Google is always looking for ways to enhance user experience and they are particularly good at integrating more tools into their existing products. This time they are offering some useful refinements to Google Docs. If you’re a researcher you’re gonna love this.

Now when you are composing in Google Docs you will have access to a research pane which can bring up information relevant to what you are writing about. So if you are writing a paper about George Washington and you forgot to document a fact about his life, all you have to do is go into tools and bring up the research pane.

Here’s what Google had to say about the Research Pane in their Blog:

“You can access the research pane from the Tools menu by right clicking on a selected word that you want to learn more about, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+R on Windows or Cmd+Alt+R on Mac. From the research pane, you can search for whatever info you need to help you write your document. With just a couple clicks you can look up maps, quotes, images, and much more.”

“If you find something you like, you can add it by clicking the insert button or, for images, by dragging them directly into your document. If appropriate we’ll automatically add a footnote citation so there’s a record of where you found the info.”

Here’s what it will look like:

So if you’re a frequent user of Google Docs, this should make your life a little easier and of course, make your papers and articles just a little richer. If you haven’t tried Google docs, you should really take advantage of this wonderful free service. You can compose, save, store, and access your documents from anywhere there’s an internet signal and you never have to worry about losing anything, even if you forget to hit the save button.