Google Drive – creating, sharing and publishing presentations

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4.1 CREATING A NEW PRESENTATION

Selecting the button Create  from the bar on the left of Google Drive main window, opens a menu with the list of documents which is possible to open. From the Create menu, select Presentation.

In the new card Untitled presentation, a window enabling the selection of a theme, Choose a theme will open, this opens each time a new presentation is created. If the option Show for new presentations is selected, the choice of a new theme is confirmed by clicking OK button.

To select some other theme, Choose a theme option is selected, remove the check next to the option Show for new presentations, by left clicking it.

It is possible to go back to the Google Drive home page by clicking the button, Open Google Drive

4.2. Renaming and saving the presentation

Left clicking the title Untitled presentation, the window Rename document will open where it is possible to rename the presentation. The command is confirmed by clicking the OK button.

Clicking the  Star button next to the title of the presentation, it is possible to highlight the importance of the presentation. In the Google Drive home page, next to the title of the presentation a star will be displayed. To remove the star, click once on .

Clicking the  Present button, the presentation will start. Clicking the arrow next to the button to start the presentation, a menu will open where it is possible to choose how to start the presentation:

• From the beginning – Present from beginning
• With speaker notes – Present with speaker notes
• In new window – Present in new window

Selecting the command, Move to folder from the File menu, saves the document. The window Move to will open, where you can,

• select the desired folder to save the new presentation in with a left click, or
• Create new folder – The window New folder will open where it is possible to insert a name for the new folder, and confirm it by clicking Create.

The command to move the document in the selected folder is confirmed by clicking, Move option.

4.3 MENU BAR

Under the title of the presentation, the menu bar can be found with options, File, Edit, View, Insert, Slide, Format, Arrange, Tools, Table and Help.

After saving the presentation, next to the menu bar, the current position of the saved presentation or the last modification and the number of people viewing the presentation at that time, will be displayed.

Through the File menu, it is possible to do the following,

• by selecting Share option, the window Sharing settings will be opened with the same functionality as described in the Chapter 4.6,
• open a New or exiting presentation by Open option,
• Rename or Make a copy of the existing presentation
• Move to folder – to move the presentation to another folder
• Import slides
• See revision history
• set the Language
• Download as Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx), PDF document (.pdf), Scalable Vector Graphics (.txt), Image PNG (.png), Image JPEG (.jpg) or Normal Text (.txt)
• Publish the document On the web, Email collaborators, or Email as attachment
• set the print settings via, Print settings and preview option or Print the document.

Through the Edit menu, it is possible to:

• Undo or Redo the last action
• Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete or Duplicate a text selection and temporary save it in the Web clipboard. By selecting this command, an overview of all text selections in the Web clipboard will be displayed and they can be pasted using Paste option in the existing document, or in another document.
• Select all, Select none, or Find and replace a text selection.

 

Using the View menu, it is possible to:

• Present to the presentation.
• insert Animations to the presentation slides. When this option is selected, the Animations menu will open, where it is possible to set the type of transition from a slide to another.
• Clicking Slide ­– No transition, the possibility to choose the type of transition between slides. Clicking No transition, a context menu will open with the offered transitions, No transition, Fade, Slide from right, Slide from left, Flip, Cube and Gallery.
• After choosing the desired transition, it is possible to choose the transition duration from one slide to another: Slow – 5 seconds, Medium – 2.5 seconds or Fast – instantaneous transition. By clicking Apply to all slides option, the desired settings will be applied to all slides.
• Clicking the Play button, presentation starts in the background. Clicking the  Stop button, the presentation will stop.
• The Animations window can be closed by clicking the  Close button.
• Master – format the slide that acts as the base for all other slides.
• Fit view – it is possible to use the command after using the commands Zoom in, Zoom out or zoom 50%, 100% or 200% – selections, the slide will decrease/increase in order to adapt it to the current window dimension of the internet browser
• Snap to – Grid or Guide,
• HTML view – the presentations view in the internet browser,
• Show spelling suggestions,
• Show speaker notes – under the presentation slides the empty box, Click to add notes will be displayed, where it is possible to type the notes related to the presentation, which will not be displayed during the presentation
• by selecting Compact controls option, all controls will be hidden, except the menu bar. Compact controls can also be activated by clicking  Hide the menus or deactivated by clicking Show the menus
• view the document in Full screen – all controls are hidden. To view the controls, press the key, Esc.

