51 G Suite Tips and Tricks

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) includes more than a dozen individual productivity tools, and nearly all of them offer features that most users never discover. This guide covers 51 tips and tricks across all major Google Workspace products to help you get more out of the platform. For more on available tools in Google Workspace, see our dedicated overview.

What General Google Workspace Tips Should Every User Know?

1. Choose the right pricing plan. Google Workspace offers multiple packages. The Basic plan covers most fundamentals. Business adds more storage, better support, and stronger security controls. Enterprise provides the highest level of security and administrative features. Specialized plans like Google Workspace for Education are also available for specific industries.

2. Explore third-party apps and add-ons. One of Google’s biggest advantages is its openness to third-party developers. Through the Google Workspace Marketplace, you can find hundreds of integrated tools to enhance core products—or embed new functionality into apps you already use. Browse the available Google Workspace apps and Google Workspace add-ons to find options that fit your workflow. Many are free.

3. Learn all the available tools. Gmail and Google Docs get the most attention, but Google Workspace includes Keep for note-taking, Google Forms for surveys and quizzes, Jamboard for visual collaboration, and many more. Do not let useful tools go undiscovered.

4. Use Cloud Search. Available on Business and Enterprise plans, Cloud Search performs a comprehensive search across all apps and users to find exactly the file you need. It eliminates the need to browse through individual apps and folders manually.

5. Control user permissions and security. Even Basic accounts include administrative controls and security settings, and these grow more robust as you scale to higher plans. Manage these actively—a security breach or unauthorized file access could jeopardize your entire operation.

What Are the Best Tips for Google Keep and Google Drive?

Google Keep

Google Keep is a note-taking app designed for meeting notes, to-do lists, and quick task management.

6. Create team task lists. Keep supports team-based task lists with color-coding and labels. Create a different color and label for each team, enable sharing, and you have a lightweight platform for comprehensive team-based to-dos.

7. Set location-based reminders. Beyond time-based reminders, Keep allows you to set reminders tied to a physical location. For example, attach a grocery list to a store location, and you will receive an automatic pop-up when you arrive.

Google Drive

Google Drive is Google Workspace’s built-in file storage and synchronization service.

8. Use Workspaces and Priority. Beyond folders, Drive lets you create Workspaces—groups of files you use together frequently. Google will even recommend Workspaces based on your activity. Set one up for each department or major client. The Priority feature surfaces your most important files and to-do items above the rest.

9. Manage Drive permissions. Sharing files is easy, but do not get too lax with sharing standards. As an administrator, manage permissions with close scrutiny.

10. Set expiration dates for sensitive files. When sharing something you want someone to see only temporarily—such as a snapshot of a work-in-progress—use the “Access expires” option in Shared settings to set an expiration date.

11. Find assigned tasks in real-time. Google Docs, Sheets, and other platforms allow task assignment, but Drive lets you see all your assigned tasks at once. Use Advanced Search and select “Action items only” to display only files with tasks assigned to you.

What Are the Most Useful Gmail Tips and Tricks?

12. Visualize your email habits. You spend much of your work life emailing—drafting, reading, organizing. EmailAnalytics lets you visualize your email activity, including how many emails you send and receive, your average email response time, and more. You can install it for your entire team to evaluate employee email habits.

13. Send self-destructing or 2-step authorization emails. Click the lock-and-clock icon in any email draft to access Confidential mode. This allows you to set an expiration date (so the email cannot be read after a certain time) or require the recipient to verify their identity with an SMS passcode—enabling two-factor authentication for viewing the email.

14. Set up automatic filters. Gmail filters organize emails as they arrive, saving significant time. Conduct an advanced search using the search bar to define parameters like sender, recipient, or subject line content. Click “Create filter” to instruct Gmail on how to handle matching emails automatically. For step-by-step instructions and filter ideas, see our guide on Gmail filters.

15. Create templates (formerly canned responses). Go to Settings, navigate to the Advanced tab, and enable Templates. Once enabled, type a message in any draft and save it as a template with a descriptive name like “rejection letter” or “welcome aboard.” When composing new emails, click the vertical ellipses, select Templates, and insert saved content instantly.

