Download Google Docs - Electrical Learning - Lecture Notes and more Study notes Learning processes in PDF only on Docsity!
Getting Started with Google Docs
Purpose
Understand how to use Google Docs in the classroom to create, share, collaborate and publish works.
In this tutorial you will learn how to:
- Create a Google Account
- Create a New Document
- Save a New Document
- Rename a New Document
- Upload an Existing Document
- Basic Editing
- Tagging a Document
- Collaborating and Sharing a Document
- Revise and Add Comments to a Document
- Publishing a Document
- Copying a Document
Software Needed
Internet Explorer or Firefox Ability to access Google Docs on the Internet
Overview
Google Docs is a free online program that allows users to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations online and share them with others for collaboration. This allows educators and students to share their work with others, collaborate on assignments, and save documents online for access at school or at home. In this tutorial we will focus on using the document portion of Google Docs. These same instructions can apply to the spreadsheet and presentation files as well.
Lesson 1: Creating a Google Account
In order to use Google Docs you will need to register for a Google account. If you already have one through Gmail then you can use the same login to access Google Docs. If you do not have a Gmail account you may want to consider signing up for one so you can also use the Gmail and Calendar feature within Google. Otherwise you can just sign up for a Google account with an email address of your choice and a password. (This type of account does not provide the use of Gmail.)
Note that while it's possible to view a document, spreadsheet or presentation without a Google Account (via an invitation), you'll need to create a Google Account to edit the document, spreadsheet or presentation, and to continue accessing Google Docs.
A Gmail account will get you access both to Gmail and Google Docs as well as the other free programs offered through Google.
Activity 1: Signing up with Google
- Go to If you haven't already signed up for an account you should see the screen below.
- If you already have a Google account, type in your email and password to sign in. Otherwise click on the Get Started button to sign up with Google.
- Fill in all of the required form fields to sign up for the account, read through the Terms of Service, and click on I Accept. Create My Account.
- You will need to verify your email address you used to create the account by signing into it and clicking on the link that Google Docs sends you. By doing so, you will be taken to a page that looks similar to the one below. Now you are ready to start creating, sharing and collaborating on documents.
- You can also chose File on the Menu bar and then Save. In either case it will save the file using the text at the top of the document as the file name.
- If you would like to rename your file you can go to File on the Menu bar and choose Rename.
- Type in the new document name as google_apps2009 and click OK.
or
- Docs: Each doc can have a maximum size of 500K, plus up to 2MB per embedded image.
- Spreadsheets: Each can be up to 256 columns, 200,000 cells, or 100 sheets--whichever is reached first. There is no limit on rows. Size limit is 1MB.
- Presentations: Files in .ppt and .pps formats can have a maximum size of 10MB or 200 slides; files uploaded from the Web can be up to 2MB; emailed files can be up to 500K.
- PDFs: You can store up to 10MB per PDF from your computer and 2MB from the web in your Docs list, up to 100 PDFs.
Activity 3: Uploading a Document
- In order to upload an existing document you just need to click on the Upload button on the Menu bar.
- Then you will need to click on the Browse button and find the document that you would like to upload. (Top10Google_apps.doc for example). Click Open button to select the document.
- The path to your document will appear in the form field next to the Browse button. If the file is not on your computer but can be accessed via the web you can also type in the URL in the second form field. The third form field allows you to change the name before uploading. When you have completed these steps you will click on the Upload File button.
- Your file should now appear in your main window.
Another option is to Email-In Your Documents to be loaded into Google Docs as shown below:
Activity 3: Spell Check
- Google Docs does have a Spell Check feature. Click the Check Spelling button, and it will highlight the words it considers spelled incorrectly.
- If you click on the word a menu will pop up with suggestions on the correct spelling of the word. Choose which is correct to make the changes or type in a change on your own. Save the document with corrected spelling.
Teachers can create a folder for each class to organize the documents they will be able to access.
Activity 4: Creating Folders to Organize Documents
- On your computer you probably have some sort of organization to storing your documents. This usually involves folders and sub folders. In Google Docs you have the same option for organizing your files. To create a new folder simply click on New on the Menu bar and choose Folder.
- Your screen will change to show you the new folder. You can change the name by clicking on the words New Folder in the middle window. It will highlight the words and make them editable. Type in the new name as. MTSU2009 with an appropriate description and click the Save button.
- Your new folder will appear in the My folders group indicating 0 items.
- This is what it will look like after you have added a new name and description.
