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Quick Look Course Summary:Google Workspace Essentials (1 day)
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Next Public Course Date:
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Length: 1 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 5,654 EX VAT 3 Person R 3,982 EX VAT 10 Person R 2,954 EX VAT
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Certification Type:Non-Accredited
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Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.

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Google Workspace Essentials (1 day)
A team that files, finds, shares, meets and co-edits properly in Google Workspace – without attachments flying around or six copies of the same document.
A growing number of South African organisations run on Google Workspace rather than Microsoft Office: schools, NGOs, agencies, start-ups and many small and medium businesses. Staff arriving from a Microsoft background often use a fraction of what the organisation pays for, and work slows down while people hunt for files and re-send attachments. This one-day Google Workspace training gets a team working properly in Drive, Gmail, Meet, Docs, Sheets and Slides.
The morning covers Drive and Gmail: filing, finding and sharing with the right permissions, keeping the inbox under control, and working offline when the power or the connection goes. It moves on to Meet for scheduling, running and sharing a screen in a video meeting. The afternoon is spent in Docs, Sheets and Slides: formatting a document, building a spreadsheet with functions and charts, assembling a presentation, and the collaboration tools – comments, suggestions, version history and co-editing – that make Workspace different from desktop Office.
Delegates practise on realistic workplace files, including converting Word and Excel documents to Google formats, and leave with a set of habits for a team that shares everything in the cloud.
Why this course
For your organisation
- One copy of every document, shared with the right people, instead of attachments and duplicates
- Staff who are productive in Workspace within days of joining, not months
- Fewer support calls about lost files, sharing problems and meeting links
- Better value from the Google Workspace licences you already pay for
- Sensible sharing habits for documents that contain personal information
For your delegates
- A tidy Drive and an inbox you can keep under control
- Confidence to run a Google Meet and share your screen without fuss
- The core skills in Docs, Sheets and Slides for everyday work
- A clear picture of how Workspace differs from Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and how to move files between them
What delegates will be able to do
- Organise files and folders in Drive, find any file in seconds and share it with the right level of access
- Set up Gmail to suit how they work, and keep the inbox organised with labels, filters, stars and snooze
- Manage contacts and groups, and find old messages with search operators
- Use Gmail and Drive offline when the power or the connection is down
- Schedule, launch and run a Google Meet, share a screen and manage sound, video and bandwidth
- Create and format a document in Docs with headings, tables, images and links, and collaborate on it
- Build a spreadsheet in Sheets with formatting, functions, sorting, filtering and a chart
- Import Excel and CSV files into Sheets and convert Word files to Docs
- Put together a presentation in Slides and share or present it
Who should attend
Staff at organisations that run on Google Workspace, teams moving from Microsoft Office to Google, new employees being onboarded onto Workspace, and anyone who uses Gmail and Drive every day but has never been shown the rest. No previous Workspace experience is needed; delegates should be comfortable using a computer and a web browser.
Course outline
Day 1 – Working properly in Google Workspace
Google Drive: filing, finding and sharing
- How the Workspace apps fit together and where your files actually live
- My Drive, shared drives and files shared with you
- Uploading, creating, moving, renaming and starring files; building a folder structure a team can follow
- Finding a file fast with search, filters and recent activity
- Changing the view, settings and offline access
- Sharing files and folders: viewer, commenter and editor; links; stopping sharing
- Sharing with care when a document contains personal information (POPIA)
Gmail: an inbox under control
- Settings that save time: signature, out-of-office, inbox type, undo send and keyboard shortcuts
- Labels, filters, archive, stars and snooze instead of a 4,000-message inbox
- Contacts and groups; sending to a team in one go
- Finding any message with search operators
- Sending Drive links instead of large attachments
- Gmail offline for load-shedding, travel and poor connections
Google Meet: video meetings that work
- Scheduling a meeting from Calendar or Gmail, and launching one on the spot
- Inviting colleagues and outside guests, and joining from a phone
- Sharing a tab, a window or the whole screen
- Managing camera, microphone, backgrounds and bandwidth on a slow connection
- Host controls: muting, chat, hand-raising and removing participants
- Running a tidy hybrid meeting with people in the room and online
Google Docs: documents and collaboration
- Page setup: margins, orientation, page and pageless layouts
- Fonts, text attributes, paragraph formatting and headings
- Lists, tables, images, drawings, links, page numbers and a table of contents
- Spelling, grammar and other content tools
- Comments, suggesting mode and version history
- Sharing a document and co-editing it with colleagues at the same time
- Converting a Word file to Docs, and downloading as Word or PDF
Google Sheets: spreadsheets with functions and charts
- Entering and editing values; inserting, deleting, resizing and freezing rows and columns
- Number formats, cell formatting and conditional formatting
- Functions: SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN, MAX and IF
- Sorting, filtering, filter views and data validation drop-downs
- Inserting a chart, an image or a link
- Importing and converting Excel and CSV files
- Sharing a sheet, protecting ranges and working on it together
Google Slides: a presentation that holds together
- Starting from a theme or template; slide layouts
- Adding and formatting text
- Images, shapes, charts from Sheets and video
- Arranging, aligning and grouping objects
- Speaker notes and presenting from the browser
- Sharing a presentation and exporting it to PowerPoint or PDF
How it is delivered
One day, 08:30-16:00. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20, each at a computer with a web browser and a Google account – ideally their own Workspace account so settings and files carry over. Laptops with the software can be supplied on request. Workbook and practice files included. We deliver it at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and anywhere else in South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online for teams in different places.
What our clients say
★★★★★ 4.8 on Google from 770+ reviews · word-for-word quotes from signed letters of reference
“Business Optimization Training Institute facilitated Microsoft Excel Training for our company. The course was efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training.”
“The training was very informative and practical, leaving our employees feeling confident in their ability to leverage Excel more effectively.”
“The training courses were efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training. I look forward to working with Business Optimization Training Institute in the future.”
Frequently asked questions
We use Microsoft Office. Is this course for us?
Only if you are moving to Google Workspace or work with partners who use it. Organisations on Microsoft 365 should look at our Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook courses instead.
Do delegates need a Google Workspace account?
Ideally yes, so that what they set up on the day stays with them. If your Workspace is not live yet, delegates can practise on free Google accounts; shared drives and some admin-controlled settings are then not available.
Can you run this course at our offices?
Yes. Most groups are trained at the client's premises anywhere in South Africa; we can also host it at a BOTI venue or deliver it live online. Laptops with the software can be supplied on request.
How many people can attend?
From one delegate to groups of about 20, each at their own computer. The price per delegate drops as the group grows – see the price table, or ask us for a quote.
Is it accredited?
No – it is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
Can we spend more time on one application?
Yes. Tell us which apps matter most to your team – for example more Sheets and less Slides – and the facilitator adjusts the day. Google Calendar, Chat and Forms can be added on request.
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