1. Use Google Docs
Whether you’re using a desktop computer or a mobile device, Google Docs is one of the most powerful and easy-to-use word processors on the market. It has a wide range of features, including collaborative editing and add-ons.
It saves automatically to Google Drive every few minutes, so your work is always safe. That’s unlike Microsoft Word, which can crash or lose its files at any time.
Another great thing about Google Docs is that it works offline. It’s a handy feature for traveling and working on presentations, as you can create, edit, and share documents even when you’re not online.
For example, if you use an Android phone, the Google Docs app is available for free and can help you complete your work on the go.
To get started, open the Docs app and tap the plus button at the bottom of the screen to create a new document. You can choose a template or start with a blank document.
Once you’ve created your document, share it with your colleagues by emailing it from Gmail. Alternatively, you can create a link that anyone with a Google account can view and edit. If you’re sharing it with multiple people, make sure you set permissions for each person to ensure they have the right access.
2. Use Google Slides
Google Slides is an app that allows users to create, edit and share presentations with text, photos, audio or video files. Similar to Microsoft’s PowerPoint, it’s hosted online and can be accessed from a web browser or mobile apps (Android, iOS, Windows and BlackBerry).
One of the best features of Google Slides is that it allows multiple people to collaborate on a single document in real time. This is incredibly useful for projects, assignments and presentations.
Another feature that’s particularly handy is the Explore tab, which enables you to locate content from your Drive or the internet without opening a new tab in Slides. This includes layouts, images, videos and music, plus any other resources that may be useful for your presentation.
For example, you can easily add a team portrait to highlight the key contributors that made your project possible. You can use a variety of image masks in Google Slides to create these, which take standard images and re-shape them into your own custom design. To replace the imagery in your slides, simply right-click on your image and choose Replace Image.
3. Use Google Forms
If you need to collect information from your students, or want to create quizzes and surveys, Google Forms is an excellent option. It allows you to create forms online without requiring any coding knowledge and has a library of templates that you can use.
Quiz questions: With Google Forms, you can create quizzes that let students test their knowledge about a specific topic. The tool offers multiple-choice and checkbox grid question types, which allow respondents to select a single answer or a group of answers. There are also options for adding images or videos to your questions.
Summary response charts: If you’re looking for an easy way to display the results of your survey, consider embedding a summary chart from your Google Forms responses in presentations or reports. This allows you to update your content with new data as soon as it comes in, rather than having to copy and paste a chart over and over again.
Share with collaborators: You can share your Google Forms by sending it via email, via a URL or via embedded HTML code. This makes it a great way to get feedback from your audience quickly and efficiently.
Google Forms is an excellent choice for surveys and quizzes because it’s free, easy to use and has a lot of customization options. It also allows you to share with collaborators and send the results to a spreadsheet.
4. Use Google Sheets
Spreadsheets are a great way to organize your data, whether you’re making a budget list or planning a project schedule. They also allow you to collaborate with other people online, which can be especially helpful when working with a large team.
Google Sheets is a web-based spreadsheet application that organizes your data in columns and rows, and lets you do mathematical functions. It’s included with the Google Docs Editors suite and can be used on any device, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
You can get started using Google Sheets by creating a new document and uploading your data. It’s also possible to save your data offline, so you can work on it even if you don’t have internet access.
In addition, you can use formulas to create formulas that manipulate your data and calculate values. These are functions within the spreadsheet app that combine cells, rows, columns, and ranges to obtain a specific result.
There are many different spreadsheet functions in Google Sheets, so it’s important to become familiar with them. There’s a handy function list on the spreadsheet page that you can bookmark to make it easier to find your favorites. You can also get help with your spreadsheets by reaching out to the support team via email, chat, and phone. The team is available to help you answer questions and resolve your problems quickly.
5. Use Google Slides for Presentations
If you’re looking for an easy way to create presentations that include a variety of content, Google Slides is a great option. This presentation tool can be used to include images and video in presentations, as well as audio recordings.
One of the features that make this platform unique is the ability to create a branded look for your slides. You can customize your slides with different colors, shapes, and fonts.
Whether you’re using it for personal or professional purposes, Google Slides is a great way to create presentations that can be shared online. You can even embed presentations into blog posts or pages, and change the size of your slides as needed.
Another feature that makes this platform a great choice for presentations is the Explore tool. This tool allows you to access all of the useful content that’s available on the web, as well as your Drive, without leaving the Slides window.
The Explore tool also provides a number of layouts for you to choose from when you start creating your slides. These layouts are designed to help you add more visual appeal to your presentations.
You can also add and edit GIFs to your slides. This is a great way to spice up your presentations with some animated graphics. You can even customize the animations and transitions between slides to fit your needs.
6. Use Google Docs for Presentations
Docs lets you insert slides, resize photos, and add text–and if you need to, it can even create a PDF of the presentation. You can also move slides around, and email presentations to yourself or to others.
To insert a slide, right-click (control-click) in the editing pane, or click “New slide” in the blue bar at the top of the presentation editor. From there, Docs opens the Choose Slide Layout box, shown in Figure 4-6; select the layout you want, and it’ll be inserted in that spot after the currently selected slide.
Using themes, backgrounds, and layouts helps you make your slides look professional. Themes keep the background, fonts, and colors consistent from slide to slide. Layouts help keep the placement of elements consistent, so that titles don’t jump from slide to slide and columns are evenly spaced.
If you need to copy text, you can do so in the editing pane by right-clicking (control-clicking) the border of a text box. From there, select “Copy.”
You can then paste that copied text into a new slide in this presentation or into another one.
If you ever decide you don’t like a change you made, click the upper-right Discard Changes button; this dumps the changes, but doesn’t close the file. That means you can go back to the version you were working with, which is handy if you need to show someone what your new presentation looks like before making any final changes.
