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This article was published on July 12, 2016

This is what happens when Google uses your name in its Docs templates


This is what happens when Google uses your name in its Docs templates Image by: Elegant Themes

Google included a bunch of templates in its Docs app to make it easier for users to create resumes, brochures, school essays and newsletters. Unfortunately, they’ve made life more difficult for Casey Baumer.

The company, most certainly unknowningly, used her name in the dummy text across all of its templates in the app as an example so people could see how the document would be formatted; the idea is to replace her name, (obviously) fake address and other details with your own when you create your own documents.

Thanks to Google’s thoughtful feature, loads of folks have been contacting Baumer for the past two years to find out who she is and what her name is doing on their project proposals and book reports. Her ‘Others’ inbox on Facebook is full of such messages from people demanding to know how she hacked into their accounts to create documents. There’s even a fictional story about her.

Here’s my favorite message from the ones Baumer shared:

Why does my husbands Google Docs have your name all over them?

Oh, I almost forgot about this gem:

I have no idea who you are but you name is on my google doc page with a resume I don’t want it there and I have to try and figure out how to get rid of the pages now. What is wrong with you

Baumer told Business Insider that she’s now tired of explaining the mix-up and posted a couple of status updates on Facebook to try and get Google’s attention. Luckily, the company caught wind of this; a spokesperson said it’s working on updating its template names.

It’s probably only a matter of time before we hear about Parker Tech’s overflowing inbox; the Clayton, North Carolina-based tech support firm’s name is on several templates in Google Sheets.

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