Google Docs Tutorials – Part 15 - Search Tools
During this Google Documents tutorial, learn how to use Search Tools with Google Docs.
There is one other group of tools that you should be familiar with. Included in the Tools drop-down menu are a group of search tools including a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and the ability to search for words or images online. Let’s explore the dictionary features first.
If you want to know the meaning of a word in your document, highlight it with the mouse. In this exercise, select “herbaceous”, open the Tools menu and click on Look up word. As you can see below, three different options are available: look up definition, look up synonym (words that mean the same
thing), or look up the word in the encyclopedia. To find the meaning of our word, we will select Look up definition of “herbaceous…” As you can see below, a window appears that shows Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary entry for the word “herbaceous”. When you are finished reviewing the definition entry, you can close the window by using the “×” in the upper right-hand corner.
You may also want to use the thesaurus tool to look up synonyms, either to find better word choices for use in your document, or to avoid repeating the same words over and over. In your document, you used the word “worthy” in the sentence: Bananas are also a worthy source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, and potassium. This phrase sounds a little awkward, so it would be wise to try to find a synonym for the word “worthy”.
Begin by selecting the word that you want to look up in the Thesaurus; in this exercise, the word “worthy.” Open the Tools menu, click on Look up word, and then click on Look up synonyms for “worthy…”
There may be a slight delay as Google performs the look-up, and then you are provided with a set of synonyms that might better fit into your document (as seen to the right). There is quite an extensive list, but the word “good” will suit the needs of our sentence. To insert this word into your document, all you have to do is select it, and click the Replace button. Take note at the bottom of this box, there are links to Learn more about word worthy and related topics at Britannica.com. Clicking on these links will take you to other web pages to get more detailed information about the word “worthy”.
After cliking the Replace button, you can see that the word “worthy” has been removed, and the word “good” placed in your document. The sentence now reads: “Bananas are a source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, and potassium.good” Because Google Docs is still running as a beta-version application, it still has a few bugs to work out. Ideally, the word “good” should have been inserted in the correct location within your sentence. Since this was not the case, you will have to manually move the word “good” yourself. This is the type of error that can sometimes be encountered in beta software.
The third available search tool is the Encyclopedia. Let’s look up the word “Banana”. Open the Tools menu, select Look up word, and then click on Look up “banana” in encyclopedia…. A window will open up containing various articles that are related to the word “banana”. You can search for articles related to another word by typing the the word apple, for example, in the box at the bottom of the window as shown below. Click the Search again button, and in the same window, you will see the results for the word “apple”. Once you have finished reading about bananas and apples, close this window by using the “×” in the upper right-hand corner.
There are two more search options built into Google Docs that let you search for information on the web. With the word “banana” selected, open the Tools menu, and select Search the web for word. You are presented with two options here. You can either Search the web for “banana”… or you can Search the web for “banana” images… Try clicking on Search the web for “banana”… first.
A new window opens, showing you the Google search results for the word “banana”. If you are interested in any of these results, you can click on the link to take you to the page with the related information. For now, close this window return to your Google Docs document. This time, with “banana” still selected, open the Tools menu once more. Select Search the web for word, and this time select Search the web for “banana” images…. This time, Google will perform an image search for the word “banana”. Instead of links, your results will be in the form of web-based images related to the selected word (see below). Make sure that any pictures you borrow from the web do not infringe on the copyright of the owners. As the Banana Tree document already has pictures, you can close this window.
You have now seen a few useful search tools that are already built into Google Docs; the Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, and the options to search the web for a web pages or for pictures related to a word.
