Citations are back in Google Docs!

One of the best features in Google Docs, Slides and Drawings was the Research Tool. Through the Research Tool, which allowed authors to do research simultaneously as they write or edit a document. From one place, you could search different Google services including: Scholar, Images, Quotes, Dictionary.

The great thing about the Research tool is that it allowed an author to easily insert citations and links to a document. Once an image, document, or resource was picked, the user click on “cite” and Google Doc automatically inserts the citation according to the style wanted ( MLA or APA, or Chicago).

Unfortunately, in September 2016, Google dropped the Research tool for the Explore tool in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. While this tool still provides the insights, design tools, and research recommendations that the old tool did, the citations feature was mysteriously missing!

Last week, Google improved upon the Explore tool and brought citations back! Students writing research reports, analysts crafting whitepapers, and others looking to credit their sources can now insert citations as footnotes with the click of a button in Explore in Docs on the web.

You can even change the format of your citation, switching between the MLA, APA, and Chicago styles. For more information on how to use citations in Docs Explore, check out this link in the Help Center.

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Power up Google Classroom with Private Comments

One of the most powerful elements of Google Classroom is the private comments feature, which works with assignments only. Comments become conversations with students, allowing for more back and forth discussion than can happen with verbal feedback. Every student can have a voice and communicate their ideas or struggles with a task. To use private comments, open an assignment in Classroom, and there you will find a space for private comments. Any comments left here will be seen only by you and the individual student. One of the challenges to using private comments is knowing who the comments belong to. Here’s a workaround from Alice Keeler : Students start all comments to you with your last name You start all comments to students with your initials This helps in filtering those comments in Gmail, or searching. It also lets you quickly see who responded last in the roster: You can also use links in private comments to give students more informat...

What the SHEETS?!?

When creating a new Google Sheet, by default, it will have one sheet tab at the bottom of the page. The program is designed so that you can have a maximum of 200 sheets. To add additional sheets, you can click on the plus sign in the sheets toolbar. One sheet will be added. To rename the sheet, click on the dropdown arrow next to the Sheet, and select RENAME. You may want to explore other sheet tab options available from the menu. There may be times when you want your Google Sheet to open to a specific tab. To accomplish this, copy the URL of the specific sheet tab. For example, if you want the Google Sheet to immediately open to the second sheet tab named Chart, copy the Chart sheet tab URL. You will notice that the information to the right of the / changes: Google Sheet URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hivDhrInFjmhl-AFB_frFOvpsyuY541hxn6ShQuo7I8/ edit?usp=sharing Chart Sheet Tab: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hivDhrInFjmhl-A...

Magically Make a Copy

By: Kristie Hughes Do you have to constantly tell your students or other people to make a copy of your document so that they can edit their own copy? Well, you can force this to happen just by changing the link of the file. Go up to the top of your file (google doc, slides, etc) and go to the end of the URL. Delete the word "edit" and everything after it. Type the word "copy" in it's place. Then click return. When you give this link to other people, it will automatically prompt them to make a copy of your file. In fact, they won't even be able to see your file, until they click on the Make a Copy button. Now, you don't have to worry about anyone changing your original file, or reminding people with view only rights to make a copy to edit.

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