Wednesday, February 14, 2018

A Few Good Google Docs Tips





In my latest episode of The Suite Talk, I go over a few good Google Docs tips that are helpful in providing feedback to students and also a few Chrome extensions that will help provide accommodations for special education students.

First, the feedback tips.  In a Google document, you can format specific words in your comments while using the commenting tool.  Simply open the comment tool and type your comment.
  1. Insert an * (asterisk) before and after the word to bold the text.
  2. Insert a - (dash) before and after the word to strike through the text
  3. Insert an _ (underscore) before and after the word to italic the text   
Another tip to provide feedback is to install the CheckMark Chrome extension by EdTechTeam.  This can be downloaded from the Chrome web store.  This extension is a time saver! 

After you install the extension, be sure that it is enabled.  It will display as a green check mark at the top right side of the screen.  Once this is done, then you can open a Google document, highlight the text, click on the comment tool, and a floating keyboard will appear.  
On the floating keyboard there are codes that reference a specific skill or feedback comment.  Simply click on the button and the feedback will be inserted as a comment in the document.  

The next tip to help with students who have learning disabilities is to download the BeeLine Reader Chrome extension and the Select and Speak Chrome extension. 

The BeeLine Reader extension will help make reading faster and easier because it uses color gradient to guide your eyes from the end of one line to the beginning of the next.

The Select and Speak Chrome extension is a text to speech extension that will read any webpage to the user.  If you are planning to use this extension, I would highly recommend headphone or earbuds for your students.  This will help the students be less distracted and more focused on reading.

You can view the full episode of The Suite Talk - A Few Good Google Docs tips about this information.

If you enjoyed this episode, please check out and subscribe to The Suite Talk YouTube Channel.  Thanks!