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2025 MONTHLY TREATS
2025 MONTHLY TREATS
JANUARY 2025
JANUARY 2025
It's a NEW YEAR and Google Slides has some awesome NEW TEMPLATES for you to try out!
TECH TREATS TIP: When I first saw Templates on the right side in Google Slides, I thought that it was replacing Themes because Themes is usually showing on the right side when Google Slides opens. Thankfully, this is not the case. We still have Themes and now we have Templates, too! If you want to see Themes instead of Templates, just click on the word Theme at the top of Google Slides and Themes will open in the right side navigation pane instead of Templates. Also, if you want to see Templates but they're not showing, just click on the Slide tab at the top of Google Slides and then click on Templates. We have so many new templates to choose from that it might be hard to make up your mind. As you scroll through the new templates, you can click on any of the templates to see all of the slides in the template. You can click on any slide in a template to add it to your presentation or you can insert all the slides from a template into your presentation.
TECH TREATS TIP: I've always loved Google Forms and it's been great to see all the changes and updates to them over time. The new Rating Question is definitely a fun addition to Google Forms. It has some interesting options that make it very visually appealing. First of all, you can select how many icons you want to show. You can choose from 3-10 icons. You can also select from 3 different icons to use for rating - a star, a heart, and a thumbs up. When you're in the Published version of Google Forms, you can click on any of the icons to give a rating and they show up in color, which I really like. The star is yellow, the heart is red, and the thumbs up is blue. Speaking of the Published version of Google Forms, the new Publish button takes a little getting used to but I think it's a good change. It prevents people from accidentally filling out the form in the Edit version and it makes more sense than the Send button. I love all the changes in Google Forms!
TECH TREATS TIP: When you save a video in Google Drive, you have a "hidden" option that you might not know about. Most people are familiar with the Share button but when you click on the down arrow next to the word Share, you'll see the option to Copy Link To This Time. To use this feature, play the video or scroll to a specific time in the video. Pause the video and click the down arrow on the Share button next to the word Share. Click on Copy Link To This Time. This copies a link for you at the timestamp. When you share the link, whoever you shared it with will be able to view the video starting at the timestamp. This is really helpful when you want people to view a portion of a video and not view the whole video. Instead of them having to scroll to view the video at a specific time, you've done the work for them and shared the video at a timestamp.
TECH TREATS TIP: The New Sidebar in Google Slides puts 6 helpful tools in one spot to the right of your presentation so that you can find and use them easily when you're editing your presentation. The 6 tools are - 1) Templates - a variety of templates that can be applied to your presentation, 2) Building Blocks - pre-formatted pieces of content that can be added to your presentation, 3) Stock & Web - images, stickers, and visual elements that can be added to your presentation, 4) Drive & Photos - access items in your Google Drive and Google Photos to add them to your presentation, 5) Slides Recordings - you can record yourself presenting, then have access to the recordings, and finally, 6) Speaker Spotlight - you can insert your video feed directly into your presentation. Each of these tools can be found on the toolbar under either Insert, View, or Slide so you can access each of them in another place but having them all together in the New Sidebar is a great new addition to Google Slides!
TECH TREATS TIP: The Send button is gone in Google Forms and it has been replaced with a new Publish button. This might seem confusing at first but it actually makes more sense and I think it's a good change. All Google Forms have to be published now before anyone can fill them out so you'll be using the Publish button a lot. When you're ready for people to fill out your form, you click on the Publish button and specify who can fill out your Google Form. You can list specific people, choose your organization, or select "Anyone with the Link". After you Publish your Google Form, the Publish button changes and says "Published". If you click on the Published button, you can see Accepting Responses. This is a new location for it. If you ever want to stop Accepting Responses, this is where you'll turn it off. Finally, if you want to Unpublish your Google Form, click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner of the form and select Unpublish Form.
TECH TREATS TIP: Collapsible headings are a great feature in Google Docs. There are 2 things that you need to do if you want to have collapsible headings - 1) You need to format your headings with a Heading Style. You can select a Heading Style on the toolbar right next to where you select a font. You have 3 Heading Styles to choose from so be sure to select one of them. Also, notice that I inserted small pictures of red stars in my heading names. This did not affect the headings as long as I selected a Heading Style for the actual text that I typed for the headings. 2) You need to be in Pageless Mode. This can be done by clicking on File and then Page Setup. Select Pageless at the top of the Page Setup window and click OK. Once you're in Pageless mode, when you hover to the left of each heading, you'll see a down arrow. Click on the down arrow and the text below the heading will collapse. Now there will be an arrow to the left of each heading. If you click on it, the heading will expand and you'll see the text below the heading.
TECH TREATS TIP: It's so easy to insert a Timeline in Google Sheets. It doesn't require a formula and only takes a few steps to create the Timeline. It's not even a hidden feature that you have search for, since it's right in the Insert menu. The Timeline is also created on a new sheet in your Google Sheet so it doesn't interfere with your original data. When you update your original data, the Timeline will also update automatically. After the Timeline is inserted, you can open Settings and customize the way the Timeline looks by selecting different options. I like to format my list first with different colors but you don't have to do that. In the Timeline, you can click on any item and the Card Details panel opens. This is where you can edit the data and/or choose a color for the item in the Timeline. Finally, I like to click on the Card Group dropdown in the Optional Fields and select an item, such as "Tasks" to appear in a list on the left of the Timeline. You have lots of options to make your Timeline look the way you want.
SEPTEMBER 2025
SEPTEMBER 2025
There's no LABOR when you use BUILDING BLOCKS in Google Slides because they're all ready to use!
TECH TREATS TIP: You can access Building Blocks in Google Slides by clicking on Insert and Building Blocks. You can also click on the Building Blocks icon on the Sidebar in Google Slides. Both ways open the Building Blocks panel. There are 14 different categories of Building Blocks so you have lots of choices. Some categories are Agendas, Lists, Headlines, Text Callouts, Collages, Badges, and Calls to Action, to name a few. When you click on a category name, you can scroll through and see all of the Building Blocks in that category. All you have to do is click on a Building Block to insert it into your Google Slides presentation. After a Building Block is inserted, you can edit the Building Block by resizing it, moving it, changing the colors, text, pictures, etc. You can even use multiple Building Blocks on one slide!
octoBER 2025
octoBER 2025
Here's a great TRICK and a real TREAT - you can CROP AN IMAGE TO A SHAPE in Google Slides!
TECH TREATS TIP: Don't overlook that little down arrow next to the Crop symbol in Google Slides! When you insert an image and click on the little down arrow, you'll have lots of choices for cropping your image. Right at the top is Shapes but you can also choose Arrows, Callouts, and Equation. When you hover over any of these categories, you'll see all of the options for that category. The Shapes category definitely has the most choices. After you click on a shape, the image will immediately be cropped to that shape. If you want to edit the crop, click on the shape and then click on the Crop symbol, not the down arrow. Small "handles" will appear on the sides and the corners of the image. Use the "handles" to edit the crop by clicking and dragging to zoom in or zoom out on the image. Once you've edited the crop, you can resize the image until it's just the way you want it.
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