Fueling School Culture with

Google Workspace Applications

bit.ly/positun

Eric West

Instructional Coach

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west@northern-buckeye.org

23-Year Classroom Teacher

Vocal Music, Yearbook, Video Production

Ohio Choral Directors Association IT Coordinator

Once set up, sending several notes takes minutes

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Build a Culture of Reward and Encouragement

Easy to change for different occasions

-Maya Angelou

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

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CREATE YOUR LOCATION

Google Drive folder where ALL of your documents are located

BUILD YOUR FORM

A simple Google Form to input the personalized contents of your note

DESIGN YOUR NOTE

The power and flexibility of Google Slides to create a GREAT looking note

CONSTRUCT

THE PROCESS

Autocrat will generate your notes quickly and automatically

WE’LL Be USing

DRIVE

FORMS

SHEETS

SLIDES

AUTOCRAT

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

—Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

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Location Is Everything

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Name it “Positive Notes” or something similar of your choosing.

• This is where you will keep ALL files pertaining to your positive note(s).
• You can organize it to your liking once you are familiar with the entire process.

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Make It Easy

Keep It

Simple

In Your Drive Folder, Create a New Google Forms Doc

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• If you’re going to create several different forms, name them appropriately:
• “Positive Note - Great Job”
• “Positive Note - Encouragement”

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Add a minimal amount of questions to your form:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Email
• Message

Once you become familiar with the process…

…you can add other types of information to your form/note.

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Create a response spreadsheet:

• Click the “Responses” tab at the top of your Google Form;
• Click the “Link to Sheets” link
• Create a new spreadsheet;
• The default filename will be the title of your Google Form with “(responses)” at the end,
• Or you can give it a different name.

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Make It Personal - Keep It Relevant

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Create a Google Slide document.

• Give it the SAME filename as your Google Form.
• This will help you keep track of multiple notes.
• Will also make set up of automated functions easier.

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Format your Slide.

• Go to File → Page Setup.
• Adjust the layout to a size you want your note to be.
• 8.5x11 will be a flyer
• 8.5x5.5 will be a ½ sheet.
• It is ultimately up to you as final product will be delivered as a PDF.
• Consider if recipients will be printing the note.

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Find a nice background

• The Google Image Search within Slides makes this task very easy.
• Consider what the text will look like against your background.
• OR design it on your own from scratch.

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Merge Tags are the indicators of what data from your Google Sheet should be populated into your form.

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For example: <<First Name>> or <<Message>>

Compose your note.

• Use merge tags to create placeholders for the information that will be taken from your Google Form.

• Merge tags should EXACTLY match the the column headers from your Google Sheet responses.
• Remember to allow room for a larger amount of text in your message merge tag.

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Compose your note.

• Format your text boxes.
• Add any other graphics or information.
• Make sure everything is spaced correctly and allow room for the merged information.
• You can change the note any time you want.
• Seasonal changes or event changes.

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It’s Not As Hard As It Looks

MAKE SURE YOU INSTALLED THE AUTOCRAT EXTENSION!

• Extensions → Add-ons → Get add-ons
• Search: “Autocrat”
• Click Install (blue button)

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Launch the Autocrat extension from your Google Sheet menu:

• Extensions → Autocrat → Launch (Open)
• If this is your first job since installing, you will have to “Open” the extension.

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Create a New Job:

• Click the New Job button (red button, bottom right).
• Name your job the same as your note.
• This will be helpful when you have multiple positive note jobs.
• Click Next.

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Choose your template:

• Select the From drive option.
• Navigate in your Google Drive to where you created your Google Slide.
• You can search by file title (i.e. “Positive Note - Great Job”).
• Click Next.

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Map the data to the template:

• Autocrat will already have this done if you have used your merge tags correctly.
• However, you can tell Autocrat which merge tags in your template should go with what columns of data in your Google Sheet.
• Click Next.

Data already mapped to template!

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Create file name and type:

• Create a simple file name.
• (i.e. “PN-GJ” for “Positive Note-Great Job”)
• Use merge tags
• “PN-GJ <<Last Name>>,

<<First Name>> - <<Timestamp>>”

• Under Type select PDF.
• Keep Output as “Multiple output mode.”

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Choose destination folder:

• Recommend keeping ALL files in the main folder you created for this job.
• You could create a subfolder within to store the finished notes.
• Skip dynamic folder reference (click Next).

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Set your merge conditions:

• This tells Autocrat when and how to automatically create and send your note.
• Click +Add condition button.
• The default condition is “Timestamp NOT NULL”
• This means that if the Timestamp column has data in it, Autocrat

will run the job.

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Set your merge conditions:

• Click Yes on “Share doc?”
• Share as PDF.
• Click No on “Allow collaborators to re-share.”
• Click No on “Send from generic no-reply address.”
• Create your email template.
• Use merge tags to address email.

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Set your merge conditions:

• Click Yes on “Run on form trigger.”
• Click Save.
• On the next screen press the Play icon to run your job.
• Everything should work automatically from here on out.

"It is easy to see how many seeds are in an orange, but not to see how many oranges are in the seed.”

—Shawn Harper

Eric West

Instructional Coach

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​

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west@northern-buckeye.org

bit.ly/positun

All superhero graphics were generated using Image Creator from Microsoft (https://www.bing.com/images/create)