and later place on its own new sheet by using the menu (click on 3-dot

on the chart for menu.)

 Inserting header/footer in Google Sheets

Click on the Print function on Tool bar where you can find on the right

pane, you will find selection to insert page numbers, date and time,

etc. under the headers and footers section.

 Comments and Notes: Since Google Sheets is

most useful for collaboration, you can insert

comments and notes in your Sheets. Right-click

on the cell you want to leave note or comment.

o Notes are used to explain more on a

particular data cells. Hover your mouse

on cell to read the notes.

o Comments are actionable.

You can see the author of the comment

and the author can tag someone to take

action on a particular cell by placing a +

sign before an email; when that person

opens and performs the action, the author

and whoever has access in collaboration will be able to see that the action is taken;

then the owner can click on check mark to Resolve on the cell. (Note: If you are

sending comments to individuals, it may take several minutes for them to receive your

email notification. And email tends to go into Junk or Spam mails folder. Always

remind the recipients to check emails in those folders. Recipients also need to retrieve

the mail into Inbox to be able to click on linked items in the email.)