Using the Insert menu, it is possible to insert a Text box, a Placeholder, an Image, Link, a Video, Word art, a Line – a menu will open with different type of lines, a Shape – a menu will open with different Shapes, Arrows, Callouts and Equations, a Table, an Animation, a Comment, a New slide, or to import a slide from another presentation through Import slides – the window Import slides will open, where first you have to find the presentation on Google Drive among the Presentations, or Upload it and select it by clicking the Select button, and then choose the slides from the selected presentation by holding the Ctrl key pressed. The selection is confirmed by clicking Import slides.

Using the Slide menu, it is possible to:

• insert a New slide, Duplicate a slide or Delete a slide,
• Change background, Apply layout – Title slide, Title and Body, Title and two columns, where the slide body is subdivided into two columns, Title only, Caption or Blank,
• Change theme for the presentation or Change transition for a particular slide,
• Edit master, which is used to format the slide master,
• Move slide up, Move slide down, Move slide to beginning or Move slide to end
• position yourself on Next slide, Previous slide, First slide or Last slide.

Through the Format menu, it is possible to:

• format the text in different ways: in Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, in Superscript or in  Subscript,
• choose one of the Paragraph styles, either Increase indent or Decrease indent,
• select a type of alignment from the following options, Align –  Align Left, Center,  Align Right or  Justify, and  Top, Middle or  Bottom of the text box,
• Set the Line spacing, i.e. the space between the lines,
• format a Bulleted list, a Numbered list or view the List options,
• Clear formatting
• Change shape
• set the Line weight, insert a Line dash or Line decorations, or set the Arrowhead side
• add Alt text – this selected text can access the screen reader. This function is generally used by the people with difficulties in viewing the presentation. A window will open, in which the Title and the Description is added, and the command is confirmed by clicking OK button.

Through the Arrange menu, it is possible to:

• Order an object or a group of selected objects – objects can be placed according to the need using options, Bring to front, Bring forward, Send backward or Send to back – it is possible to position new objects or a text above the objects in the background,
• Align horizontally – Left, Center or Right,
• Align vertically – Top, Middle or Bottom,
• Center on page – Horizontally, Vertically,
• Distribute,
• Rotate – Rotate right 90˚, Rotate left 90˚, Flip horizontally or Flip vertically,
• Group – to group more objects in a single object,
• Ungroup – to undo the grouping of grouped objects,
• Regroup – if, in addition to objects, text boxes are also selected, this command will group only objects.

Objects can be selected with the left button of the mouse, pressing Ctrl. If an object is selected by mistake, click it again to undo the choice.

Using the Tools menu, it is possible to:

• check the spellings by option, Spelling
• use the commands, Research and Define, which opens a quick search box of a topic on Internet. This can be used for inserting an image, for instance, using the Drag and Drop method, a Footnote will be displayed, with the Web address from which the image was downloaded.

It is possible to research the issue in Everything, Images, Scholar, Quotes, Dictionary or in the Personal documents.

• set the Preferences, for instance automatic replacements (i.e. (c) is replaced by ©)

Using the Table menu, it is possible to Insert a table and format it using the options like, Insert row above, Insert row below, Insert column left, Insert column right, Delete row, Delete column, Distribute rows, Distribute cells, Merge cells or Unmerge cells.

Through the Help menu, it is possible to use the option, Search all menus, benefit of Slides help, access the User Forum or Google+ Community, Report an issue or Report abuse and view the list of the Keyboard shortcuts.

4.4  TOOL BAR

Toolbar is positioned below the menu bar.

•  New slide – to insert a new empty slide. Clicking the down arrow, New slide with layout is selected. When this selection is done, a window will open in which it is possible to choose the new slide layout.
•  Undo – to undo or Redo – repeat the last action.
•  Paint format – to transfer the format from one text to another.
•  Zoom to fit – to zoom or reduce the slide in order to view it completely.
•  Zoom – to zoom the slide view.
•  Select – the mouse cursor is transformed in an arrow allowing the selection of the desired parts of the text.
•  Text box – to insert a box to type a text.
•  Image – to insert an image. The window Insert image will open, where it is possible to:

• Upload an image from the computer through Choose an image to upload, and the selection is confirmed by clicking Open,
• Take a snapshot – this feature will work only if the webcam is available in the computer.
• Upload an image By URL. In the window Paste an image URL here you have to type the image URL.
• Find the picture in Your albums, i.e the pictures saved on Google drive, or
• Search with Google.
  When the desired image is found, you have to select it and press Select.

