I played around with Google Documents (Docs), Google Presentations, Zoho Writer, and Picnik Photo Editing.
Google Documents
I really liked how Google Docs was so similar to MS Word… not too much new stuff to have to learn. The option to have others collaborate, read only or read and write, is great for group projects.
The 30-second-auto-save feature is a both a benefit and a drawback. Thirty seconds is way too quick if you are creating something on your own. If you make a mistake it is saved. Sometimes you don’t know what you did, so how do you un-do it? Thirty seconds is great if you are collaborating. That is almost real-time editing possibilities.
The idea of accessing my documents anywhere without having to have a flash drive/disc is quite handy. I ran into the problem (at school) of Google actually running slow though. Too many people using its services at once? That could be a problem if there is a deadline to be met. It does not auto correct misspelled words as it does in Microsoft Word.
I love the colors in text boxes and its borders. Editing text boxes seems easier (done faster), has more options.
"Comments" are a great idea for collaborative ‘are you sure?’ work or notes to self. Having the options to make different colored comment boxes for different people, saying who wrote the comment and when, and adding a comment to the actual text without having to re-write it are great ideas.
Inserting special characters; i.e., letters from another language (è or ç), is much easier to do with Google. The MS Word special character insert box is smaller. You have to scroll down through it, making it harder to find what you are looking for.
Google Presentations
Google Presentations is also very similar to MS PowerPoint. I thought Google’s version was a little easier to use. The 30-second-auto-save feature is also on Presentations.
I liked the text formatting auto delete button.
It is easy to insert images and video. You can even drag pictures from a different site into your presentation.
Formatting of text boxes is also easy, with border color options and background color options available.
Adding YouTube videos was also very easy.
Zoho Writer
The tool bar options are more plentiful (easily accessible?) in Zoho vs. Google.
Zoho Writer is not as similar to MS Word as Google Docs is.
Inserting special characters (é and à) for example, is very easy with a button on the tool bar.
Smileys are a cool option.
Zoho Writer comments are hidden with a symbol vs. Google Docs comments showing what, who, when, and color options.
Picnik Photo Editing
Playing with Picnik’s features was fun and easy. Students could have a great time learning how to make their own class scrap books.
It has simple to follow button options. Edit allows you to choose from: crop, resize, red-eye, colors, sharpen, and exposure. You can even get rid of blemishes! If only real life were so easy!
The create button was my favorite. Under ‘effects’ you can change the picture a number of ways. My picks are: snow, goo-ify, doodle, pencil sketch, focal zoom, focal soften, 1960’s, black & white, and sepia. If you do something you don’t like all you have to do is hit the cancel button and it goes back to the last version you have saved.
Picnik allows you to send your pictures/creations to several different photo sharing/editing sites, e-mail them, print them, or save them to your computer.
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1 comment:
Donna,
I am also a fan of Picnik and the ease of using all the different editing options. I was quite shocked how easy it was to remove red-eye from a photo. I have a lot of old pictures of my dogs and many of them have red-eye. I thought it was funny that they had an option between “human and furball” for removing red-eye.
Jeff Tyler
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