Google Workspace for Education Guide

The Basics

Want to quickly learn the basics of the Google apps that we use at Barton?

This page will give you an understanding of what you’re looking at overall when it comes to the Google Workspace of apps as well as the names and how to access the websites.

One of the main reasons we love Google Workspace is that it’s free for use at home and you can access it all on any device that has an internet connection. On our last check (January 2019), if you wanted access to the Microsoft Office suite you would need to pay £6 per month to install it to just one computer.

Once you’ve built up your understanding of the Google Apps it’s worth remembering that here on the IT Intranet site, we regularly post updates about new features that you can use in the Google Workspace.

Anyway, let’s start here with search, icons, names and web addresses (It’s not as bad as it sounds). If after all of this information, you still need a little extra help, feel free to pop by the IT Office and we can give you a hand.

Search

Each Google Workspace app has a Search option, most will have the long search box at the top of the screen. Others, such as mobile device apps, will only have a small magnifying glass icon which you then have to click to open the search box.

Icons – Basics

Below is a little table of icons that you’ll see across the range of Google apps with a little description of what they are used for.

  • Account

    In the top right corner of any Google page (Search or Calendar for example), click to see which account you are logged in as. If you have a profile photo this icon may not appear.

  • Apps

    Click to see a list of all the Google apps and easily switch between them.

  • Settings

    Quickly edit the settings of the app you have open.

  • Search

    Search for content within this app.

  • Main Menu

    Press to show a main menu that is otherwise hidden. Mainly shown in applications on mobile devices, not too common on computers. Commonly known as the ‘hamburger’ icon. Shown as 3 horizontal lines.

  • More

    Click to see more options. Google use the three vertical dots however some other companies do use three horizontal dots.

  • Expand

    A small arrow pointing down, it may be filled in. When pointing down it is showing you there is another menu to expand, when pointing up it means you can hide a menu.

Icons – Apps

Generally Google use the same 4 main colours as identified by their company Logo. Blue, red, yellow and green. You’ll most likely see either the full Google text or a G showcasing all the 4 colours. They also throw in a bit of purple and grey every now and then, as well as slightly different shades of these colours.

Below we’ve got the main Google Icons that you might see, these icons are the same across the Google websites and the apps on your mobile device. This isn’t every Google App but more of a showing of what is most used here at Barton. In total there are over 55 different logos that Google use across their products, you can see a definitive list by going here on Google.com.

Hover your mouse over the icons to see the name of the application.

Names

Let’s start with the name that ties everything together, and we don’t mean Google! Just like Microsoft have the Office suite that includes Word etc, Google has a name at the top of the tree, that name is Google Workspace or Google Workspace for Education.

The names of individual Google Apps pretty much explain what they do, such as Sites for creating websites, or Maps for navigating. We use Docs, Slides and Sheets in place of Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel respectively.

The full and proper name of most of the Google Workspace apps has the Google name before it, such as Google Docs. However, we do tend to remove the Google name to shorten it so you may hear us talking about a Slides presentation or a Sheets document. Not all apps have Google before their name though, you wouldn’t say Google YouTube or Google Gmail.

Web Addresses

The Web Address or URL is what you navigate to and see in the top of your web browser (which is hopefully Google Chrome). It generally is started with http:// or https:// and commonly suggested with www. however adding www. to the beginning of a web address isn’t needed anymore. You can literally just type in the main part of a URL to go to it, like google.com or bbc.co.uk for example.

One of the easiest ways to switch between Google Workspace apps is to use the Apps icon in the top right corner of Google Workspace pages, as shown in the Icons – The Basics section at the top of this page.

Google have put in a lot of work to make it as easy as possible to access their pages, all you need to know is the name of the app, then just add .google.com on to the end and hit Enter.

Once you’ve done that a couple of times, you won’t even need to add .google.com on to the end, you’ll be able to just type the name of the app and auto-fill will automatically add the rest on for you.

Take a look at the example below, as soon as we start typing sheets, drive or forms the rest of the link is automatically added so we can just hit Enter and go straight to that page. Some of the apps aren’t necessarily at that web address but once you type it in and try to go to it, Google will route you to the correct location.

Web Addresses – Create a new document

Google have recently introduced the .NEW web shortcut to save you those precious seconds when you need to create a new document in Google Workspace. In the address bar in Chrome, just type in the type of document you want, Slides or Form for example and add .new to the end, hit Enter on your keyboard and you’ll have a new document open before you know it. 

