Tech Tip Tuesdays

Tech Tip Tuesday: Join a Google Meet call from Docs, Sheets, or Slides

By May 31st 2022

From within Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides, you can now join a Google Meet call right in the same window. Students working on a group project, faculty discussing an assignment with students, or colleagues collaborating for work now have more convenient ways to work together.

Just click on the Google Meet icon next to the Share button to see your upcoming scheduled meetings, start a new meeting, or add a meeting code for an existing meeting. The meeting will open in a sidebar in the document you’re working on.

If you create a new meeting, Google Meet will provide you with a link you can share with others to join you.

The first time you use this feature in your browser, you will need to give permission for Google Docs to use your microphone and camera.

Screenshot of Google Docs dialog asking permission to use microphone and camera

You may also see a popup alerting you that you’re not presenting the document and giving you a link to share the document in the Meet.

Screenshot of an alert in Google Docs reading "You're not presenting in this call" and providing a link to share for others to collaborate on the document

You will also have the option to shrink the Meet panel using the Picture-in-picture feature, or to pop the Meet panel out to a separate tab in your browser.

Feel free to suggest topics for future Tech Tips you’d like to see!
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Tech Tip Tuesday: Unexpected Google Calendar Notifications

By May 24th 2022

Have you ever had a colleague or classmate tell you they got a notification for your Google Calendar event they weren’t part of? There are a couple of possible explanations, each with its own solution.

1. If you have granted another person at Allegheny permission to change and edit events in your Google Calendar, they may receive notifications like this. You can check by going to your Google Calendar and clicking on the Options menu (the three dots next to the calendar name):

image.png
Then choose Settings and sharing.
 
Scroll down to the section titled Share with specific people.If you see the other person’s name there, check to see what permissions they have. If they have either of the last two options in this list– Make changes to events or Make changes and manage sharing— that might explain why they’re receiving notifications:
Screenshot of the sharing options in Google Calendar
You can either remove those permissions, or let them know that they can ignore the notifications for events for which you haven’t sent them an invitation.
2. If they have subscribed to your calendar, they may also receive notifications, even without those permissions. In this case, the fix will need to be at their end. Here’s how they can fix it:
In Google Calendar, under Other calendars, if they see the name for your calendar, they can click on the Options menu using the same three dots, and then choose Settings:
image.png
They can then check under three sections of the settings — namely, Event notifications, All-day event notifications, and Other notifications. They can alter or delete their notification settings for your calendar from there.
Feel free to suggest topics for future Tech Tips you’d like to see!
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Tech Tip Tuesday: Show Trimmed Content in Gmail

By April 26th 2022

Today’s Tech Tip was suggested by an anonymous user. Feel free to suggest topics for future Tech Tips you’d like to see!

Gmail has many useful features, including conversation threading, email scheduling, powerful searching, and labels. But sometimes a feature can cause confusion.

One such feature is the way that Gmail will trim the content of an email if it contains text you’ve already seen in the same conversation. This can be a big help in a conversation thread with lots of replies, as it keeps every email message from becoming long and unwieldy. But sometimes it’s helpful to see that information–especially since sometimes the trimmed content includes the sender’s signature.

If you feel like Gmail has trimmed a message you’d like to see more of, look for three dots at the end of the message. When you hover your mouse over them, a little popup will say “Show trimmed content.”

Screenshot showing the "Trimmed Content" mouseover in Gmail

Clicking on those three dots will expand the hidden content so you can see it in full.

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Multiple Desktops

By March 15th 2022

Multiple desktops are great for helping you focus, for keeping unrelated ongoing projects organized, or setting up one desktop to share during a presentation while still having access to others. Think of it as Alt+Tab on steroids–switching not only between individual apps, but between entire groups and layouts of your desktop on your computer.

In a previous Tech Tip, we posted about how to use multiple desktops in Windows 10. This feature is also available on Chromebooks (where it’s called a “desk”), and on Macs using the Mission Control function.

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Watermarks in Google Docs

By March 8th 2022

You can now add a watermark to a Google Doc. Here’s how:

  1. On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
  2. Go to Insert and then Watermark.
  3. In the panel on the right, click Image.
  4. Click Select image Insert image.
  5. Select an image from Drive, Photos, a URL, or your camera. You can also upload an image from your computer.
  6. Optional: In the panel on the right, you can format your watermark.
  7. Click Done.

GIF of the process of adding a watermark

For more ways to edit your image:

  1. Right-click the watermark.
  2. Click Select watermark.
  3. In the toolbar, select Image options.

Learn more about using watermarks in Google Docs.

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Your Library Account

By March 1st 2022

Your Allegheny account includes full access to all resources available through Pelletier Library and other libraries across campus. You can check your library account to view what you have checked out and when it’s due. You can also ask for renewals, check to see if you have any fines or fees, and see the status of any of your requests.

Screenshot of the tabs in the "My Library Account" page in AggreGator

If you’re logged into your library account, you can also track your searches in AggreGator. Our Interlibrary Loan system also uses your Allegheny account so you can request items from other libraries if you don’t find what you need in Allegheny College’s collections.

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Tech Tip Tuesday: See Devices That Have Used Your Google Account

By February 8th 2022

What devices have you used for logging into your Allegheny College Google account? Many people use only their work desktop, and maybe their phone. Others may use multiple devices in a number of different locations.

By visiting google.com/devices, you can see computers, smartphones, tablets, and other devices that are using or have recently used your Google account. We recommend checking this every now and then to ensure that no one else has access to your Google account.

See the original Google Account Help article for more information, including how to:

  • Manage devices currently accessing or have previously accessed your account.
  • Sign out of devices you no longer use
  • Secure your account if you see an unfamiliar device

If you see a device you don’t recognize, LITS recommends that you change your Allegheny account password.

Learn more about Google accounts.

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Searching AggreGator

By January 25th 2022

Are you familiar with AggreGator?Green silhouette Illustration of an alligator

As the name suggests, AggreGator searches through the aggregated library content available to Allegheny College from a single search box. Books, ebooks, journal articles, digital collections, video, newspaper articles, and more from almost all of the library’s databases can be found through AggreGator.

If you’re already familiar, you will be interested to know that the AggreGator search interface has recently been updated with new enhancements.

For both experienced and new users, LITS librarians have created a new AggreGator guide where you can learn the ins and outs.

Also, check out our playlist of videos on searching AggreGator!

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Improved Search in Google Chat

By January 18th 2022

From the Google Workspace Updates blog:

You can now search Google Chat content faster by quickly editing down your search results using interactive filters on mobile. These filters help you find artifacts like files and links more easily.

You can try searching for a keyword that you remember from a message or use a filter to look at all the files within a specific chat. Additionally, we have also refreshed our visual interface to provide a more balanced view of search results and results will now also include the content of the messages, making it even easier to find the exact content you’re looking for.
Screenshot showing different "chips" in the Google Chat search interface
Filter using different search chips in Chat
Screenshot of various steps in the search results when searching for "Dogfood" in Google chat
Filters will be visible below chat search bar
 
Screenshot showing different filters applied to search results in Google Chat
 Use the ‘Said in’ filter to narrow down to the conversations that matter.
Learn more about Google Chat.
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