Monday, December 13, 2010

Google Docs: Presentations

Google Docs has yet another user-friendly tool with which to collaborate online. The presentation tool is similar to PowerPoint, but much more basic. While I do enjoy PowerPoint more, I like the online collaboration, sharing, and embedding options that the Google Docs presentations offer.

In order to begin, simply open your Google Docs, choose new, and start designing and organizing your presentation. Whether using PowerPoint or Google Docs, it is always a good idea to have a plan in mind first. Creating slides, editing content, and adding clipart, wordart, videos and tables are all extremely similar to PowerPoint.

Since I already have many vocabulary and grammar PowerPoints for numerous levels of Spanish, I do not see a need to convert any of these files to the Google presentation. I tried to upload a current PowerPoint into a Google presentation, and it worked! This example is converted to a presentation and had minimal issues. The only real problem that I encountered was with clipart/word art from PowerPoint. Some of the converted clipart and word art was moved, upside down, or even missing pieces! I could only conceive converting some of my current files to Google presentation if I wanted to share with other teachers in order to edit, but I could just as easily send them in an email as an attachment.

You can also edit the background, themes, and color options. However, there are not as many options as PowerPoint. There is always help available if you need it! Google has its own help even for presentations. Check it out! A great site that I found was how to embed your presentation into a website. See below for the presentation that I created above embedded here:


As always, do not forget to name your file and save it! You can also edit your publishing settings beyond private so that you can share with others (with editing privileges or not)! Also, stay tuned for all kinds of uses in the classroom.

1 comment:

  1. I have never used Google Docs before. Thanks for the directions, comments, and examples. I will definitely try it out soon!

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