Google Docs Add-ons overview: how to install and use

While I work with Microsoft Office most of the time, I have started to use Google Docs for a couple of things as well in recent time, especially if they involve collaboration or sharing of documents.
Google launched Add-ons for Google Docs & Sheets yesterday and has made them available to all users of its document service already.
If you open a document or a spreadsheet on Google Docs, you will find the new highlighted Add-ons link there in the menu bar of the service.
Note: While you will find it on all text documents that you open, it is only displayed if you have enabled the new Google Sheets. To do so, click on the options menu button on Google Drive, select settings from the context menu, switch to editing, and check the "Try the new Google Sheets" there.
All new spreadsheets that you create will use the new Google Sheets, will all old ones will open in the old version. The new sheets offers additional features such as spell checking, notification rules, protected sheets and ranges, and API support.
Google Docs Add-ons
When you click on Add-ons a small overlay opens up. Here you can click on get add-ons to access currently installed add-ons, browse the repository, or manage add-ons you have already installed on Google Docs.
The browser displays all available add-ons similar to how extensions are presented on the Chrome Web Store. Each add-on is displayed with a large thumbnail, its name, and the number of users who are using it.
A filter at the top provides you with options to limit the results, for instance to display only productivity add-ons, or business tools.
Depending on how you work on Google Docs, you may find add-ons useful. Here you find for example a Thesaurus and Translate extension, an add-on to merge documents, one that enables you to track changes better, and one to improve your writing.
When you move the cursor over an add-on, a rating, short description and install button is displayed. Another click here -- with the exception of the free button -- loads the profile page of the add-on.
Here you see a larger screenshot and detailed description, as well as user reviews if available.
Once you click on the install button (free) you are taken to a page where you need to authorize the app. Google lists all permissions the app requires, and it is up to you to accept that or not.
Some add-ons require only few permissions. The Table of contents add-on for instance requires only rights to view and manage documents that this application has been installed in, and to view and manage data associated with the application.
The ProWritingAid add-on on the other hand wants additional privileges. It wants to know your email address, who you are on Google, and connect to an external service.
You can open installed add-ons with a click on the Add-ons link at the top, and the selection of the extension from the list.
Some open up right away in the sidebar, while others may not. The Thesaurus add-on for instance requires that you select a word first so that it can display synonyms in the sidebar.
As far as limitations go, you can only display one add-on in the sidebar at the same time. If you have more than one, you need to switch between them whenever you need to access one that is not displayed in the sidebar.
Some add-ons allow you to display them at all times for a select document. The table of contents add-on does that for instance. You find the "always open for this document" check box at the bottom of the sidebar.
Add-ons for spreadsheets are not the same as those for docs. While some are shared, the majority of them are not. You find several analytics add-ons here for example, some to merge or split data, and others that may improve productivity when working with spreadsheets.
Uninstall
Select Add-ons > Manage Add-ons to display the list of installed extensions. A click on the manage button displays a context menu that you can use to remove the add-on, or disable the loading of it for the current document.
Verdict
Add-ons improve the value of Google Docs and spreadsheets. Add-ons may help you run tasks or actions that you could not before directly on the site, and while that is great, you should make sure that they only request permissions required to perform that action.
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“Do you use Google Photos?”
I do; I find it impossible not to use Google Photos on the Android phone; nevertheless, the “memory” feature is sort of neat. I’ve seen photos from a couple of years ago that that offer glimpses into the long-ago, forgotten past. It’s a lot like reviewing journal writing. “What was I doing and such and such a date?”
And, I think, when the “memories” are sorted and positioned, one can create a mini-collage with up to eight photos.
It’s so much easier to share photos with people rather than journal entries.
Nifty!
I delete the photos after 1 month of being taken. All of them are erased to return to the black and silent nothingness. Only the best ones are printed and placed in a very nice site at home. :]
I should buy a Chromebook.
None of the big tech companies are good but at least Google are the least dishonest and morally bankrupt of them. They’re always trying to do the right thing if the money allow it.
In reply to “https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/19/google-keep-is-getting-a-version-history-but-only-on-the-web/” since the website has gone insane and no one can know where thier comment ends up.
This app should be called “Google Keeps it”. Because, they do.
I use Color Notes. No syncing, no internet, just local.
The article said: “[…] positive outcomes of genocide…”. Perhaps the AI was actually discussing the benefits of reading a “Scroll of genocide” … “You feel dead inside.”.
Martin, this post reply is supposed to belong: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/22/googles-ai-search-generates-horribly-misleading-answers/] (given the the database is faulty it could appear anywhere or nowhere).
I have yet to be impressed with AI of any kind. I think it’s overhyped and not ready to live up to it.
How to use AI: Avoid the artificial stupidity at all times.
