Google Docs – ignitionEDU

Print a Google Doc with Comments

June 17, 2015
Google Docs

This may be a trick other people have known and used for awhile but I just learned it so I am sharing here.

I am working on the outline for the literature review for my dissertation. Outline only but I used the comments feature to document my thoughts regarding the various elements of the outline and how I plan to tie them together. That way my instructor can help advise me in my thinking.

I wanted to print out the Google Doc along with the comments. Turns out, here is how to do just that.

First, on the Google Doc, use the File menu to select Download As and then Web Page. An HTML file will be downloaded to your computer. Open that HTML file in a web browser and you will see the text of the Google Document with footnotes for each of the comments.

Create Pseudo Slides from Google Form Submissions

May 9, 2015
Google Apps Script, Google Docs, Google Slides, Googley Stuff

Have you ever wanted to trigger a script on a Google Sheet of Google Form responses that would create a Google Slide containing the submitted information? Try this.

I recently shared a hack that made Google Slides act as a pseudo Google Doc so YouTube videos could be embedded. This post gives Google Docs the chance to fill a need not available in Google Slides – the creation of a new “slide” using autoCrat after a Google Form submission is received.

Let’s say I have a Google Form (inspired by Tom Barrett’s Interesting Ways series) that I ask my PLN use to crowdsource interesting ways to use Google Docs in the classroom. That form currently looks something like this (feel free to make a submission):

I would love to be able to trigger a script on the Google Sheet of form responses that would create a Google Slide containing the submitted information. Ideally, it would be a slide appended to an already existing Google Slide presentation. Unfortunately, that is not currently possible.

Yes, I know I could follow the same process Tom did by just making the actual Google Slides file freely editable by anyone but I’d rather have a bit more control and avoid digital vandalism.

Here is my hacked workflow.

When someone submits the Google Form above, the information is sent to a Google Sheet. I could have chosen to have autoCrat run on submission but, dreading spammy submissions, I am going to run the script manually after I review submissions. When I do run the merge script, autoCrat uses this Google Doc (see screenshot below) as the template for the merge. It has been formatted to look like a Google Slide (explained later in this post).

The resulting autoCrat merge looks like this:

If a URL to an image is provided in the submitted data, I will probably grab that image and slip it into the document but, for now, that’s the only way an image will get in.

Here is a comparison of what a similar Google Slide would like.

It’s not perfect but it helps.

FYI: The Google Doc is set to a landscape orientation with all four margins decreased to 0.3 inches. I chose the Executive setting for paper size as it most closely resembled the slide size.

If you are interested, here is an embedded Google Drive folder containing any of the merged documents I have reviewed and published.

I expect that, after reviewing, adding images, I will be converting these Docs to PDF so I can combine the PDFs into one document.

What ideas do you have for making this hack more efficient? I would love to hear them! Share in the comments below.

Insert YouTube Video in a Pseudo Google Doc

May 6, 2015
Google Docs, Googley Stuff, YouTube

Ok, so I know this is not REALLY a Google Doc but you sure can make it look like a Google Doc.

Learn some about a great Google Chrome extension called Read&Write by viewing this Google Slide. See below how to do this yourself!

Here is an animation showing how to set this up.

Formatting Google Doc Guided Notes

April 17, 2015
Google Docs, Googley Stuff

I decided to check out one of the sample courses on teach for Google and thought I would share something that I’ve used before but some of you may not have thought about. A simple formatting adjustment can make a world of difference.

Cropping Animated GIFs in Google Docs

April 16, 2015
Google Docs, Google Drawings, Google Slides, Googley Stuff

You can do a good bit on image editing in Google Docs as well as Google Slides. You can add borders, mask an image with a shape, crop, and resize.

You can also perform these adjustments to animated GIFs.

Center Text Vertically in Google Apps

March 30, 2015
Google Docs, Google Drawings, Google Slides, Googley Stuff

It’s really a very easy thing to do. Maybe I’m a little obsessive but, to me, it makes a difference.

Google’s Research Tool Gets Personal

March 29, 2015
Google Docs, Googley Stuff

I was in a fabulous session, Revolutionary Research in Google Drive, at this past weekend’s TN Google in Education Summit. In the midst of showing the Research Tool to the group, Adam Seipel got almost as excited as Joe Cantore got hearing thunder snow.

When using the Research Tool, in addition to having access to everything on Google Search, Imanges, Scholar, Quotes, and Dictionary results, you now have access to PERSONAL results. It searches items in your Google Photos, Drive, and more. Awesomesauce!

“Personal results include documents, presentations, and spreadsheets from Docs, Sheets, and Slides, as well as images from Picasa and posts from your Google+ stream. By clicking Preview you can quickly glance at the content, and for presentations you can click Import Slides to choose slides to insert into the current presentation. You can also click Insert Link to insert the item’s URL and title. In documents only, you can insert a footnote citation with the link by clicking the Cite button.” (Source)

Check it out!

Extract Text from Images and PDFs with Google Drive

January 26, 2015
Google Docs, Googley Stuff

There may be any variety of reasons you may need to copy the text from a image file or PDF. Google Docs can help you with that process if you don’t have access to an application like Adobe Acrobat Pro or an OCR conversion application. Here is how.

FIRST – Upload the image file or PDF to your Google Drive account and select it.

Here I am using a PDF shared by Richard Byrne on his blog Free Technoogy for Teachers.

NEXT – With the file selected in your Google Drive (not when it is opened in preview mode), click on the the three vertical dots that represent the “More Actions” menu. Choose “Open with” and select “Google Docs.”

FINALLY – Google Drive’s optical character recognition (OCR) jumps into action. Google Drive scans the file and uses its magic algorithms to convert the file into a Google Document. It’s not perfect but it can certainly help in a pinch.

Note: Video has no sound

The conversion will be most accurate if:

the image is high resolution
line height is at least 10 pixels (larger is even better)
text is horizontal and left-to-right (you can use Google Drawings to rotate the image if needed)
common fonts like Arial and Times New Roman get the best results (from my experience sans-serif fonts like Arial work best).
image should be sharp and free of blurring

There are limitations. The file size cannot be over 2 MB. If you are working with a PDF, only the first 10 pages are scanned and converted.

Some of the formatting may carry over into the converted text but don’t be surprised if you need to do some clean-up. Still, this process can be a big time-saver when the clock is ticking.