2 of 16

Chad Kafka, Communications Specialist (since 2019)

Get To These Slides at tinyurl.com/chad25wspra

3 of 16

SESSION DESCRIPTION

Our Communications roles demand a lot! Marketing. Publications. Design. Writing. Photo/Video. With each of those comes the need for being on your game with the tools, applications, and technology at your disposal so you can “do it all.” This session will share ideas, tips, strategies and suggestions for various workflows that may be part of your (many times) “one-person” role. We will not only talk broadly about the things to think about when using these tools, but we will also get into some applications, tips, strategies and how-to’s for managing your technology and applications. Plan to learn some tips using your browser (Chrome), Google Drive, GMail, Mobile Apps and more!

�Disclaimer: The presenter should note he’s secretly leading this session to also pick brains of everyone else to find new and better ideas so bring ideas to share too!

4 of 16

PURPOSE

Messaging first and foremost!

Tech has to support the message

Who/What/Why/When/Where

Good, key design sense (what helps a message to come across correctly, visually, what’s appealing)

5 of 16

A FEW THINGS I LEARNED ALONG THE WAY

Google Drive App (on Mac or Windows) - sync to cloud
Shared Google Drive / “COMS” Account for Dept
Admin Access to platforms you oversee/administer
Build your own manual! Google Doc - use headers!
Get Access to Photo Database for school day pictures
Parents/Alum/Staff taking photos at our sporting events (parking those somewhere, introducing yourself)
Starting with Board Policy

Ex: Asking about posting flyers or sending home flyers with students (“No, but…”)
Explaining the ‘why’ behind decisions

6 of 16

tinyurl.com/tipWSPRA

7 of 16

BROWSER TIPS/STRATEGIES

Sign in to Sync Your Browser
Multiple Chrome profiles/users
Incognito Window
Bookmarks as ICONS only (save space)
Bookmark Folders on Bookmark Bar (custom menuing)
Pin Tabs
Tab Groups
Using shortcuts to start new files:

docs.new - creates a new google doc (slides.new, sheets.new, drawings.new, forms.new)

Gemini now built in
Downloading Arrow - do things quicker!
Command+Shift+T = reopen closed tab
Installing ‘web apps’ to dock/menu (Canva, GChat), own windows

8 of 16

CHROME EXTENSIONS

Remote For Slides - great for presenting, add website on your phone home screen�
TextBlaze - create text snippets�
EyeDropper - get color hex codes to use in your designs�
ToDo-ist - to do list manager, also add ToDoist Gmail�
PrintFriendly - Edit, sign, compress, and convert PDFs, and remove ads and extras from web pages before printing or saving them as PDFs.�
Wave Evaluation To ol - help with ADA needs

10 of 16

GMAIL

Multiple Email Accounts if needed (i.e. FPS Communications)
GMail Templates
Marking Messages (stars, !, ?, etc)
Process your email faster! (Shortcut Keys)

Archive
MOVE TO Label
Snooze to a later time

11 of 16

PHOTOS FLOW (What I do…)

Macbook Pro

Download pics to laptop; syncs to Google Drive

Canon 80D

Mostly, download to Macbook, syncs to Google Drive
Sort in “Finder” quickly and delete
Touchup in Photoshop if needed (Presets Saturation)
If needed, use “Canon Connector” app to occasionally get pics to phone if needed for quick posting

Phone - Samsung S23

For sharing, create albums in Google Photos (make sure you know that by default, albums allow others to add photos -- turn this off in OPTIONS)
On phone - use Google Photos app (signed in to multiple Google accounts)

12 of 16

ON MY PHONE

APPS

Google Drive
Canva
Meta Business Suite | FB | IG | LinkedIn | X
School Messenger
Google Translate
Audio Recording (Android or iPhone)
To-Do Lists (Keep, Todoist)
Calendar (notifications)
DJI Fly (drone)
Camera Connector (Canon to sync images to phone)
Meta Business Suite (post to FB & IG at same time)
MiCollab/Phone System - call from my ‘work’ number if needed
PocketCasts (podcast app - paid, works on laptop browser too)
Google Photos (multiple accounts)
Google PhotoScan (video on next slide…) - great for when you need better scans of old photos, yearbook images, etc

14 of 16

TECH TIPS I USE IN MY ROLE - HANDY!

Google Docs - headers are linkable!
/preview, /present, /copy for GDrive files
Google Drawings - using /preview trick to display an image for parents, form fits on phone (example)
YouTube - right-click on timeline bar to “copy video URL at current time”
(just like previous slide showed) If using Google Slides and you insert a video, click on video and go to FORMAT OPTIONS and set to ‘automatically’ play and fill the slide with the video. Then you don’t have to fumble to ‘play’ video in front of people!
Command+Shift+T = open recently closed tab

1 of 16