It doesn’t have to be just the name of the app either. The GIF on the right shows all possible options for the Google Workspace apps. You can use spreadsheets.new or presentation.new if you really want to type a long name out.

Check out the example below, in no time we have a new site and slide document open ready for me to work on:

Google Drive

Google Drive or Drive is the main storage space for your documents. You can access this from anywhere in the world by logging in with your username and password at drive.google.com.

In this section we will be going through the basics of Storage Space, Files, Views, Sharing, Team Drives, File Stream and Scan to Google Drive.

Storage Space

On the college file servers each person, staff or student, has 5GB of file space assigned to them, if you study subjects like IT, Graphics, Media or Photography this space runs out pretty quick. Meaning you’ll get hit with error messages stopping you from being able to save any more files.

Google Drive gives you almost unlimited storage while you’re a member of the college, and you can access it easily at home so you can do some work in lesson then carry on where you left off as soon as you get home. Just save your work back on to Google Drive and it will be there ready for you.

Files

Google Drive allows you to store any file, even files it doesn’t know what to do with. Some files can be used in Drive such as audio, photo, PDF or video files which can all be opened in Drive without having to download them.

One of the best things with Drive and it’s file support is that if you’ve got loads of files that have previously been made in the Microsoft Office suite you can just upload them into Google Drive and if you want it to, it can automatically and quickly convert them into Google Workspace documents. All your Word documents will change in to Google Docs, Powerpoints in to Slides and Excel files in to Sheets docs. If for any reason you might need to, you can also export Docs, Sheets or Slide documents in to their respective Microsoft Office version too.

When you create a new file in Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites or Jamboard then the files are automatically saved to Drive. Google saves your work in Docs, Sheets & Slides as soon as you do something so there isn’t a risk of you doing a load of work and losing it if the computer dies for example.

Views

There are two ways to view your files on the Google Drive website, firstly there is List View which simply displays your documents in a list. Secondly there is Grid View which shows your files in a grid, giving a thumbnail preview of that file. Each person will have a different preference but you can easily change what view you have in the top right corner of Google Drive by looking for one of the below icons.

Sharing

The default sharing settings for each file in your own drive is that it is private to you. You can give someone shared access to a specific file or a folder but you can’t give someone access to your whole drive space.

If you right click on a file or folder and click Share, you can then set options for sharing that item. If it is an editable file you can click the little icon of a pen and set it so the other person can either edit the file too or they can only view it and not make any changes.

Once you have shared the file with someone, in the List View it will show a little two person icon like in the example below to signify that it is a shared file. Files don’t show the sharing icon when in Grid View. Folders on the other hand do have a little icon of a person in the folder in both views.

When in the Sharing settings screen, if you click the Advanced button in the bottom right corner of the screen you then have the option to copy a link to the file instead of sending out invites. You’ll then need to make sure the Who has access option is set to ‘Anyone with the link’ or something similar.

Team Drives

Team Drives are shared spaces where teams can store their files and guarantee that every member has the most up-to-date information, no matter the time or place. They are great for collaboration, especially in departments.

  • Every person and group added to a Team Drive gets instant access to that team’s documents
  • Designed to store the team’s work collectively, so if a document’s creator moves off of the team that document doesn’t go with them
  • Team members prevented from accidentally removing or deleting files that others need

To find your Team Drives, open Google Drive and look on the left, there will be a Team Drives button.

To create a new Team Drive click the Team Drives button and then click New on the left of the screen. Then simply add teammates and files to your new drive. Make sure you name it something that makes sense though, something that all the members of your team will understand.

Google Drive File Stream

Google Drive File Stream is a desktop application that allows you to access your Google Drive directly from your computer and uses almost none of your hard disk space. Because the Drive files are stored in the cloud, any changes you or your collaborators make are automatically updated everywhere. You’ll always have the latest version.

With Drive File Stream, you can:

  • Quickly see all your Google Drive files in Finder/Explorer (including Team Drives).
  • Browse and organize Google Drive files without downloading all of them to your computer.
  • Choose which files or folders you’d like to make available offline if you’re working from home or a laptop.
  • Open files in common apps like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop.

Click here to find out how to install Google Drive File Stream at college or at home.

Scan to Google Drive

Scan to Google Drive is a great feature on our Ricoh MFD printers around the college site, whatever you need to scan will be sent straight in to a Scans folder in your Google Drive for you to easily access.

