This week’s introduction section is a bit different.

I have Jeremy Caplan with me, who will teach you some nifty Google Docs tricks that will help you leverage some of the app's lesser-known features.

Jeremy Caplan is the director of teaching and learning at CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and the writer of the weekly newsletter Wonder Tools.

Jeremy: Google Docs is a contemporary classic. It’s less powerful than Notion, Coda or Craft and less streamlined than Bear, Ulysses, Drafts, or iA Writer.

But it’s so reliable — and has so many capabilities — that I still use it regularly.

Read on for useful features to try:

1. Add email drafts and project trackers inside your doc

Inspired by Notion & Coda, GDocs now lets you insert “building blocks.”

These include mini-templates for meeting notes and tracking content. One block lets you create an email draft. You can collaborate on it in a doc, then send in Gmail.

Type @ and choose the block you want:

2. Translate your text automatically

Share your doc in another language. Your original is preserved — GDocs creates a translated copy.

It’s not human quality, but it’s enough for the gist.

Go to Tools > Translate document:

3. Display a live word count

Show a persistent count at the bottom left of your editing window.

Go to Tools > Word count— or Command-Shift-C — and check the box for “Display word count while typing.”

If you’ve enjoyed these quick tips, you’ll like Jeremy’s newsletter, Wonder Tools, which focuses on making the most of the best sites and apps to simplify your workflow. More than 38,000 subscribers rely on the free weekly email by Jeremy, who used to write for Time Magazine.

In 5 weekly minutes, you'll catch-up on what's most useful.

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Now, let's move on to the rest of this newsletter issue: