Students constitute a big community of Internet users. So, why not target it for a bigger audience? Well, Google appears to be on the right course. It has tried to make Google Docs more useful for the student community. As most users may know already that Google Docs is a free web service which can create, edit and save feature-rich online documents, spreadsheets and presentations which are equivalent to Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Google Docs has now made the following additions to its already rich features:
(1) Equation Editor:
Now, Google Docs will support an Equation Editor. It will enable the students as well as Science teachers and researchers to create, edit and save complicated mathematical and scientific equations. Just have a look at the following image to see this feature in Google Docs (click on image to enlarge it):
No doubt, this feature will benefit the science students immensely. It may be pointed out that LaTex Equation Editor (for TeX equations) is still quite popular amongst the science and mathematics community for typing equations in articles written for science journals. In fact, some science journals may still not accept other formats for equations. I have also had the opportunity to use LaTex on certain occasions. Moreover, Microsoft Word also offers an Equation Editor for last so many years now and I have used it many times in the past and found it to be quite good. To invoke Equation Editor in Microsoft Word (if Equation Editor is not already installed), click on Insert -> Object menu option and in the dialog box that appears, select Microsoft Equations from the Create new tab and then click OK. An Equation object will now be inserted in your Word document and you can insert / edit the equation now in easy steps.
Google also joins this group now by offering Equation Editor to attract the student community towards Google Docs. An initial look at the Equation Editor in Google Docs shows that it is quite comprehensive and impressive. To insert an equation in Google Docs, click Insert menu and then select Equation… option. See the Equation Editor in action in the following image:
(2) Superscripts and subscripts for algebraic expressions and chemical compounds:
Google Docs will now also support the superscripts and subscripts for algebraic expressions and chemical compounds.
(3) Conducting surveys using Google Docs made easy:
Google Docs has added a new “Go to page based on answer” option in Google forms, making it easy to show participants of a survey (conducted using Google Docs) only those questions which are relevant to them.
(4) Other changes:
There are some new features for humanities buffs, including easy selection of different bulleting styles for lists by adding an option to the format menu; the option to print footnotes as endnotes for a cleaner-looking paper. I may also point out that earlier, during last month, Google Docs had added some translation features using which you can translate either a single word or an entire document directly in Google Docs which makes it easy to include text in foreign language or translate your contents to foreign languages [see, my earlier article Translate Google Docs documents into 42 languages].
Also have a look at the following video from Google which explains how collaboration (while preparing Google Docs) can help you out with your “extracurricular” activities:
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