Gemini in Google Workspace · Lesson 4 of 7

Gemini in Docs and Drive: draft from your files, find and summarize

20 minutes. Write a first draft built from documents you already have, and find the file you need by asking a question.

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Most of what your business knows is already written down somewhere in Drive. The service agreement. Last year's proposal for the school district. The new-hire checklist. The notes from the meeting where you decided the price increase.

The problem isn't that the knowledge is missing. It's that nobody can find it, and nobody wants to start a new document from a blank page. Gemini in Docs and Drive helps with both.

Ask the search bar a question

Google's Drive help describes AI Overviews in Drive search:

• Go to drive.google.com on your computer.
• Type a question in the search bar, not just a file name.
• An overview appears at the top with a short answer.
• Click the citations in the answer to open the files it came from.

Google's own examples are "What is the Q3 marketing budget?" and "Summarize the ABC project timeline for this year." At Comfort Zone, Tanya tried:

• "What's our current warranty on new furnace installs?"
• "When does the Henderson Property Management service agreement renew?"

Google's help also says you can choose where it looks. Click the AI Overview search button and tick or untick sources such as Drive files, Gmail attachments, Chat uploads and Calendar attachments.

Always click the citation. The overview is a pointer to the right file, not the final word. If the warranty doc it found is the 2023 version, the overview is out of date too.

Ask Gemini in Drive

For bigger questions, click Ask Gemini at the top right of Drive. Google's help says this opens a full-screen view, with sources on the left and a prompt box at the bottom. From there you can ask about several files at once. Try:

• "Summarize the three most recent proposals in the Proposals folder. What did each one quote for labor?"
• "Compare our 2025 and 2026 maintenance plan documents. What changed?"

This is where Gemini earns its keep. Instead of writing from scratch, you ask it to start from your real documents.

Google's steps:

• Open a document in Google Docs.
• At the top right, click Ask Gemini.
• To point Gemini at specific files, click Sources, then Add from Drive (or another location). Or type @ in the prompt box, then search for and select a file.
• Type what you want.
• When you like the result, click Insert to put it in your document.

Google's own example prompt is: "Update the project timeline based on the latest updates from our meeting notes doc." And to see which files Gemini used, click Sources at the bottom of its response.

A worked example

Marcus needs a proposal for a new commercial customer, a dental office that wants a maintenance plan for four rooftop units. Last spring he wrote a similar one for a veterinary clinic.

He opens a new Doc, clicks Ask Gemini, and types:

> Using @Vet Clinic Maintenance Proposal 2026 and @Commercial Maintenance Plan Price Sheet, draft a proposal for Bright Smile Dental for quarterly maintenance on four rooftop units. Keep the same section headings as the vet clinic proposal. Use only prices from the price sheet. Where you need a fact you don't have, write [CHECK] instead of guessing.

He gets a full first draft in under a minute. Then he does the part Gemini can't: he reads every price against the price sheet, fills in the two [CHECK] marks, and changes one paragraph that promised a response time he doesn't offer.

Three habits from that example are worth stealing:

• Name the files. "Using @this and @that" gives better results than "using our files."
• Say what not to do. "Use only prices from the price sheet."
• Ask for [CHECK] marks where a fact is missing. It's easier to fill a gap than to spot a made-up number.

Save as you go

Google's help says you lose your Gemini conversation in Docs when you refresh the page or close and reopen the document. Its advice is to insert the output into the document. If you want to keep it, click Insert.

Not every task is a new document. With a long Doc open, try these in the side panel:

• "Summarize this document in five bullet points for someone who hasn't read it."
• "List every date and deadline in this document."
• "Rewrite the second section so a customer with no technical background can follow it."
• "What questions would a new customer likely ask after reading this?"

Gemini can only use files you can open. If a proposal draft pulls in something it shouldn't, the problem is usually sharing, not Gemini. Go back to your Drive Oversharing Check and fix the source.

And a document Gemini drafts is still your document. If it goes to a customer, a person reads every line first.

• Ask Drive search three real questions. Click the citation each time and confirm the answer.
• Draft one real document in Docs from at least two of your own files, using @ to name them. Ask for [CHECK] marks.
• Check every fact in the draft against the source files. Fill in or remove every [CHECK].
• Save the prompt that worked best on your Gemini Prompt Card.

Check it worked

• You found a file by asking a question, and confirmed it was the current version.
• You have one real draft built from your own files, with every fact checked by a person.
• No [CHECK] marks are left in anything that's going to a customer.
• Your best Docs prompt is saved where you'll find it next time.

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Next: the spreadsheet everyone dreads, and the meeting notes nobody takes.

→ Lesson 5: Gemini in Sheets and Meet: organize, analyze, take notes

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