google docs

Have you tried the Insert menu/Special Characters? then choose Symbols/Punctuation from the character palette?

You need to learn the keyboard command to insert the em-dash from the key boar if you use it often.

Are you on Mac or Windows?

My very first recommendation would be:

Never use Google.docs. That would also be my second, third and fourth recommendations. I teach English composition, and last semester I had a student who didn't know how to use any kind of word-processing program other than google docs. It was a nightmare. Never again will I allow a student to get away with that.

At a minimum, get Libre Office or Open Office (both free downloads) and learn how to save your documents in formats (such as .doc or .rtf) that can be opened in Microsoft Word or other programs. You're making your life much more difficult to try to cobble through with such a shitty word-processor.

caw

Try Alt-0150 or Alt-0151. One of those is the en-dash and one's the em-dash - I forget which is which.

Blacbird, I would definitely agree that Google docs is not good for any kind of advanced formatting. From what I remember of my college level English comp classes, that formatting was pretty important for certain kinds of papers.

I'm big fan of using Google docs for raw composition. Since I have multiple devices, the cloud storage is a lifesaver. However, I might move my WIP into Word or Libre Office for the final edits/formatting before publication.

blacbird said:

My very first recommendation would be:

Never use Google.docs. That would also be my second, third and fourth recommendations. I teach English composition, and last semester I had a student who didn't know how to use any kind of word-processing program other than google docs. It was a nightmare. Never again will I allow a student to get away with that.

At a minimum, get Libre Office or Open Office (both free downloads) and learn how to save your documents in formats (such as .doc or .rtf) that can be opened in Microsoft Word or other programs. You're making your life much more difficult to try to cobble through with such a shitty word-processor.

caw

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Wow, I love Google docs. Different strokes I guess. I could never return to Libre Office or word. that said I write in chapters and assembled my final manuscript in Libre and used their spell check just in case GD had missed anything.

blacbird said:

My very first recommendation would be:

Never use Google.docs. That would also be my second, third and fourth recommendations. I teach English composition, and last semester I had a student who didn't know how to use any kind of word-processing program other than google docs. It was a nightmare. Never again will I allow a student to get away with that.

At a minimum, get Libre Office or Open Office (both free downloads) and learn how to save your documents in formats (such as .doc or .rtf) that can be opened in Microsoft Word or other programs. You're making your life much more difficult to try to cobble through with such a shitty word-processor.

caw

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Am I the only one that this made feel incredibly old?

When was this kid born?? When was google docs introduced??

Or would a better question be when was I born....

Shutting up now.

Don't forget that Skydrive/Onedrive comes with a free Web-based version of MS Word.

It's a hamstrung version, but it's free.

GardeningMomma said:

Am I the only one that this made feel incredibly old?

When was this kid born?? When was google docs introduced??

Or would a better question be when was I born....

Shutting up now.

Click to expand...

its been around since the beginning of 2010, but I only discovered it about a year ago. Here's a link, Its integrated into Google drive, Google's online storage, so if you have a gmail/google account, you are already set up for it.

Some of the advantages- it saves every word you type, so you never have to worry about your pc crashing and losing an hours work.
-It keeps track of your changes, so you can access earlier versions of your manuscripts, if you ever need to get hold of a paragraph you want restored.
-It's cloud based, so you can type on your pc, pick up your tablet/phone and continue where you left off, without having to sync everything first. You can even have two people working on the same document at the same time from different locations and watch in real time as the other person edits.
-because it's stored on Google's servers, you are far less likely to lose your manuscript from a hard drive failure, though it is still wise to back up.
-it can read and save .doc, .docx, .odt etc files
-you get 5GB of online storage, so you shouldn't ever have to worry about running out of space.

Cons:
-You need to be online to edit if you are using a tablet, but you can set up docs for offline editing on a PC/laptop.
-I've heard that it doesn't handle huge files so well, but I write in chapters, so I've never put this to the test.

ave said:

Cons:
-You need to be online to edit if you are using a tablet, but you can set up docs for offline editing on a PC/laptop.
-I've heard that it doesn't handle huge files so well, but I write in chapters, so I've never put this to the test.

Click to expand...

It also, at least for the documents this student I mentioned submitted for my class, doesn't produce anything in a format that can be read by MS-Word or any other standard word-processor. Perhaps I'm wrong about that, but if so, I'll be happy to be informed. In any case, I couldn't get at them on any computer I use at my university.

caw

blacbird said:

It also, at least for the documents this student I mentioned submitted for my class, doesn't produce anything in a format that can be read by MS-Word or any other standard word-processor. Perhaps I'm wrong about that, but if so, I'll be happy to be informed. In any case, I couldn't get at them on any computer I use at my university.

caw

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That is bizarre. Google uses its own file format for editing, but when you download the file you choose between .docx, txt, odt, pdf, and rtf. The student must have found a way to save it in its native format.

blacbird said:

It also, at least for the documents this student I mentioned submitted for my class, doesn't produce anything in a format that can be read by MS-Word or any other standard word-processor. Perhaps I'm wrong about that, but if so, I'll be happy to be informed. In any case, I couldn't get at them on any computer I use at my university.

caw

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Google Docs is extremely simple to convert to Microsoft Word. As Ave mentioned, you just go to File > Download As > Microsoft Word (.docx). (Visuals here, though the image differs slightly because they're in the spreadsheet program.) It takes two seconds and the documents created are indistinguishable from native Word documents.

