Three Tips for Math Teachers & Students Using Google Docs
Last weekend a reader reached out to me for advice on helping her students write equations in Google Docs. The add-ons she had tried were either too confusing or too expensive to use with all of her pre-Algebra and Algebra I students. My suggestion was to try having students just use the special characters menu […]
The Google Docs Features Starter Pack
I recently published a playlist of 76 Google Docs tutorials. But you certainly don’t need to use all of the features of Google Docs demonstrated in that playlist let alone watch all of the videos. In fact, I’m often asked for a list of the “must-know” features instead of all of the “could use” features. […]
How to Set Expiration Dates for Google Docs
Setting access expiration dates is one of the many “hidden” or frequently overlooked features of Google Documents. This is a feature you can use when you want to share a Google Document with a person or group of people for a limited time. By setting an expiration date you can grant access for as little […]
75 Google Documents Tutorials
Last week I published a new tutorial about how to add footnotes to Google Documents. After publishing it I decided that it was time to continue on my quest to bring some better organization to my YouTube channel. The next step in that quest was to create a playlist of my Google Documents tutorials. I […]
How to Add Footnotes to Your Google Documents
When it comes answering tech support questions it is often easier to show the solution with a screencast video than it is to write directions. That’s why I made this screencast video when earlier this week I was asked “how can I add footnotes into my Google Documents?” In the video I show where to […]
How to Add Checkboxes to Tables in Google Docs
Earlier this week when I was looking back at The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators I noticed that Google Docs was still a beta product back when that book was written. Google Docs has come a long way since then. Today, Google Docs is packed with some many handy little features that it’s […]
5 Google Docs Features You Might Have Overlooked or Forgotten About
Google Documents has been around so long now that some of us who have been using it from the start may have forgotten about some features. I did that just the other day when I “remembered” to use the version history to go back and look at a some edits that I had made to […]
How to Include Google Maps in Your Google Documents and Canva Documents
Canva’s new documents tool has a bunch of great features that I highlighted in a video last month. One of those features is the ability to embed just about anything into the body of your document. In the demonstration that I gave last month I embedded videos and presentations. You can also embed Google Maps […]
Best of 2022 – Overlooked Google Docs Features
As I do at this time every year, I’m taking the week off to ski and play with my kids, shovel snow, and generally not think about work. I have some of the most popular posts of the year scheduled to republish this week. New posts will resume in the new year. As Google Docs […]
Bookmarking With the Updated Google Keep Chrome Extension
A little over a month ago I was worried that my days of using the Google Keep Chrome extension to bookmark websites were coming to an end. Based on the number of views of that blog post and the emails that I got in response to it, I wasn’t the only one who had that […]
Write With Emojis in Google Docs
Earlier this week Google added a new emoji option into Google Docs. The new option enables you to type @ followed by an emotion to add an emoji into a sentence in your Google Documents. For example, you can type “@smile” to generate a list of smiley emojis that you can pick from to insert […]
Custom Tables in Google Docs
Earlier this year Google added new table templates into Google Documents. Those templates include tables for project management and checklists. While those templates are good, there are still times when you might be better off creating your own custom tables in Google Documents. Today, there are more table customization options in Google Docs than ever […]
How to Embed Full Page Content Into Google Sites
The design options in Google Sites have come a long way in the last decade. In the early days Google Sites had lots of functionality, but little in the way of design options. Today, there are not only lots of great themes and templates, there are also many ways to customize the layout of every […]
New Google Docs Features You Might Have Missed
This spring (fall for my friends in the southern hemisphere) Google has added some new features to Google Docs. I’ve written about a couple of them in the last month. There are others that I haven’t covered until I published this new video. Watch Five New Google Docs Features You Might Have Missed to learn […]
Add Dropdown Menus Into Sentences In Google Docs
A couple of weeks ago I shared some information about the new project planning templates in Google Docs that include dropdown menus. Today, I’d like to share how you can also insert dropdown menus into any part of a Google Document without using a template. It is possible to add a dropdown menu into any […]
New Google Docs Templates for Project Management
