Give Faster Feedback with Keyboard Shortcuts

When using Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Drawings you can insert feedback comments by using the keyboard shortcut Control Alt M. (Command Option M on a Mac.) This is much faster than other methods to insert feedback comments, and as teachers, we need every second we can get.

Control Alt M

Highlight the word or phrase you wish to give a comment on. Hold down Control and Alt and press M for comment. A note off to the side will appear. DO NOT CLICK ON THE NOTE you can immediately start typing.

Control Enter

Do NOT touch the mouse! Type your comment and hold down the Control key and press Enter. (Command Enter on a Mac.) The comment will save.

New Google Classroom Beta

If you have access to the new interface* for Google Classroom you can try the new feedback/grading workflow. When you click on a student’s “attachment” from Google Classroom it opens the document in a feedback shell. You are able to use the same keyboard shortcuts of Control Alt M to insert feedback comments. However, the new workflow from Classroom has the added bonus of a comment bank. When inserting a comment type the pound symbol (#) and it will bring up the comments you added to the question bank in the sidebar.

*New features are said to roll out in the Fall of 2018. Date unknown.