April has certainly been an interesting month this year. We've had snow, rain, tornados, 30º days, 70º degree days, everything in between AND a total eclipse.
The good news, it's going to be May (insert N'Sync meme here) next week. There's no bad news. It's all good. The school year always seems to have gone much faster when we reach this point then when we are in the middle of the winter months. State testing is wrapping up and Proms, field trips, and end-of-year activities are just ahead.
This month I've decided to share a couple of Google application features that you probably didn't already know you had, a pretty interesting web-based app for those of you who always have your name mispronounced and a great app to help you manage the overwhelming task of going through the photos on your phone.
Google Docs Has a Voice-to-Text Feature
This is an incredibly interesting tool. You can type and edit by speaking in Google Docs or in Google Slides speaker notes. This feature works with the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari browsers.
Not only can you type with your voice but this tool has multiple languages that it will recognize (you have to change the language setting). You can add punctuation by voice and there is a very long list of voice commands for navigation and content selection.
To find it, open a Google Doc and go to Menu > Tools > Voice typing or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/Cmd + Shft + S.
Once voice typing has been activated, you can open a help window to get more information on the settings and commands you want to use.
Let Them Know How to Pronounce Your Name Correctly with Namedrop
namedrop.io is web-based application that allows you to record how your name should be pronounced and insert a link into your email signatures, social media profiles, websites and more.
The free version gives you all the basic features described above. Paid versions offer more features like personal profile information and pictures.
If you have a name that gets mispronounced, this is a great way to let people learn how to pronounce it before they meet you in person.
Google Drive App Quickly Scans to PDF and Organizes
The Google Drive app on your smart phone is a great tool for quickly scanning any document to a PDF. Open the app and select the scanning icon. Drive activates your camera and smartly recognizes the document, automatically snapping it. You can do one page or multiple pages. When you are finished scanning, you can then name the file and send it to a specified location within your Google Drive. You can instantly access it from any device (computer, tablet or phone) that is connected to your Drive account.
I personally have found this extremely useful for scanning receipts that I need to submit for reimbursement and for paper notes that I have taken or have seen and want to keep copies of.
Quickly Clean Up Your Photos with Swipe & Delete App
Do you always say "I need to clean up the photos on my phone?" But when you sit down to actually do the task, you're overwhelmed by the number of photos to go through and the process on your phone to delete photos is rather cumbersome.
Let me introduce you to the Swipe & Delete app (available for iOS and Android phones).
A simple and useful tool to review and decide what to do with all of your gallery photos/videos, separated by months. You can either swipe/touch left to delete it, or right to keep it. You can also see information related to size or share it directly to anyone.