For years I’ve used tables in Google Documents to help students organize group notes and to keep track of who is doing what in group projects. On Monday Google introduced some new table templates that can be used for those same purposes. The new table templates in Google Docs appear to have been developed with […]
How to Download and Reuse Google Drive Files
Yesterday I published a post about using Google Takeout to download the contents of your Google Workspace account before leaving a job. If you only want or need a handful of files, there is an easier option than using Google Takeout. That option is to simply download the individual files in your Google Drive account […]
Stop Printing the Internet
Last weekend I got a new television (our old one died) just in time to watch some great NCAA basketball games. While watching one of the games on Saturday evening I saw a new Progressive Insurance commercial. The premise of the commercial is that Progressive can’t prevent us from becoming our parents but can save […]
Five Frequently Forgotten Google Docs Features
Perhaps it’s just me, but do you ever feel like you’ve been using Google Docs for so long that you forget about the basics until you need them? For example, the other day when a friend asked me about options for sharing a Google Doc with someone who didn’t use Google Docs I completely blanked […]
Ten Overlooked Google Docs Features for Students and Teachers
As Google Docs has improved and added more features over the years some of those features get forgotten or just plain overlooked. Just because those features don’t jump out, doesn’t mean they’re not helpful to students and teachers. In this new video I highlight ten of my favorite “overlooked” Google Docs features for students and […]
How to Prevent Printing of Shared Google Documents
At the end of yesterday’s post about adding watermarks to Google Docs I included a reminder that you can disable printing options for when you share a Google Document. Disabling the printing option is helpful when you want to improve the security of a document that you share with someone else for review. For example, […]
How to Add Watermarks to Google Docs
Late last year Google finally added a built-in option for adding watermarks to Google Documents. Unfortunately, that option only allowed you to use images as watermarks and the implementation of those watermarks was a bit clunky. Thankfully, last week Google added a new option for using text as the watermark in Google Documents. The new […]
How to Copy Images from Google Docs to Slides and Back
When you upload an image and insert it into a Google Document, it should then also be available through Google Drive to insert into future documents and into Google Slides. However, in practice it’s rarely that quick and simple. There is an easier option if you want to copy an image from a Google Document […]
Try Screencastify & Google Keep for Adding Comments to Google Docs
On Sunday evening I got an email from someone who had seen my videos about Mote and wondered if there was something similar for adding video comments to Google Docs. One of my suggestions was to try the e-Comments Chrome extension which I reviewed last spring. Another option is to use a combination of Screencastify […]
How to Record and Embed Audio in Google Docs
Last Friday I published a video about all of the things that can be done in Google Workspace when you have the Mote Chrome extension installed. The latest of those things is the ability to record audio and embed it directly into your Google Documents. When you do this you’re able to play the audio […]
How to Create Google Docs and PDFs With Hyperlinked Chapters
A kind reader who purchased my new ebook asked me how I was able to create the hyperlinked sections within the ebook. There are a couple of ways that it can be done, but the way that I did it is built into Google Documents. Like nearly every document that I create, I created 50 […]
An Easy Way to Quickly Add Voice Notes to Google Docs
Yesterday morning I published The Easiest Way to Add Narration to Google Slides. In that blog post I featured a Chrome extension called Mote. Mote, as I’ve mentioned in the past, can be used for adding audio to a bunch of Google Workspace tools including the comments on Google Documents. In this short video I […]
Helpful New Table Options in Google Docs
This week Google added a handful of helpful new features for customizing tables in Google Documents. A couple of the new features are things that I’ve wanted for years. The first new feature that I’m excited about is the option to specify that a table row not be split at a page break. Making that […]
Display a Timer With a Google Document
Earlier this week a reader of my weekly newsletter emailed me to ask for advice on how to display a document and countdown timer on the same screen. The idea being that the document is displayed on a large screen via an LCD projector or Chromecast and a small timer is also displayed. The document […]
Three Updated Google Docs Features
Over the last month or so Google has added some handy new features to Google Docs. I’ve written about them as they were announced by Google. But if you would like to see how they work, watch this new short video. In the video you will see the following Google Docs features that have been […]
Google Docs Gets an Improved Citation Option
