Earth Day & Handwritting Apps & Advantages To Google Docs

The animated doodle that Google uses to adorn its homepage today, marks the Earth Day anniversary April 22, 2013. Here are ten apps that will help you learn about Earth Day and maybe help you complete a class assignment: 1- Britannica Kids, 2- Art Authority for iPad, 3- A Plan to Solve Earth Crisis, 4-50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic, 5- Living Earth, 6- Earth Day Guide,  7- Artree, 8- Good Guide, 9- Fotopedia Heritage, and 10- Google Earth Click here to read more about these apps.

Don't like you iOS keyboard for your iPad and don't like to use a stylus? Then maybe one of these eight apps will help you. 1- Ready to Print,  2- Notes Plus,  3- Goodnotes,  4- Remarks by Readdale,
5- Handwriting without tears,  6- Ghostwriter Note,  7- Smart Writing Tool and 8- Paper by Fifty Three.
Click here to read more about each of these apps. Find the right app and you won't have to carry that notebook with you to class anymore.

Are you using Google Docs the most efficient way that you can while here at SU? Google Docs is a great tool for college students, offering collaboration, portability, ease of use, and widespread acceptance. From you SU email, simply click on the "Drive" link at the top of the screen. Google Docs offer so many options, both hidden and obvious, that there’s a good chance you’re not using Google Docs to its fullest capability. 

• Access your documents from anywhere: Whether you’re in your dorm room or the school library, you can access your Google Docs. Take advantage of this to make it easy to do your work on-the-go.
• Use Docs reference tools: Take advantage of the Define option to use Docs’ built in dictionary, as well as a thesaurus and an encyclopedia available for use right in your document.
• Go mobile: Google Docs is available on most smart phones, and has a number of capabilities available on the go.
• Save to different file types: You can easily save your documents and spreadsheets to commonly used file types like DOC, XLS, CSV, and HTML.
• Use keyboard shortcuts: With keyboard shortcuts, you can speed through all of your tasks in Google Docs.
• Use templates: Google Docs has a template gallery for just about anything you can imagine, from an apartment bills organizer to a doc for organizing college visits.
• Convert PDFs to images and text: Use Google Docs to make PDFs easily editable.
• Create forms: Gather research information, ask for opinions, and more by creating Forms in Google Docs.
• Search EVERYTHING: Search through pretty much everything you’ve got by searching Docs and Gmail together, thanks to Gmail Labs settings.
• Autodetect links: Simply add links in Google Docs by having them automatically detected, instead of having to input full URLs.
• Adding video: You can embed video in documents, slides, and more to dress up your presentation.
• Insert photos with drag and drop: Instead of going through the process of attaching, you can just drag and drop files from your hard drive into the document, then wrap text around the photo.
• Create graphs: Visuals are great tools for getting your point across. Using charts in Google Spreadsheets, you can create your very own information-sharing graphs.
• Look up live finance data: In Google Spreadsheet, you can use special formulas to pull live information from Google’s finance service.
• Self-update spreadsheets: In addition to inserting live finance data, you can create a live link to that data for a document that constantly updates itself as accurate.
• Draw in Docs: Using Polyline, snap to guides, and other drawing features, you can easily create the images your documents need.
• Insert facts: Using Google Spreadsheet, it’s easy to insert facts, like the population for a city, which is simply pulled through the Google search engine.
• Simply add equations: Google Docs has found a way to make it easy for students to take notes in class, offering an Equations editor for adding equations onto your pages.
• Embed Docs anywhere: Get a link to your document or spreadsheet, and you can embed or publish it anywhere, including Facebook or a class blog.
• Just share: Get the ball rolling on collaboration through Google Docs by sharing your document through email links.
• Turn it into a webpage: Download your document in HTML, and you can share it as a webpage with a minimal amount of hassle.
• Chat away: In Google Docs, you can see anyone who is currently editing the document, and if needed, send a message to chat with them.
• Team up with anyone: Using Google Docs, you can collaborate on a document with friends, classmates, and professors.
• Share an entire folder: If you’ve got a collection of documents to work on together, just open up a shared folder that everyone can access.

This is just a sample of the things that can be done. Click here to see more ways to benefit from using Google Docs at SU. Have questions about Google Docs? Use your SUNet username/password to watch Atomic Learning videos here or contact SU's Technology Training Coordinator, Devon Taylor, at dtaylor@su.edu.