16. Integrate with Calendar and Keep. Gmail integrates directly with Google Calendar and Keep. With any message open, click the vertical ellipses at the top, then select Add to Tasks or Create Event to convert an email into a calendar item, note, or to-do item.

17. Set and track to-do items. Use the Tasks icon on the right side of Gmail’s desktop app to keep track of everything you have to do. The interface is intuitive—search, sort, and check off tasks as you complete them.

18. Use the Snooze button. When you receive an email that warrants a response but you are not ready to respond, click the clock icon and snooze the email until a specific time and date. The email will reappear in your inbox as if received for the first time. Access snoozed emails early through the Snooze section in the left-hand menu.

19. Learn keyboard shortcuts. Gmail has over 100 built-in keyboard shortcuts, and each one saves a few seconds per use. Master common commands like composing a new message or sending, and create custom shortcuts through the Advanced tab in Settings.

20. Mute annoying threads. For email threads that go on endlessly without relevance to you, click the vertical ellipses at the top of the thread and select “Mute.” The thread will be hidden from your inbox with no further notifications. You can unmute later if needed.

21. Un-send emails. In Settings under the General tab, find Undo Send and set the cancellation period to 30 seconds for the maximum window. After sending any email, you will have a brief window to reclaim it before full delivery. For detailed instructions, see how to unsend an email in Gmail.

22. Customize Gmail tabs. By default, your Gmail inbox is organized with Primary, Social, and Promotions tabs. Adjust these in Settings under the Inbox tab—remove Social and/or Promotions, or add Updates and/or Forums to filter additional message types.

23. Use labels, markers, and stars. Labels work like folders, tagging emails by sender, importance, or any factor you choose. Importance markers highlight which emails are worth reading first. Colored stars help you identify email types at a glance.

24. Train Gmail to use your preferred markings. If you use labels, markers, and stars consistently, Gmail learns from your habits and begins applying them automatically to incoming emails. For patterns Gmail does not pick up on, create a new filter to handle them.

What Google Docs Features Improve Collaboration and Productivity?

25. Type with your voice. Google Docs allows you to type with your voice. Ensure a microphone is connected, click Tools, select Voice typing, then click the microphone icon to begin. It takes practice with punctuation and corrections, but it can significantly increase your speed.

26. Compare documents to highlight differences. With one version of a document open, click Tools, then Compare Documents. Select the second document to compare against, and Docs will highlight every difference between the two.

27. Use digital signatures. Install a digital signature add-on by selecting Add-ons in the menu and clicking “Get add-ons.” Multiple providers are available. This speeds up identity verification and contract processing.

28. Translate documents instantly. Click Tools, then Translate to convert an entire document or a selected section of text into your chosen language. Google’s translation is not a substitute for human translation but is effective for quick comprehension.

29. Comment and link to comments. Highlight a section, click the speech bubble icon on the right, and enter a comment. Once posted, click the vertical ellipses on the comment to get a shareable link—this directs collaborators straight to the comment without searching through the document. This feature is especially useful for remote team collaboration.

30. Browse version history. Click File, then Version history, then See version history to view all earlier versions of your document. You can see who made edits, what they changed, and when. Name different versions to make future reference easier.

What Are the Best Tips for Google Sheets and Google Slides?

Google Sheets

31. Sync data between multiple spreadsheets. It is possible to sync one spreadsheet to another in Google Sheets, keeping information consistent across files. The process involves referencing data from an original spreadsheet into a destination spreadsheet. Follow Google’s official instructions here.

32. Use the Activity Dashboard to track collaboration. As a Google Workspace administrator, the Activity Dashboard lets you track who is viewing and editing files. This is especially valuable in Sheets where dozens of users may be modifying the same file.

33. Get creative with data visualization. Sheets offers dozens of chart types in the Insert tab. Conditional formatting takes visualization further—create a heat map by setting gradually more intense colors for minpoint, midpoint, and maxpoint values, then adjust the midpoint to a percentile for meaningful gradient displays.