For a few years I recommended EasyBib’s Google Docs add-on for creating citations and bibliographies in Google Documents. I got away from it when it started to get glitchy. What I always liked about it was that it had an integrated resource search that made it easy to quickly look up books and websites then […]
Accessibility in Google Docs and Slides
On Saturday morning I published a video about word art, fonts, and special characters in Google Docs and Slides. Later in the day someone Tweeted at me to “make sure the fonts are accessible.” I replied with a section of my free Practical Ed Tech Handbook that is dedicated to accessibility. An excerpt of that […]
A Helpful New Feature for Formatting Google Docs
Google Docs users who regularly create multiple page documents will be happy to learn that Google is adding a new page break feature to Google Docs. The new page break option will let you insert a page break before any new paragraph. This means that you’ll no longer have to manually insert spaces to create […]
How to Add Watermarks to Google Documents
Earlier this week Google announced that a new watermark feature would soon be added to Google Documents. That new feature appeared in one of my Google accounts this morning so I immediately gave it a try. The new watermark feature in Google Docs is very easy to use. In this short video I demonstrate how […]
Two New Google Docs Features to Note
This week Google announced the addition of two new features in Google Docs. Both new features will be welcomed by teachers and students. The first new feature is an increase in the size of the comments box in Google Docs. Currently, the comments box accomodates 35 characters before a new line is created. The new […]
How to Cite Sources in Google Docs
At the beginning of every school year I like to revisit some topics with my students to which they always say, “we learned this last year.” One of those topics is citing the sources of the information that they use in their writing and in their presentations. It never hurts to review this information with […]
Five Google Docs Activities Besides Just Writing Essays
Over the last fourteen years I’ve used Google Docs and had students use Google Docs for lots of activities besides just writing essays. I’ve used Google Documents to facilitate analysis of primary sources, to create charts and diagrams, to facilitate group note-taking, to publish simple webpages, and to make collaborative task lists. All of those […]
A Tip for Structuring Group Notes in Google Docs
Fourteen years ago when I first started using Google Docs with students I got the idea to have my whole class take notes on the same document. It sounded good in my head on my drive to school. In practice it was a disaster as my students were quickly frustrated by accidentally writing over each […]
21 Google Docs Features You Should Know How to Use
This week I’m releasing a new series of videos covering everything a new Google Workspace user needs to know. The videos will be released throughout the week on my YouTube channel. I actually teased the series a little bit on Friday when I published two videos detailing twenty-one features of Google Docs that all users […]
Wordtune – One of My New Favorites in 2021
I’m taking this week to recharge and get ready for the next session of the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp. For the next few days I’m going to highlight some of my favorite new and new-to-me tools so far this year. Wordtune is a Chrome extension that will make suggestions on how to change and or improve […]
How to Create Interactive Checklists in Google Docs
This week Google announced more than a dozen updates to Google Workspace products. Included in those updates is a new text box feature in Google Documents. The new text box option can be used to create interactive checklists. Those checklists, just like any other Google Document, can be shared with colleagues and students who can […]
Icons8 – Easily Add Icons to Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets
Icons8 is a new Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets add-on that offers a large gallery of free icons that you can easily insert into your documents, slides, and spreadsheets. Within the Icons8 gallery you’ll find thirty-five categories of icons. All of the icons are available in a variety of sizes from as small as 50×50 […]
Sharing vs. Publishing Google Documents
A couple of days ago I Tweeted my video about how to find public Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. That Tweet prompted a couple of people to ask me about publishing Google Docs compared to sharing Google Docs and why you’d use one option versus another. To answer those questions I made this short […]
An Easier Way to Share in Google Meet
Last week a new menu option appeared in Google Slides, Docs, and Sheets. That new menu appears just to the left of the share button in Slides, Docs, and Sheets. It’s icon resembles and upload icon, but it’s not an upload option. The new option is to present to a Google Meet meeting. With just […]
How to Overlay Text on Images in Google Docs
Earlier this week Google finally added the option to overlay text on top of images in Google Docs. Since then I’ve had a few people email me to ask for clarification about how that works. The most important “trick” of the process is to write your text before adding your image. Then when you insert […]
