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's Sharing Features

Google is updating the interface used when sharing files. 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. 

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!

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. 

6 Things You Can Do in Google Sheets

Google Gooru's 6 things From Excel That You Didn’t Know You Could Do In Google Sheets. Some of the tips are pretty useful!

55 Google Tips to make this school year yours

Check out these 55 Google Tips to make this school year yours.

6 Updates to Google Classroom

For teachers who use Google docs with students for assignments on a regular basis, Google Classroom can be a wonderful tool. It also can be linked from your Student Learning Hub site.

Here are a few recent updates to Google Classroom:

Read the article here

Back to School with Google Chrome: The Complete Guide

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Chrome browser can be found here.

20 Excel Tips and Tricks

Check out these 20 Tricks That Can Make Anyone an Excel Expert.

Some of the tips are Excel specific but some also work with Google Sheets or MS Word.

How to Search for Publicly-Shared Google Docs, Slides and Spreadsheets

You can search for publicly shared Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.

Follow these directions. 

Automatic "Make a Copy" in Google Docs, Sheets & Slides

In Google Docs, Sheets & Slides you can easily turn a file into a template!

When editing the document, at the end of the URL take out the word "edit"... 

... and replace it with the word "copy". 

When someone opens the link it will automatically ask them to Make a Copy of the document! Wallah! Your Docs, Sheets or Slides file is now a template!

Google Sheets Cheat Sheet

Check out Shake Up Learning's Google Sheets Cheat Sheet.

Plot.ly: graphing in education

Plotly for Educators

Finally: a scientific graphing tool for students and teachers. Import data from experiments or enter it manually into an online spreadsheet. Make scatter plots, bar charts, lines-of-best fit and much more.

Check out our quick-start to make your first Plotly graph!

Types of charts:

Plotly’s Learn page