Google Docs is one of the most popular word processors and therefore one of the main alternatives to the ubiquitous Microsoft Office Word. Compared to its rival, it stands out for being completely cloud-centric, as it is a core part of ChromeOS. Therefore, to get the most out of another desktop system, it would be advisable to use Chrome or at least a web browser based on Chromium (Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera… ).

Compared to most of its competitors, Google Docs stands out by providing a classic interface inspired by the old versions of Microsoft Office before 2003, but with a simplified feel. This makes it a simple and easy-to-use app, a feature that, along with the quality offered by Google services, is perfect for writing or documenting when you’re on the go.

In other words, and in case it wasn’t clear, Google Docs does one of the best options if you’re looking for a simple word processor that syncs quickly and correctly. Since the vast majority of people have an Android smartphone, coupled with the great popularity of services such as the search engine, Gmail and YouTube, it is highly likely that the user has a Google account, so the processor has the texts that we practically have in the palm of our hands ( and we don’t mean the official apps for Android and iOS smartphones).

However, despite its simple appearance and tie to the ecosystem of the Mountain View giant, Google Docs supports extensions that expand its capabilities, so we will take the opportunity to mention five that allow you to transform this word processor into a more powerful solution.

How to add extensions to Google Docs

Before we get down to the nitty-gritty, we’ll briefly explain how to access the catalog of extensions available for Google Docs, which is as simple as click the plus (+) button that is in the right panelwhere by default the user sees the Calendar (the Google one of course), Keep, Task, Contacts and Maps extensions.

After clicking the plus (+) button, the user must perform an extension search want to install, left-click on the desired result and click the “Install” button.which may request authorization by selecting a Google Account before proceeding with the installation process.

Once the extension is installed, it will accessible via the “Extensions” menu. located in the menu bar. Nothing the user can’t solve with a few clicks.

One of the main focuses of Google Docs is to create and edit documents online, in real-time and collaboratively. In addition, it supports the import and export of OpenDocument Format specifications (ODF, the main representative of which is LibreOffice), OOXML (Microsoft Office since version 2007), plain text in Unicode, Rich Text Format (RTF) and HTML compressed in ZIP format. It also supports exporting to the popular PDF and EPUB (eBook) formats.

Now yes, we are going to introduce five extensions for Google Docs that can be very useful depending on the context and user situation.

hello sign

HelloSign is an extension for Sing the document, which can be useful when dealing with legal or business matters. It allows you to easily add a signature and then attach it to your document with a single button. It is also possible to change the size of the imported signatures, but if you want to sign more than three documents, the user has no choice but to checkout.

Max word counter for Google Docs

Google Docs offers a word counter, yes, but unlike that Max word counter allows you to set exceptions to ignore certain parts of the text. To optimize the text, the extension offers the option of setting a minimum or maximum number of words, although its developer warns of possible counting discrepancies and recommends reporting important errors that users discover.

Exclusions can be text enclosed in parentheses, text enclosed in square brackets, text in tables, and text in paragraph styles such as “Heading 1”, “Heading 2”, etc. Supports advanced options such as displaying the number of words present up to the cursor position and within the selection.

Highlight tool

As its name suggests, it is a purpose-built extension highlight text and that it can be used organize essays, categorize ideas, or highlight important facts. Highlighters in the sidebar make it easy for users to highlight selected text and understand the meaning of those colors.”

Presumably with the intention of taking advantage of the collaborative approach of Google Docs and other applications of the same office suite, the Highlight Tool supports the sharing of user-created highlight types.

WordPress.com for Google Docs

WordPress.com is a WordPress-based website and blog hosting platform. Not to be confused with the separate CMS download that is done through WordPress.org.

After all, this extension doesn’t need much explanation because basically allows content created with Google Docs to be published on a website hosted on WordPress.comthus avoiding the laborious process of copying, pasting and having to re-compose text and formatting.

In Mac

In Mac, there is a text reader which supports a large number of languages ​​and not only that, but at least with the Spanish voice that it contains, it works quite well.

Its main audience is people with dyslexia and learning disabilities. The user can choose the text they want to read and the extension is responsible for indicating which part of the text turns into speech at a given moment.

As you type, V-Mac is also able to suggest how to complete the current word and which word should come next in the sentence. If a word or part of it is misspelled, the extension can suggest various corrections (correctly spelled words) through the list.

conclusion

As we can see, Google Docs is not a simple experimental toy to provide ChromeOS with a word processor, but it has add-ons that open the door to perform more professional, educational or helpful functions for people who have difficulty reading from various factors.

In addition to everything mentioned so far, there is a factor in favor of Google’s office suite, which is that, due to the fact that it works mainly through a web interface, it is independent of the operating system, although Chromium browsers have been fighting since many years to avoid chaos in resource consumption.