•  Shape – a context menu opens where it is possible to select Shapes, Arrows, Callouts or maths standard – Equation.
•  Line – a context menu opens where it is possible to choose a Line, an Arrow, a Curve, a Polyline, a Arc or a Scribble.
•  Insert comment – to insert comments related to the slides.
•  Change background – to modify the slides background.
•  Change layout – to modify the slides layout.
•  More – a context menu opens with additional options: Change theme and Change transition.

Clicking once inside the slide will show the additional options for formatting the slide text.

This bar enables the user to:

• set the Fill color, the Line color, the Line weight, insert a Line dash, select a Font and the Font size,
• format the text view, in Bold, in Italic or Underline and the Text color,
• Link or Comment,
• set the Align or the Line spacing,
• select a Numbered list or a Bulleted list,
• Decrease indent, Increase indent, or Clear formatting.

4.4  FILLING THE PRESENTATION

After opening a new presentation, you have to format it by inserting a Text box in the positions provided for text.

Clicking the  Text box button, the mouse cursor is transformed in a symbol like “x”. Holding the left mouse button pressed in the position where you want to insert a Text box, a blue box will be shown, and dragging it with the mouse, you can determine the box size. When you reach the desired size, release the button. The blue box is transformed in a Text box where it is possible to type a text. When the possibility of inserting text in the Text box is available, the additional options for text formatting will be shown on the tool bar.

It is possible to increase the text box positioning using the mouse cursor over one of the tips of the text box, holding the left mouse pressed and dragging it in the desired direction.

To move the text box, position the mouse cursor on the frame of the text box and drag it in the desired direction.

To insert a new slide, click on the New slide button, or select the New slide command from the Slide menu. To choose a slide layout, click on the arrow next to the New slide button.

4.6 SHARING THE PRESENTATION

Clicking the Share button or selecting the Share command from the File menu, the Sharing settings window will open, which allows user to:

• copy a Link to share, which can be viewed only by people which can access it through one of the offered services (like Gmail, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• set Who has access to the document – clicking the Change… command, a window will open where it is possible to set the document Visibility:

• Public on the web,
• Anyone with the link or
• Private.

If other people can access the document, click the Can view command, where it is possible to modify the way to access the document in Can edit or Can comment option.

• By typing email addresses in the Invite people box, it is determined who can have access to the document and the type of access that needs to granted to people. The selected people can be notified using the option, Notify people via email with appropriate messages.

Commands are confirmed by clicking the Share and save button if some modifications were introduced, or by clicking the Done button if the document wasn’t modified.

When the document is shared and saved, next to its name in the main folder will be displayed the comment Shared.

4.7 INSERTING COMMENTS

Positioning the mouse cursor above a desired text selection on the slide, or selecting a part of the text and pressing  Comments, a menu will be displayed with Notifications and Comment.

Selecting Comment, a small window will open where it is possible to type the desired comment. The comment is confirmed by clicking Comment option. On the side of the window the comments to the document is displayed.

If the option Comments is pressed from the menu, the list of all comments will be displayed. It is possible to Reply to a comment, or mark it as Resolve. If you want to reactivate a Resolve comment, click Re-open.

When the comment is confirmed, the comment window is modified, this allows the user to Edit, Delete or Resolve the comment, and/or to Reply to this comment.

It is possible to activate Comment also in the same document, by positioning next to the word or line to be commented, or by selecting and right clicking it. A context menu will open where Comment need to be selected again. In the context menu it is possible to format the text quickly by the options like, Cut, Copy or Paste, Research, insert a Comment, a Link or Animate.

By clicking  Comments and selecting  Notifications, it is possible to set the type of notifications that shall be sent by email when the changes are done to the document:

• All – notifications of all new comments will be received by email,
• Replies to you – notification will be sent if somebody reply to your comment, or
• None – no notification will be sent.