Google has been busy with a a slew of updates to Google Documents therefore I felt it important to highlight them here - plus the fact that Google Docs in 15 years old!

Google Docs has been around for 15 years

Starting as a service called Writely in 2005, Google Docs was officially launched a Google product in 2006.

Read more about 15 Google Docs milestones here → Google - The Keyword - 15 milestones, moments and more for Google Docs’ 15th birthday [11 October 2021]

Google Docs - Add a page break before paragraphs in Google Docs

You can now mark a paragraph to always begin on a new page with the new “Add page break before” option in Google Docs. This is particularly useful if you want certain paragraph styles to always create a new page such as titles, subtitles, or headings.

To insert a page break before a paragraph:

  1. Select the entire paragraph or click anywhere into the paragraph.
  2. Select an option:
      • In the toolbar,  go to Line & paragraph spacing  and then Add page break before.
      • At the top, go to Format and then Line & paragraph spacing  and then Add page break before.

Tip: To have a heading stay at the top of a new page, you can select it and use Add page break before.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Add a page break before paragraphs in Google Docs [19 October 2021]

Google Docs - Easily add to Google Docs with the new universal @ menu

Google have added a universal insertion menu to easily add things like tables and images, in addition to smart chips, directly in Google Docs. Simply type “@”, and you’ll see a list of recommended files, people, meetings, as well as different content elements and formats to insert into your document. You can also search all available components.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Easily add to Google Docs with the new universal @ menu [19 October 2021]

Google Docs - More easily add citations in Google Docs with new search and automated entry function

When adding citations in Google Docs, you can now search for books and online sources, then automatically populate some attributes for those sources.

[This feature may not be available yet - it could take until the end of the month.]

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - More easily add citations in Google Docs with new search and automated entry function [2 November 2021]