Tech Tip: Google Slides

 

PowerPoint and Keynote are handy tools for presenting information, but what if your students don't have licenses to these expensive software packages? And what if you would like students to collaborate on a presentation? Google Slides is a great alternative!  Google Slides is an online presentation app that allows you to show off your work in a visual way. Here's what you can do with Google Slides:

• Create and edit presentations
• Edit a presentation with friends or coworkers, and share it with others effortlessly
• Import .pptx and .pps files and convert them to Google presentations
• Download your presentations as a PDF, a PPT, or a .txt file
• Insert images and videos into your presentation
• Publish and embed your presentations in a website

Whether you’re trying to wow your boss with an end-of-quarter presentation or impress your classmates with an animated book report, the new version of Google Slides can help. All of your new presentations will be created in the latest version of Google Slides. Any presentation you upload and convert to Google Docs format will be converted to the latest version of Google Slides.
Check out some of the new features in the latest version of Google Slides:

• Character-by-character collaboration: See updates in realtime as you edit presentations with other people.
• Drawing on canvas: Draw organizational charts, flowcharts, design diagrams and much more right within Google Slides.
• Transitions: Enhance your presentation with new ways to transition between slides.
• Shape linking: Turn shapes within your presentation into hyperlinks to other slides, presentations, or external webpages.
• Better animations: We’ve added new themes to make it easy to create show-stopping presentations.
• Commenting: Collaborate with other people by adding comments to shapes, text or slides.

Click here for an overview of Google Slides and view the video below for a brief tutorial.

Tech Tip: Google Sheets

Spreadsheets can be a great tool for organizing and manipulating data. Whether it is calculating student averages for report cards or putting together a budget, Google Sheets can help automate some basic calculations.

Like Google Docs, Google Sheets is a component of Google Drive.  It is an online spreadsheet app that lets you create and format spreadsheets and simultaneously work with other people. Here's what you can do with Google Sheets:

• Import and convert Excel, .csv, .txt and .ods formatted data to a Google spreadsheet
• Export Excel, .csv, .txt and .ods formatted data, as well as PDF and HTML files
• Use formula editing to perform calculations on your data, and use formatting make it look the way you'd like
• Chat in real time with others who are editing your spreadsheet
• Create charts with your data
• Embed a spreadsheet — or individual sheets of your spreadsheet — on your blog or website

Click here for an Overview of Google Sheets from Google and view the video below for a brief tutorial.

Tech Tip: Google Docs

CDs, DVDs, Flash Drives...Are these technologies headed for the dust bin of history where they can sit in obsolescence with the VCR? With technologies like Google Docs, cloud computing is becoming a convenient way to create, edit, and share documents without relying on external storage.    

Google Docs, one of several components to Google Drive, is an online word processor that lets you create and format text documents and collaborate with other people in real time.  Here's what you can do with Google Docs:

• Upload a Word document and convert it to a Google document
• Add flair and formatting to your documents by adjusting margins, spacing, fonts, and colors — all that fun stuff
• Invite other people to collaborate on a document with you, giving them edit, comment or view access
• Collaborate online in real time and chat with other collaborators — right from inside the document
• View your document's revision history and roll back to any previous version
• Download a Google document to your desktop as a Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML or zip file
• Translate a document to a different language
• Email your documents to other people as attachments

Click here for an Overview of Google Docs from Google and view the video below for a brief tutorial.

Tech Tip: Google Drive

You know you've made it as a company when your name is synonymous with the service you provide. Need to know something on the Web?  Just "Google" it!  But Google provides more than just a search engine.  Google Drive is an outstanding tool for collaborating and communicating "in the cloud" (i.e. on the Web).  All you need to get started is a free Google account.  From there, you can create and share Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Forms (Surveys), and Drawings.  Sharing options include View or Edit.  You can also store your original documents like PDFs, Word Documents, PowerPoints, and even video files on Google Drive and access them from any Internet enabled device.  View the video tutorial below to learn more. Click here for more support from Google. In the coming weeks, I will be blogging about each of Google Drive's services, including Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Forms.