Edit history & writing process reports for Google Docs

Yes. A writing process report shows all copy-paste events larger than 25 characters (by default). In the report, you can see what was pasted and when it was pasted. A writing process report has a dedicated section called Paste Events. Check out our sample writing process report.

Process Feedback is designed to work automatically with most languages, including languages like French and Spanish. If a language uses special characters as sentence terminators or word separators, you can specify them in the Settings so the writing process report is meaningful.

It can be, but you have options. You can have students do much of the reviewing themselves by assigning short reflection assignments. If you're looking for examples, check out our Reflection Prompts to guide their self-review. You can also have students submit their writing process data ZIP files so you can load them all up in the teacher dashboard and explore them at once.

Copy-pasting text or code itself may or may not be a concern depending on the context and an instructor's requirements. Sometimes a student may copy-paste their own text from elsewhere, so students should not be penalized simply for copy-pasting.

However, students can be penalized for not following directions. If the requirement in your assignment is to use the Process Feedback editor throughout their writing or coding process and not copy-paste at all, you have the rubric in place to grade accordingly.

How you introduce the extension to your students can make a big difference. Process Feedback isn't just an academic integrity tool; it's designed to help students reflect on and think critically about their writing process. For ideas and best practices, check out our Teacher Guides.

Yes. The report displays the percentage contribution of each collaborator based on the number of changes made. Most users find it more helpful to turn on 'More Options' and view the graph version of the information which shows collaboration timings as well.

Absolutely. Google stores the edit history for all Docs by default. Our extension retrieves, cleans, and processes this data to create an interactive report. That means it works even on documents written years ago -- even 12 years back.

While the extension has been successfully used by thousands of teachers and students, it hasn't been thoroughly tested on extremely large documents (for example, those with 100,000+ changes or characters). That said, typical student writing is well within safe limits. Note that text styling in the generated report may not be perfectly accurate yet -- we're actively working to improve this. If you run into any issues, feel free to reach out to us.

Yes. Students can download their writing process report as a PDF or save their report online to generate a report link and submit it just like any other assignment. Please read more in the student submission guide.

You may have multiple accounts in your Chrome or Edge profile. Reload the page and make sure you're using the primary account you want to run the extension with.

By default, the extension does not automatically collect any data from students. Data is only transmitted when a student explicitly chooses to use the 'Share this Report' feature. For institutions that require a formal organizational guarantee covering all channels — including support interactions — we offer a Data Privacy Agreement (DPA) through our institutional tier. You are welcome to review our privacy policy, and we are happy to work with your institution.

Yes. The Process Feedback for Google Docs extension is designed to work with Google Classroom.

No. Students can use Process Feedback's extensions or its editor without creating accounts.

Yes. Transparency is intentional and central to Process Feedback. Students can see all of the same process data that teachers see.

No. Many teachers use the process report for reflection or discussion rather than grading. In some cases, it can support conversations about revision expectations or writing strategies, but how (or whether) it is used for assessment is always the teacher's choice.

When students use voice typing in Google Docs, the resulting text is captured through Google Docs’ revision history. Voice-typed content often appears as larger blocks of inserted text and may be flagged as paste events labeled as “possibly voice-typed.” The report shows what text was added and when, but it does not capture audio or speech.