Hi Reader,

Welcome to Future Proof #4 (formerly the Google Sheets Tips newsletter), your Monday morning espresso, in AI form!

My son and I had some fun 3-D printing over the weekend. I printed a rugged case to hold my Field Notes journals (see the finished result at the end of this email).

It's impressive to watch something grow from nothing, although since the full print took around 3 hours I didn't watch the whole thing ;)

And now, perhaps more than ever before, there's a deep satisfaction that comes from creating something with physical form—something tactile—since our lives are increasingly conducted online.

Anyway, that's enough waffling, let's dive it to a roundup of Google news before today's AI tip...

→ Workspace & Gemini News

I.
​Developers can now programmatically create, read, and manage comments across Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides using their respective developer APIs!

II.​
Google recently announced a new, dedicated learning hub within the Gemini app to help students get started with Gemini learning tools.

→ Applied AI Tip: Everything you need to know about Markdown

Let's talk about Markdown in this week's newsletter, because it's having a moment in the limelight right now.

What Is Markdown?

Markdown is a simple language for formatting plain text files that uses a straightforward syntax to add structure like headings or bullet points.

It's a lightweight language that maximises the formatting context for the lowest token consumption. This makes it economical and fast to use with AI tools.

Also, being platform independent and not proprietary means it's easily shared between tools.

Why Is It Important?

Markdown has become the go-to file format for AI tools, like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude. These models work with Markdown natively.

If you write instructions or specifications to share with AI tools, the best format to use is Markdown.

And even if you don't explicitly create or use Markdown files, it's useful to be aware of it for when it comes up in AI conversations.

How To Create Markdown Files

The easiest way to create a markdown file is to export from Google Docs:

1. Open your doc in Google Docs
2. Go to the menu File > Download
3. Select the option Markdown (.md)

Alternatively, you can open any basic text editor and type markdown directly (using the cheat sheet below for syntax reference) and save the file as a ".md" markdown type.

How Does It Work?

Traditional text formatting (called rich text formatting) can't be cleanly parsed as tokens in the AI models. But markdown can be.

It uses a standardized series of lightweight characters to signify formatting styles and these are cheap and easy for the LLMs to process.

Markdown Cheat Sheet

Red text is the markdown format. For example, if you write a "#" sign it signifies an H1 level heading, etc.

Heading
​# H1
## H2
### H3

Bold
​**bold**

Italic
​*italic*

Inline code
​`code`

Code block
​``` code ```

Link ​
[text](url)

Image​
![alt text](image.jpg)

Bullet list
​- item

Numbered list
​1. item

Blockquote
​> quote

Horizontal rule
​---

Find a full list of markdown syntax here.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to a friend who might enjoy it.

Have a great week!

Cheers,
Ben

P.S. Here's the finished case, with black hinges/clasps: