The Untapped Potential of Web Clipboard in Google Drive

Copy and paste is a necessity in creating resources for teaching.  After using copy and paste within Google Drive some things did not paste correctly (especially pasting Google Drawings into a Google Document).

Web Clipboard however is a great tool within Google Drive applications where you can copy an item to a "web clipboard" and access that clipboard from any Google Drive application.  Look at the result of copying the same "entire drawing" to the web clipboard and pasting it into a Google Document.  

The drawing retains it all of its original traits and is a resizable image.  There are other advantages to using the Web Clipboard as well.  The Web Clipboard will hold up to 10 items for 30 days.  That means you can access the same items from the same place without having to copy the item multiple times.  The Web Clipboard is located under the "Edit" menu in every Google Application.

Google Drawings as Links On a Google Site

A coworker of mine showed me this tip.  Instead of creating a hyperlink to a piece of plain old text, create a Google Drawing and attach hyperlinks to images and text in it to improve the look of your website.

I created a table with my school schedule in Google Drawings and then hyperlinked the picture or wordart to a webpage.

Now just embed the Google Drawing into your Google Site and when they click on the linked image it will take them to the corresponding URL.  Just make sure the Google Drawing is public.  The Google Drawing will also automatically update on the Google Site if you make changes to the Google Drawing.  This has really cleaned up my homepage.

Tab Switching on Touchpad For Chromebooks

(Chromebook)  While studying for the Google Educator test I learned a quick way to switch between tabs using the touchpad on a chromebook.

Place 3 FINGERS on the touchpad and swipe left or right.  That will highlight the tab you would like to switch to without clicking.  A huge time saver for myself.

Saving Files in Multiple Locations in Google Drive

Trying to locate a file in Google Drive can be frustrating if the location of the file is under several subfolders.  Moving the file to a more accessible location would make finding it easier but maybe you would like it to also remain in its current location (maybe it is in a shared folder and you do not want it to loose it's shared properties).  Well I just found this out.

You can move a file in Google Drive so it appears in multiple locations.  When you select "Move to" hold down Control (⌘ on Macs) and click the second (or third or fourth) location you would like for the file to appear.

When you edit the file in one location it it also edited in all of the locations of the file.

Randomize Answers in Google Forms

A new to addition Google Forms this weekend allows you to shuffle the answer order for certain types of questions. (Multiple Choice, Checkboxes, Choose From a List and Grid)

This is a feature that can be used when using a Google Forms as an assessment tool as well as administering surveys to get a better idea of interest on a topic.  And it is so easy to turn on, just check the box and the form will generate a randomized order of answers.  

Splitscreen Windows

When I work within Chrome or Word I find it helpful to have two windows open at once but I always have to resize them so that I can view or edit both windows.  To save some time Windows 7 has a feature built in called "Snapping" a window.  Just drag the window to the left or right edge of the screen and it will create a quick outline of the window.  Let go of the mouse button and it will snap it to that side.  To maximize your window drag it to the top-middle of the screen.
(UPDATE 5/15:  Pressing Windows Key + Left arrow will also snap the window to the left.  This also applies to the right arrow to snap right and up arrow to maximize.)

I find this feature to be one of the most valuable time savers during my day.  Unfortunately it feels like I have to use multiple different operating systems each day so I put together other ways to use this snapping feature on each system.

Chromebook:  There is no way to drag the windows to snap the windows but there is a keyboard shortcut to get the windows to split screen.  Alt + [  will snap the window towards the left of the screen and Alt + ] will snap the window towards the right.  You can also hit [ or ] multiple times to make the window smaller.

(UPDATE 4/12:  Chrome OS 34 now lets you snap the window like Windows 7!!  Just pull the windows to the left or right of the screen to get them to snap to the corresponding side.  Awesome feature.)  (UPDATE 5/15:  Alt +] also snaps the window to the right.)

Mac OS:  There is a free program called Better Touch Tool (Download) which gives you all of the functionality of the snapping feature of Windows 7 but it also allows you to setup keyboard shortcut (I created a snapping short cut: Shift + Left Arrow for left snap and Shift + Right Arrow for right snap) as well as custom gesture shortcuts.  There are so many possibilities with the use of Better Touch Tool.  I highly suggest you check it out.

Windows XP:  Our office computers are still running XP and I find myself trying to snap windows but it does not work.  I found Aero Snap (Download) which is free and quick to install.  It is a beta program but I have not found any problems with it.  You can snap your windows left, right and maximize just like in Windows 7.

Screenshots Made Easy

For years I have relied on the most often used way to take a screen shot (ctrl + Print Scrn) and it is also the most frustrating method.  Ctrl+PrtScrn forces me to take a screen shot of the entire desktop but a majority of the time I want just a small region of the screen.  And to edit that screenshot I would have to paste it into Paint and edit it.  You know the story.  I have found three other ways to take screenshots that you might find yourself using from now on.  All three are FREE, easy to use, may already be on your computer and will save you so much time.

1)   (Windows 7 or later) The snipping tool is a free program already installed on the computer.  Go to the start menu and search or find the program "Snipping Tool."  This will give you the ability to screenshot a region of the screen instead of having to take a screenshot of the entire desktop.  You can then save or copy the screenshot for use in other programs.


2) (Windows XP, 7 or later)  PicPick was at first an alternate to print screen for computers that I use running Windows XP because XP does not have the Snipping Tool installed.  However it has turned out to be my go to screenshot tool on Windows 7 computers as well.  The main reason is that you can set up a keyboard shortcut for taking a screenshot.  Under the options menu you can create a hot key (mine is ctrl+shift+z) to bring up the screenshot crosshairs.  Another benefit to PicPick is that is also automatically opens your screenshot in its own version of Paint for you to edit it.  Their program has many other options available that Paint does not such as pixilation.


3) (Mac OS)  Skitch is my alternative to PicPick for the Mac.  It does not have as many options as PicPick but it does have a keyboard shortcut for taking a screenshot (⌘+Shift+5) It also opens the screenshot in its own program that you can edit it from.