Smart Chips Make Google Docs and Sheets Smarter

Last week, we shared a blog referencing “smart chips” that could help augment a Google Doc. We wanted to dive a little deeper into the topic of smart chips so you could apply them to your own Google Docs and Sheets.

First off, what are these smart chips?

Smart Chips are a Means to Provide a Collaborative Context

Let’s say you’re working with a coworker on a spreadsheet, but your schedules haven’t lined up to allow you to work simultaneously. Smart chips enable you to leave snippets of various information behind highlighted portions of text for others to reference.

A smart chip is essentially a snippet of dynamic information pulled from another source and is easy to put in a document or spreadsheet. Type in “@,” and a litany of options should appear.

Let’s go over what smart chips you can use.

Calendar events

If an event is saved in a Google Calendar, you can link to it in a document or spreadsheet. So, let’s say you have a file pertinent to an upcoming meeting. This smart chip allows you to create a direct link to the event. Plus, if the event is associated with a meeting in Google Meet, you can join the meeting directly from the smart chip pane.

Date

Similarly to the calendar, the date smart chip can link a specific calendar date in a document or spreadsheet—for instance, a deadline for a given project. The main difference between the two options is that the date smart chip isn’t linked to a calendar event. Instead, you can use the Book meeting link that appears in the chip to open your calendar and create one.

Dropdown

This smart chip allows you to insert a dropdown list of options from which another user can select, providing a list of pre-built options and allowing a user to create a custom list of options. Available in both Docs and Sheets, the latter offers many additional features, which we may cover in the future. Keep your eye out for that!

File

Let’s say you have another file squirreled away in your Google Drive pertinent to your document or spreadsheet. This smart chip allows you to share a direct link to it, where someone can open it conveniently. What’s nice is that this applies to both documents created in Google’s suite of applications and any external file types saved in your Drive.

Finance

Did you know that Google Sheets can help you manage your investments? Using a finance smart chip allows you to insert a company’s stock symbol into a cell, where hovering over it will display a card with the current stock price.

People

If you need someone to be easily accessible while viewing a document, a people smart chip makes it simple. This smart chip allows you to assign tasks to people or contact them directly, providing plenty of options. 

Place

With this smart chip, you can provide an address or the location of some landmarks, generating a Google Map in a sidebar.

Stopwatch/Timer

Only available with a Google Workspace account for business or education, you can insert a clock that counts the time passed or counts down from a predetermined time.

Voting

Specific to Google Docs, and similarly only available in business or education accounts, there’s also a smart chip that enables you to create emoji-based polls in a document. You can then collect feedback when making a decision by having collaborators click the emoji next to the option they like most.

Smart Chips are Just One Example of the Utility These Apps Offer

You can use Google Workspace to deliver what your business needs in dozens of ways. We can help you everywhere else. Call us at (217) 428-6449 to ask about our managed services and the benefits you can receive.