Recently, my wife Julie was asking me about converting a document from Microsoft Word to Google Docs. A colleague of hers had created a template in Word that included drop-down menus and checkboxes, and Julie wanted to convert it to Google Docs, which does not have controls like that. The substitution we came up with was to create "text shortcuts" in Docs.
Docs has a number of text shortcuts built-in: © for (c), ½ for 1/2, ⇒ for -->, etc. You can remove some of those, if they bother you, or you can create your own. Text shortcuts are defined in the Preferences box, from the Tools menu.
Once you're there, you can enter your shortcuts. Julie created shortcuts for the drop-down menu selections from the original Word template: @i for "Independent", @p for "Progressing", etc. Then in the table in Google Docs, she can just type the shortcut plus a space, and the full word is filled in. This could work even better for longer phrases or sentences that you find yourself typing repeatedly.
For the checkboxes, she created a shortcut @x for the filled-in checkbox character ⛝. Then, to "check" a box, she selects the empty box, types @x and a space, and voila! ("Voila" is French for "OMG!" -ed.) This solves a problem for me as well, since I am in the same situation for an online class I am taking, using a Word document with checkboxes that I am trying to use in Google Docs. Try it for yourself and see how it can help you!
Once you're there, you can enter your shortcuts. Julie created shortcuts for the drop-down menu selections from the original Word template: @i for "Independent", @p for "Progressing", etc. Then in the table in Google Docs, she can just type the shortcut plus a space, and the full word is filled in. This could work even better for longer phrases or sentences that you find yourself typing repeatedly.
For the checkboxes, she created a shortcut @x for the filled-in checkbox character ⛝. Then, to "check" a box, she selects the empty box, types @x and a space, and voila! ("Voila" is French for "OMG!" -ed.) This solves a problem for me as well, since I am in the same situation for an online class I am taking, using a Word document with checkboxes that I am trying to use in Google Docs. Try it for yourself and see how it can help you!
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