Waffle Bytes

Have you seen Science Journal by Google?  If not, you may want to! The free app (which works on Android, iOS, and "most Chromebooks" according to the site) puts a plethora of sensors on your device - in one app.  Well worth checking out! A great place to start is the Getting Started with Science Journal site Here is a 2 minutes video on how to record data with the sensors -

A new feature is being added to many popular Google Tools - the quick-access side panel.  You will be able to see this (and maybe already do) on the left side of your Google Calendar & Email.  From the Google Suite Update Alerts , [y]ou’ll [also] be able to access three G Suite products from Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings: Google Calendar: Quickly reference, create or edit invites.  Google Keep: Easily take notes, create lists, and see your other content.  Google Tasks: Manage your tasks and to-dos.  In Calendar, you will only see the icons for Keep & Tasks -  Here in Mail, you can see icons to access all three - To hid or show this panel, there is a little chevron (or arrow) at the bottom that can be clicked -

Awesome Table was an add-on that made sharing information from a spreadsheet very easy in the old Google Sites.  Guess what?  You are able to insert an Awesome Table in the New Google Sites! This is a dynamic way to share spreadsheet data - even data that changes often - and make it searchable for visitors to your website. Make your spreadsheet of data: Look like this on your website: Step 1: Set up your spreadsheet Here are their directions for setting up the spreadsheet: https://support.awesome-table. com/hc/en-us/sections/ 115000315609-Basic- configuration The basics - create your spreadsheet, making sure each column has a header at the top.  Add a second header row that sets up the filters and keywords - these tell Awesome Table how to display your spreadsheet. Step 2: Connect the Aweome Table service with your Google Account Once you set your spreadsheet up, you will need to log into this site with your Google Account: https://awesome-tabl...

Heads up! The Google App Launcher, also known around here as the "waffle" (here's where I chuckle), is going to see an update next week on August 1! According to the G Suite Update Alerts, it will change from this: to this: If you have already customized yours, the change will NOT go into effect.  (Many of you Google users don't know that you can re-arrange the icons in the launcher to a layout you prefer-you can still do this if you want a different order than the default.)

A person in my department keeps track of software subscriptions, and asked if there was a way to automatically have it provide a reminder 45 days prior to the renewal dates.  I said sure! Once I set up the addition of a "reminder date", I modified an existing script to have it write that to her calendar.  So now she simply inputs the vendor information, purchase date & renewal date, and then the scripts calculate the reminder date and adds it to the calendar.  It seems to work pretty slick! Here are the steps to create the reminder dates with a script - 1. Create the spreadsheet where your data will reside. This can be a stand-alone spreadsheet, or it can be one that is populated by a form.  Here is my sample- 2. Open up the Script editor Go to the Tools Menu and select Script editor 3.  Replace the code Replace the default code - with this - (all the text highlighted in gray include the final bracket) var dateIndex = 6; //cell with ...

Back in December I blogged about the new Template Gallery in Google Docs, Sheets & Slides .  (By the way, it also works with Google Forms now!) You may be in an organization that moderates the templates submitted to the gallery - this can be especially helpful in a larger organization where it would get overwhelming quickly if everyone tried to add personal templates (what I consider templates that only the creator would use, not everyone in the organization or even departments within the organization). If this is the case, when you submit a template you will get the following message: This will trigger an email to your Google administrators that have access to applications.  Once they approve or deny your request, you will get one of the following emails as confirmation:  For a decline:  For an approved request: If the request was approved, then the template will be available to everyone in your organization going forward.  If you are an ...

As I previously posted, I'm working with a program in our organization that is looking to make their invoicing process more efficient.  After getting it so the invoice numbers were being automatically generated, we next wanted to auto-sum the individual item totals for a grand total. The challenges - 1. the first value wasn't until the middle of the spreadsheet, and 2. the values were not adjacent in the spreadsheet.  Luckily for us, they were an equidistant number of cells from each other (otherwise I think this script would have been a lot more complicated!).  The following script will work for a similar situation (all in grey - including the final } bracket): function totalDue() { var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet(); var sheet = ss.getSheets()[0];  var lastRow = sheet.getLastRow();  var lastColumn = sheet.getLastColumn();  var lastCell = sheet.getRange(lastRow, lastColumn-4);  var values = sheet.getRan...

I've been asked a couple time how to get the new features as soon as Google releases them when part of a Google Apps for Education account.  First, know that only Super Administrators in the GAFE account are able to set this.  Second, I encourage you to consider strongly the pro & cons to turning this on if you have kids on your GAFE account. That being said, I do enjoy being able to try out new features as they appear so get why others don't like to wait :-) Here is how to turn on automatic Rapid Release of new features: Once logged in to the Admin Dashboard, click on Company Profile Then click on Profile: Look about 2/3rds of the way down the options for the New User Features and New Products options.  Rapid release enables new features as they are available.  Scheduled release is on a delayed schedule. Automatic provides new services to users as they are released Manual requires site Admin to add new services

There are two situations that I have run across where a G Suite for Education School would need to whitelist a domain (or subdomain).  These are: If your students and teachers are on two different domains If you are in a situation like me - as a support organization I want to provide training to teachers that are in their own Google Apps district It is quite easy to do this - it just has to be done by a Google Apps for Education Administrator. There are THREE parts to this, make sure all of them are set for it to work properly! Part 1 - add the domains In the Google Admin Dashboard, click on Domain (if it doesn't show, click on the More at the bottom) Once in the Domain management area, click on Whitelisted domains- Click on Add new - 1. Type in the domain to whitelist, then 2. Click on Add Domain to Whitelist - Part II - Set Classsroom Settings Go back to the Home level of the Google Admin panel - click on the Apps icon: Click on the...

