These 5 Chromebook tips save me tons of time in Google Docs

If you’re a Chromebook user, then it makes the most sense to use Google’s productivity suite to its full potential. These lightweight web-focused computers are perfect for school, college, and even work. But if you know a few core tips and tricks about using Google Docs on your Chromebook, you will be even more efficient. That’s less time working, and more time pretending to work while you browse the web.

Mastering Chromebook keyboard shortcuts for faster editing

Most people know common shortcuts to copy, cut, and paste text. However, there are so many other less-known shortcuts that can really speed up your workflow.

For example, if you hold down Launcher+Up or Down Arrow, you will engage the equivalent of “Page Up” and “Page Down” on a PC. Keys that don’t exist on a Chromebook keyboard. This means you don’t have to take your hands off the keyboard every time you need to scroll through a document in Google Docs, and those little bits of time saved add up! Perhaps more importantly, I find this is more conducive to flow when writing.

You don’t need to memorize a bunch of keyboard shortcuts either. When using Google Docs on your Chromebook, you can press ctrl+/ to see a list of keyboard shortcuts at any time, if you find yourself doing something like bolding text, you can simply open this cheat sheet.

Keyboard shortcut search in Google Docs on Chromebook.

Even better, you can search for any Gdocs keyboard shortcut for your Chromebook right here, and over time you’ll naturally learn the ones you use the most by heart.

One of the key selling points for Chromebooks is how tightly integrated they are with Google’s web apps. When you press the Launcher button or click on its icon in ChromeOS, you can search for those documents instantly and open them right from the Launcher menu.

You can also pin important or frequently-accessed Google Docs to your Shelf. Just open the Files app, browse to the file in question and choose “Pin to shelf” from the right-click context menu.

Pinning a Google Doc to the ChromeOS shelf.

Enabling offline mode for uninterrupted writing

Chromebooks started life with a severe online dependency, but these days they’re pretty much as “offline” as any other laptop. That includes Google Docs, though you’ll have to ensure that you have offline access to your files before you lose internet access. You can make your entire Google Drive available offline by opening Google Drive, going to Settings, and then ensuring the Offline option is checked.

Of course, Chromebooks have limited storage—I paid for a 2TB Google Drive for a reason—and so you can simply use the context menu in the files app to mark specific documents for offline availability. This ensures that you don’t lose access to your work at the worst possible time.

Now you can take that subway ride or flight with confidence.

Leveraging ChromeOS multitasking for better document flow

It’s happened rather quietly, but ChromeOS has become a rather fantastic multitasking OS. Just like macOS (and to a lesser extent, Windows), ChromeOS has virtual desktops built in. Just press the “Overview” key ([]]]) on the top row of your Chromebook keyboard, and you’ll see the option to add more desktops by clicking on the “+” symbol.

You can drag windows directly onto these desktops, and use the Launcher+ [ or ] keys to switch between virtual desks. Of course, you can also split widows on one desktop with ease, but that’s quite cramped on Chromebooks like mine with a 1080p screen. If you have a fancier model with more resolution that might be the better alternative, but it’s good to have options.

Integrating Chrome extensions and add-ons to speed up workflows

While I usually shy away from recommending Google Chrome extensions unless you really need them, if you’re going to do most of your productivity work in Chrome using Google productivity tools, it’s worth having a look at Chrome extensions that could help your specific workflow or needs.

In addition to that, don’t forget that Google Docs itself offers extensions through the Google Workspace Marketplace. Just go to Extensions>Add-ons>Get add-ons. This works just like any app store, and there are both free and paid extensions.

A mathematics extension for Google Docs.

Perhaps you’re studying a specific field in math or engineering that could do with an extension for formatting or importing formulas. Maybe you need a special type of document format support. If you have a need vanilla Google Docs doesn’t cater to, chances are you can get an extension. These extensions usually integrate directly into the menus of Gdocs itself, so it’s all pretty seamless.

With this knowledge, you have the potential to work faster, smarter, and more efficiently with your Chromebook. Who needs a big and clunky word processor anyway?