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# Google Docs: Streamline Workflow with Placeholder Chips
- URL: https://www.jeffsu.org/productivity-ping-146/
- Published: 2024-02-13T13:02:02.000Z
- Updated: 2025-09-05T12:56:28.000Z
- Description: #146
- Author: Jeff
- Tags: #newsletter, Google Docs

*(you can* [*filter previous issues*](https://www.jeffsu.org/filter-previous-editions-by-app/) *by application)*

Happy Lunar New Year friends! To celebrate, I'm sending two productivity tips your way this week – check this one out, another coming Friday! 😁

## Does this look familiar?

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2024/02/CleanShot-2024-02-12-at-09.27.08.gif)

If your first thought was, “Yes! Jeff talked about [this Custom Blocks feature](https://www.jeffsu.org/productivity-ping-138/) last month!” then you would be correct!

Good job, gold star for you (totally not being sarcastic 😏).

If you watched the .gif through to the end though, you might have noticed I combined **the Custom Blocks feature** with **Placeholder Chips** for an even more streamlined workflow!

## What are Placeholder Chips?

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2024/02/CleanShot-2024-02-12-at-09.41.46.gif)

Within Google Docs, you can use the “@placeholder chip” command to insert…well, placeholder chips:

- People
- File
- Date
- Calendar event
- Place

This in and of itself might not be that useful but by adding Placeholder Chips within Custom Blocks, you can create extremely flexible templates that save a bunch of time over the long run.

For example, my team and I often have to request access to databases and dashboards for work, so I created and shared this Custom Block + Placeholder Chip combo with them:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2024/02/image-10.png)

Now we can just use the “@requestaccess” shortcut to insert and edit a standardized snippet in less than 30 seconds!

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/85/db858a9d-1c4f-4993-8042-faa87b9bb3c1/content/images/2024/02/CleanShot-2024-02-13-at-20.48.32.gif)

[Try it out and let me know what you think!](https://www.jeffsu.org/productivity-ping-146/#ghost-comments-root)

---

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