New Text Overlay Options in Google Docs
Google has finally added a feature to Google Docs that many of us have been waiting a long time to see. That feature is the ability to overlay text on top of images in Google Docs! For years the only way to work with text and images in Google Docs was to wrap the text […]
Grackle – Check Slide and Document Accessibility
This spring we have some grackles nesting in our hanging plants and in the eve of our covered back porch. Every morning I take a quick look at them when I’m drinking my coffee and letting our dogs out. This morning, looking at one of the mother grackles reminded me of a Google Docs and […]
Wordtune – A Quick Way to Get Wording Suggestions
Wordtune is a Chrome extension that provides suggestions on ways to rewrite sentences in your Google Documents, in your email (Gmail and Outlook), and in some social media accounts. Once you have Wordtune installed in Chrome you can simply highlight any sentence that you have written and click the Wordtune extension to have a list […]
How to Make a Copy of a Google Doc That Isn’t Directly Shared With You
From time to time I publish charts and other digital hand-outs that I have created in Google Documents. For example, I recently shared this chart comparing student blogging tools and this chart comparing multimedia timeline creation tools. When I share those charts I publish them as Google Documents marked as “view only.” If you want […]
Google Docs Comments Now Include Autocorrect and Smart Compose
Smart Compose is a feature of Gmail and Google Docs that some people dislike, but I love it. I know that it saves me time when writing responses to emails. I also use it in Google Docs when I’m writing lesson outlines and find that it’s helpful there, most of the time. That’s why I […]
Three Ways to Share Docs in Google Classroom – When to Use Each Method
As I do every year, I’m taking this week off from writing new blog posts. This week I’ll be re-running a few of the most popular posts in 2020. As you might guess, I’m getting flooded with requests for help with all kinds of things related to online teaching and learning. I’m doing my best […]
How to Share Sections of Google Docs in Google Classroom – And Why You Might Do That
Yesterday a reader sent me an interesting question about Google Docs and Google Classroom. She wanted to know if there was a way to share just one of a few pages of a Google Doc with her students via Google Classroom. One solution would be to copy the content of that one page and paste […]
How to Create Citations and Bibliographies in Google Docs – No Add-ons Required
For years I used the Easy Bib add-on to add citations and create bibliographies in Google Docs. A couple of weeks ago Google added an updated citation tool to Google Docs that makes the Easy Bib add-on redundant. With the latest update to Google Docs you can now create MLA, APA, and Chicago style citations […]
How to Add Shapes and Drawings to Google Docs
Yesterday morning I had a colleague come into my classroom to ask me how she could create a document that had some arrows and boxes in it. Basically, she was trying to replicate and then slightly modify a diagram she’d seen in a textbook. I showed her a couple of methods for doing this. I’m […]
Using Google Docs to Lead Small Group Discussions
Last week I received a question from a reader who wanted to know if I had any ideas for running small group discussions in a socially distanced classroom. Here’s what he wrote: We are back in person at school, but wearing masks and sitting 6 feet apart. I was wondering if you had any suggestions […]
Sharing vs. Publishing Google Docs
I have published more than 1,000 tutorials on my YouTube channel over the last ten years. Some of those videos feature older versions of tools that many of us every day. This was pointed out to me this week when I was asked if I had a current video covering the differences between publishing and […]
How to Convert a PDF Into a Google Document
On Friday during Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff someone asked if there is a tool that I would recommend for converting a PDF into a Google Doc. Fortunately, you can do that without having to use any third-party tools. PDF to Google Docs conversion is built right into Google Drive. […]
Three Ways to Share Docs in Google Classroom – When to Use Each
As you might guess, I’m getting flooded with requests for help with all kinds of things related to online teaching and learning. I’m doing my best to respond to all of them although I am placing priority on the requests from my colleagues at my school. One of the requests that I got was to […]
Now You Can Fix Images in Google Docs
Google Docs has offered handy image editing tools for years. But until this week Google Docs hasn’t offered a good way to fix images in place. On Monday Google announced an update to the image editing tools in Google Docs. That update includes the ability to fix or lock an image in place in your […]
Write Faster With These Two New Google Docs Features
Two new Google Docs features are rolling out to all G Suite users beginning today. Today, Google announced the addition of Smart Compose in Google Docs for G Suite users. Earlier today, Google also announced that autocorrect is being added to Google Docs for all users. Smart Compose in Google Docs works much like Smart […]
