Waffle Bytes

With a new school year upon us, several teachers are looking to use Google Classroom to help, among other things, with the permissions and sharing of Google Drive files.  With some new features, Classroom just continues to be a valuable tool that help with efficiency in document management (my opinion). For those of you new to Classroom, here is how you get started.  And, a note, these steps might take you 2 minutes max - and that is if you take a LONG time to select your theme ;-) To create a new Classroom and set the theme - 1. Go to Classroom by either typing classroom.google.com into a browser URL address bar  OR go to the waffle and click the classroom icon 2. Click on the + in the upper right corner 3. In the pop-up window, click on Create class 4.  A window will appear to give your class information - you are REQUIRED to give it a name (surprise), but the other fields are optional.  Once down, click on CREATE in the bottom right ...

Here is a video on  how to create an additional calendar , if you prefer. Using multiple calendars is a good strategy for controlling what information is shared with others.  There are 4 reasons I often hear educators creating multiple calendars -  reminders for you (that don't make you "busy" when others look at your main calendar) for events specific to a project (to separate them from your day-to-day events) managing tasks with due dates (especially items you do not want on your main calendar) shared events with a group (a calendar where everyone can add/change events without changing each others main calendar) To create a second (or additional) calendar to use, go to the + by the "Add a coworker's calendar" in the middle of the left side bar: Click on that + to see a variety of options - select New calendar: A window will pop up, enter in the Name of your additional calendar, then click on CREATE CALENDAR: That's it!  T...

The conversion tool is now available to move any "classic" Google site to the newer version.  Overall this process will take a few minutes, and it is important to note that some features are still not available in the new Google Sites.  Luckily, there are warnings provided to let you know which features do not migrate over.  Here's how to convert it: 1. Open up your classic site - 2. Go to the gear menu and select Manage site -  and select Convert to the new Sites -   OR alternatively, click on the message that appears at the top of your site - 3. This is the conversion window that appears - If there are incompatible features, such as page types, a warning will appear and notify you - Likewise, if there are incompatible permissions, you will also get a warning - 4. Click on Start.  Then a bar will appear showing you the progress on the conversion -  5. Once it completes the draft creation, hit Continue You wil...

Just as the calendar settings are similar but reorganized, the general Calendar settings are also a bit rearranged.  Also, it isn't intuitive how to go create an additional calendar.  Here are the general settings in the updated Calendar. The gear will still get you to your Calendar settings.  (You can also get to it when you are looking at a individual calendar's settings.) - When accessing settings, you have 3 options that appear above your calendars: General: general settings for your G Calendar account Add calendar: location to go to create an additional delegate calendar Import & export: place to go for importing a calendar or exporting one of your Google Calendars If you click on General, you have this sub-menu show up in the left-hand navigation pane.  These section titles let you move quickly to the area of the settings you want to get to - In the main content area (where the calendar is viewable), you have corresponding sections. ...

Along with a new look, the settings are a bit different in Calendars now.  Not only do they look a bit different, but they are reorganized also.  Here's a brief overview of what can be found where now.   First, when you right-click on a calendar (or click the arrow to the right of a calendar), the menu is simplified from what it was previously.  There are now only 3 options (left side of picture below) -  Display this only Hide from list Settings & Sharing When you select Settings & Sharing for a calendar, another list appears directly below that calendar - That list matches each section of the settings that appear in the content window (where the calendar normally displays) - The following sections and corresponding information can be found in the settings above: Calendar settings : the calendar name, description, time zone and (if applicable) organization the calendar belongs to. Auto-accept invitations: set if invitation...

One of the biggest changes with the Google Calendar updates is the reorganization of the menu/setting options.  The initial layer is cleaned up.  The secondary layer is at first glance overwhelming, but if you take a few minutes to look through it you realize that there is really not much new there - it is just that reorganization of the items. First - here is a look at the new next to the old menus when you right click on a calendar - The colors are cleaned up and reorganized, and there are only a few options on this menu now.  The "Display only" and "Hide from list" options are now a little more obvious than they were before.  Everything else is now the the third option - Settings and sharing.  Here is what you get when you select that for a calendar - All those items listed above are actually links to the various sections now found in the main content area of the page -  There really isn't much new, but there is some rewording of several...

With the changes to Google Calendar, things look a bit different.  The look is definitely more "modern" or "sleeker" (according to others...I guess I am more about functionality than looks). That being said, here's a quick review of all you can do when adding an event to your calendar, with screenshots updated to the new look. Adding an Event 1. Click to Add Simply click on the calendar to add an event.  The pop-up window will have the most common information put into an event: event Title,  Date(s) and Time (only viewable when the All day checkbox is unchecked) All day checkbox Calendar - Notice anything missing from that?  Location!  It is the only thing bothering me at this point - especially because you cannot quick add it by calling the Event "Sample at CISD" or something similar (Trust me, I tried every way I could think of...). Two neat features I did realize in exploring: While the quick add option is gone from the page...