Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Google Slides now has a Grid (Slide Sorter) view

Here's a nice new addition to Google Slides-- you can now view your slides in a grid view (like"Slide Sorter" in Powerpoint).  Just click on the icon on the lower left of the screen and your slides will show up in a grid, like so:


In grid view, you can move slides around or select a group of slides to apply a transition to, etc.

Here's another idea--I just read a post about a teacher  who using grid view with her students.  Each student has one slide in a presentation. By viewing the presentation in grid view, the teacher can see the progress each student is making.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Wikispaces is shutting down

If you're using Wikispaces for any class projects, you should know that the service is shutting down later this year, according to this post.  If you need to come up with an alternative solution for a project, let's get together and look at some options.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Transparent backgrounds in images

In my last post, I mentioned that LucidChart can export images with transparent backgrounds.  Why are transparent backgrounds important?

Take a look at these two beach chairs. The bottom one has a transparent background; the top doesn't.  Against a white background, you can't see the difference. But change the background-- first to solid black, then to a beach scene-- and the distinction becomes clear.

So, how do you find images with transparent backgrounds?  In a Google image search, click on Tools..Color, and choose transparent (while you're there, you can apply additional filters, such as usage rights and image size).


Note that the file extension for transparent images is png (although not all png files are transparent).  Other types, such as jpg, gif, and tiff, do not support transparency.  In many applications, you are given an option of how to save images-- choose transparent png if don't want the white background.



Thursday, February 1, 2018

Filtering search for recent results

I was just researching activities for Black History Month.  I found several results that led to dead links (i.e., pages that no longer exist).  Frustrating!

Usually, the reason for dead links is a web page that hasn't been updated in some time.  Here's a quick way to avoid those-- filter your search for more pages that have been created or updated more recently.

In Google search, click Tools, Time, then choose how long you want to look back.