Making friends between Google Apps and MS Office

Since most of us still use Microsoft Office for a variety of things, here are a few ways to work with MS Office documents in Google Drive.

Friends foreveer

First, you can convert Office files to Google very easily -- now with one click from a Gmail attachment, or with one click from Google Drive. This gives you the additional benefit of just one document to manage and access from anywhere. Google has upgraded the supported Office formats, so most documents can convert easily (not just MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel).

But sometimes, you want to be able to edit an Office file from within Google Drive without converting it. In order to do this, you'll need to install the Google Office Editor Chrome extension, which you can find here, and be using the new Drive. Once you have this extension, you can double-click on any MS Office document and open it in Office Compatibility Mode to make and save edits in MS Office format.

Of course, you can convert it to Google format at any time as well.

Here's a brief video tutorial of the process, and a link to Google's help page about Office Compatibility Mode as well.

Using Chrome extensions for student accessibility and for personal efficiency

If you use the Chrome browser, there are many ways to enhance the experience through Chrome extensions. These are (mostly) free mini-programs that add extra features and functionality. Once you add them, they can be accessed from their icons on the side of your URL bar.

I use lots of these!

Here are some I've found useful for my own work (many are extremely useful for students as well; I've **ed the ones I've used with or recommended for students):

Capturing data:

• ** Awesome Screen Shot -- Capture a whole page or just a portion as an image. It also includes annotating tools. Great for letting School Loop know what kind of weirdness you are encountering. :)
• ** Screencastify -- Records the actions on your screen plus your voice (and your image if you choose). Great for recording a lecture/presentation for students who are absent or want to refer back to it, or for recording a frequently-used task or method. 
• Save as PDF -- Saves a webpage as a PDF (similar to below)
• ** Save to Google Drive -- Takes a webpage and turns it into a PDF that you can send straight to Google Drive.

Accessibility:

• ** Clearly -- Eliminates ads and other unnecessary content from blog posts, articles or websites to make them easy to read. You can also sync with Evernote if you use Evernote to organize your life.
• ** Select and Speak -- Takes highlighted text on a page and reads it aloud. You can set speed, voice gender, etc. Good for students who may struggle with reading.
• ** Read&Write for Google -- Many excellent features including speech recognition, reading text aloud, suggesting text, highlighting and annotating, etc. CAUTION: The premium version of this is NOT free for students -- teachers can get a free yearly premium subscription but students would be limited to the functionality in Google Docs. Still useful for speech-to-text for students with difficulty writing or typing. 

Workflow/Efficiency

• 1-click Timer -- Fast and easy way to keep track of elapsed time for assessments or classroom activities
• ** Black Menu for Google -- Gives you instant access to all your Google Apps from the browser window. Very helpful when you use Google Apps and Drive a lot. 
• ** CleanPrint -- Strips out all unnecessary content before printing or saving a webpage. Saves lots of paper!
• ** Clipboard History -- Records the text that you have copied (goes back 14 days). Great for when you need to store multiple chunks of text simultaneously.
• Goo.gl URL shortener -- Shrinks URLs for ease in posting, emailing or writing. Great for anything where you need to quickly disseminate a website.
• One Tab - Whenever you have too many tabs open, One Tab converts them all into a list, which reduces memory load on your browser.
• ** World Data Finder -- search for relevant charts and data when reading online articles. Good research/background info tool.

There are many, many more extensions to choose from. Go to the Chrome Web Store to install any of these or to browse their other offerings, especially those organized by Collection (there are High School and Education collections as well as others). 

Please share if you have a useful extension that isn't in the list above!