Google’s newest language model, Gemini AI, is completely changing how we generate material in Google Docs from creating reports and emails to coming up with original pieces of writing.
This tutorial will show you how to use Gemini AI in Google Docs, show you around its amazing capabilities, and provide you real-world examples of how to use it for a variety of purposes.
How to integrate Gemini into Google Docs
Sadly, free-tier customers cannot leverage Gemini’s interaction with Google’s Workspace suite. To obtain access, you’ll need to pay $20 a month for the Google One AI Premium Plan, or you may use a Gemini for Google Workspace add-on to access accounts at work or school. It’s simple to sign up for the personal plan.
Sadly, free-tier customers cannot leverage Gemini’s interaction with Google’s Workspace suite. To obtain access, you’ll need to pay $20 a month for the Google One AI Premium Plan, or you may use a Gemini for Google Workspace add-on to access accounts at work or school. It’s simple to sign up for the personal plan.
Getting started with Gemini
Next, launch a fresh instance of Docs by logging into yours account. To open an existing document, choose it or start from scratch. Look for the symbol that opens the Gemini side panel in the top-right corner of the editing window, between your avatar and the Share button. Click it.
The side panel, which extends outward, goes along the window’s right border. Above the context prompt box, it offers users a list of possible actions it may do on their behalf. Just like with the Gemini chatbot, use it.
The integration functions identically to the chatbot version, allowing you to ask it questions about the topic you’re writing about, have it create and rewrite prose, and even have it create visuals that you can easily include into your document.
Google Docs’ Gemini has a number of generative features. It goes without saying that it can produce written text in a broad range of genres, from artistic endeavors like poetry, short tales, and song lyrics to professional duties like business reports, social media captions, and sales call scripts. Additionally, Google Documents allows you to directly reference files on Drive and emails on Gmail using Gemini.
But, Gemini’s summary and expansion capabilities allow you to change the length of text to suit your needs. You may ask Gemini to summarize a long document and return its main ideas, or you can ask it to expound on the content that already exists to give more information. It may even completely rewrite sections upon request, changing the tone of your work to better fit certain social contexts and audiences.
For instance, I asked Gemini to draft a cover letter for me when I applied for a general technology reporter position after I drew up my ten years of journalism experience. The AI misordered my job history in the first draft, and there weren’t nearly enough specifics in the whole thing.
But after a few follow-up questions, I was able to create a sample cover letter that might work, to which I could then add specifics about my job. While I still have to go back and edit the letter by hand to make it up to par, I wouldn’t say that this process was any easier than writing it myself. However, it did save me from staring at a blank screen at the beginning of the process until I come up with a halfway-decent idea, and the suggestions for improvement highlighted weaknesses in my job application.
Additionally, the AI can easily translate your material into any of the 40 languages and produce content in those languages as well. For instance, during the test, Gemini swiftly wrote a 200-word French argument in support of me enjoying a cheeseburger for lunch. Since I don’t know French, I’m not sure if its arguments are strong.
What you can do with Gemini
Gemini can help you with your writing in a lot of ways, even if you’re not ready to give the AI full control. Using the AI as a sounding board to provide ideas for topics, headlines, and article themes is one use Google has frequently highlighted in its demos and presentations. Gemini can also draft plot synopses and sequences for you to develop further.
When writers have writer’s block in the middle of a composition, Gemini may help by suggesting ways to advance the story or give different viewpoints for your analysis. Additionally, it might serve as a research helper by immediately obtaining data about your subject.
Gemini can even be used for text editing and proofreading. It may detect flaws in your reasoning and weak spots in your writing, going beyond a basic spell check and offering suggestions for changes to help you polish your work even more.
I asked for thoughts on how to enhance my recent piece about WPP’s new advertising relationship with Coca-Cola, for instance, by feeding it into a Doc. It came back with an unexpectedly large—almost insultingly so—number of suggestions for how I could have improved it, such as “Add a more engaging and descriptive title,” “Explain the benefits of using AI for advertising in more detail,” and “Provide more context in the introduction.”
These are all excellent suggestions that I’ve received from my human editors, even though I probably wouldn’t have included them in the story as it appeared. They might also be useful as a starting point for more reports.