Click here to find out more about the Scan to Google Drive feature.

Other Features

Once you’ve mastered the basics of using Google Drive, managing to access your files in the best way to suit you, it would be worth having a look at some of Google Drive’s other features.

Click here to find out more.

Google Docs

Docs is Google’s answer to Microsoft Word, in your web browser or app. It is an online, collaborative word processor that is part of Google Drive and Google Workspace. As long as you are connected to the internet, all your changes are saved instantly.

You can access Docs by going to docs.google.com or you will see your Docs files in your Drive.

Create a new document

You can create a new document from either Google Drive or from Google Docs.

In Drive, you can click the + New button in the top left corner then select Docs.

In Docs, you’ll be given a few templates and a Blank option to start from, if you click Template gallery then you will be offered a Barton template with the college letterhead on it.

Alternatively as we learned in The Basics, you can just type in docs.new in to your browser.

The Toolbar

The main toolbar along the top of a Docs window houses some key features that you probably won’t use each time but it’s extremely useful to know about. It also tells you when things are saved. As you type or make other changes, the All changes saved in Drive text will change to Saving… as you can see below.

We’ll go through some of the toolbar menus now, others you can discover on your own.

File

Make a copy… – Make a duplicate of the document you are in.

Download as – Download your document in other formats, such as Word or PDF.

Email as attachment – Send your document as an email, can attach as other formats, such as Word or PDF.

Version History – See all the changes you and others have made to the document or revert it to earlier documents.

Format

Text – Change the format of text including size, capitalisation and subscript.

Columns – Change the format of the document to allow columns of text.

Headers & Footers – Change the size of the header and footer.

Insert

Image – Insert an image from your computer, Google Images, Drive and more.

Table – Select the number of columns and rows to create and add a table.

Drawing – Create pictures, flowcharts, diagrams and more.

Link – Add a link to a webpage or location/bookmark in your document.

Bookmark – Add shortcuts to specific places within your document.

Table of contents – Create an auto generated table of contents that links to each heading (where you’ve applied headings and titles).

Formatting Toolbar

Docs has a lot of the same features as Word, only it doesn’t take up a huge amount of the screen.

The image below shows the main editing features of Docs, the Format text option lets you quickly change text from plain text in to a title or heading. The other settings allow you to manually change the font, size, colour and formatting of text as well as it’s layout on the page.

One useful feature that not a lot of people are aware of is the Paint format  button, it’s symbolised as a paint roller icon and is the first shown on the image below. If you select a piece of text, click this button and then select a different piece of text, Docs will instantly change the format of the second piece to the same as the first. This saves a lot of time if you want to change certain paragraphs or phrases rather than having to manually change the colour or size of each part individually.

If you need extra settings that aren’t here, click on the Format button along the main toolbar for other settings such as Strike-through or to add columns into your document. Most of the settings available on this toolbar can be found under the Format menu on the main toolbar too.

Explore

A relatively new feature in Docs, Sheets and Slides, the explore button will provide different options in each app.

In Docs it will scan through your text and suggest relevant websites, images and other content from the web or items stored in your Google Drive. The general idea is that you can add images and citations that Google think is relevant to your writing without leaving the Doc.

You can find the Explore icon in the bottom right corner of a Doc window, once you click it you will have all of Google’s suggestions and content at your fingertips.

Other Features

Once you’ve got the hang of the basics, check out our 5 Top Tips for Google Docs blog post to learn some great tips on streamlining your Docs use.

Google Sheets

Sheets is Google’s answer to Microsoft Excel, in your web browser or app. It is an online, collaborative spreadsheet program that is part of Google Drive and Google Workspace. As long as you are connected to the internet, all your changes are saved instantly.

You can access Sheets by going to sheets.google.com or you will see your Sheets files in your Drive.

Create a new document

You can create a new document from either Google Drive or from Google Sheets.

In Drive, you can click the + New button in the top left corner.

In Sheets, you’ll be given a few templates and a Blank option to start from, click Template gallery to find more options.

Alternatively as we learned in The Basics, you can just type in sheets.new in to your browser.

The Toolbar

The main toolbar along the top of a Sheets window houses some key features that you probably won’t use each time but it’s extremely useful to know about. It also tells you when things are saved. Each time you click out of a cell after editing it or make other key changes, the All changes saved in Drive text will change to Saving… as you can see below.

