Google Workspace

Google Workspace

Google Search

You can view Google's own documentation on search operators, but they leave a lot of them out. I've included some of my favorites below:

• intext:

  • require results to include a keyword within the text body

• intitle:

  • require results to include a keyword within the title

• inurl:

  • require results to include a keyword within the URL

• related:

  • find the landing page for websites of alternatives to slack.com with related:slack.com

• cache:

  • View the copy of the website from Google's cache

Also, I've written down two search operators that I'm convinced very few self-proclaimed search masters are aware of. These are two search operators that were added in 2018, that most people haven't caughten drift of just yet.

• after:

  • Search for results before a date with before:

  • For example, searching for events before 2010 would be before:2010

  • Search for results after a date with after:

  • For example, searching for events after 2018 would be after:2018

Clever combined usage of search operators, and be amazed by how precise the returned results are

"whenever * says * I *"

• You can use either the filetype:pdf or ext:pdf operators, both return the same results, but the ext: is a little more strict about returning only files of the specified kind

They're also rolling out a new feature called Google Collections which allows you to save images without downloading, pretty neat.

You can reverse search for images at images.google.com, details provided in their support documentation

• Breakdown of the query string. For each of these query string parameters, assume the provided value is foo+bar, such as param=foo+bar. Each word is concatenated with the + character.

  • as_epq: Results must include each word, and all must be in the provided order

  • as_oq: Results must include one or more of the words provided

  • as_eq: Results most not include any of the words provided

  • num: Controls the number of results that appear

  • as_filetype: Equivalent to the filetype: search operator

  • as_sitesearch: Equivalent to the site: search operator

  • as_qdr: Limit results to those first indexed by...

  • d: The past day

  • w: The past week

  • m: The past month

  • y: The past year

  • as_rights=cc_publicdomain

  • Limit results to content free to use from the public domain.

  • as_lq

  • Find sites that link to the URL you put in

  • pws

  • Whether or not the search should be personalized, 1 to enable, 0 to disable

  • hl

  • Determines the language of the search interface

  • lr

  • Limits results to a particular language. For example, a value of lang_en would limit results to those that are written in English

  • cr=countryXX: Only show results from the country XX where XX is replaced with that country's ISO 3166-1 country code

Docs

You can create a new presentation in Google Slides by navigating to any of the following URLs:

• docs.new
• doc.new
• document.new

You can share links to PDF versions of your Docs files by appending /export?format=pdf to the URL

http://docs.google.com/document/d/ID/export?format=pdf

Sheets

You can create a new presentation in Google Slides by navigating to any of the following URLs:

• sheets.new
• sheet.new
• spreadsheet.new

You can share links to PDF versions of your Sheets files by appending /export?format=pdf to the URL

http://docs.google.com/document/d/ID/export?format=pdf

Slides

You can create a new presentation in Google Slides by navigating to any of the following URLs:

• slides.new
• slide.new
• deck.new
• presentation.new

Similarly, you can also share links to PDF versions of your Slides documents by appending /export/pdf to the URL

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ID/export/pdf

Presentation Mode

Keyboard Shortcuts

• n: Go to the next presented item

• p: Go to the previous presented item

• l: Toggle laser pointer

• s: Open speaker notes

• a: Open audience tools

• w: Cover content with empty white slide

• b: Cover content with empty black slide

• ⌘ ⇧ F: View slides in full-screen mode

Drive

Search Operators

Quotes

You can use quotes to find documents that contain an exact word or phrase. For example, if you wanted to search for a memo with the phrase "new normal"... you could search memo "new normal"

The minus operator

You can use the minus operator - to find documents that exclude a particular word. For example, if you want "salsa," but not "dancing"... you could search salsa -dancing

owner:

You can find documents owned by a person with the owner: operator. For example, you can find documents owned by Tommy Trojan with owner:ttrojan@usc.edu.

from:

You can find documents shared by a person with the from: operator. For example, you can find documents shared by Tommy Trojan with from:ttrojan@usc.edu.

creator:

You can find documents in a shared drive created by a specific person using the creator: operator. For example, to find documents created by Tommy Trojan with creator:ttrojan@usc.edu.

to:

You can find documents that have been shared with a specific person or group using the to: operator. For example, you could search for documents shared to Tommy Trojan with to:ttrojan@usc.edu

is:

• is:starred matches items that are starred

• is:trashed matches items that are trashed

before: and after:

You can use before: and after: to find items that were edited before or after a certain day. Format the date using the ISO 8601 YYYY-MM-DD format. For example, you could search for documents before:2020-01-01 or after:2020-01-01.

title:

To search for a document with the "Conference 2014" in the title... you can search title:Conference 2014

type:

I've compiled a list of valid types to search for, included below:

• type:folder
• type:document
• type:spreadsheet
• type:presentation
• type:pdf
• type:image
• type:video
• type:drawing
• type:form
• type:site
• type:script
• type:table

Google Calendar

The hidden syncselect page lets you configure which calendars should appear and sync across your devices

Google Accounts

A user's profile picture can be deleted, but the page to add or remove a profile picture is well hidden, so I've kept it here to make it easier to find next time.