Part of the big update to Google Docs back in September was the introduction of new and useful templates to help users of the service start up common types of documents quickly. The company has now taken that one step further, announcing today that it has created new templates ‘designed by experts’ to cover new use cases.
The new templates — which can be found in Docs as well as Sheets and Slides both in browser and for mobile on iOS and Android — offer a few specific use cases for both children and adults.
Popular children’s reading show Reading Rainbow, along with host LeVar Burton, have come up with a lesson plan for teachers and book report for students. Intuit has created an annual budget sheet for business owners watching the bottom line. And ‘Made to Stick‘ authors Chip and Dan Heath offer a ‘big idea’ slide template to get presentations up and running.
Google has also ported some of its expertise into templates. Google Science Fair, for example, now offers a science fair slide template to help students get started on reporting their experiments. And the GV (Google Ventures) team provided a pitch deck for entrepreneurs to learn what to expect to bring to an investors’ meeting.
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All in all, it’s another step towards making Google Docs, Sheets and Slides an attractive free alternative to the document processors that are offered by competitors. Templates seems like a ‘nice to have’ for many — I don’t find myself reaching for them on a regular basis — but adding them to the mix means that software like Microsoft Office has a little less of an edge.
Templates are available today.
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