We’ll go through some of the toolbar menus now, others you can discover on your own.

File

Make a copy… – Make a duplicate of the document you are in.

Download as – Download your document in other formats, such as Excel or PDF.

Version History – See all the changes you and others have made to the document or revert it to earlier documents.

Edit

Delete row or Delete column – Delete the row or column that the selected cell is in.

Delete cells and shift left or Delete cells and shift up – Delete the data from the selected cell and move all other data in the row or column left or up into its place.

Insert

Row above or Row below – Insert an empty row above or below the selected cell.

Column left or Column right – Insert an empty column to the left or right of the selected cell.

Cells and shift right or Cells and shift down – Move the selected cell right or down and place an empty cell in its place.

Chart – Create a graph based on the data in your spreadsheet.

Drawing – Create pictures, flowcharts, diagrams and more.

Tick box – Add a small tick box to a cell, click it to tick it then click it to untick it.

Note – Add a small note to a cell, only displays if you hover your mouse over the cell.

Formatting Toolbar

Sheets has a lot of the same features as Excel, it just doesn’t have every single formula or functions as Excel but it does allow for much greater collaboration..

The image below shows the main editing features of Sheets, the Format data option lets you quickly change the format of a cell for example from plain text in to currency as well as move the decimal place. The other settings allow you to add borders, merge cells, change the text formatting and how the cell reacts to text. There are also quick buttons for adding in links, comments, charts and filters.

If you need extra settings that aren’t here, click on the Format button along the main toolbar for other settings such as Strike-through or to add Conditional Formatting into your document.

Explore

A relatively new feature in Docs, Sheets and Slides, the explore button will provide different options in each app.

In Sheets it will scan through your spreadsheet and suggest relevant analysis of your data, it will suggest pivot tables, pie charts and bar graphs that you may want to add in to visualize your data. The general idea is that you can Charts in without having to do the work yourself. As long as you’ve got titles on your columns then Google will offer you some pre-made Charts.

You can find the Explore icon in the bottom right corner of a Sheets window, once you click it you will have all of Google’s suggestions and content at your fingertips.

Other Features

Once you’ve got the hang of the basics, check out our 5 Top Tips for Google Sheets blog post to learn some great tips on streamlining your Docs use.

Google Slides

Slides is Google’s answer to Microsoft PowerPoint, in your web browser or app. It is an online, collaborative presentation program that is part of Google Drive and Google Workspace. As long as you are connected to the internet, all your changes are saved instantly.

You can access Slides by going to slides.google.com or you will see your Slides files in your Drive.

Create a new document

You can create a new document from either Google Drive or from Google Slides.

In Drive, you can click the + New button in the top left corner.

In Slides, you’ll be given a few templates and a Blank option to start from, click Template gallery to find more options including some Barton Peveril branded templates.

Alternatively as we learned in The Basics, you can just type in slides.new in to your browser.

The Toolbar

The main toolbar along the top of a Slides window houses some key features that you probably won’t use each time but it’s extremely useful to know about. It also tells you when things are saved. Each time you click out of a cell after editing it or make other key changes, the All changes saved in Drive text will change to Saving… as you can see below.

We’ll go through some of the toolbar menus now, others you can discover on your own.

File

Make a copy… – Make a duplicate of the document you are in.

Import slides… – Import slides from a different Slides doc or PowerPoint document.

Download as – Download your document in other formats, such as PowerPoint, Image files or PDF.

Version History – See all the changes you and others have made to the document or revert it to earlier documents.

View

Present – Begin the presentation. This button is also at the top right of the Slides screen.

Master – Edit the theme on the Master slide to apply that theme to all slides.

Grid view – View all your slides as a grid, you can move them around easily.

Insert

Chart – Create a graph based on the data in your spreadsheet.

Table – Create and add a table.

Diagram – Create and add in a flowchart.

Slide numbers – Add slide numbers to each slide.

New slide – Add a blank slide before the currently selected slide.

Slide

Duplicate slide – Duplicate the currently selected slide.

Skip slide – Hide this slide from the main presentation, it will still remain available for you to edit.

Formatting Toolbar

Slides has a lot of the same features as PowerPoint, it just doesn’t have all the same animations or slide transitions but it does allow for much greater collaboration.

The image below shows the main editing features of Slides, there are quick buttons for adding in new text boxes, images, shapes, lines and links as well as setting borders of content too.

