The small Google Docs update that should make a big difference

The battle between Microsoft and Google to capture the increasing work from home productivity market has been heating up recently. Google has been constantly updating Google Workspace so that it can better compete with Office 365, even pumping AI-powered features into Google Docs. We now have news of another small update to Google Docs that should make a big difference for people using it.

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It has to be said that this update simply marks another way that Google is playing catch up with Microsoft as it is a simple feature that has been available to Microsoft Word users for a long time.

The update will allow users to select multiple parts of a document at once and reformat them with a single command. For example, you could select all of the opening words of a series of bullet points at once and then make them all bold at the same time with a single click. Incredibly, until now it hasn’t been possible to select multiple areas of a document at the same time, never mind format them.

The feature is going to roll out to all Google Workspace users meaning it should become available on enterprise versions of Google Docs and Google Sheets soon. When it does land on your version of the app you will be able to find suitable keyboard shortcuts here. If, however, you can’t be bothered finding them there, we’ve laid them out for you below:

For Windows and ChromeOS : Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Left/right arrow

For Mac: Ctrl + ⌘ + Shift + Left/right arrow

So, there you have it. Google is adding a small but useful update to Google Docs that brings the Google word processing app a baby step closer to Microsoft word. For more news on Google Docs updates read our report on these new team-focused features.