GOOGLE SLIDES - Building Blocks

 You have so many choices with BUILDING BLOCKS in Google Slides with 14 different categories to choose from!

You can access Building Blocks in Google Slides by clicking on Insert and Building Blocks. You can also click on the Building Blocks icon on the Sidebar in Google Slides. Both ways open the Building Blocks panel. There are 14 different categories of Building Blocks so you have lots of choices. Some categories are Agendas, Lists, Headlines, Texas Callouts, Collages, Badges, and Calls to Action, to name a few. When you click on a category name, you can scroll through and see all of the Building Blocks in that category. All you have to do is click on a Building Block to insert it into your Google Slides presentation. After a Building Block is inserted, you can edit the Building Block by resizing it, moving it, changing the colors, text, pictures, etc. You can even use multiple Building Blocks on one slide!

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - SEPTEMBER 2025

 There's no LABOR when you use BUILDING BLOCKS in Google Slides because they're all ready to use!

GOOGLE SHEETS - Timeline

 TIMELINE in Google Sheets can help you say on track with tasks and projects.

It's so easy to insert a Timeline in Google Sheets. It doesn't require a formula and only takes a few steps to create the Timeline. It's not even a hidden feature that you have search for, since it's right in the Insert menu. The Timeline is also created on a new sheet in your Google Sheet so it doesn't interfere with your original data. When you update your original data, the Timeline will also update automatically. After the Timeline is inserted, you can open Settings and customize the way the Timeline looks by selecting different options. I like to format my list first with different colors but you don't have to do that. In the Timeline, you can click on any item and the Card Details panel opens. This is where you can edit the data and/or choose a color for the item in the Timeline. Finally, I like to click on the Card Group dropdown in the Optional Fields and select an item, such as "Tasks" to appear in a list on the left of the Timeline. You have lots of options to make your Timeline look the way you want.

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - AUGUST 2025

 Use the TIMELINE in Google Sheets to help you get ready for BACK TO SCHOOL!

GOOGLE DOCS - Collapsible Headings

 You have COLLAPSIBLE HEADINGS in Google Docs now, as long as you do 2 things!

Collapsible headings are a great feature in Google Docs. There are 2 things that you need to do if you want to have collapsible headings - 1) You need to format your headings with a Heading Style. You can select a Heading Style on the toolbar right next to where you select a font. You have 3 Heading Styles to choose from so be sure to select one of them. Also, notice that I inserted small pictures of red stars in my heading names. This did not affect the headings as long as I selected a Heading Style for the actual text that I typed for the headings. 2) You need to be in Pageless Mode. This can be done by clicking on File and then Page Setup. Select Pageless at the top of the Page Setup window and click OK. Once you're in Pageless mode, when you hover to the left of each heading, you'll see a down arrow. Click on the down arrow and the text below the heading will collapse. Now there will be an arrow to the left of each heading. If you click on it, the heading will expand and you'll see the text below the heading.

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - JULY 2025

 There are COLLAPSIBLE HEADINGS in Google Docs now! Let's CELEBRATE!💥

GOOGLE FORMS - Publish Button

 There's a new PUBLISH BUTTON in Google Forms and you'll be using it a lot! See how easy it is!

The Send button is gone in Google Forms and it has been replaced with a new Publish button. This might seem confusing at first but it actually makes more sense and I think it's a good change. All Google Forms have to be published now before anyone can fill them out so you'll be using the Publish button a lot. When you're ready for people to fill out your form, you click on the Publish button and specify who can fill out your Google Form. You can list specific people, choose your organization, or select "Anyone with the Link". After you Publish your Google Form, the Publish button changes and says "Published". If you click on the Published button, you can see Accepting Responses. This is a new location for it. If you ever want to stop Accepting Responses, this is where you'll turn it off. Finally, if you want to Unpublish your Google Form, click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner of the form and select Unpublish Form.

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - JUNE 2025

 Not sure about the new PUBLISH BUTTON in Google Forms? NO SWEAT! It's easy to use!

GOOGLE SLIDES - New Sidebar

The NEW SIDEBAR in Google Slides has 6 helpful tools in one place!

The New Sidebar in Google Slides puts 6 helpful tools in one spot to the right of your presentation so that you can find and use them easily when you're editing your presentation. The 6 tools are - 1) Templates - a variety of templates that can be applied to your presentation, 2) Building Blocks - pre-formatted pieces of content that can be added to your presentation, 3) Stock & Web - images, stickers, and visual elements that can be added to your presentation, 4) Drive & Photos - access items in your Google Drive and Google Photos to add them to your presentation, 5) Slides Recordings - you can record yourself presenting, then have access to the recordings, and finally, 6) Speaker Spotlight - you can insert your video feed directly into your presentation. Each of these tools can be found on the toolbar under either Insert, View, or Slide so you can access each of them in another place but having them all together in the New Sidebar is a great new addition to Google Slides!

