December 2019 – Page 2 – Craig M Sheil

Day 5 of Google 2019 – Google Slides

Screen Shot 2019-12-01 at 6.53.11 AM.png On this day fifth of Google, we will take a deeper dive into Google Slides (slides.google.com). Some new features recently came out when presenting from a presentation that are definitely worth the mention.

Closed Captioning

Last year, Google incorporated closed captioning when a presentation is in present mode. To turn on this feature, select the caption icon in the presentation tool bar. Remember, there won’t be a transcript after from what was said. The computer listens to your voice and projects the words in real time and then it goes away. You now have the ability to move the captioning up to the top of the screen as well as increase the size of the text. This way attendees can fully see the text on the screen.

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Day 4 of Google 2019 – Google Calendar

For the fourth day of Google, I thought I would focus on Google Calendar.

Inviting Colleagues

You have always been able to add other people to a calendar invite. Recently, I discovered that you can invite colleagues right from the opening pop up screen. Once you add at least one person, their calendar will temporarily show up on the screen overlaying with your calendar. This way, you can quickly find a particular time that would work. In the example below, my Google Calendar is Red, while my colleagues is Lime Green. The moment I add my colleagues name, her calendar shows up. Then I can move the appointment accordingly.

Go To Date

At the beginning of each school year, I am given a document indicating all required after school meetings that I must attend. It can be tedious trying to click through each week or month by selecting the right arrow. I recently discovered that while in Google Calendar, if you use the short cut “g”, a Go To Date pop up window shows up. Type in the date you are interested in getting to, and magically it shows up.

NOTE: You must have keyboard shortcuts activated in Google Calendar in order for this to work. To activate, select the settings gear on the top right, followed by the check box under keyboard shortcuts checked. Once this is enabled, if you are curious about other shortcuts in Google Calendar you would just type “/” and a pop up window with options will appear.

Search in Calendar

Now, I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t know you could search for calendar events right in calendar. This is something that should not have surprised me seeing as though Google is all about searching. If you are trying to find details from a particular calendar event or when particular calendar event happened in the past, use the search feature, rather than going back week by week until you find what you are looking for.

To search in Calendar, type “?”. A search box will show up on the top of your screen. Type in a key word and all calendar events with that key word will show up. A lot less time wasted using this approach.

If you have any questions on this or other Google Calendar items, you know where to find me. And that is my Spiel…

Day 3 of Google 2019 – Google Keep

Screen Shot 2019-12-01 at 6.52.57 AM.png For the third day of Google, we will take a closer look at Google Keep (keep.google.com or you can find it in the waffle). There are many staff members who use Google Keep on a daily basis to keep track of their to do lists, whether individually or collaboratively. There is something about being able to cross and item off the list.

Creating Nested Lists

Did you know that you can created nested lists? When you want to use the indent feature, use the following keys:

Mac User: Command and ]

Chromebook User: Control and ]

When you want to un-indent you use the following keys:

Mac User: Command and [

Chromebook User: Control and [

2019-11-01_13-46-40

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Day 2 of Google 2019 – Google Chrome

Screen Shot 2019-12-01 at 6.54.02 AM.png Day two of Google focuses on the browser, Chrome. Today we will dive into two features that are good to know.

UPDATING CHROME

From time to time, you may notice that a green, yellow, orange, or red arrow will show up on the top right corner of your Chrome Browser. It is important to pay attention to this when it shows up. Chrome is letting you know that it is time to update the browser itself. (If you see an exclamation point, one of your Chrome extensions needs attention as a setting/update must be addressed.) For those of you who are worried that you will loose your open tabs, have no fear, they will pop back up! Do the updates as soon as possible by selecting the arrow and updating the browser. It is important that your browser is as updated as possible so that it is as secure as possible.

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Day 1 of Google 2019 – Google Forms

Screen Shot 2019-12-01 at 6.52.37 AM.png Let’s face it. Google Forms has great uses in the educational setting. There isn’t a time where students or teachers aren’t completing a Google Form during a particular week, regardless of the purpose. Here are three features that you may not be aware of:

IMPORTING QUESTIONS

You now have the ability to import questions from previously created Google Forms to help save you time. In playing around with this feature, I have discovered that you can also import questions from multiple forms into one form. For instance, you can import one question from a form, we will call form A. You can then indicate that you want to import two questions from another form, we will call form B. This might not necessarily be a feature that you would use on a regular basis, but good to know that it is available to you.

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