Creating Documents with Google Docs

Introduction to Gems

In August 2024, Google released an interesting feature on Gemini — Google’s state-of-the-art Multimodal Large Language Model (MLLM) — to allow users customize models on the platform. It’s called Gems (as you would guess, shortened from “Gemini”). Gems was released to free subscribers in March 2025, making this tutorial useful to all parties.

What are Gems?

A Gem is basically a Gemini model with a custom instruction to guide its interaction with a user. These instructions are defined before the interactions begin with the model. We call them System Prompts. System prompts allow language models to assume personalities relevant to the user’s needs. This alleviates the need to build chat history with a model in order to build some level of task proficiency. These instructions are declared once and are persistent across conversations.

Creating a Gem

To create your first gem, visit Gemini, open the left panel with the three parallel strokes and select “Explore Gems”. This will navigate to your Gem manager, where you will see premade Gems by Google and anyone you created, if you have already.

Steps to Create a Gem

1. STEP 1: To create your first gem, visit Gemini, open the left panel with the three parallel strokes and select “Explore Gems”.
2. STEP 2: Click the “New Gem” button. This will transfer you to the lab area, where you can customize Gems.
3. STEP 3: Define the name, description, and instructions of your Gem.
4. STEP 4: Test your Gem in the preview window on the right: interact with your Gem and have a quick view of how it will respond when published.
5. STEP 5: Save your Gem by clicking the “save” button above the preview window.

Docs Powered Gems

Docs is a great tool because of the flexibility of editing and its multimedia freedom. They can serve as a sort of skill for your Gems.

Creating a Career Planner Gem

To create a Career Planner using Docs, follow these steps:

1. Create a new doc in Drive.
2. Describe the Name and Function of the Doc: This is defined at the top of the document.
3. Define the Purpose of the Doc: This serves as a sort of extension of the Gem’s instructions.
4. Describe Output Data: The career planner is essentially a workflow: a series of steps and processes to arrive at a clear path.
5. Define the Workflow: The workflow in this doc is called “Questions” — a list of grouped questions for the Gem to ask the user in order to understand the user’s desired career direction.
6. Write in Markdown: To ensure the Gem understands the flow and various levels in each step, write the entire process in markdown format.
7. Add Doc as Knowledge: Return to the lab area of your Gem and select “Add files” button (+) under Knowledge and select “Add from Drive”. Select your recently created doc from the pop up window.
8. Test: Interact with your Gem in the preview window and ensure it meets your expectations.
9. Save: When you are satisfied with your Gem’s performance, you can save it and begin mapping your career journey.

Sharing Your Gems

You can also share your Gems for others to use. Do this by:

• Returning to the Gem Manager and clicking the share button on the Gem.
• Changing the general access from “Restricted” to “Anyone with the link”.
• Setting the permission to “viewer”.
• Copying the link and clicking “Done”. This will notify you to grant viewer permission for the docs/knowledge source. Click “Share”.

Conclusion

Given that Gemini is multimodal, there’s almost nothing you cannot create or build into a Gem. You can experiment on how the Gem calls up knowledge to ensure instructional consistency, how much knowledge can be loaded per time, and the Gem’s latency due to referencing its knowledge. This is important to user experience. You can try building a slide builder/generator, a photo critique, or even a movie maker. It all depends on your imagination, your well-designed workflow, and your prompting skills.

FAQs

• Q: What is a Gem?
  A: A Gem is a Gemini model with a custom instruction to guide its interaction with a user.
• Q: How do I create a Gem?
  A: To create a Gem, visit Gemini, open the left panel with the three parallel strokes and select “Explore Gems”, then click the “New Gem” button and follow the steps.
• Q: Can I share my Gems with others?
  A: Yes, you can share your Gems with others by changing the general access to “Anyone with the link” and setting the permission to “viewer”.
• Q: What is the benefit of using Docs with Gems?
  A: Docs can serve as a sort of skill for your Gems, providing them with context to improve their capacity.
• Q: Are there any limitations to what I can create with Gems?
  A: Given that Gemini is multimodal, there’s almost nothing you cannot create or build into a Gem, depending on your imagination, workflow, and prompting skills.