I will say up front, I'm coming at this as a generative AI skeptic, but I'm also not an AI doomer. There are some situations—like creating alt text for images to boost accessibility—where AI-based tools can come in handy. I prefer to find where tools can be genuinely useful, and ignore the noise. To that end, Gemini's Canvas is the one thing that's made Gemini genuinely useful to me. Instead of just asking an AI to write for me, it gives me a workspace where I can do things, and occasionally ask for help or tasks as I need it.
If you're using it for coding, you can run code directly inside Canvas. This is particularly useful for HTML-based applets when you're using Gemini in a web browser, since it's already designed for HTML. The window can switch between a preview running the code, or a text editor to manipulate it directly.
If that sounds like a much wordier way to just ask for a blank document, well, it is. LLMs are surprisingly good at understanding natural language commands, but aren't always great at succinct instructions (more on that later). What this means, though, is that it lends itself well to verbal commands.
With that in mind, here are a few use cases I've found that are actually more helpful than doing things the normal way.
Organizing brainstorms and drafts
The trick here is that Gemini can create, manage, and most importantly understand the differences between multiple different documents. For example, I sometimes use Gemini to write pitches for articles in one document, and then turn those into a draft in another. While working on the draft, I can ask Gemini to "change the status of [x] pitch to 'Finished' in the pitch doc."
As a side note, Google Docs also has an "Ask Gemini" tool embedded in it, and you'd think that this would be a better way to accomplish the same task, but for some reason, it's not. I've tried asking Gemini to make small changes to a Google Doc, but it won't actually change anything unless I manually select the text. It also can't refer out to other Google Docs in your drive, so it's weirdly more limited than Canvas in Gemini. I'll still usually copy my drafts to Docs later in the process, but for some early brainstorming, Canvas is a handy tool.
Formatting the words you write is another story. When using Canvas, Gemini can understand conversational commands like "convert all subheadings to H2" or "move the second subhead section above the first" and apply them directly. It's also great for more complex style choices, like "convert all H2 subheads to sentence case" or "if there are any semicolons in this document, obliterate them."
Make your own shortcuts for complex edits and commands
Everything I've talked about so far is true and helpful, but if I'm honest with myself, it's not quite enough to convince me to fully integrate Canvas into my workflow. What pushed me over the edge was when I figured out how to create my own shortcuts. This trick is tucked away under Settings > Saved info.
You can use this for more complex guidelines, like "When I ask for an outline, format it [however you like]". Or, if you're coding (more on that below), "When I ask for an applet, assume I want it written in HTML5." You can make these instructions conditional—as I have here—so that they only trigger when you need them.
One might very reasonably argue that there are easier ways to code this, or that the code it came out with is bad for some reason. But I don't know how to code, at least not that well. Gemini, however, is pretty great at very simple little applets like this. Just don't expect to turn anything it generates in to your boss if you're a developer.
Don't use it to replace creative or rigorous work
At the end of the day, you still have to put in the work. Setting aside that AI tools often produce low-effort work, there's the open question of whether it's even ethical to use AI for work or creativity. Most AI tools were created by scraping copyrighted data, including from people that those same tools would then try to replace. (To say nothing of the rising electricity costs that training generative AI models takes.)
AI tools can be extremely useful when they're put to the right purpose. I'll admit, I'm partly writing this aspirationally. Using Gemini's Canvas gave me a glimpse into how useful AI tools could be if they focused on being an interpretive layer for applications, rather than a replacement for doing real work.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Gemini’s ‘Canvas’ Feature Is Surprisingly Great for Word Processing and Coding )
Also on site :