In a previous article I mentioned that Google Docs has a marketplace for third-party add-ons. These five add-ons will improve your workflow dramatically. To install any of these add-ons, you simply click “Add-ons” from within your Docs editor. Find the add-on and click the blue box with a plus sign in it.
1. EasyBib Citation and Bibliography Generator
EasyBib makes bibliographies and citations even easier than using Docs’ handy referencing side bar. You can search the web and academic journals and even drill down to content on a specific website. EasyBib lets you format your citations using three popular standards.
2. Vertex Template Gallery
This template gallery contains document templates for just about any document you can think of. Creating any kind of document has never been easier. It even has spreadsheet templates.
3. Merge by MailChimp
Merge is a handy add-on from MailChimp. With merge you can edit your bulk emails in Docs and send them to your mailing lists at the click of a button. This is great for anyone who wants to send out good-looking marketing emails or newsletters without the fuss of editing an HTML email by hand.
4. Texthelp Study Skills
The Study Skills add-on is great for students and secretaries alike. It provides advanced highlighting and content grouping functionality to docs. It has a great feature that allows you to ‘Extract Highlights’, which is a great way to compile notes based on the document you are reading.
5. Consistency Checker
The consistency checker is a fantastic tool for those who spend all day working and collaborating on documents. When you run the consistency checker add-on, it will scan your document for inconsistencies in spelling, give you a list of typos and even check if your numbering is consistent. This tool is especially useful when collaborating with others on a document.