Tips on Using Voice Typing in Google Documents
A couple of weeks ago I published an article and video about accessibility settings and tools that are available in Google Documents. One of those tools is voice typing. What I forgot to mention in that piece, as a few people have pointed out, is that you have to speak very clearly when using voice […]
How to Add Alt Text to Images in Google Documents
In this week’s Practical Ed Tech newsletter I included a seven page handout containing tips and tutorials for improving the accessibility of documents, slides, websites, and videos. In that handout was a note about adding alt text to images in Google Documents. It’s an easy thing to do that can make your documents more accessible […]
Make Long Google Docs Easier to Navigate With a Hyperlinked Outline
One of the “hidden” or frequently overlooked features of Google Documents is the built-in outline tool. The outline tool lets you create an outline that is hyperlinked to sections of your document. Any section that begins with header text or bolded font can be automatically added to the hyperlinked outline in your document. Watch the […]
How to Add New Fonts to Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets
Last week Google announced the addition of a new series of fonts that you can add to Google Docs, Slides, Sheets. The new fonts are called Lexend fonts. They are designed to improve reading speed by avoiding the visual crowding that is associated with some font styles and types. You can read more about the […]
How to Add Video and Audio Comments to Google Docs
The comment bank feature in Google Classroom is nice for quickly adding text comments to your students’ Google Documents. But there are times when hearing your voice and or seeing your face can make the feedback that you give to kids a little bit more memorable than just a text comment. That’s why I’m a […]
Add Video Comments to Google Documents
e-Comments is a Google Chrome extension that offers three great ways to add comments to Google Documents. You can use e-Comments to add canned text comments, you can use it to add audio comments, and you can use it to add video comments to Google Documents. All three options are equally easy to use. Add […]
How to Embed Google Docs Into Your Blog Posts
One of the things that makes Google Documents popular is that you can easily publish your documents for anyone to read online even if they don’t have Google accounts of their own. How to Embed a Google Doc Into Your Blog You can do this by choosing the “publish to the web” option found in […]
The Ethics of Making Copies of “View Only” Google Docs
Last week I published a blog post about how to make copies of Google Documents that are shared as “view only.” In that same post I included a video on how to find public Google Documents. That post raised a good question from a reader who asked about the ethics of making copies documents that […]
How Make Copies of Google Docs Marked as “View Only”
On a fairly regular basis I’m asked some variation of the following question, “is it possible to duplicate a Google Doc if it wasn’t shared with me?” Yes, you can make a copy of Google Documents that weren’t directly shared with you. If you have the link to a Google Document that has been made […]
How to Save Time When Adding Comments to Google Docs
This morning I showed one of my favorite time-saving tricks to a great group of adult education teachers. The “trick” is to save time when adding comments to students’ Google Docs. You can do this with canned comments in Google Classroom and there are some Google Docs Add-ons that do similar things. The most straight-forward […]
Customizing Fonts and Emojis in Google Docs
By default every document that you create in Google Docs will have 11 point Arial font unless you change it. You can change that to one of more than 450 font options. To access and add custom fonts to your Google Documents and Slides select “add fonts” from the bottom of the font selection menu […]
How to Create Charts and Graphs in Google Docs
A good chart or graph can sometimes help a writer paint a complete picture for his or her reader. I used to have students in one of my civics course include at least one chart of their creation when writing about voting patterns in state elections. Google Docs makes it easy for users to create […]
How to Add Footnotes to Google Docs
For many people the difficulty in the transition from using Word or Pages to Google Docs lies in just knowing where little formatting features are found. One example of that is in adding footnotes to documents. In Word you find the option to add footnotes in the References menu. In Google Docs you will find […]
Best of 2018 – Ten Overlooked Google Docs Features
This week is a vacation week for the vast majority of readers of this blog. As I do at this time every year, I’m going to republish some of the most popular posts of 2018. Here’s one from January. Google Docs has a lot of features that new users often don’t notice. Some these are […]
How to Download Google Docs
It is not a secret that I’m a devoted Google Docs user. Since the first time that I tried it, I’ve done nearly all of my writing in Google Documents. Even when I was writing for a magazine that required all submissions to be in Word format, I wrote in Google Documents. I was able […]
How to Insert Equations and Special Characters Into Google Documents
