Information Technology Services

Last fall we showed you how to color-code your folders in Google Drive.

This summer, Google has expanded this feature. Now you’re able to customize colors for folders in your shared drives and for your shortcuts to folders as well.

To customize colors of a folder in a shared drive:

To Customize Colors for Folder Shortcuts:

The steps are very similar for shortcuts to Google Drive folders that you have already set up, except that the shortcut lives elsewhere in your “My Drive”. To identify which folder icons are shortcuts, look for a small curved arrow on the icon, and then follow step 4 above.

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From Google Support:

Present a doc, sheet, or slide directly in Google Meet

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Sometimes it can be helpful to view only a subset of a Google Sheet. This is especially helpful when your spreadsheet grows unusually large or complex. Filters are one way to separate items according to your specific criteria, and especially useful if you don’t want to change what other people sharing the spreadsheet can see.

Zapier Blog provides step-by-step instructions on how to filter in Google Sheets. Technology trainer Leila Gharani presents some examples on YouTube as well:

Learn more about how to sort and filter your data in Google Sheets.

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Google Docs now offers more options when you create and import documents with images. Images can now be positioned above or behind text in a Google Doc.

Users have always been able to insert and manipulate images in a Google Doc. These new options will enable you to superimpose text onto an image, or vice versa.

This video from GCF Learn Free gives more tips on using images in Google Docs:

Come join our July Tech Tuesday Workshops to learn more about collaboration tools.

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While commenting tools have long been available in Google Sheets, Google is now offering  new ways to discover and navigate comments in Google Sheets that are more similar to the ways you may already be familiar with using comments in Google Docs. These changes make it easier to review, respond to, and resolve comments in Sheets.

You now have easy ways to see and navigate all comments in a spreadsheet by clicking:

Just like in Google Docs, you can use comments to add supplemental information, recommend updates or revisions, or assign action items to collaborators on the Sheet.

Learn more about sharing and collaborating in Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Come join our July Tech Tuesday Workshops to learn more about collaboration tools.

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In Google Meet, you can replace your background with one supplied by Google, or even upload your own.

This feature is now available in both Google Chrome and the Android app.

You can also upload your own images to use as a background.

Using Chrome on desktop, you can even use a video. Google offers three videos to choose from, with more on the way. Google also plans to make video backgrounds available for mobile in the future.

Learn more about using Google Meet.

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David Nield of Popular Science offers a great explanation of Why and How to Clear Your Web History in Any Browser. In short, routinely clearing your browser history (also often referred to as “clearing your cache”) can help protect your privacy, speed up your browser performance overall, and help you avoid mysterious glitches with web pages displaying incorrectly or behaving in odd ways.

LITS offers brief instructions on clearing your browser history on Microsoft Edge or Safari, or in Google Chrome or Firefox.

UPDATED: Please be aware that, depending on your choices in this process, you may be logged out of your accounts, and will have to log back in when you revisit them next. In some cases, you may lose custom settings for some sites as well.

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Sign up to receive personalized alerts in your Gmail inbox for various topics of interest to you.

1. Make sure you are logged into your Allegheny College Gmail account.
2. Go to Google Alerts.
3. Fill in the search terms for the topic you wish to monitor, and other details in the Create Alert box.
   
4. Click on Show options.
5. Choose your preferred frequency, language, and other options.
   
6. Click on Create Alert.

Based on your choices, you will receive emails alerting you to new Google search results using the terms you entered in the search box.

You can run a number of alerts concurrently, and revisit your Google Alerts account to modify/add/remove alerts.

Learn more about Google Alerts.

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When you’re working with others in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, you can assign tasks and action items to specific collaborators.

1. In a web browser, open a shared Google file.
2. Select the text, images, cells, or slides you want to comment on.
3. To add a comment, click the plus sign to Add comment.
   
4. Somewhere in your comment, add the email address of the person you want to assign it to, and add a plus sign (+) in front of it.
5. Click the box next to Assign to [name].
   
6. Click Assign. The person you assigned the action item to will receive  an email.
7. Once the action item has been resolved, then return to the document. In the top right corner of the comment, click Done.
   

You cal also see what tasks have been assigned to you:

1. Go to Drive and click the arrow next to Search to show the advanced search options.
2. At the bottom of the advanced search box, there is an dropdown menu for Follow up.
3. Select Action Items Only from the Follow up menu, and click Search.
   
4. You will see a list of all the documents where you’ve been assigned action items in one place.

Learn more about using comments and action items in Google Workspace.

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