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - MAY 2025

 There's a NEW SIDEBAR in Google Slides! SPRING into action and check it out!

GOOGLE DRIVE - Share Video at a Timestamp

Look how easy it i to SHARE VIDEO AT A TIMESTAMP with Google Drive!

When you save a video in Google Drive, you have a "hidden" option that you might not know about. Most people are familiar with the Share button but when you click on the down arrow next to the word Share, you'll see the option to Copy Link To This Time. To use this feature, play the video or scroll to a specific time in the video. Pause the video and click the down arrow on the Share button next to the word Share. Click on Copy Link To This Time. This copies a link for you at the timestamp. When you share the link, whoever you shared it with will be able to view the video starting at the timestamp. This is really helpful when you want people to view a portion of a video and not view the whole video. Instead of them having to scroll to view the video at a specific time, you've done the work for them and shared the video at a timestamp.

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - APRIL 2025

Don't FOOL around! Check out how you can SHARE VIDEO AT A TIMESTAMP in Google Drive!

GOOGLE DOCS - Cover Image

 You can add a COVER IMAGE in Google Docs now but make sure that you're in Pageless format!

Google continues to add new features to Google Docs all the time and Cover Image is a great one! It's only available when you're in Pageless format so be sure to switch to that if you want to try out Cover Image. You can switch to Pageless format by clicking on Format and Switch to Pageless Format or by clicking on File, Page Setup, and selecting Pageless. When you're in Pageless format, Google Docs look more like a web page and when you add a Cover Image, it looks even more like a web page. The Cover Image is wide and goes across the whole width of the Pageless format. If you want to adjust the Cover Image, just click on it and a small toolbar appears at the bottom left of the Cover Image. The toolbar lets you replace the image, reposition the image, add alt text to the image, or delete the image. When you click off the Cover Image, the toolbar disappears. Click back on the Cover Image and the toolbar will reappear.

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - MARCH 2025

 We're in LUCK! Google Docs has a new COVER IMAGE feature and it's awesome!☘

GOOGLE FORMS - Rating Question

 Try out the new RATING QUESTION in Google Forms and you'll see how awesome it is!

I've always loved Google Forms and it's been great to see all the changes and updates to them over time. The new Rating Question is definitely a fun addition to Google Forms. It has some interesting options that make it visually appealing. First of all, you can select how many icons you want to show. You can choose from 3-10 icons. You can also select from 3 different icons to use for rating - a star, a heart, and a thumbs up. When you're in the Published version of Google Forms, you can click on any of the icons to give a rating and they show up in color, which I really like. The star is yellow, the heart is read, and the thumbs up is blue. Speaking of the Published version of Google Forms, the new Publish button takes a little getting used to but I think it's a good change. It prevents people from accidentally filling out the form in the Edit version and it makes more sense than the Send button. I love all the changes in Google Forms!

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - FEBRUARY 2025

 Google Forms has a new RATING QUESTION and you're going to LOVE it!

GOOGLE SLIDES - New Templates

 Check out the NEW TEMPLATES in Google Slides! They're awesome!

When I first saw Templates on the right side in Google Slides, I thought that it was replacing Themes because Themes is usually showing on the right side when Google Slides opens. Thankfully, this is not the case. We still have Themes and now we have Templates, too! If you want to see Themes instead of Templates, just click on the word Theme at the top of Google Slides and Themes will open in the right side navigation pane instead of Templates. Also, if you want to see Templates but they're not showing, just click on the Slide tab at the top of Google Slides and then click on Templates. We have so many new templates to choose from that it might be hard to make up your mind. As you scroll through the new templates, you can click on any of the templates to see all of the slides in the template. You can click on any slide in a template to add it to your presentation or you can insert all the slides from a template into your presentation.

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - JANUARY 2025

 It's a NEW YEAR and Google Slides has some awesome NEW TEMPLATES for you to try out!

GMAIL - Create an Event

It will save you lots of time when you use GMAIL to CREATE AN EVENT and it's so easy!

Being able to create a calendar event from an email while in Gmail is such a great feature! It saves you time because you don't have to leave Gmail and open up your Google Calendar to create an event. This means that you don't have to go back and forth between Gmail and Google Calendar to transfer the information in the email to the calendar event. When you create an event in Gmail, Google transfers the message from the email right into the description for the calendar event. It also makes the subject line of the email the name of the calendar event and automatically adds the person who sent the email as an invitee. You can add additional guests and edit the guest list, if needed. The main thing that you need to do is edit the date and the time to make sure that they're correct. The default is the date and time when you're creating the event so you definitely need to make sure that you change the date and time to match the information in the email.

TECH TREAT of the MONTH - DECEMBER 2024

 You'll be giving yourself the GIFT of time when you use GMAIL to CREATE AN EVENT!