Digital Portfolios

INSERT CONTENT

In this module, the learning outcome is to guide you on adding content to your digital portfolio.

INSERT CONTENT

There are a variety of options for how to present your content. More importantly, you can insert a variety of media. Content is inserted in "tiles". In this module, we will guide you through the various options available.

🍏Best practice tip: Create a folder in Google Drive. Keep all your resources in the folder. Ensure the editing rights are set at the folder level (view).

TYPES OF MEDIA

If you double click on your page a circle of options appear.
You will find the same options available in the right hand side bar under the Insert tab.

Textbox

When you insert a text box you can format the text. You can add a style such as Heading, subheading or text.

On the left hand side bar there are three options: a palette which allows you to change the background of the section. The colours are determined by your theme.

The double paper allows you to copy the section and the bin is for delete.

The double dotted line are grab handles which allows you to move the sections.

The short cut format bar allows you to change font, the size of the font, bold, italics, underline and change the text colour.

If you highlight a word you can add a link (hyper link to another resource), align the text, add numbering or bullets, spacing, indentation, strike through and clear formatting.

Images

You can insert different types of images from a variety of sources. You can upload from your computer or directly from your Google Drive. You even search directly on the Internet.

Resize an image:

Select the image and then drag the sides or corners of the image. Hold the Shift key while dragging to keep the image ratio.

Move an image:

Drag the image to a different part of the section or to a new section. You can place the image wherever you see a highlighted area.

Note: Currently, you can’t place an image in a text box.

Crop an image:

Select the image and then select Crop icon.

Slide the dot to zoom in or out.

Drag the image to change the visible portion.

Click Done .

(Optional) To uncrop an image, select the image and click Uncrop Uncrop.

Replace an image:

Select the image.

Click More and then Replace image and then Upload or Select image and choose a new image file.

Add a caption

Right click on the image and select Add caption. This can only be added to images not connected to textboxes.

Add alt text to an image:

Alt text appears when someone points over an image on your site. This is especially important to increase accessibility.

Select the image and click More and then Add alt text.

Enter a description and click Apply.

First icon - crop icon

Second icon - Frame - if you resize an image you can use this feature to make sure it presents properly within the size,

Third icon- you can hyperlink an image.

Fourth icon- delete

Breadcrumbs - more options > replace image and alt text,

🍏Please remember to be digitally responsible and only use images that are copyright free or have a Creative Commons license. It is also recommended that images have captions which show the source.

Embedding

One way to add content to your digital portfolio. You can embed a variety of content types by entering a URL or HTML code.

Depending on what website you add, you might be able to customize how the site appears on your site. Some allow a preview option or an option to see dynamically updated content. After you add content, you might need to sign in again to see the update.

Add content from another website:

Open your site and on the right, click Insert Embed.
Choose an option:
- By URL—Paste the URL (link) you want to embed. Select Whole page or Preview and click Insert.
- Embed code—Paste or enter the site HTML code you want to embed and click Next Insert.

Embedding documents

If you click on the Google Drive icon, access to your Google Drive opens up and you can select any document in your Google Drive. Embed any file (From Drive) or the contents of a folder stored in Drive. If you make changes to your files in Drive, the same changes automatically show in Sites.

You can also add documents by type. Scroll down the left hand side bar and you fill find the different document icons.

If a document is embedded, the user will see this icon in the published view. This icon means that the document can be opened up in a full screen.

If you did not set the correct rights on the document, you will see a Request Access notice in the published view.

The menu icons will show your recent documents per file type.

Add anything from Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, or charts from Sheets to your site. Any content you change in the source file automatically updates on your site.

Other media types

You can add Youtube vidoes by either searching for a Youtube directly or by uploading. You can any Google calendar you are a member of and a map via Google Maps.

YOUTUBE

If you click on the video, once it is embedded you can access these options.

GOOGLE CALENDAR

MAPS

Once your calendar has been embedded, you can access these options. An idea is to create a class calendar in Google Calendar and you can then embed it into your digital portfolio.

LAYOUT

You can either create your own layout, but you can also use one of the layout options. These options consist of a placeholder for an image and a textbox. These layouts help you organise your content and ensure you have white space, which brings balance and symmetry to your pages.

Click on one of the available options, and the layout will be added to your page as a tile.

Move and resize content

Anything you insert is added as a content “tile” on the canvas grid. Tiles snap to the grid so it’s easy to move, align, and edit them.

Move site content:

Point to the content you want to move until you see Move (four headed cursor).
Drag the content to a highlighted area.

Resize site content:

Select the content you want to resize.
Drag the blue circles to resize.

Group objects:

You can connect text boxes and images together in a vertical group.
Add a photo and a text box to your site page.
Drag the text box to the top or bottom half of the object until a blue line appears.
To change the order of grouped objects, click the group you want to change.
Click the object you want to rearrange and on your keyboard, tap the Up or Down key.

Ungroup objects:

To ungroup text boxes and images, click the group you want to separate.
Click the object you want to remove from the group, and drag the object away from the group.

Collapsible text - "Hide" your text which is accessed by an arrow.
Table of Contents - as per the example in Module 2, if you give your titles a heading or sub-heading type, this feature will create a table of contents.
Image carousel - add at least three images and with this feature it will automatically scroll through the images. Click the gear icon to access the settings.
Add a button which you can link to a resource.
A divider is a great way to create sections to your page.
A placeholder (square with plus sign) puts a frame to hold a spot for a resource. Click the plus sign to add your resource.

VIDEO OVERVIEW

We got you ...

We know that you might feel overwhelmed with all the how-to instructions. To give you some additional guidance, you can watch this video.

You can watch the full video or click on the times in the next column and it will take you to that section of the video in Youtube.

0:00 Introduction

0:54 How to Open Google Sites

2:22 Creating your Google Site

3:00 Naming your Google Site

4:00 Sharing your Google Site with others

5:47 Using themes in Google Sites

6:57 Selecting your header image

9:10 Adding a footer in Google Sites

11:21 Adding content to your page (text, images, documents)

13:57 Cropping an image

15:05 Adding video from Google Drive

16:09 Adding a folder from Google Drive to your Google Site

17:37 Using layout in Google Sites

20:01 Extra inserts ( Collapsable text, table of contents, image carousel, youtube video)

23:25 Insert Google Slides into Google Sites,

24:16 Adding pages and subpages to your Google Sites

26:52 Changing menu layout

27:55 Adding logos, favicon, and announcement banners to your Google Site

29:00 Publishing your Google Site to the web

You have the skills to add various types of content in different ways.

March over to Module Task 3.

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