Here’s a question that I get a lot when I conduct on-site G Suite for Education training, “is there an easy way to add math symbols to documents?” In fact, there is an easy way to add mathematics symbols, equations, and other special characters to Google Documents. To do that simply open the Insert drop-down […]
How to Format Tables in Google Docs
Last week Google added new ruler and margin tools to Google Docs. The new ruler that appears on the left edge of your screen can be used to format the vertical spacing of tables that you insert into Google Documents. I’ve had a couple of people ask me how to get vertical ruler to appear […]
A New Vertical Ruler and New Margin Settings in Google Docs
Google has added two new formatting features to Google Docs. First, there is now a vertical ruler that you can use to evenly space the rows in tables in your Google Documents. Second, you can now adjust the size of the margins in your headers and footers. Both of these changes will be helpful to […]
One Click Provides More Room to Work in Google Docs
I just spent the last three weeks working with students and teachers who had Chromebooks as their primary computers throughout the school day. One of the things that I showed some of the students during that time was how to expand the size of the Google Docs editor so that they had more screen space […]
How to Quickly Add Page Numbers to Long Google Documents
Since Sunday evening when I published the 2018-19 Practical Ed Tech Handbook I have had a couple of people ask how I added the page numbers to it and kept them straight in Google Docs. The answer is found in a simple, but often overlooked function in the “insert” drop-down menu in Google Docs. Simply […]
A New Way to Add Google Keep Notes to Google Documents
Last year Google added the option to insert your Google Keep notes into your Google Documents. That feature made it easy for students who use Google Keep to bookmark resources while conducting research to then insert those bookmarked resources into their Google Documents. This week Google changed the way that you can access Google Keep […]
How to Add Emojis to Google Docs – And a Classroom Activity
Thanks to the influence of Tony Vincent I’ve started to see the utility of adding emojis to documents and graphics. Scroll through Tony’s Twitter feed and you’ll see lots of examples of classroom uses for emojis. Here’s one recent Tweet in which Tony shared a little activity he developed for students to complete by guessing the […]
10 Overlooked Google Docs Features
The new school year will be here soon and I haven’t taken a break all summer. I’m taking a short break from the Internet to go fishing at one of my favorite places in the world, Kennebago Lake. I’ll be back with new posts on Saturday. While I’m gone I’ll be republishing some of the […]
A Quick Google Docs Formatting Tip
Google Docs has lots of handy features that are “hidden” in plain sight. Many of those features address common formatting needs. For example, in the far right edge of the editor menu there is a function to clear all formatting. This is a handy function to use after copying and pasting from a Word document […]
A Cool Kaizena Update
Back in January Kaizena released an update that streamlined the process of adding voice comments to Google Documents. This afternoon they announced an update to how they handle voice comments. First, they’ve improved they speed at which voice comments appear in documents. Second, they’ve added the ability for to continue to record even if your […]
The Built-in Google Docs Features Starter Pack
I test and write about a lot of Google Docs Add-ons and built-in features. But you certainly don’t need to use all of them. In fact, I’m often asked for a list of the “must-know” features instead of all of the “could use” features. Here are ten features that new users can benefit from learning […]
Advanced Similarity Checker Add-on for Google Docs by Unicheck
Disclosure: This is a sponsored blog post written by the staff of Unicheck. Lately, the educational community has been buzzing with stunning news, reporting that Unicheck plagiarism checker created integration with Google Classroom, which still remains the only plagiarism detection solution for Google Classroom. Keeping in mind such criteria as accuracy, convenience and productivity, Unicheck […]
How to Add Voice Comments to Google Docs
Last night I shared the news of Kaizena’s updated Google Docs Add-on that streamlines the process of adding voice comments to Google Documents. If you haven’t tried it, watch the video that I just made about how to add voice comments to Google Documents. Applications for Education As I wrote last night, the combination of […]
How to Copy Comments in Google Docs
Earlier this month Google added a new option for copying comments in Google Documents. The new option lets you include comment and suggestions when you make a copy of an existing Google Document. I’ve had a few questions about how the new feature works so I made the following video to show how copying comments […]
Three Google Docs Features New Users Often Ask About
If your school is making the switch to G Suite for Education this year, you probably have a question or two about how Google Docs works. In the short video that is embedded below I cover three features that new Google Docs users often ask me about.
