Getting Started on Quip
Quip is a modern word processor that enables you to create beautiful documents
on any device — phones, tablets and the desktop. Quip is built for the way people
work today — across a variety of devices and distributed around the world. Quip
has a simple and elegant interface that combines documents and messages into a
single chat-like “thread” of updates, making collaboration immediate and easy.
You can share documents and even entire folders so multiple people can edit and
discuss together in a single, shared workspace.
In this tutorial, we cover the basics. If you have any questions, send us an email at
[email protected] or visit our Help Center.
Step 1: Download the App
Click on the links to download Quip, or go to https://quip.com in your browser.
iPhone
iPad
Android phones and tablets
Step 2: Creating a document
1. To create a document, click the blue ( + ) icon in the bottom right corner of
your home screen
2. As you are writing, the formatting menu lets you choose from three different
header types and three different types of lists (bullet, numbered, and checklist).
You can find the formatting menu at the top of the keyboard on ​iPhone​, iPad, and
Android
and in the blue tab on the right in the web version of Quip.
(Tip: Replace the “Untitled” text with whatever you want your document title to
be. If you need to find a document later, you can search for it by its title.)
3. Type the @ symbol to insert things into your document: images, tables,
references to your teammates, or links to another Quip Document
Step 3: Importing your documents into Quip
One of the fastest ways to get started on Quip is to import your documents from
other tools that you use.
Quip enables you to import documents from Microsoft Word, Google Drive,
Evernote, and Dropbox.
1. To import your documents into Quip, click on the gear button in the top left
corner of your Quip Desktop and choose “Import Documents”.
2. Choose the service you want to import your documents from.
3. For Dropbox and Google Drive import, you can either do a one-time import of
all your documents or select a specific document that you want to import.
4. Once you choose what you want to import, whether it's all your documents
from Evernote or a single document from Google Drive, your documents will
appear in a folder on your Desktop called “Imported from Evernote / Dropbox /
Google Drive”. If you choose to do a one-time import of all your documents
from Google Drive or Dropbox, you will be able to search through the titles of
your Drive/Dropbox documents on Quip and when you click on the title of the
document, it will import the document into Quip.
5. There are two other ways to import documents into Quip. From the mail app
on your iPhone, you can select “Open in Quip”. Just long press on the
attachment, select “Open in Quip”, and magic! You can immediately edit the
document on your iPhone or iPad.
You can also drag and drop a Microsoft Word document from your computer
hard drive into Quip, and it will automagically convert into a Quip document.
6. Once you've imported your documents, you just add your collaborators or
editors, and keep writing!
Step 4: Sharing and messaging in Quip
1. To share a document, click the sharing icon in the bottom-right corner of your
screen.
2. Select someone from your address book or add their email address. Once you
hit enter, they'll be added to the document and will receive an email (and/or a
push notification) that says you shared a document with them.
3. When they open your document for the first time, you will get a push
notification so you can hop in and start talking with them if you want.
4. To start a conversation about a document, type in the text box at the bottom of
the thread and hit send. To access the thread on your phone, tap the blue triangle
in the top left corner of the document, or swipe the document to the right.
5. Any edits they make to your document will show up it the conversation thread
so you'll always be able to see the most recent changes and messages for every
document.
Step 5: How to organize your documents and folders
Once you start creating and sharing documents in Quip, it becomes important to
get organized.
1. Think of your Quip Desktop like the home screen of your phone. You can rearrange the documents and folders to suit your needs — like bookmarks — just
drag and drop to rearrange them. Use your Desktop to help you quickly access
documents.
Anything you want to remove from your Desktop, you can archive. That will
move it to your archive folder, and you will still get updates on the document in
your Inbox. Archiving a document just allows you to clean up your Desktop.
2. You can also organize documents into folders on your Desktop. To create a
folder, click the icon in the top right of your screen. You can name the folder and
decide what color you want it to be.
Once you have a folder on your Desktop, you can drag and drop documents into
it on the web version of Quip.
or press and hold documents on mobile and select “Move document” from the
menu that pops up.
3. You can also create shared folders in order to share a group of documents with
other people. Shared folders are an easy way to organize a project with your
team.
Create a shared folder by adding someone by email or by name (if they already
use Quip).
Once you share a folder, everything inside the shared folder is shared including
all the documents, any sub-folders, and the order of the documents (if you move
something, it rearranges it for everyone). If you delete something from a shared
folder, it will delete it for everyone.
Step 6: How to use Quip with your team
Thousands of teams are using Quip to work together better and get things done
faster. Take a look at this case study to learn how your team can use Quip to cut
back on email and increase productivity.
If you're interested in trying Quip with your team, here are some tips:
1. Pick a project
Every team that has successfully adopted Quip has started with a specific project
in mind. It could be planning for an upcoming event, launching a new product,
editing the posts for your blog, a new client proposal, etc.
Ideally it's a project that involves a consistent group of 5-20 people.
2. Set up a folder for your project and invite your team
Create a shared folder for your project and add your team members.
3. Have your teammates download Quip on their phones and tablets
Quip is built for collaboration across devices, whether on a computer, iPhone,
iPad, or Android phones and tablets​. Quip's unique mobile features, like push
notifications, offline access, read receipts, and more, will make collaborating with
your team so much simpler and faster.