Friday February 12th 2016, Term One Google Docs Add-ons, Tips and Tricks
Highlight your list and go to Add-ons, select MindMeister and it will automatically generate the image.
MindMeister
Lesson Plan Submit
Creates a side-bar that allows you to self assess a doc (intended to be used to reflect on your planning/ lesson)
Lesson Plan Submit
Easy to insert Māori accents! (tohutō)
ā ē ī ō ū
But you can’t have the same font if you have formatted it.
Māori Macrons
Lucidchart
Can choose from templates or create blank charts.
Drag boxes onto the document.
Connect boxes with arrows.
Duplicate boxes (secondary click)
Add to Google Doc:
Add-ons → Lucidchart Diagrams → Insert Diagram → Create or Choose an existing one → Insert
As a teacher using the 'Create Keyword List' option guides you through a few short steps to having a pre-formatted keyword list. This list can then be shared with your class as you would normally with any Doc or Sheet.
�As a student, you can access any keyword list shared with you from inside the Doc you are working on.
This saves time going off into other places to find the information you need. It also means less distraction from closing and opening different applications or searching the internet for answers.
Keywords
Translate +
Translate
This is the student version of Teacher Rubric. Students are able to review their peer's work, make rubric selections and provide written feedback.
Rubric
Handy if you want to maintain a neat list of your sources when doing research for assignments (includes APA)
EasyBib
Manage Repeated Text
Let's say you're a teacher who constantly writes "Needs more explanation" in your students' papers.
To save time, go to Tools, Preferences from inside a text document in Google Docs.
In the pop-up window that appears, under 'Automatic substitution', type nme below the 'Replace' heading and Needs more explanation below the 'With' heading. Next, click OK.
Back in your document, type nme and press the spacebar: You should see "Needs more explanation" appear automatically. If it doesn't work, go back to Tools, Preferences to make sure that 'Automatic substitution' is checked. Try to choose substitutions that are short and use unique letter combinations, so that Google Docs won't mistakenly overwrite a desired word with a substitution.
See more in notes below
More Screen Space
Google Docs wastes valuable screen real estate by surrounding the menu and toolbars with big empty spaces. That extra space, added to your browser's window dressing (called "browser chrome"), leaves you with less usable room to get your work done. To improve this layout disaster, go to View, Compact Controls or press Ctrl-Shift-F from inside a document. This feature reduces the menu-bar size for text documents, drawings, spreadsheets, and presentations.
View Plain Text Files
If you prefer to use plain desktop text editors such as Emacs, Gedit, Notepad, or Vim, you may find that files created in those apps won't display in Google Docs. Instead, you'll be greeted by something similar to the smiling image here. This happens when you upload a text file with a filename extension that Google Docs can't recognize (such as .sh for Bash scripting files), or when your plain text file lacks an extension entirely. Before you upload a plain text file to Google Docs, right-click the file and select Rename, and then add the .txt filename extension to the end. Now you'll have no problem reading your document in Google Docs.
Pupil pref
Using this add-on could benefit some students who have eye problems (based on research through Essex University - Prof. Arnold Wilkins). You can change the colour of the pages within docs, which can assist some students visually. It is possible to do this through google docs, however the add-on simplifies the process to alter the colour.