- To place a document into a folder you will need to click on All Items in the left navigation menu to see all of your documents. Then choose the document you would like to move (Top10Google_apps) to a folder by checking the box next to it. Go to the Move to button on the Menu bar and choose which folder you would like to add it to (MTSU2009). Click the Move to folder button. You can do this for all of your documents until you have them organized to your liking.
- In the left navigation menu you will now see your folders listed and how many items are in each of the folders.
Please Note : In order to collaborate on a document the person you share the document with must have a Google Account. Otherwise they can only view the document.
Lesson 4: Sharing, Collaborating and Publishing a Document
A wonderful feature of Google Docs is the ability to share your work with others. You have many options to do this. You can give access to a document where the viewers are only able to read the
- Access a document which you have been invited to edit as a collaborator, and make the following revision:
Open the google_apps2009 document created previously, and copy the entire paragraph (CTRL+C). Paste the copied text (CTRL+V) into the collaboration document (Top10Google_apps) below the title as shown below. Click the Save button to complete the revision.
Activity 2: Revising a Document
The chance to revise a document while working on it is very helpful to both teachers and students. Teachers no longer have to wait for their students to turn in the paper before they get a chance to offer suggestions. A teacher can check in with a student's work online and offer suggestions for revisions or provide ideas for further development while the student is in the writing process. Below are some ideas on how you can utilize the Revision feature in Google Docs.
- Follow the above instructions on sharing a document. Be sure your students include you as a collaborator on their documents so you are able to view and provide feedback during the writing process.
- If you would like to to see who made what additions or changes to the document, select the document, click on the More actions tab and select Revisions.
- You should now see all of the revisions that have occurred to that document. You can also see who has collaborated on the document. By selecting a particular revision you can see what changes or additions that person made. Or by selecting two or more revisions you can compare them. You will get a screen similar to the one below with color highlighting who made what changes. In this case the changes that are highlighted in green were done by the author "Me". Any changes that were done by "anotherperson" would be highlighted in blue.
- If you would like to add comments to a student's work you can do so without making edits to the document. Select the area that you would like to comment on and then go to the Insert menu and click on the Comments link. Then type in the comment you would like to leave. By doing this a student can read your suggestion and determine whether or not to make a change. It will not directly change their document. When they publish their document as a web page, post it to their blog, or print it, the comments will disappear.
Position the cursor in front of the document title “Top 10 Google apps Using,” and click Insert and Comment.
- Type “ Do you think we should cap apps in the title? ” when prompted to type here as shown below. Save the document with the comment inserted.
If you would like the document to be republished every time a change is made, be sure to check the box that says Automatically re-publish when changes are made.
Activity 3: Publishing a Document
Publishing a document means that you will be making it available to anyone via the Internet. Google adds your document to the Google Index so that if someone does a search on the topic of your document it may be accessed.
- To publish your document you need to select Publish from the list of options under the More actions menu after selecting which document you would like to publish. A screen like the one below will appear. Select the Top10Google_apps document in your folder and click Publish.
- The Publishing option allows you to publish to the Internet and will provide you with a URL. Or you can publish to your blog, but you would need to set up your blog by clicking on the set your blog site
- Select the Margins & Header/Footer tab.
- Set the headers and footers at the bottom of the window to Blank.
- Click OK.
In Firefox for Mac :
- Choose File > Print.
- In the window that appears, select the drop-down menu labeled Copies & Pages and choose Firefox.
- At the bottom of this new window, make sure the options for Page headers and Page Footers ( Left , Center , and Right ) are set to Blank.
- Click OK.
In Internet Explorer :
- Choose File > Page Setup.
- Delete the info that you see in the Header and Footer fields.
- Click OK.
Activity 2: Copying a Document
- To copy a document you will need to open the document and then choose File on the Menu bar and Save as new copy.
- A confirmation message will pop up. Click OK to continue.
- Close any open document windows and return to the main Google Docs window. If needed, click on All items. The file should now be saved as " Copy of Top10Google-apps ."
- Sign Out of Google Docs when finished.
Google Docs Support http://docs.google.com/support/
Wrap Up:
As you can see Google Docs is easy to use and very useful when needing to share documents with others. The opportunities to use this program in your classroom are endless. Google Docs opens the door to collaboration using technology. You may want to visit the Google Help Site for more information on how to use Google Docs.
http://docs.google.com/support/
Additional Resources:
Using Google Docs in the Classroom http://www.google.com/librariancenter/articles/0703_01.html http://www.google.com/educators/activities.html
