Google has announced that it has added several new features to Google Docs that will help Workspace users create better documents faster. The company made the announcement in a blog post, stating that the release would be at two different paces (March 31, 2022, and April 14, 2022), depending on the nature and complexity of the features.
“These new features,” Google says, “offer a variety of stylistic and writing suggestions as you compose documents.” As you type, you’ll see suggestions that will help you avoid repeating or unnecessary words. This will help you diversify your writing and make sure you’re using the best word for the situation.
As you can see (in the screenshot from Google) a purple indicator line will be displayed under suggestions to help make your writing more concise, inclusive, active, or to warn you away from inappropriate words. Third-party services like Grammarly, which is able to interface with Google Docs and tries to improve the quality of your writing, have long had access to these new Google suggestions. Because of the quality of Google’s suggestions, these third-party services may no longer be needed at all.
It should be noted, however, that Google is not implementing these supportive writing features for all of its Workspace users. According to the blog post, “Tone and Style” suggestions will be available to “Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus” subscribers.
In the meantime, “Word Warnings” will be offered on the “Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, [and] Teaching and Learning Up” plans as well. Google Workspace Essentials, on the other hand, does not have either set of functions.
Google has recently been on a roll with new Google Docs features. This week, it announced Markdown support, much to the pleasure of writers who prefer to format their writing using text shortcuts rather than keyboard shortcuts rather than the traditional formatting methods. The new “pageless” option for Docs was introduced last month, allowing you to style your document to fit the size of your screen rather than a sheet of paper. You should definitely give it a try.
Assistive writing features for rapid release domains will be available in the second half of April for the majority of users, but they will be gradually introduced. They’ll be on by default, but workspace administrators or end users can turn them off.
