In case you missed it, Google added a bunch of welcome features to Google Slides. Here are some of the best features.
Integration with Google Keep
You can now bring your Google Keep notes into Slides just as you can with Docs. This is great for bringing in text or images that you use frequently. If you haven’t had a chance to try this out, here’s an article from G Suite Support that explains more.
Linked Slides
Now, you can link and sync slides from multiple presentations with a click. When you copy and paste from one Slides presentation to another, you now get the option to Link slides or not. Linking slides ensures that when one of the presentations is updated, any linked slides are as well. Do not link pastes a new copy of the slides, with no relationship to the others.
Grid View
Grid view allows you to view all your slides at once as thumbnails. This helps you easily reorder or change formats of multiple slides. To access grid view, click the button on the bottom right of the slide sorter.
Skip Slides
You can now choose to skip select slides without fully deleting them when you present from your phone or laptop. To skip slides, right-click on the slide you want to skip and choose Skip slide. Now, any slide you skip will still show up in your editing view but will be skipped when presenting. This is great for customizing Slides presentations for different audiences.
Hopefully, these new additions to Slides will help make your presentations even more efficient and effective!
One of the things we might lose when moving to digital tools is communicating with our students. Just like we can leave notes on physical assignments, we can also do this with our digital assignments in Google Classroom.
There are three basic kinds of comments you can leave students in Classroom.
Class Comments: These are comments that you add to your class stream on the “outside” of an assignment or announcement. This type of comment is visible to the entire class, and can be used to answer questions that anyone might have.
Private comments: You can add these comments by viewing assignment results and clicking on an individual student. On the right, below the student submission there is a comment bar. Leave comments here that only the student can see. This is useful if it has sensitive grade or feedback information. You can also add a private comment to a number of students at once when returning an assignment. Check out our previous tech tip on managing private comments.
Comments in a Doc/Slide/Sheet/Drawing: These comments are left on the student’s file that he/she submitted to you. Highlight something you’d like to comment on, then click the black speech bubble icon. This adds a comment on specific items in student work.
Knowing how each of these comments works and when to use each kind will make giving student feedback more efficient and effective.
Google just added the ability to use voice typing in Slides. There is one caveat though… it only works in the Speakers notes section. Here’s how it works.
While you are talking, the icon looks like this:
And this is the end result:
For years, teachers have requested to ability to use videos in Google Slides, without the need to host them on YouTube. Yesterday, Google finally made this possible!
If a person viewing your presentation doesn’t have permission to view a video embedded within it, they’ll be prompted to request access.
Note that while you can play Drive videos in Slides on the web and mobile, you can only insert them from the web application. For more details, visit the Help Center.
This feature should be rolling out to users within the next two weeks.
