Google Docs & Spreadsheet Now Has Templates!

I know this has probably been around for a bit but I just noticed it today (thanks to Wesley Fryer’s Moving at the Speed of Creativity).  Now Google has easy to use, form-based templates that can be used with Docs, Spreadsheets or Presentations.  Finally you can get a decent looking online presentation.  These not only add a bit of punch to otherwise boring documents but can be very useful for teachers when teaching math or business or a variety of number-based concepts.

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They are easy to get to but not very noticable.  Just log into Google Docs as you normally would.  Then from the top of the page you can either choose to search for a template by category or to browse the templates available.  Once you find what you’re after, just click “Use this Template.”

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Tags: New Stuff by benignim
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CofC Blogs now allows for Threaded Comments

Have you ever wished that you could have a threaded conversation within your blog instead of using WebCT? Well now you can. Thanks to John and Jared (CofC Webmasters) and the new blog server upgrade you can have threaded comments. It’s easy to do.

  • from within the admin area of  your blog click on Settings
  • now click on Discussion
  • in the main window click Enable threaded (nested) comments next to Other comment settings
  • from the small dropdown window choose the number of threaded levels you wish to allow
  • click Save Changes

picture-6The second thing of note is that only a few blog templates allow the discussions to display as threaded even though you’ve turned threaded on in your settings.  To have the threading display properly you will need to use Twodder, Gear, Simplish or P2. Remember, these are the only themes that will actually display the threaded comments.

Now with your threaded comments you can actually track “conversation” in your blog posting making it much more useful for your class.

Tags: software, tlt, tutorials by benignim
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