We all have lessons where we want students to annotate a drawing, labeling parts of a cell, naming the states, whatever. You can do that in slides, but what if that is part of a larger assignment that involves typing? All you have to do is insert a drawing, put the picture in and have the students annotate it.

The video below shows how to do this, but I will walk you through it step by step.

* In your google doc go to insert, choose drawing and new drawing

* Paste the picture that you want the students to annotate adding any instructions with a text box.

* Save & close the drawing (The drawing will insert into your google doc where your cursor was when you went to insert in step 1)

* Instruct the students to double click the picture to annotate.

See the video here https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Z83jVJHqi0Nf51KAOajYlKb7ldftyDz/view

Extra Bonus tech tip

To quickly make bullets use the keyboard shortcut Crtl-Shift-8 for numbers Crtl-shift-7

One Version No Copies

In Google Docs, you do not need to make copies!! Copies kill collaboration. You can use the same Google Doc over and over. NO copies, just a new version. In Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings use the File menu to view the “Version history.”

Google Apps have NO save button. Automatic saves are in the Version history!

Name Current Version

You can manually name a version. By default many versions are saved by the date stamp. This is great but also frustrating if you’re trying to find a particular moment of edits. If you make a major change, consider naming the current version to make it easy to get back to.

See Version History

Choosing to “See version history” allows you to review what your document looked like over time. This can be handy to see if students copied and pasted off the internet by having a large amount of work within one revision. See who edited what when.

Version history is stress free collaboration!

Workspace is a collaboration suite. However, it can feel risky to allow others to edit your document. NO WORRIES. If your collaborator messes up the document, use the version history to put it back to the way you had it. STRESS FREE.

Google Docs Text Documents - Use Headings

When creating a Google Doc use headings. Notice in the toolbar that it says “Normal text” next to the font style. For each section use Heading 1. This makes your document more accessible for screen readers but also automatically populates the document outline.

Outline Tongue

Notice in the left margin of the Google Doc is the document outline or the tongue. Click the outline tongue to see the document outline. Click on the elements to jump in the Google Doc.

Use a Table Not a Line

If you want students to fill out an answer on a line, consider a Google Form. However, the practice of using _________ on a document to give students a place to enter their answer was old school thinking of printing and students writing on paper. Inserting a table gives students a spot to respond on the document.

Suggestion Mode

The default for a Google Doc is editing mode. However, when collaborating you may have need to switch to Suggesting mode. When  contributing to someone else’s document, on the pencil icon in the toolbar and switch to Suggesting mode to allow the document owner to accept edits rather than trying to find the edits.