How to Add a QR Code to a Google Document
Earlier this morning someone sent me a direct message on Twitter to ask me how to add a QR code to a Google Document. This is a process that is easier to understand if you see it in action. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to insert a QR code into a Google […]
Save Time by Using JoeZoo Express to Give Feedback in Google Docs
JoeZoo Express is a Google Documents Add-on that can save you a ton of time when you are grading or editing your students’ writing in Google Documents. The way that JoeZoo Express saves you times is by providing you with the ability to store canned comments to insert directly in your students’ work. You can use […]
How to Create a Word Cloud In Google Docs
Last week during Practical Ed Tech Live I answered a request for a suggestion for a tool to create word clouds. One of the tools that I suggested was the Word Cloud Add-on for Google Docs. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to quickly create a word cloud in Google Documents.
Quickly Generate an Outline in Google Documents
Google Documents contains lots of handy features that often go overlooked. One of those features is the outline tool. The outline tool will quickly create an outline of your document. The outline is based on headers that you write in your document. The outline appears in the right-hand sidebar of Google Docs and lets you […]
5 Google Docs Formatting Tips
Some of the first questions that new Google Docs users ask are usually centered around formatting options in Google Docs. The stress of the transition from Word or Pages to Google Docs is eased once some of the basics are addressed. In the following videos I provide demonstrations of five Google Docs formatting options. How […]
How JoeZoo Express Can Save You Tons of Time Grading in Google Documents
JoeZoo Express is a Google Documents Add-on that I have been raving about since I first tried it earlier this year. The JoeZoo Express Add-on can save you a ton of time when you are grading or editing your students’ writing in Google Documents. The way that JoeZoo Express does that is by providing you […]
Improved Voice Typing in Google Docs – A List of Commands
Yesterday, Google released a bunch of updates to G Suite for Education. One of those updates was an expansion of the voice typing commands available in Google Documents. The voice typing commands in Google Documents now includes options for highlighting text, inserting links, adding comments, and creating and editing tables in your documents. Visit Google’s complete […]
Add Page Numbers to Your Google Docs Table of Contents
When you compose a long document in Google Documents it’s helpful to add page numbers as you go. That’s been possible in Google Docs for quite a while. It has also been possible to create a table of contents in your Google Documents for quite a while. But until today you couldn’t use page numbers […]
How to Insert Columns Into Google Docs
Yesterday, Google announced a change to the way in which search works in Google Drive. Buried at the bottom of that announcement was a note about column formatting in Google Docs. For years the only way to create columns in Google Docs has been to insert a table. That finally changed yesterday with the addition […]
Two Easy Ways to Add Accent Marks in Google Documents
One of the things that I was asked about during the Practical Ed Tech BYOD Camp on Monday was, “how can students write in two languages in Google Docs?” The person asking wanted her students to be able to write a few lines in English and then a few lines in Spanish or French. There […]
How to Make Copies of Google Docs That Aren’t Directly Shared With You
On a fairly regular basis I share charts and other digital hand-outs that I have created in Google Documents. For example, I recently shared this chart comparing student blogging tools and this chart comparing multimedia timeline creation tools. When I share those charts I publish them as Google Documents marked as “view only.” If you […]
You Can Write Music in Google Docs
As I do every year, I am taking this week to relax, recharge, and ski with friends. While I’m away I will be re-running the most popular posts of the year. This was one of the most popular posts in October, 2015. VexTab Music Notation is a Google Documents Add-on that lets you write music […]