Does your class set-up support .docx format? If so then it sounds like the student just had no idea how to use the tool properly.

blacbird said:

It also, at least for the documents this student I mentioned submitted for my class, doesn't produce anything in a format that can be read by MS-Word or any other standard word-processor. Perhaps I'm wrong about that, but if so, I'll be happy to be informed. In any case, I couldn't get at them on any computer I use at my university.

caw

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Google Docs uses html, .rtf, and docx and .PDF as exports; it works quite well.

Said student would need to "share" the document with you to read it online, but could easily export and download and hand it in digitally or actually print it out.

Maybe your student was having you on? Currently the "I didn't do my homework" excuse is the computer ate my paper.

Medievalist said:

Maybe your student was having you on? Currently the "I didn't do my homework" excuse is the computer ate my paper.

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I pulled that a couple of times way back in the 90s. As karmic revenge, my computer then legitimately ate the best philosophy essay I ever wrote, and I had to shoddily rewrite it in two hours.

There's something frustrating about a program, Google Docs, that can export to DOCX, but not edit it. Unless something's changed recently, I can upload a DOCX to Drive, and I can read it, but not edit.

Medievalist said:

Maybe your student was having you on? Currently the "I didn't do my homework" excuse is the computer ate my paper.

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That's a very good point. Hand in a corrupted file. I should have though of that when I was studying.

Torgo said:

I pulled that a couple of times way back in the 90s. As karmic revenge, my computer then legitimately ate the best philosophy essay I ever wrote, and I had to shoddily rewrite it in two hours.

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That's hilarious.

robjvargas said:

There's something frustrating about a program, Google Docs, that can export to DOCX, but not edit it. Unless something's changed recently, I can upload a DOCX to Drive, and I can read it, but not edit.

Click to expand...

amergina said:

You can edit .docx docs in Google Drive.

If you're in the preview viewer, click the blue open button, then select File>Open With... and it opens the .docx (or .doc) into google docs for editing.

Click to expand...

You can also go to settings>upload settings and select "convert uploaded files to google docs format," then anything you upload will automatically be converted.

blacbird said:

My very first recommendation would be:

Never use Google.docs. That would also be my second, third and fourth recommendations. I teach English composition, and last semester I had a student who didn't know how to use any kind of word-processing program other than google docs. It was a nightmare. Never again will I allow a student to get away with that.

At a minimum, get Libre Office or Open Office (both free downloads) and learn how to save your documents in formats (such as .doc or .rtf) that can be opened in Microsoft Word or other programs. You're making your life much more difficult to try to cobble through with such a shitty word-processor.

caw

Click to expand...

I actually like google docs for the reason that it just seems more convenient to use (forgetting to save ring a bell?) However, I do have to agree that it can be somewhat shitty, but for raw stuff, it isn't that bad.

ave said:

its been around since the beginning of 2010, but I only discovered it about a year ago.

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Actually, it was first released in 2006 to college campuses—I was one of the early adopters.

I try to have my university students turn in work on BlackBoard. That said, they often turn it in by "sharing" a link to google docs/ on their gdrive. I am fine with this, but probably for the same reasons discussed, I always open them to see if they are readable as Word files (especially if emailed to me), just to check.

In fact, I started a new rule this semester for both my high school and university students that helped: if you turn in any work by email, it is not considered accepted/on time until you see a reply email saying "received." I don't grade them right then usually, but just quickly open the link to check it actually is a doc with words on it (instead of, oh, say a blank document with an excuse of "oops accidentally sent the wrong one").

So far, two students tried to submit something corrupted, or so it would seem. I replied "not accepted, unreadable" so they knew, and having that paper trail is helping too.

Anyway, google has worked for me so far, but I use it to save back up copies of Scrivener work, not to type directly. Just my preference.

Medievalist said:

Actually, it was first released in 2006 to college campuses—I was one of the early adopters.

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That's interesting. Must have been very basic back then.

A cool feature of google docs is that you can auto substitute. Try it, type (c) and watch it turn into a copyright symbol. If you go into preferences you can add your own, and I have made -- auto change into —. Works perfect for me.

I can't see the advantage of actually writing in to google docs over open office/ms office.

I do, though, use it as a damn fine back up location for my work.

eselle said:

A cool feature of google docs is that you can auto substitute. Try it, type (c) and watch it turn into a copyright symbol. If you go into preferences you can add your own, and I have made -- auto change into —. Works perfect for me.

Click to expand...

As do most word processors.

atthebeach said:

I try to have my university students turn in work on BlackBoard. That said, they often turn it in by "sharing" a link to google docs/ on their gdrive. I am fine with this, but probably for the same reasons discussed, I always open them to see if they are readable as Word files (especially if emailed to me), just to check.

Click to expand...

If I were a professor, I would only accept PDFs. Otherwise, all formatting is at the mercy of the tech gods.

Unless you're explicitly sharing to collaborate and revise together, anything editable would be unacceptable.

Our Department Head particularly hates it when people submit resumés or CVs in Word format.

eselle said:

A cool feature of google docs is that you can auto substitute. Try it, type (c) and watch it turn into a copyright symbol. If you go into preferences you can add your own, and I have made -- auto change into —. Works perfect for me.

Click to expand...

MS Word has both of these turned on by default. Although Word won't do em-dash without text behind it.

And every word processing program has had the option to create your own auto-correct entries for about as long as auto-correct has existed.