“When searched “Why guns are good,” it also prompted questionable responses, including potentially questionable statistics and reasoning. ”
Based on whose reasoning? These sorts of assertions are generally bullcrap intended to advance an agenda. If you don’t like guns, say so. Meanwhile, there are 400 million firearms in the US owned by close to a third of the population and around 20 million carry concealed.
So your opinion is not shared by a LOT of people who either enjoy firearm spots or are concerned about self-defense or both.
Wow. Ghacks still hasn’t fixed the broken comments system where old comments from a different article appear. Sad to see you slowly turn to dust since the buyout.
@Seeprime,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
This guns comment came up in the Pixel watch repair post and I was bewildered as to what was the connection between the two.
goog = skynet
“human beings” = \slaves\
This info is so NOT correct.
I so do not want google in my life that I have NEVER downloaded chrome and I do NOT have ANY google accounts.
My browser is set to clear all cookies, cache and history every time I close it, which is every day, and I still get these world takeover login prompts on every site I go to.
So I CANT go to google accounts and turn it off.
If this info were truly accurate I wouldnt be getting these pop ups AT ALL.
Thanks @Ashwin for the article! :]
Anyone who continues to use these big tech scum’s cloud services deserves what they get.
Given Ghacks’ comments’ database problems I precise :
I’m commenting the article “Google is in trouble with YouTube Shorts – gHacks Tech News” by Emre Çitak
at [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/04/googles-youtube-shorts-problem/]
—
About the article’s question, “What do you think about YouTube Shorts?” (BTW first time I read here any other writer other than Martin Brinkmann directly asks the audience it’s opinion, and that’s just fine) :
YouTube Shorts may suit smartphones (which I don’t use) but on a PC they are not my cup of tea, to put it mildly.
From what I read a bit everywhere, opinions are shared : love or hate. For those who dislike many scripts and dedicated browser extensions have been developed to handle them (removal or redirect to standard video display).
I don’ view YouTube videos on YouTube but via a Piped or a Piped-Material YouTube front-end instance and these offer on search results and on channels the option to view Videos-Shorts-Livestreams-Playlists-Channels ; well, I practically never open the ‘Shorts’ display. I don’t like shorts (except in summer, hmm), I dislike the concept, fast-videos after fast-food, fast, faster … to bring what? Emptiness, IMO
Does that answer your question, @Emre Çitak :)
I despise YouTube Shorts. So much in fact, I use custom adblock rules in Brave Shields to remove that crap.
youtube.com##ytd-grid-video-renderer:has([href*=”shorts”])
youtube.com###dismissible:has([href*=”shorts”])
There’s an extension for Firefox and Chrome browsers called “Youtube-shorts block”, re-opens the video in a normal window. :)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-shorts-block/
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-shorts-block/jiaopdjbehhjgokpphdfgmapkobbnmjp
ps. say NO to Shorts, it only encourage shooting vertical-videos which doesn’t go well with many desktop displays… except when shooting vertical objects, such as ahem… pretty ladies. :)
Page source shows that ghacks is still using WordPress as the platform. Knowing, more or less, how it works at the DB level I am not sure how one could mess up comments this badly. It is actually very difficult.
Google is the big leader of everything. Indeed it can actually buy Amazon, Disney, Netflix, X and whatever other company. I wonder what could happen if Google starts to build airspace ships in order to conquer the Moon. I bet that Google would be the first to offer free WiFi at the Moon. Please fix the comments.
This comment is inside the article:
[https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/04/what-is-google-synthid-and-how-does-it-work/]
This “analysis” is disappointingly shallow and trivial. Why not include other factors like job level, responsibilities, full-time/part-time, qualifications, etc.? Because the conclusions probably wouldn’t fit the current leftist/feminist narrative. You don’t find what you don’t look for.
Misleading statistics.
Wage should be based on the amount of time, works, thinking (brain > muscle), responsibilities etc
Not skin pigmentation or your genitalia. There could be correlations, but not causations.
“Google maintains that it provides a superior product”
That is also Mozilla’s official position in defense of Google against the people, on that question of search engine abuse of dominant position by Google.
The funniest part is that not only it’s false regarding actual competitors, but even among not-actual-competitors there are meta-search engines that use exactly the same engine, just minus the tracking, so Google is clearly the inferior one compared to those already. But maybe what Google is saying is that it is the surveillance and bubbling that would make their engine superior. False again even without considering the damage those do.
“Google increases Chromebook support to 10 years”
I mean that’s great and all, but imagine using a browser-based, highly internet-dependent OS such as chrome. I’ve never used chromeOS but have seen it in person and read about it, just seems like ultra-limited user experience which relies on the concept that “most things can be done in a browser”.
What is there to support? It just a glorified web browser.
“Google launched Chromebooks in 2012 as low-cost devices and the company has had great success in the education world, especially in the United States.”
Happy tracking for all those unsuspecting children. And help normalize surveillance for those young brains. Well done Google.