Beginner's Guide to Google Workspace

What is Google Workspace?

It's a suite of web-based apps by Google which the school has chosen to be their core productivity platform. The most well known competitor is Microsoft 365.

Accessing Google Workspace

You access Google Workspace by signing into your school google (which was provided to you when you started at the school) using a web browser; usually Google Chrome.

Benefits of Google Workspace

Everything runs in the web browser, which means you don't have to install software and keep them up to date.
You can easily share your documents with others and collaborate in real time.
Documents auto save constantly, so it's much harder to lose your work.

Accessing Google Apps

Because Google is entirely web-based, accessing an app is as simple as visiting the app's webpage. There are lots of ways you can find them, but to start with we recommend you look on the school's staff or student portal.

Once you start working in Google Workspace you will notice there are many others ways to access and navigate between google apps.

As with any website, if you find yourself on an app or document that you want to be able to get back to later, consider bookmarking it in Google Chrome. The keyboard shortcut for that is Ctrl+D (Windows, Chromebook) or Command+D (Mac).

Learning to use each app

We have listed all the common Google apps below, including their webpage URL so that you can access them, and a link to get more training.

If you're not sure where to start, we recommend you work through them in the order that they appear.

Sharing and Collaborating

Being able to quickly share documents and work on them with others is a core feature of Google Workspace.

Look for the Share button at the top right corner of most google apps.

In the context of Google Workspace, share means 'give somebody access to this file'. You aren't sending them a copy, you're letting them work on the same document with you!

When sharing, you choose whether to give view-only access, commenter access (to add suggestions and feedback but not change the document), or edit access.

If necessary you can also make a file accessible to everyone at the school, or make it public.

If somebody already has access to a document and you just want to point them to it, don't use 'share' - just copy the link!