If you need extra settings that aren’t here, click on the Format button along the main toolbar for other settings such as Strike-through or capitalization.

Explore

A relatively new feature in Docs, Sheets and Slides, the explore button will provide different options in each app.

In Slides it will scan through your presentation and suggest alternative layouts for your content. You can also use the search feature at the top of the Explore tab to search for webpages or images from the web or content from your Drive.

You can find the Explore icon in the bottom right corner of a Slides window, once you click it you will have all of Google’s suggestions and content at your fingertips.

Other Features

Once you’ve got the hang of the basics, check out our 5 Top Tips for Google Slides blog post to learn some great tips on aiding your Slides use including trimming YouTube videos and adding timers.

Google Forms

Forms is Google’s answer to SurveyMonkey, but free. It is an online, collaborative survey program that is part of Google Drive and Google Workspace. As long as you are connected to the internet, all your changes are saved instantly.

You can access Forms by going to forms.google.com or you will see your Forms files in your Drive.

Create a form

You can create a new form from either Google Drive or from Google Forms.

In Drive, you can click the + New button in the top left corner.

In Forms, you’ll be given a few templates and a Blank option to start from, click Template gallery to find more options.

Alternatively as we learned in The Basics, you can just type in forms.new in to your browser.

Basic Options

The image below shows the first opening of a blank form along with quick description of each thing you will see.

You can set the name for your form as well as change the main colour or theme of the form, use the small toolbar on the right to add questions, titles, images and more.

Questions & Answers

There is no limit to how long a question can be and you can add an image in to accompany a question.

There are 11 different options for the type of answer that is acceptable for the question, based on your question you can select exactly what type of answer you want in return. If you look at the image below, you’ll just need to click the Multiple choice button to see the list of options. Below the picture we will go through each type of answer and what they mean. One thing to note, you can change the settings of some questions by clicking the More icon in the bottom right of the question.

Type an answer

Short answer – People can write answers in a few words.

Paragraph – People can write long answers over one or more paragraphs.

Choose from a list

Multiple choice – You provide options, people can select just one option. Add ‘Other’ to allow users to type a short answer.

Checkboxes – You provide a number of options, people can select more than one option. Add ‘Other’ to allow users to type a short answer.

Dropdown – You provide a number of options, people can select one option.

Upload files

File upload – People can upload files as an answer. You can select the maximum file size and restrict what type of file is uploaded. Not available if form is create in a Team Drive.

Choose from a grid

Linear scale – People can provide an answer between 0 and 10 on a scale. You can change it to between other options such as between 1 and 5.
Multiple choice grid – You provide many options, people can select an answer in each row or column.
Checkbox grid – You provide many options, people can select more than one option per row or column.

Select a date and time

Date – People can enter a date as an answer.

Time – People can select a time or duration as an answer.

Sections & Logic Branching

Sections allow you to separate questions so the user isn’t just seeing a long endless page with tonnes of questions but short and quick pages.

A good example of this would be the Barton Facilities Booking Form, the first section asks for the details of the person submitting the request, the second section asks for the details of who to send an invoice to, the third section asks for details on the event that is being booked then the fourth section asks what room/s the person would like to book.

Using Sections means you can also use Logic Branching which isn’t as scary as it seems!

Logic Branching

In simple terms – Show questions based on answers

This is where you can set for the user to answer a question then get routed to a specific question based on their answer.

So for example, in the screenshot on the right, you can see that in the Facilities Booking Form there is a question that asks the user what type of room they want to book. When the user selects their desired room they will then go to the section for that specific room.

This can only be used on 3 types of questions:

  • Drop-down
  • Checkboxes
  • Multiple Choice

You’ll need to turn this option on for your question, to do that follow the steps below:

  1. At the bottom right, click More Moreand then Go to section based on answer.
    • You can also choose Submit form if you want the survey to end based on an answer.
  2. Choose specific sections to send people to.
    • It’s best if you have already named your sections.

Responses

At the top of your edit view of your form you will see the Responses tab, it will display the number of responses once people have submitted responses for it. Once you click on this tab, you will see all the responses and can view either the individual responses or a summary of all responses.

You can also export all the responses into a Google Sheets document, by clicking the Sheets icon, which is then automatically updated if anyone else submits responses later on.

You can edit some settings of the responses using the More button and use the Accepting responses toggle to turn off the ability for users to send responses.

