Google Docs-Lessons 12-15

Tonight's the night, going to finish up the remainder of the my Web 2.0 tutorials. Feels great to be at this stage. The next thing required I have to do is explore the Second Life world. I went to the site the other day, looks interesting. Okay, the last tutorial to finish is Google Docs. I have chapters 12 through 15 left. 


Chapter 12
Chapter 12 starts off with creating a presentation in Google Docs. It's not rocket science to create a slide show presentation, I have done these for years in powerpoint. One big difference in google docs is saving. If you hit save, it just saves your document and keeps it open. Save and close, does exactly what it says. When you create a presentation, like Powerpoint there are generic text boxes with a title bar and a supporting text bar. To add a new slide, you must click on the edit tab then hit the add slide button. When adding a slide you have numerous options for a slide: Title, text, two columns, caption and a blank slide. When working with slides, you have all the same text editing attributes that google docs has such as font, font color, font size, and justification.


A nice feature with google docs, is being able to upload powerpoint presentations. You can open that file from your computer or from a URL. One thing google docs does not support is the newest version of powerpoint which saves the extension as .pptx. Google docs lets you work with the imported graphics from power point and make any needed adjustments. Google docs lets you also import slides from other presentations to incorporate into another slideshow. Like powerpoint, google docs comes with various themes. When selecting a theme your fonts will change to that preset theme's fonts. Once a theme is established, any slides inserted will use the them applied. When using themes, best to keep it simple and not mix and match and have too many crazy graphics. If you wanted a slide to have different background from the others, its an easy process. To change the background, you right click on the slide and select the option. 




Chapter 13
The next chapter continues in depth with using the slide presentation feature of google docs. The features include how to add text, lists, images, video, notes and shapes. To add a text box, select the edit tab and then the insert text button. Once text is inserted, you can modify it even further with size, font, color, etc. Covered next in the chapter is how to insert a list. The author recommends to start the list first rather then insert the option later. Once you select the list button, to start a second list item in the list, you just hit enter or return. Backspace takes out the bullet and returns you to the previous line. With lists you can change the alignment, color, font, etc. 


To keep your slides interesting, its great to insert images such as logos. To add this feature to a slide, go to the edit tab and select insert image. Options when inserting images is from your computer or as a URL. You can also try dragging other web images to your slide. Once the image is added, it can be moved around the page by clicking and dragging. If you need to resize, as with any office style program from my experience, its best to hold down the shift key to keep its proportions. Often, I see images stretched and distorted which really annoys me as a Designer! 


Other graphics google docs allows in presentations are shapes. Shapes that can be placed include: circles, rectangles, arrows, speech bubbles and more. The author shows how to copy and  past the shape created and also moving the shape with your arrow keys on the keyboard. 


To take your presentation up a notch, you can add video. To add video, go to the edit table and select insert video. This command takes you directly to Youtube with a search option in the dialogue box. Thats a nice feature as many people rely on the site for video footage. Videos can be sized like images and shapes in Google Docs. One thing to keep in mind is resolution when increasing the size of your video. On your video, there are controls to play and stop your video. 


Lastly explored in Chapter 13 are speaker notes. These notes can be used as a tool to help when going over slides in a presentation. To add notes, there is a button with a face and + which adds a column to add speaker notes. To add notes to the new column, just click in it and start typing away. 


Chapter 14
The final chapter in presentations reviews how to share your presentation with others wether its exporting as a different format, print, online or on a projector. The share tab allows you to invite others to be collaborators or viewers to your slide. In this tab, you also have the option to send emails to your designated collaborators or create and online event/meeting. When saving your slide show you have numerous options such as saving it as a text file stripping it of its graphics, saving as powerpoint, or as a PDF.


Your presentation can be viewed and shared in different methods using google docs. To start your presentation you can click the start presentation button on the top right or select the option under file. What is nice with google docs is that you can share your presentation with anyone on the internet by providing the other viewers with the URL. When sharing a slideshow, a presenter can be selected by a simple click of a button. Your can interchange who is presenting by clicking the button on and off. A chat feature is also incorporated for you to converse with your audience. 


Printing is another way to share your slideshow. To print, make sure to select the print option from the file drop down in google docs. Options are given to print background and speaker notes. The author saves the files as PDFs and then prints. I have done this with powerpoint in the past as the graphics can take up a lot of memory and take forever to print. By saving as a PDF you compress the info and can making printing the slides a speedier process. 


The final method to share your slideshow is online. This can be done by publishing your website and get its own URL. The URL can be passed along to other viewers. To publish your document, the publish tab should be selected. Options for size and the URL are given. 


Woohoo, thats a wrap! Feels great to be done with the tutorial!!! :o)