Google Docs Low Vision: Home Page

Hi, my name is Vikki Vaughan, and in today’s workshop, we’ll explore our Google Docs home page. If you haven’t yet set up your Google account, check out the first workshop in this series. It will take you step-by-step through the setup process.

Let’s open our Chrome browser and log in at

http colon forward slash forward slash docs dot google dot com (http://docs.google.com). At the top of our window, we see a Search edit field. This is a handy tool to use when we’re searching for that one special document. Moving down the page, we come to the Start a New Document pane. This is where we find our tools to start a new document. We have several options to choose from. On the left, we see an image of a Blank document with the plus sign. We select this icon to start a document from scratch.

Moving to the right, we find our other option, the Template Gallery. Here, we can select from a variety of templates that have already been created for us. Let’s select the Template Gallery button to expand this option.

By scrolling or moving down the page, we find loads of choices, including resumes and letters.

Let’s select the Back button in the top pane to return to our main page.

If we prefer to hide the templates from view, we select the three vertical grey dots to display the Hide Templates option. If we change our minds, we can unhide them by selecting the Main Menu, then select Settings and check the checkbox under Templates. We’ll check the OK button to close this window.

Now moving down our page, we find the Recent Documents area, where all of our recent work can be found. The default setting for viewing these files is a grid view. If we prefer a list view, we simply select this button in the upper right part of our window. It’s a toggle switch, so we can easily switch between the two views by selecting the View button.

To the right of the View button, we find the Sort Options button. By selecting it, we see four different sorting choices for our files. We make our choice by selecting it with our mouse pointer.

The last button in this grouping is the File Picker. When we select it, a new window opens with a view of recent documents that are stored on our Google Drive. There’s a lot to unpack here, so for now, we’ll close this window by selecting the X in the top right corner or by pressing our Escape key. I hope you’ll join us for a deeper dive into opening documents in another workshop in this series!

Back at our home page, let’s select one of our recent documents. From here, we can edit, share, and print our document. It’s no surprise that we have an entire workshop about this very topic! I hope you’ll check it out to learn all about this great word processing program!

Now, let’s take a moment to explore our Main Menu. First, we’ll return to the home page by selecting the Google Docs Home button in the upper left pane. To the left of our blue Document icon, we find three horizontal lines. When we select this button, we open the Main Menu.

Now I really like the simple design of this menu. At the top, we see the four applications that are part of the Google Suite: Docs for word processing, Sheets for spreadsheets, Slides for presentations and Forms for well, forms of all types. I hope you’ll take the time to explore each of these functions. You can always get back to the Main Menu by selecting the three horizontal lines, our Main Menu button.

Below the applications, we find Settings. Let’s select it to have a look. Here, we can change the language, hide or display the templates, and choose to work offline, if desired. I’ll press my Escape key to close this window.

Next in our list, we have Help and Feedback. When we select this option, a new window opens. We find a Search Help edit field at the top of our new window. This is where we type our question. Let’s say we’ve hidden our templates and have forgotten how to display them again. I’ll type in “Display templates” and press the Enter key. I’ll scroll down and here we find our directions. A simple click of the X will close this Help Window.

The final item in our Main Menu is Google Drive. Let’s select it with our mouse pointer. A new tab opens in our browser. In the left pane, we find various folders; My Drive, Shared with Me, Recent, Starred, and Trash. This works just like File Explorer; when we select the folder in the left pane, we see our files in the right pane. By scrolling or moving through the window, we can locate and open our desired files. When we’re ready to return to Google Docs, we select that tab in our browser.

I’m Vikki Vaughan and I thank you for joining me today as we explored Google Doc’s home page. I hope you’ll check out the other workshops in this series!