  For Google Apps for Education Schools - Did you know there is now integration between many of the databases in MeL and Google?  Very easy to use, and you can know your students are using good resources by using the databases provided on their site! From Eunice Borrelli at MeL - This is an update to the November 19, 2015 MeL Minute detailing the partnership between Gale Cengage and Google to integrate use of Google in Gale databases.   The Google tools are now available in InfoTrac products such as Kids InfoBits and Opposing Viewpoints in Context, GVRL, and others.   Gale Cengage has created Tip Sheets on Google Drive Integration and Google Classroom Integration which we now link to in the MeL Promotion & Training Gateway under the Gale classification .   Each tip sheet provides step-by-step instructions for how to utilize the tools from within Gale databases to share and download content and are presented as PDFs for easy access and local ...

Because Google functions with labels instead of actual folders, any file can have multiple labels attached to it.  This is very powerful in keeping my Drive cleaned up, I find, as it means that I can maintain one copy of a file but still have it shared with multiple groups of people that are separate from each other.  Here is how you do it.  When in your Drive, highlight the file or folder on the right and then hit the Shift + Z keys.  A pop up will appear - very similar to the "Move to" pop up, but you may notice it says "Add here" instead: Then you can double-click on your My Drive to display the folders inside, and continue clicking through until you find the folder you also want the file to be displayed in.  When that folder is highlighted, clicking on Add here will also display it in that folder (in addition to where it is currently).  A couple points with this: The file will combine the share settings of all folders it is in.  So if each...

The last couple days I've shared the general way to think about Google files and searching ,  and about the Advanced search bar hidden at the top of Google Drive.  Today let's talk about Boolean operators. Boolean operators are something that can help you narrow your search.  A Boolean searching " is built on a method of symbolic logic developed by George Boole." OR is the most common Boolean.  In fact, you use it every time you do a search with multiple words!  When you type in two words in the search bar, by default it is finding every file that has either one of those terms.  The number of results returned to you can be overwhelming when using OR (either on purpose, or by default if you use several words in your search), so knowing additional Boolean operators can be keep to finding exactly what you want. Let's look at a search so we can compare how these work.  Here's my general search in my drive for the terms blended learning: ...

Previously I talked generally about how to think about searching within Google Drive.  Today I'd like to go through using the Google Search Bar. Just about everyone is familiar with the Google Search Bar.  It resides at the top of your Google Drive.  It is actually found at the top of just about every Google App. Most people, when searching for a document, will type multiple words into the search bar.  This can result in a lot of frustration as they often get too many results!  Let's talk about ways to get better results.  In fact, let's talk about that little arrow next to the magnifying glass in the search bar because that is one key to better searching.  Enter the advanced search: Using this will yield you much better results as you can better target your search. Some key pieces that most people file helpful: Type: Usually you know the type of file you are looking for.  By selecting the type in the advanced search, you can elimina...

Thinking about organization within Google Drive takes a major mind shift.  Instead of thinking of it as the old filing system of organizing, we need to think about it as a tagging system.  The old way, a file was physically located in one place, and there was only one way to retrieve it - by opening the drawer and going to the folder it was in. This method carried over to our computers, we organized exactly the same way.  The biggest difference is the filing cabinets and the folders within them could hold a whole lot more! With Google's way, I tell people to just think of it as a really big room where everything is thrown together.  However, everything has colored sticky notes on it, and each sticky notes stands for something.  When you want to find something, you no longer "retrieve" it...you search for the sticky notes.  If you don't have good search skills, you can spend a long time looking through the files for the sticky notes.  If you hav...

Yesterday morning I created a form...today I was prompted to update it to the newest version of forms.  Such is the perpetual cycle that is Google! Here's a brief overview:  1. A new updated, sleeker look - a great improvement, in my humble opinion:  2. A new tab to view responses right within the form.  You can still access the spreadsheet of responses, but for all those times you don't need the entire spreadsheet this is a great addition.  Also, there is now a slider to turn on/off the form: 3. A new icon to set the color or select the theme.  Themes have a new and improved way of previewing and selecting:  4. There is a preview icon that matches the preview icon in Google Drive: 5. The settings are found by clicking the gear icon above - again a match to what you see in other Google Apps (I love consistency...).  Settings are grouped into a new order, one that is a little more intuitive.  Choosing who can respo...