Settings

The overall settings of a form can change a lot about how users can access or interact with it. You can set the form to automatically collect users email addresses so it’s not anonymous and stop users from outside of Barton from accessing it.

Two of the key features that you may want to use are the Limit to 1 response option so users can only submit the form once, this ensures that data isn’t skewed by someone sending the same response in multiple times. The other feature is the Edit after submit option so users can’t submit a response then go back and change their answer afterwards.

Other Features

Once you’ve got the hang of the basics, check out our 5 Top Tips for Google Forms blog post to learn some great tips.

Google Calendar

Calendar is as its name suggests, a calendar. Available online and as an app on both iOS and Android devices. It’s great because you can attach documents from your Google Drive to an appointment, so for example you could write notes in the days leading up to a meeting and then when you get to the meeting your notes are straight there in the calendar appointment.

You can access Calendar by going to calendar.google.com.

Create an event

There are two ways to start to create events or appointments in Google Calendar.

Firstly, you can click the Create button in the top left corner which will open the basic event with the current date and time set. Or you can find the date and time in the calendar view and click it to open the basic settings window.

In the basic settings window you can click More options to allow you to select extra options such as setting the appointment as an All day event, repeat options, setting a location or inviting guests.

Appointment slots

This is a brilliant feature that allows you to set appointments in your calendar that people can reserve. For example, a manager could set a number of available appointment times for 121’s with their team and send them a link to the page. The staff member can then look through the availability and pick the one that best suits them.

To set slots up, start to create a new event but before you select a date/time, click the Appointment slots option. On the next page you can select the date, the time frame and the duration each appointment can be. You can also create a single appointment if there is only one small slot on a specific day you can do, then create more on other days.

Colours

Each calendar displayed will have a different colour so you can easily see what events are in your calendar and what are in a different calendar.  

For example in my calendar I have my own events in light blue, the IT Calendar in purple and the College Calendar in orange.

You can easily change the colour of your calendar by clicking the more icon to the right of the calendar name.

Adding the College Calendar

By default your calendar will only show your events and reminders but you can easily add the shared Staff College Calendar so you can view what is happening around the college.

There are two ways to add it, the easiest method is to go on to the myBarton homepage, find the Calendar section and click Subscribe at the bottom of that square. The second way is to open Calendar and look for the Add calendar field then type in Staff College Calendar and hit Enter.

Google Keep

Keep is Google’s answer to note taking apps such as Evernote. Allowing you to take notes in different formats as well are reminders. It is available on both iPhone and Android devices. You can also add tick boxes and collaborate

You can access Keep by going to keep.google.com.

Features

Basic note – A basic note consists of either just text or text with a title.

List – A list has tick boxes on each line. Once clicked or tapped to tick the box, it moves to the bottom of the list and has a strikethrough the text.

Note with drawing – Allows you to draw using the mouse on your computer or using your finger on a touchscreen.

Note with image – Add an image to your note, you can add annotations to the image as well.

Pin a note – Keep track of important notes by pinning them to the top of your Keep page.

Colours – Pick from 12 colours to help organise your notes.

Labels – Use up to 50 different labels to organise and group notes.

Use the image below to find the organisation tools in Keep, across mobile devices and the web browser.

Create a Note

It is incredibly easy to add a note, follow the steps below on either your phone or the web app:

  1. Open Google Keep.
  2. Click or tap Take a note.
  3. Add a note and a title.

Click Done or press the back arrow.

A title in a note is a little bolder than the rest of the text in the note.

Create a Reminder

You can set a reminder in the same way as you set a note, but just click or tap the little bell icon to add a date and time for your reminder. You can also set it to repeat on a custom schedule, every day, every 3 days or every 3 weeks if you want. For example, you could set yourself a weekly reminder to put out the dustbins.

If you have the Keep app installed to your phone and are logged in with the same account, you will get a reminder sent to your phone as below:

Integration with Docs

Docs has great collaboration with Keep allowing you to quickly add text to your document that you’ve saved as a note. In Docs, you’ll find the Keep icon on the right hand side of the window, under the Calendar icon. Or, you’ll need to expand the side panel by clicking a little arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Take a look at the GIF below to see how easy it is to add your notes in to your document.

Google Sites

Sites allows anyone to create simple web sites

You can access Sites by going to sites.google.com/new or you will see your Sites in your Drive. The link sites.google.com without the /new takes you to the old Sites website which is being decommissioned and will become out of service at the end of 2021. You’ll know the difference between the two as the old Sites looks old and the new Sites looks modern and fresh.

