Duplicate Content & Insert Emoji & Icons in Sites

Copy and Paste with One Obvious Button

In a June 30, 2023 post on the Google Workspace Updates Blog, we were notified of an update to Google Sites involving the easy duplication of objects, object groups and content blocks via a handy Duplicate icon in the editing toolbar. This update was included in a Weekly Recap, so it was a little difficult to spot. The duplication icon appears everywhere throughout Google Sites, especially now. For example, beside content blocks allowing you to easily copy and paste entire prepared sections of your website. Duplication is supported with:

• Images

• Buttons

• Text Boxes

• Object Groups

• Content blocks

Of course you were always able to duplicate entire web pages and web sites. This functionality has not changed. Actually you were always able to copy / paste in Google Sites, but this makes it more obvious to new learners on the site builder. They have updated the Google Sites support article on adding, editing to reflect this update.

You may have noticed a short video gif was also provided to accompany the update. What can be glean from this demonstration? Yes, your copied content appears directly below in a new content block. Also, briefly you can see a new icon in the text editing toolbar — an emoticon! 😲 What do we know about using emoticons in Google Sites?

How to Use Emoji in Google Sites

You can add icons in text by right clicking and selecting Emoticons from your menu (windows shortcut that is Win + Period). Once Emoji mode is enabled you can begin typing to discover relevant emoji icons to insert into your text block. These can be used like icons. In fact, there is a font called Noto Emoji, which when used with this emoji typing feature produces flat monochrome icons. You can change the color of these emoji icons, font size, font weight, etc. 

This process may soon be simplified by the addition of this emoji icon in amongst the editing tools. And we will have to see what style or library of emoji, or icons, become available for us to play with. For instance, there are Google Material design icons associated with Google fonts.

One other thing, they left a debugging tag at the bottom of the gif which mentions "Scary" 😱😂

Update to How to Insert Emoji 8/5/2023

According to Google Workspace Updates Blog Recap article, we can now more easily insert emojis via the editing toolbar of text. You can add emoji to any text content or headings. The instructions also display a gif which animates the search and categorization of emoji including some further customization options. We'll see if more Emoji fonts come along the way to support a more iconographic aesthetic.