Google Slides

34. Pull images from Google Drive. Head to Insert, hover over Image, and click Drive to navigate directly to images stored in your Google Drive. This eliminates the need to download and re-upload files.

35. Replicate formatting across objects. Highlight the formatted object you want to copy, click the Paint Format icon, then highlight the new area to apply the formatting. Press Escape to stop.

36. Use the built-in laser pointer. During a presentation, click the laser pointer icon at the bottom of the screen (to the right of “Presenter view”) to transform your mouse into a laser pointer.

What Are the Best Tips for Google Calendar and Google Contacts?

Google Calendar

37. Use keyboard shortcuts. Google Calendar supports keyboard shortcuts for navigating dates, changing views, and modifying events. Mastering these saves significant time over clicking through menus.

38. Transfer event ownership. When you can no longer host a meeting, open the Options menu, click Change Owner, and enter the new owner’s information. They will receive a notification of the transfer.

39. Attach files to events. Ensure attendees have agendas in advance by attaching files to calendar events. Create an event, click More options, and click Add attachment at the bottom of the description box. Upload from your desktop or Google Drive.

40. View available meeting times. When creating an event, add participants and check the “Suggested times” feature on the right. Google automatically recommends timeslots that work for everyone (or as many participants as possible).

Google Contacts

41. Use labels to organize contacts. Just like Gmail, Google Contacts supports custom labels. Create and assign labels based on where contacts work, where you met them, or how they relate to your projects.

42. Delegate contacts to colleagues. If contact sharing is enabled for your organization, click the Settings icon, then Delegate access, then Invite delegate. All invited users can view and manage your contacts.

43. Search for contacts effectively. The search feature in Google Contacts is efficient—type whatever information you can remember and search by label if possible. The search is intuitive enough to narrow results from partial information.

What Are the Best Tips for Google Hangouts and Google Forms?

Google Hangouts

44. Use the Meet bot in Chat. The Meet bot schedules, modifies, and cancels meetings using natural language commands (for more, see our list of online meeting scheduling apps). Open Chat, click “Find people, rooms, bots,” enter “meet,” and select the bot. Use @meet to give instructions like “schedule a meeting with Dave today at 4:30 pm.” Learn more about the Meet bot here.

45. Create polls during meetings. Use the free third-party Polly add-on to create polls in large meetings. Call out @Polly and create your poll line by line to quickly tally votes or gauge the room’s opinion.

46. Use Smart Reply. Smart Reply suggests responses based on the content of messages you receive. Pay attention to these suggestions—if you learn to trust them and select the most appropriate response, you can save a minute or two per interaction. Over time, those minutes add up. Smart Reply is also available in Gmail.

47. Snooze and manage notifications. Snooze notifications by clicking your status and setting a snooze duration. For more granular control, go to Settings, click Web and Desktop, and configure which notifications you want to receive. Reducing interruptions during focus work improves productivity significantly.

48. Use Jamboard for visual collaboration. Jamboard functions as an interactive team whiteboard where users can sketch, drop images, and engage with visual elements in real time. Adding a visual element to team meetings often improves comprehension and engagement.

Google Forms

Google Forms is useful for market research, customer satisfaction surveys, group decisions, and evaluating employee satisfaction.

49. Create quizzes and surveys. Forms works for both external research and internal team decisions. Use it for customer surveys, employee engagement checks, onboarding quizzes, or office-wide polls.

50. Enable email notifications for submissions. In the Responses tab of your form, click the vertical ellipses and select “Get email notifications for new responses.” You will receive an email every time someone submits a response.

51. Add logic branching. Create conditional survey paths that route respondents to different sections based on their answers. First, create multiple sections using the twin-rectangles icon. Add a required multiple-choice question at the end of a section, click the vertical ellipses next to “Required,” and select “Go to section based on answer.” This allows personalized survey experiences based on demographic data or other responses.

Frequently Asked Questions About Google Workspace Tips and Tricks