Drive Apps and Add-Ons

Welcome

You know about apps on your smartphone and probably have heard that that's what people are calling programs on computers these days (programmers have actually used the term for a long time, because program is a more general technical term). Chrome has been able to run its own class of apps since it opened up the Web Store in 2010. When you run these apps from Chrome (you now have a little app launcher button at the top left corner of your Chrome browser, just under the back button), it either opens up a separate dedicated window (still in Chrome but without the navigation or menu bars) or just a new browser window to that app's site, depending on the app. These range from things like Drive to YouTube to calculators to to-do lists to video games, all running inside of Chrome. The implementation of these apps was part of the Chromium project, which led to the Chromium Operating System that runs on Chromebooks. But a lot of these apps have special functionality when they are connected to Drive.

Connected Apps

The great thing about connecting apps to Drive is that it allows you to stay inside the Drive environment, where all of your files are connected and available. This is especially useful for when you have the Drive app installed on your various computers and mobile devices, which syncs all of your files pretty much instantly. By connecting your apps to Drive, you're also syncing the files you make and edit with those apps.

How to Connect Apps to Drive

The easiest way to connect apps to Drive is to do it through the "Create" button, then click "Connect more apps."

At this point, you'll be able to find apps either through browsing or searching. You can also browse by category.

Choose the app you want and click "connect." The app will now show up when you click "Create" in Drive.

There are some apps that won't show up in that box because they do behind-the-scenes stuff. For instance, I have apps that play music and video files from inside Drive or that convert them to other formats. There is nothing new created here, so they don't show up under "Create." To see all of your apps, click the gear icon and choose "Manage apps."

If the app has its own special file formats, then it will ask for permission to make that the default. Don't panic - let it be the default unless you have reason to do otherwise (for instance, I have several different apps that can open video files, so I had to decide on one to be the default).

My Top Apps for Education

Note: whenever possible, get the education version (this may require that you're using a Google Education or Business account)

Lucidpress - a great replacement for Microsoft Publisher. Makes beautiful posters, fliers, and more.

Lucidchart - create mind-mapping charts. Great for notes-pages for students.

Movenote and PresentMe - create video presentations using slides and audio

Videonotes and Kaizena - add voice notes to documents. Great for giving feedback on student assignements.

PowToon - Similar to Movenote and PresentMe up above, only with a very cartoonish, kid-friendly interface. Great for student presentations.

Geogebra - create beautiful graphs and pictures. Excellent for creating math test problems.

WeVideo - good video editor. Use this for student video projects or for making your own instructional videos for a flipped classroom.

Pixlr Editor - excellent picture editor. It has become my go-to Photoshop replacement.

Notepad - puts a Notepad app inside Drive with extra features. Great for marking up HTML when editing your teacher site.

VideoPlayer and MusicPlayer - play video and audio files inside drive. Allows for streaming from your Drive.

Add-Ons

Add-Ons are basically just apps that enhance existing Drive apps. A lot of the time they even overlap with existing apps you might have already connected. I know all of this talk of apps 'inceptioned' into other apps can get a little confusing, so let me show you instead.

How to Add Add-Ons to Drive

Up above in the Apps section, I showed you how to add apps with the Create button in Drive. With add-ons, we're going to use them from inside a Drive Doc. This is really simple - there's already a button for add-ons within Docs (also within the other standard apps: Presentation, Spreadsheet, etc.). Just click it and choose "Get add-ons..."

From there, we get a nearly identical screen to what we got when we connected apps, allowing you to browse add-ons by popularity or category or to search for what you're already looking for.

Once you've added the add-on, it will ask for various permissions, just like when you install an app on a smartphone (note that some apps will do this the first time you use them after connecting them to Drive or launching them from the Chrome App Launcher).

I don't really worry over the permissions much, but make sure you read them carefully.

Once you've done all this, the add-ons you've installed will show up within their relevant Drive apps under the Add-ons button.

My Top Add-Ons for Education

Note: a lot of apps are also add-ons. The benefit of using both is that the add-on version allows you to insert the created item into the document.

Easy.bib - adds bibliography to Google Docs with a source search and choice of MLA, APA, and Chicago Styles

Lucidchart - input mindmaps and charts

Table of Contents - uses your headings to create a table of contents, similar to how Adobe Acrobat does for PDF's.

Template Gallery - adds a huge gallery of new document templates to Docs

Open Clip Art - adds a free clip art gallery

gMath - insert beautifully detailed graphs, charts, and equations into docs, spreadsheets, and presentations. It's basically like the add-on version of Geogebra, though made by another company.

There are a lot more apps and add-ons than this, but these are the ones that I've currently tested and played around with. For a bigger and intermittently updating list, click here.

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