Adding Voice Recordings to Google Things

If you're looking to add voice recordings to Google things using the Mote Chrome extension, see Free Tech 4 Teachers posts linked below:

• Slides & Docs
• Google Forms

Google Docs Update

 

You can now create some pages in Google Docs to be landscape and others to be portrait in the same document. Create and work with documents that contain multiple page orientations in Google Docs.

Google's Citation Tools

 

Last week, CHS Librarian, Dr. Turner, shared Google's new citation tools. This was her message about it:

Guess what Google just released - a new citation tool! I have played around with it, and it is both user-friendly and accurate! Here's a blog post about it from TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association). ... It's so easy to format correctly now! Let me know if you have any questions or want help using this new tool (or anything else). 🙂

Check it out!

Google's Sharing Features

Google is updating the interface used when sharing files. Read more. 

Grackle Your Google Docs for readability and ADA Compliance

Teachers and students often don't consider ease of reading a document or ADA compliance but you should. The Google Add-on Grackel can help! It identifies things that can make your documents, slides, and sheets easier to navigate like titles, headings, alt text on images, colors on the page, etc. Grackle has already been added to the list of available add-ons and extensions for CHS students. Read more. 

Google file viewing options

When sharing a Google Doc, Sheet, etc. with others, the ending of the URL matters. Change from the "/" to the end of the URL to be...

/edit
Opens the file with your editing rights.

/copy
Forces users to "Make a Copy" of the file.

/view
Opens the file with View Only rights (unless you have editing rights to the file).

/preview
Opens the file in a preview, without the Google Editing navigation. This is a very "clean" way to view a file. This is a great way to preview a file that was shared with the "/copy" ending before making a copy of it.

For additional Google file tricks, see this site. 

Use Google Files Offline

Google Docs, Slides, & Sheets have had an offline mode for several years. Recently Google announced some coming changes to their offline access. Read more. 

FISD Webinar: Checkmark

Do you find leaving comments for students in Google Docs/Slides cumbersome? 

Would you like to speed up the process of providing student feedback or having students leave feedback for each other?

We invite you to a 15 minute Webinar on Wednesday, December 5^th at 4:30pm to learn the power of the Google Add-On called Checkmark which helps you leave customized comments in Google Docs and Slides efficiently.

Visit bit.ly/FISDcheckmark on Dec. 5^th by 4:30 to grab the link to join the webinar.  This webinar will be recorded for later viewing.

NEW Google items with .new

.New trick in G suite - You can now type any G Suite app name in the omnibox and add .new to the end and it will create a NEW Doc, Sheet, Slide, Site! Anything to shave off a few seconds of work! #friedfan #GoogleEdu pic.twitter.com/41LLF1Phc0

— friEdTechnology Team (@friEdTechnology) October 26, 2018

Google Updates

Google pushes out updates every month or so. The most recent update included these gems:

• Sheets gets loads of updates including macros, grouping rows and columns, checkboxes, page breaks, and more - Resource Link, Resource Link
• New option to insert Google Slides into a Google Doc - Resource Link
• Google Slides gets guides and rulers - Resource Link
• Google Sheets gets updates for more options for chart data labels - Resource Link
• Google Earth adds quiz format to Voyager content with Natural Wonder quiz - Resource Link

Enjoy!

Google Add-ons for the Classroom

Richard Byrne at FreeTech4Teachers has created a great list of Google Add-ons that are helpful in the classroom. Take a look at his list to see what fits your needs and let me know if you have any questions!

Google Docs: Web Clipboard

Did you know Google files have a Web clipboard? This isn't just any clipboard. It stores items for 30 DAYS, not just 1 item at a time. Read more about it at technology rocks. seriously.'s post titled "I Didn't Know Google could do THAT: Web Clipboard. 

Format Painter

Format Painter is one of the most amazing tools ever! It's available in MS Word, Google Docs, and others. Check out this post from technology rocks. seriously. titled I Didn't Know Google could do THAT: Paint Format. Read more.

Google Docs: Change Case

Now you can more easily change text between lower case, upper case, and title case. Read more. Pick what you choose to yell at your audience wisely. 

Google: Doc Stickers

https://youtu.be/4n5TjoW0vww

It may seem elementary but even high school students miss getting stickers on their papers. Use Doc Stickers (through Google Keep) to add stickers to their Google based assignments. See Penney Matos for help!

12 Excellent Add-Ons for Google Docs

This list of 12 excellent add-ons for Google Docs is worth your time! It includes details on:

1. Revision History Analytics
2. SAS Writing Reviser
3. Easy Accents
4. g(Math)
5. Translate
6. Highlight Tool
7. Rhyme Finder
8. Word Cloud Generator
9. Pupil Pref
10. Doc Tools
11. Orange Slice Teacher Rubric
12. EasyBib

New Google Features

Google has rebranded Google Apps for Education (GAFE) as G Suite. Along with that recent change, last week they added a few more features to Google Docs and Google Forms. Read more. 

Google Docs Add-on: Writing Reviser

It is always helpful to get a second set of eyes to look over your writing. This might include peer review, teacher feedback, or even a text to speech tool to hear your words read back aloud to you. One other helpful tool is the SAS Writing Reviser Add-on. When you run this tool you can choose from 25 different tests that will check over your document. These include tests in sentence economy, sentence variety, sentence power, sentence clarity, and more. This can be helpful to give students additional insight into their writing and some possible corrections or improvement they may make when revising.

To add an Add-on:

Open a Google Drive Doc and select Add-ons.  Then search for SAS and add. J

Google Docs: 3 Helpful Updates

Google released 3 helpful updates for Docs this week. 

• Document outlining tool (Computer & Android app)
• Export Docs to EPUB format
• Select, copy and paste from the print screen (Android app)

Click here to read more 

Google Docs: Voice Typing

Voice typing is now a built-in feature for Google Docs. This is fabulous news for slower typers. You just need a microphone (built in, mic'd headset, AVer doc cam, etc). Say punctuation (ex: "how are you question mark") for it to be included. 

For help and tips, check out Google's Type with Your Voice help.