To start off, if you want an example of how to best use Google Sites, check out the Glyn Library site. Occasionally the Library offer intro sessions on Sites to go through basics and to help staff understand it so it’s worth keeping an eye out on their emails.

Google Sites Policy

Before we go in to the basics of Sites, we must make sure you are aware of the Google Sites Policy. All staff must adhere to this policy when creating a site. You can find it here – Google Sites Policy.

Create a site

You can create a new site from either Google Drive or from Google Sites.

In Drive, you can click the + New button in the top left corner.

In Sites, there is a + icon in the bottom right corner of the screen that you can click.

Name, Header, Title & Theme

There are a few things to set up before you start adding content to your site, starting with the titles, header and names for the site as well as the theme which sets the overall style.

Site name, public – The name of the site that anyone viewing the site will see. Can be set to a small image such as a logo. Logo files can be in .jpg, .png, or .gif format. For best results, the logo height should be at least 112 px.

Site name, Drive – The name of the site so you can find it in Google Drive.

Home page title – The main title on the home page of your site.

Header type – 4 options. Cover (image only), Large banner (Large image with title), Banner (Default, medium sized image with title) and Title only (no image).

Background image – Set a background image for your header.

Theme – 6 themes to pick from to change style of site. Can change font style and colours within each theme.

Pages & Navigation

There are three different types of pages in Sites. Information on each one is below:

Home Page – The main page of the website, normally the first page users see. First button on main menu.

Page – Add more pages for more content. Additional pages are shown in the main menu.

Subpage – Nested below other pages. Will appear as drop down options when mouse is hovered on the main menu. Perfect to group multiple pages about similar topics together.

The example here from the Library page shows each of the three types of pages. The main ‘Home’ page is the first page in the menu, the Library FAQs is the ‘Page’ and the others are the ‘Subpages’ that only appear if you hover your mouse over the Library FAQs page link.

Changing the navigation

Once you’ve added a page or two to the site, you can change the position of the navigation menu. There are two options for this, Top or Side. After adding a site, hover your mouse to the left of your site name and click the little cog icon then select your preferred option.

An example of the two options and how to change them is below:

Content

At the time of writing there are 14 different types of content you can add and two different ways to add some of them.

The first 4 items can be added by double clicking on a blank space in your site which will bring up a content wheel. Alternatively, you can use the Insert tab to select the content from a list.

Here is a list of the types of content you can add:

Text box – Add titles and text.

Embed – Add content directly from the web, such as videos or music. Requires embed code.

Images- Add images from Drive, Google Image Search, a URL or upload from your computer.

From Drive – Embed any file (From Drive) or the contents of a folder stored in Drive. If you make changes to your files in Drive, the same changes automatically show in Sites.

Button – Add a button and set a custom link to anywhere on the web or in your site.

Divider – Add a horizontal divider line to your page.

YouTube – Embed a YouTube video in to your site. Opens a YouTube search box.

Calendar – Embed a calendar such as your team or the college calendar.

Map – Add maps to your site such as an event or office location or a custom map you can create at mymaps.google.com..

Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Charts – Add any content directly from your Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms or Charts files. Anything you change in the original files will be updated automatically on your site.

Preview, Share & Publish

Here is a list of the types of content you can add:

Text box – Add titles and text.

Embed – Add content directly from the web, such as videos or music. Requires embed code.

Images- Add images from Drive, Google Image Search, a URL or upload from your computer.

From Drive – Embed any file (From Drive) or the contents of a folder stored in Drive. If you make changes to your files in Drive, the same changes automatically show in Sites.

Button – Add a button and set a custom link to anywhere on the web or in your site.

Divider – Add a horizontal divider line to your page.

YouTube – Embed a YouTube video in to your site. Opens a YouTube search box.

Calendar – Embed a calendar such as your team or the college calendar.

Map – Add maps to your site such as an event or office location or a custom map you can create at mymaps.google.com..

Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Charts – Add any content directly from your Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms or Charts files. Anything you change in the original files will be updated automatically on your site.

Unpublish

If you no longer want your site to be available online, you can unpublish it. You can still access and update your site content.

You can also republish the site using the same URL or a different URL at any time. If people try to visit your unpublished site, they’ll see an error message.

Gmail

Gmail needs it’s own guide! Click the logo below to go straight to the Gmail guide.