It may be hard to paste code into a document, as anybody who has attempted to do so will attest. Word processing programs like Microsoft Word and Google Docs are designed to make sentences and paragraphs intelligible, so while using a monospaced font for certain portions of code might solve half of the issues, it is still not ideal. Fortunately, Google Docs has recently included a ground-breaking new feature called code blocks that aims to make displaying code within a document simple.
There are several ways to show a code block correctly in typical Word documents, but a dedicated code block feature doesn’t exist. Google Docs is superior to Microsoft Word in this area. According to Google’s announcement, users creating papers on its web platform may now input code snippets as code blocks and have them properly show within the page. This code block, along with meeting notes and other features, functions as one of several “building blocks” in Docs.
If you want to test it out, simply enter your code into the document, regardless of how ugly it appears, and then choose Insert > Building Blocks > Code Block from the menu. The code you just wrote will then be transformed by Docs into a smart code block, with the appropriate styling and colors being applied automatically. It’s a cool tool that enables you to display code the way it should be shown, improving collaboration inside a document as well as its readability.
It may take a few weeks for the capability to go out to all Google Workspace business customers, which are now receiving it. Unfortunately, the blog article indicates that the functionality won’t be available to Google personal accounts, so it appears that the majority of users will miss out on the fun. Who knows, though, if it will happen in the future?
